Hello and happy Friday.
It’s my last weekend before going back to uni (ugh) and I wish I could say I was making the most of my days of being able to sleep in before having to get up for lectures but no. I’m at my dads house right now and my brother and sister consider sleeping past 7.30 the worst thing in the world.
I’m not a morning person in the slightest but we’re gonna try and push through the headache and talk about this weeks Let’s Talk Bookish!
Let’s Talk Bookish is a bookish meme that was created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits, where each Friday, bloggers write posts discussing the topic of the week! Since the beginning of April, I’ve been the host of LTB, and I post each month’s topics here on my blog! February Topics.
This weeks topic is … Do You Read Reviews and Spoilers Before or After? (Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly)
Prompts: Do you like looking at reviews for books before you read them? Is reading reviews important to you when choosing what books to read next? Or do you prefer to wait until after you’ve read a book to look at reviews? Do you ever look at spoilers before you read a book?
Do you like looking at reviews for books before you read them?
Honestly, I’m very easily influenced, despite how hard I try not to be, so I do try and avoid reading reviews before I read them just so that I can form my own thoughts and opinions first.
Jasper Vale by Devney Perry is one of the (many) current books I’m reading. I actually watched a LarriReads wrap up on Youtube the same day I started reading this where she talks about her not loving this and going through the reasons why. Now I’m reading and I’m struggling to seperate her thoughts from my own – do we have the same opinions, or am I projecting?
I guess it’s like when somebody points out a really annoying sound that you didn’t hear until they mentioned it, and now it’s all you can focus on which therefore impacts my reading experience. Does that make sense?
Is reading reviews important to you when choosing what books to read next?
Not so much choosing which book I read next, but when it comes to me buying a book, I do have a look at peoples ratings. If I’m seeing that a book I was once interested in being rated badly from people who have similair reading tastes, it’s gonna go wayyy down on my TBR, or be kicked off all together.
For the most part I try to get a general feel for the book but try my best to avoid detailed reviews.
There are exceptions to this though namely when I’m seeing that a book is very bad. I will read the crap out of reviews roasting a book *cough* Lightlark *cough* even if I haven’t read it (and in this case of *cough* Lightlark *cough* no longer plan to).
Or do you prefer to wait until after you’ve read a book to look at reviews?
100% I like to wait until after I’ve read a book. I really love it when you’ve just finished a book that you enjoyed so much, you’re so high on that “post 5 star book bliss” period that you go and read a bunch of reviews to keep this feeling alive.
Do you ever look at spoilers before you read a book?
Ermmmmmm I was about to say “no way” but then I remembered the fact that I knew near enough every plot point, every twist and turn of the All For the Game series by Nora Sakovic before I even picked up the first book because I got caught in a tumblr spiral.
I’d say current day Elli tries to avoid book spoilers like the plague, especially for new releases, because I know that plot twists and things like that will have more of an impact and I don’t want to ruin that. I have a long list of blocked tags on Tumblr to help me avoid these spoilers. This list currently includes: King of Scars, Greywaren, and, most recently, Chain of Thorns.
Funnily enough, this desire to avoid spoilers doesn’t extend to TV shows. I will purposefully seek out the fate of the characters to like … emotionally prepare myself. Also if there’s a current plotline or conflict I’m not liking I will be Googling to see how and when it’s resolved just so I keep watching and don’t avoid it. The most recent example of me spoiling myself on a characters fate was for The Resident, because I wanted to see what happens to a certain season 1 villain.
So there we have this week’s Let’s Talk Bookish. This time next week I will be coming to you from my uni accommodation where I can sleep til noon and make chicken nuggets at midnight if I so wish. Ah the freedom of adulthood.
Anyways. I’d love to know your thoughts and feelings on reading reviews. Do you prefer to read before, after, maybe even while you’re reading? Let me know :))
Elli xx
AceReader 