Time To Talk! I’m Looking For New Book Blog Recommendations! Here’s Why.

Posted March 7, 2014 by Asheley in Uncategorized / 25 Comments

This picture is mine. I totally need a new picture.
But I really love this mug. 



I know for a fact that I don’t have to remind you how much I love to write about books and about how much I love blogging even though I’ve just come back from a break. I know that I don’t need to remind you how much I love other blogs and how much I really love taking the time to read them. I don’t need to remind you how much I love commenting when I get to sit down and do it because if I visit, I generally write a novel or two in the comment section. I just love everything about book blogging – it is a huge part of my life. It makes me feel de-stressed and gives me an outlet for basically everything. Plus it releases my inner fangirl because you all know I have one. 

But…lately I have been opening up my reader and noticing something that has been making it a little funky for me as far as visiting blogs is concerned. 
I NEED HELP WITH THIS! CAN YOU GUYS HELP ME PLEASE? 
I know you can. 
You always do. 

There are two things I’ve noticed, actually
1. Memes and Features everywhere. God bless them. 
2. It seems like everyone is reviewing the same books at the same time. 

NOW BEFORE YOU GET UPSET, PLEASE HEAR ME OUT. 
PLEASE? 
Thanks. 

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1. We all blog differently. Let’s just get that out of the way. My blog will never be like your blog (if you have one) or like the blogs you enjoy. AND YAY FOR THAT! Wouldn’t it be a stinky world if we all did the same thing all the time? But sometimes it does seem like some days are very similar in the blogging world. OR AT LEAST IT DOES IN **MY** BLOG FEED. 

2. Memes and Features are great and fantastic and wonderful. They give bloggers/readers a chance to discover new blogs and books, and they give us a chance to break the monotony of plain ole’ reviewing if we choose to do so. But lately it seems like MY FEED has been more memes/features than it has been reviews. This is just something that I’ve noticed on my own and it is not a complaint – stick with me here – I’m making a point, I promise. 

3. More now than ever before, I have noticed that the same reviews of the same books are popping up on blogs not only on the same days/release days but during the same weeks. This is totally okay and oftentimes, this is at the request of the publisher – SO I’M NOT KNOCKING IT. Please don’t get upset with this observation! This is not a BAD thing necessarily – but it has made me realize something: 

I NEED TO BRANCH OUT 
BEYOND THE BLOGS THAT 
I AM FOLLOWING. 
Because I feel overwhelmed and overloaded and need some balance.

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Here is where I’m asking for help! 

I’m looking for more blogs to follow! I’d love to see more adult fiction reviews. I follow a ton of young adult blogs and the blogs that I follow read a fair amount of middle grade and new adult, so I feel like I’m covered with these things. PLUS the blogs that I follow run some AMAZING features and discussions. I SERIOUSLY LOVE the creativity that comes from some of my reading friends! But I’d love to read about more adult fiction

I literally feel like there are two or three blogs in particular that I read or mark ‘to-read’ every one of their adult fiction books and I sincerely believe that it is because I don’t have enough adult fiction filtering through my feed. Can you guys help with this? Can you recommend some great blogs to me? 

I’d also love to see perhaps more contemporary romance and audiobook review blogs. I follow one or two blogs that I feel cover these areas super-duper well, but I would love a few more recommendations!

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PLEASE UNDERSTAND:

I’m not saying features and memes and multiple reviews on the same day are BAD. Goodness gracious, you guys, I often do these things myself. But I’m just saying I think I need – no, I WANT – to mix things up in my reader a bit so I’m not seeing the same things over and over and over. I’m also not looking to “get rid” of any blogs necessarily, but I’m looking for some fantastic finds! 

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What are some of your favorite blogs in these areas:

ADULT FICTION
ROMANCE
AUDIOBOOK

Thank you so much for the suggestions! 

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Asheley

About Asheley

Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.

You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.

Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!

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25 responses to “Time To Talk! I’m Looking For New Book Blog Recommendations! Here’s Why.

  1. Umm … mine (hehe) but also River City Reading is one I like and it's adult fiction (not romance though). And I 100% agree with you about the same books – which is why I stopped getting recommendations from bloggers altogether. Most now seem like unwitting, unpaid puppeteers of the publishing houses that push books which have high marketing budgets.

    Tanya Patrice
    Girlxoxo.com

    • I knew I could count on you, Tanya!! Yours is my go-to for audiobook, first of all. I LOVE your blog. Second, I almost immediately followed River City Reading because it is EXACTLY what I am looking for. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

    • Thanks for the River City Reading rec. I already follow you through email, and now have added RCR to the list. What I love about following through email is it's so easy to skip/delete anything that doesn't appeal to me or I don't have time for. If a meme catches my eye, a cover reveal, anything–I may click through. Otherwise, next!

