Books and Sharing- the Unpleasant Side

 

Today is another cold, ice slicked day, but at least the sun is shining. The ice is glittering as you try not to fall while penguin walking from your car to school and work. This had me thinking of bookstagram, and book reviews in general. I don't know why, it just did. I recently saw a bookstagram account I follow share their DNF (Did Not Finish) for 2023 and I remember thinking, “Wow! That is so bold to put that out there! How brave to share the unpleasant side of books.” As readers, we don’t love or even like some books and at times even detest or can’t finish a book for a multitude of reasons. Do you want to know if I didn’t like, didn’t finish a book, or had some other unpleasant feelings towards a book? It’s such an individual thing and the author and their team have put so much work into getting published and out into the world. Should I cushion my review and feelings of a book I didn’t enjoy with some positivity or just let it fly where I stand, when I share with you? I feel like I tend to do a sandwiching with bad or negative things, okay, confession, I literally do this with everything in my life… something positive, something negative or corrective, something positive. In taking up a position as a book blogger though- is that ok or is that enough? Is it a turnoff to read someone’s dislike or just if it happens periodically, as we know happens with inevitable book slumps?

For people who visit my blog and Insta often (thank you friends!), can you tell my tone and choice of words as to what my enthusiasm or position of a book might be, even if it’s not explicitly said? I do have shelves on Goodreads (happy to friend you there) that I will shelve books so I remember in the future how a book landed. Examples of the more unpleasant shelves are “can get annoying frustrating,” “never going to finish,” “once was enough,” “plan never to read,” and “started stopped might try again.”

What is the etiquette bloggers are wanting to set as their standard? What do you want to hear or know? I can share with you, that if I posted on a book and you wanted to know more or you read it and wanted to rant or rave, I would be so happy to dive in and gush or purge beyond my short opinion I posted! Talk books with me! LOL!