Happy Sunday to everyone in the Blogosphere..
What I have finished reading this week was "The Last Queen" by C.W. Gortner, which was really awesome. I am completely stoked to have his Guest Post on Tuesday, May 5.. so be sure to stop by and see what the fuss is about. My review will post May 4 but I am sure you can tell that is going to be favorable, eh?
I have just started "The Wish Maker" by Ali Sethi, and it is a big book. I was not expecting it to be so big.. so it'll be awhile for that review!! The book is about a family in Pakistan and is reading like a memoir of the family members and their events. I have really little personal knowledge of this country besides the political issues, and I am enjoying this more personal view. The author writes well and I am pretty sure I will enjoy it.
I read an interesting Sunday Salon blog post last week where they questioned the quality of book reviews on blogs etc.. and the reasoning for the recent flux of ARC's (or the number of people now getting ARC's which means Advance Review Copies by the way).. lots of little comments going on about who accepts ARC's these days, and why do the publishers even do it? Are the book bloggers actually getting a reputation as a 'real' reviewer, and should the professional reviewers be upset about the Book Bloggers stealing their thunder? This last topic has been done to death a few times over, and I even wrote a Why I blog post in response to that one.. but the actual ARC question was a new one. Most people are now saying that they are done with ARC's, burnt out.. they want to read what is on their shelves already. I may be heading down that path myself.
One of the key things to the ARC business is MODERATION.. I am getting requests from books that I am not interested in and thank goodness I have figured out that I do not need to feel guilty about not accepting a book for review! But I am still working on a TBR (To Be Read) Pile that seems to triple in size every week, and so that feeling of being overwhelmed is setting in. The whole point to my book blog was for my enjoyment, so when that enjoyment stops, well, what's the point? But I also want the opportunity for free books, of course, and I am really lucky to have the opportunity to expand my horizons as far as new authors etc. So the key again, is moderation.. something that I need to practice what I preach.
Another topic related to the fact that book bloggers and readers do not even visit most of the blogs who promote Author Posts or interviews because frankly they could care less about a personal life of an author.
My thoughts on this is that everyone has their own niche of what they follow, which bloggers they know follow that genre that they personally prefer; and they visit their favorites. So while you may not have been too interested in my Interview of Robin Kaye, the Romance author, you may be quite interested in the Historical Fiction author C.W. Gortner.. and I wouldn't mind if you didn't visit either one. I firmly believe that we who blog do it for the gratification of having DONE something that we enjoy. If it happens to reach out to one or two people at the same time, then that is awesome.
In conclusion, I will still have a myriad of genres I suppose, but I think it will also trickle subtly towards what my passion is; which is Historical Fiction. There are so many awesome books to read and I really want to read them ALL and I have to stop saying that this other new awesome looking free ARC looks great too.. I do not have all day to read and I need to remember that! DO WHAT YOU LOVE!
That's my Sunday Salon! :) Have a great day everyone!
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