  2. I review some adult books on Between My Lines but I mix it up so there is a bit of everything. Tonya @ Lilybloombooks actually has a post this week about branching out into other genres too.
    And I hear you on those memes. I just automatically mark them all as read unless it's The Sunday Post which I do myself. And ditto cover reveals and tours, I might look at one or two but I don't have time for the others. I feel so guilty when I realise I never visit some people because of this but at the end of the day my time is limited so I have to pick what posts I really want to read and comment on.

    • Hi Trish! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, first of all. I feel like sometimes I get stuck in a hole here, but I realize that I kind of do that to myself sometimes so I'm making more of an effort to review more of what I read – because I DO read everything! I want everyone to know that I read everything because there is some fantastic adult fiction, etc out there. And I don't want people to get the wrong impression on how I feel about the memes, etc because I do participate sometimes but I often go days on only open minimal blog posts overall from my feed and find myself kind of disappointed because everything is so similar. BECAUSE, like you said, time is very limited! Thanks so much!

  3. I know what you mean. Some memes I love. Top Ten Tuesday I always find really fun, which is why I participate in it. I also really like a book haul post. What I like the LEAST though are the cover reveals. That is the most frustrating to me.

    • I like Top Ten Tuesdays, but I don't always particpate in them for different reasons. If I don't feel like I can really give ten (or close) really great answers, I don't. I don't always want to put the same ten books, etc in my post and I often feel like I gravitate toward the same things. (: But I do enjoy that one. As far as the book haul posts, I like those too even though I do not make one of my own, but I don't always open them just because of time constraints. I think I'm more bored with the same reviews at the same time more than anything. And yes the cover reveals, although on rare occasions I will do them for an author that I really, truly believe in. Thanks for stopping by!

  4. I have discovered so many great books through the WWW Wednesday meme hosted by shouldbereading. In general, when I see the same books over and over again, it's because people are loving them. [I finally gave in and read Coldest Girl in Coldtown because of that, and loved it, even though I don't read a lot of YA books or horror as a rule.]

    Thanks for asking this question. I'll be watching for answers, too!

    [A bit guiltily, because ARCs of my own book will be going out soon, full disclosure!]

    • I agree that seeing the same books over and over again often means that people are usually loving them. It gives me a weird sort of anxiety, though, because I don't like to read new releases at the same time as everyone else – I either prefer to read them very early or pretty far after release. I don't enjoy big hype for books because it makes me enjoy the book less – I think I feel this to a fault. So I often will skip these reviews and come back to them later because I do actually feel anxious to read the same things over and over again – BUT I realize that I'm likely in the minority on this and that this isn't really what authors and publisher intend when they issue their arcs. The exception is with self-published and indie or small-press books – I really never feel that way if there is a mass reading of those books. I'm not sure if that makes any sense or not.

      Congratulations on your ARCs being released soon! That must feel both nerve-wrecking and exciting!

  5. Dark Faerie Tales (http://darkfaerietales.com/) has a pretty good variety of Adult and YA books in pretty much all genres. Also they don't really do any meme's so most of their posts are reviews. Another great Adult site is All Things Urban Fantasy (http://allthingsuf.com/) They don't really do any contemporary reviews or many meme's either. Both blogs have been around for a while now so you may already follow them but they are some of my favorites!

  6. Definitely agree about the same thing on blogs. Just like you, I decided to branch out a bit and have enjoyed what I've found. I review a mixture of books — everything from YA (a variety of genres) to adult urban fantasy, scifi/fantasy and romance — and my blog roll has become as eclectic as what I review. Keeps me interested and brings new books and readers/bloggers into my little world. 🙂

    • Completely agree, Mary. I found that I was reading pretty much everything, but my blog doesn't reflect it. So in "cleaning up" my blog or doing this slow process of blog re-working that I'm doing, I'm also re-working my feeder to add more of what I want to read from others! (:

  7. I wish I had some suggestions for you, but I don't right now. I'd love to find some, too, though, so if I do, I'll pass them along to you.

    Also, thank you for sharing this post. I agree with a lot of what you said, especially about the same books being reviewed at the same time (which is fine, but I'd love to see more older titles being reviewed, since I don't like to read reviews for books I haven't read yet). It's also encouraged me to think about the way I'm blogging, and what I can do to freshen up my blog.

    • Hi Kelly!
      I totally agree about the older titles and lately I've realized that I often read them but don't always talk about them on my blog, which IS CHANGING. So I'm going to be doing more of that but I hope to find more people that are doing that as well. I'd say I read as many older titles as new ones? To me, when I find out about an "older" book, it becomes new to me, ya know? So, yeah, I want to freshen up my blog (like you say) by talking about these titles more as well. And many of them are adult fiction. So that's why I've asked for help. My blog is SO YA-heavy, which is great, but I want MORE!! (:

  8. I know what you mean! I'm visiting from Girl XOXO's blog, who I love because she's unique. I do get tired of seeing all the same books being reviewed. I'm a Netgalley member too but typically a few months behind everyone else. I'm really concentrating on what i want to read this year, library books and the authors' that have reached out to me personally. I do hope you'll stop by my blog, I enjoy reading books for the Around the World Challenge and Classics Club.

