Sha’s Comments (group member since May 08, 2018)

Sha’s comments from the The Perks Of Being A Book Addict group.

A reading bullet journal does not sound lame! I used to have one before I got more used to typing so I may be biased.

@Sara: I keep trying to codify ratings only to change my mind about them a couple of months later. I'm going through another phase of that now...

//nodnod

It makes sense. I usually try to explain why I felt how I felt about the book as much as possible- making sense of why feelings are the way they are is basically the closest thing I have to a review style- but I don't always succeed. Sometimes I read one star reviews of books I loved or five star reviews of books I hated just so I can grit my teeth and marvel at/remind myself about how different people's tastes are.

@Kelly: under those circumstances I'm impressed you write any reviews at all. I'd probably have lay down and gone into hibernation, heh.

I find that rant reviews are the easiest ones to write? I have so much salt that everything flows out on a cloud of dissatisfied brain vomit. Apologies for any nausea caused by that image.

@Sara: I feel the same! I read a lot of books and it started to annoy me how I couldn't remember much about any but the ones I really really liked? So I started a review challenge thingy in 2020 and I did pretty well till March started. Now I'm behind on my reviews and it's getting stressful. :/

So your star rating is more objective than subjective? If you give three stars to books you would re read again, I mean? I've had trouble separating my objective rating from my subjective rating and sometimes I fall into the deep dark hole of "what even is a rating what does this mean???"

I am having more trouble reviewing later installments of long running series this is true. I think I'm trying out focusing more on the plot and how it develops in the reviews for those, as opposed to my general impressions. //handwaves it's all a work in progress.

:D

Do people on this group write reviews? How often? For what books? Do you have review formats? Strategies? If you don't Witte them do you have any desire to ever start writing them?

//I have a review backlog and I may be looking for inspiration because the book recs question worked really well and I would like to formally thank everyone who chimed in on that one

In other news I'm bored and randomly posting on forums because of it. Please feel free to ignore me talking to myself~

I have to say I wanted Of Curses and Kisses to be much bettee than it's been so far. I was very excited about the premise but so far my reaction has mostly me "wow rich kids and their problems how devastating."

The Chinese Novel is excellent and I'm attached to all the characters but it's also making it hard to read other books because I am in "read in one sitting!" mode (except I can't because it's too long and the plot flip flops over like a thirtyish year period and I have t keep track of all the names and Nick Ames and whatnot- tldr it's taking a while) and all other books get hit with "boo I don't like this one as much as I like my disaster zombie hunters."

I know. Time flies when you're doing nothing and staring into a metaphorical abyss

WAIT NVM IT IS THERE yes I can count it.

Wow 1200ish pages no wonder it's taking forever

The Chinese version is but that's not the one I'm reading. It's the same novel though

Being at home is stressful because proximity means everyone is arguing all of the time heh.

I'm reading a fan translation of a Chinese novel and it's taking forever because it's really really really long. I can't count this one, right?

:)

I'm actually slowing down on my reading for some reason. I think it's because I read too much and now I feel bloated.

I've added the mini challenge tracker because I could only find the final mini challenge list, but I'm on mobile and my editing capabilities are limited.

That's a lot of things I have not read or watched. //happily jots them down on the to do list.

I love these types of book prompts. They are flexible and very fun. :D

Ilona Andrews is fun!

And one werewolf series I really liked was the Kitty Norville books (starting with Kitty and the Midnight Hour) which had this whole subplot where we went from typical abusive werewolf alpha behaviors to a cooperative pack where things are more democratic than monarchial. I really liked that element of it.

@Kaylee, Sara: I haven't really been on booktube enough to form an opinion of it. Do you have any recs?

Captains, can you ask in the captains group if (a) the up to 15 books can be linked by any amount of words and if (b) the memoir has to be space-referential?

Anita Blake has some fascinating world building. I love all the vampire types. I am less thrilled about all of the weres because their organizational structure inherently creeps me out.

The mini challenge is out. This one looks interesting~

I usually like some amount of humour in my books, so with very rare exceptions I find grim and navel-gazy novels to be somewhat well- navel-gazy. If I need grim stuff based entirely on the problems of everyday life in the present era and how tedious and terrible it is I can (a) read nonfiction or (b) ponder about my own life and place in the universe for twenty minutes which usually results in an existential crisis.

Anita Blake was enjoyable at first but I think I started losing patience with it at about I think the book 14 mark? Its been a while since I read those books.

Twilight came out when I was in my teens and I read through the books over the course of one week. I greatly enjoyed them at the time, but I couldn't get through the book when I tried re-reading them a few years back.

@Kelly: :D I have three separate DNF shelves (well, two DNFs and one skimmed shelf) so I can DNF things while still being organized. It's been very helpful.

I'm really due for a Jim Butcher re-read but I have to confess I'm anticipating the coming book so much that I'm too hyped up to start. If that makes sense. I have already read and re read most of those books to the point where I remember all the salient plot points (and random bits of dialogue) so re-reading them seems pointless...

I may try to re-read ghost story though. I think that's one of the ones I haven't actually re-read.

I keep re-reading books by Tamora Pierce and Lois Bujold. They write very soothing books.

@Sara: reviews are very useful. I usually filter out the 5 and 2 star reviews to try and get a balanced perspective. I've been trying to write more reviews too, but I've been really slacking off on the March ones.

@christy: the shelving system sounds useful. I've been trying to construct a valid one for a while now but I keep giving up because I overthink it. Maybe it's time to give it another try...

@Kelly: it makes sense! I do that too. But I have to admit it tends to be hit or miss? I might as well be throwing darts at a bookshelf and picking up whatever gets hit.

Not gonna lie I have picked up some books because of the pretty covers and the shininess, but again hit or miss. I also follow authors whose books I like on social media to see what they recommend.

And I completely understand what you mean by hyped books usually being dissapointing. Literary fiction is not my genre either (which is not to say it's bad! it's just not to my tastes!). Which is depressing sometimes because that's the only fiction genre people who live near me read. If they read fiction at all.

Recs are obviously not always going to work out? But I had a conversation with a friend and that got me thinking about how we choose to read the books we do so I thought I'd come here for more perspectives.