    • GirlXOXO is absolutely one of the most unique and COOL blogs out there. I love it. YES on the same books! I try so hard not to fall into that hole even though sometimes I do. I also do NetGalley, but like you I either read very early or pretty late just so I don't lump my blog posts/reviews in with everyone else. I think many people get very stressed out about that (maybe I should?) but I find that there are a large group of us out here that would rather wait and read a random review here or there than a slew of the same book reviews at the same time – that's why I wait. Also like you, I read just as many library books and various others (like when authors reach out and I do enjoy some self-pub or indie books). Thanks so much for stopping by!

  9. I'll throw my hat in the ring…because I'm completely shameless, ha! 😀

    I do understand just what you are saying. I can get burned out on blog reading when they are all saying and doing the same thing, IN MY FEED. Even when I love the blogs/bloggers…sometimes you just need to shake things up a bit!

    • This makes me chuckle a bit because yours is one of the blogs that was recommended to me so I just began following it! Honestly, I haven't had time to go to any of the blogs and spend any time there, so you haven't seen me poking around or reading there yet but you're in my Bloglovin! (: LOVE IT.

      Yes, shake it up! I hope I've shaken mine up a bit. After a few days I'll be able to tell if there is much of a difference – I hope so! Great to meet you!

  10. You know what I would find super duper awesome? If you compiled a list of great Adult Fiction blogs that YA bloggers would love and post it! Or just email me. 🙂 I am interested in this too!

  11. I like Lisa's comment. I would love to check out a few new blogs too. I have followed Girlxoxo.com (that is how I found out about this blog post) and a few more but I need to clean out my Feedly because there is just way to many book bloggers doing the same book tours over and over and over again. When I first started blogging I thought I had to do them too. But not anymore. I am just blogging about books I have on myself, book club books and of course all my audiobooks. I love this post and I am glad I am not the only one with this issue. I have to day that I joined 3 memes to help me out with content and I picked only small memes. Less than 20 linkys. It makes it more personal and I can actually visit me all in one sitting.

  12. It's not memes that bother me so much (I occasionally participate), but you are right. My feeder is full of them on TTT and WoW. It just can't be avoided. I skim right past them. The ones that bother me the most are the blogs that do all the Blitz/tours/cover Reveals. They do say three in ONE WEEK. No I cannot do it. I will stop following those blogs or not follow them in the first place. I like the blog Forth Street Review. You may want to check that one out.

    Angie

  13. I hope someone suggested THE BOOK BARBIES for romance, because I love those girls! They give such great romance novel suggestions + the occasional YA too 🙂

  14. Oh goodness, girl. I have many thoughts on this post – but they're all positive so don't you even worry 🙂

    Anyway, I know EXACTLY what you mean about sometimes feeling like you're seeing a lot of the same stuff. I've found that it's taking me a lot longer these days to check my reader, and I know one of the reasons is because I sometimes feel overwhelmed by it all. It's not just the memes and same books being reviewed – sometimes it's just the frequency with which people update. I'm totally guilty of sometimes posting every day of the week, but whew! It gets to be a lot sometimes.

    I *know* it all ties into my additional struggles with commenting and replying to comments. If I see the same book on 10 blogs, I just don't have a lot to say about it. And I feel like (as much as I love memes) they sometimes generate a lot of "fluff" comments.

    I sometimes get comments from people who say they enjoy that they find stuff on my blog they haven't heard about anywhere else and I consider that SUCH a compliment. Seriously. It's always been one of my goals to promote lots of variety in reading choices and introduce people to things they might not have considered or heard about before. BUT it's soooo easy to fall into the hype when everyone is talking about popular new releases and abandon everything to read those.

    I often find myself reading something that's good but not what I would have picked up if I wasn't hearing SO much about it. And that's awesome on one hand (yay giving things a shot!) but it's also kinda frustrating when I look at what I've read and think about how my reading choices are looking a little too much like what everyone else is reading. I don't know… clearly I have lots of rambly thoughts and no real answers!

    I'm trying to get better at 1) trusting my instincts and 2) listening more to myself than anyone else. Okay, that sounds dumb written down but what I mean by that is that I love reading other people's reviews and getting their recs BUT I also want to remain true to who I am as a reader and not get all caught up in the blogging machine. Hype and recs are awesome but so is discovering stuff all on your own!

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