Category: discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

AUGUST 6: WHAT IS YOUR POSTING TYPE? (SUGGESTED BY NICOLE @ THOUGHTS STAINED WITH INK)

Prompts: Everyone blogs differently, how do you do it? Do you schedule posts long before they’re published, how long? Do you write several drafts of a post and edit them, or do you not edit at all? Perhaps you simply write a post and put it up for the world to see immediately? There’s no right or wrong answer!

Welcome to August everyone, and a brand new month of LTB topics, hosted by Rukky and Dani! If you haven’t already, please follow them over there on their blogs for their content as well, I have linked them in the quote above. If you have any LTB topics you’d like to see, you can also suggest it over on Rukky’s blog. Today’s topic is certainly a personal one, and I’d love to see what other bloggers have to say about their own style!

Here at DTRH we tend to try and have scheduled posts, but more often like a weekly rotation, rather than anything months ahead of time. We do try and discuss and check in with each other every so often to touch base and plan ahead. Since we both have busy lives, it’s just easier to stick to something with a bit more structure, just so that the blog could semi-run itself, even without much communication (should we be too busy to do so).

I personally write a draft, and try to edit it while I still remember the book that I’m reviewing. Or if it’s a discussion post, I will often write and edit it at the same time. I don’t usually like coming back and re-reading my post, wondering what I was thinking and then trying to edit it again. For me, it’s a bit more of a time-sink than I’d like it to be. I do occasionally gloss over a post before posting if I have written the draft a long time ago, just to see if anything is amiss. Other than that though, nope! Just a one time write and edit.

I rarely write anything spontaneously, although perhaps if there’s a pertinent world issue or something, there are times where it might come up. I am not against spontaneous posts, but I much prefer to work on a schedule, just so that I can plan ahead with my time. That being said, sometimes I’ll have more energy to write a review or a post ahead of time, so I’ll “spontaneously” write it, but not post it until an appropriate time. Does that count?

What about you all? Do you work like an engine and constantly churn out posts? Or perhaps have spurts of energy to create? I’d like to hear about it, whatever it is!

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Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

JULY 30: WHAT MAKES A BOOK A 5 STAR READ? (SUGGESTED BY M.T. WILSON @ THE LAST BOOK ON THE LEFT)

Prompts: How do you decide whether a book should get 5 stars? Do you try to keep 5 stars rating prestigious, or do you give them generously? Do you have a checklist of things a book must accomplish to be 5 stars? Are 5 star books perfect, or just very good? What are some of your favourite 5 star reads? What made them stand out?

Penultimate day of July, welcome everyone! This week’s topic is a classic, as everyone will have a different view on what is a max rating for them. Can’t wait to see what everyone else says, but for now, here are my own thoughts:

Obviously here at DTRH we have our Drink Me Potions rating, and Andge has so kindly set up a page just to explain all that in great detail. There Andge explains a 5 Drink Me Potions rating as: a masterpiece, something she would read and re-read, and definitely recommend to everyone.

For me, in general I think this aligns with what I also consider my max rating. Although re-readability may not always be feasible for the thriller/mystery genre, since suspense and novelty is a huge part of it. Both of us here at DTRH definitely do try to keep our 5 star rating prestigious. Of course we award it to any book we find to be that level, but in general also do try to keep 5 stars to a minimum. After all, not everything can be our favourite. I feel like this tends to leave many good books at a 4.5 star rating as well – but here at DTRH, anything 4.5 or 5 is a definite recommend from us!

I myself do not have a checklist. Whether something is 4.5 or 5 star really is just a feeling. Now some might consider that a bit nebulous, but I mean ratings are subjective are they not? I almost want to say that 5 star books just have that little bit something extra, something sparkly that sets them apart from the other 4.5 stars. That usually pushes it over the edge for me. Or in other cases, books that are almost 5 star except for one tiny little thing that I didn’t like – that usually leaves it at 4.5 stars. I would say in general good plot, good characters and character development, as well as good pacing/emotional value will often add up to the big 5.

5 star books aren’t always perfect. Perfection is also subjective. But in my mind if I give a book 5 stars it’s not necessarily that it was written very well or that it had certain elements (though it most often does). It usually means that I myself personally enjoyed it to the maximum level that I can enjoy a book. It probably took me on an emotional journey, I probably got super attached to the characters, I probably got lost in the fantasy world, all these things add up to give me a super magical experience reading – the thing we all chase after when we read books, no?

As I may have mentioned before, my two favourite books are Memoirs of a Geisha and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I would say the big reason these two are my favourites was the true sadness and anguish that it was able to evoke in me whenever the protagonist faced unfavourable or unequitable conditions. The emotional journey that I was taken on of someone’s life was truly something so magical and these are ones that I will definitely re-read one day.

What are your all-time favourite books? Let me know in the comments below!

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Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

JULY 23: DOES HAVING A POSITIVE MESSAGE AUTOMATICALLY MAKE A BOOK GOOD? (RUKKY)

Prompts: If you see good representation in a bad story, do you still consider it a good book? Are you more lenient with an ‘okay’ book if it has an important message? How do you deal with a book that you disliked/hated if you think it still has an important theme? Do you think we should actively recommend books with positive/important messages even if we personally didn’t like the book?

Welcome back everyone! I can’t believe it’s almost the end of July already, time is seriously passing by so quickly, feels like summer is basically over. Today’s topic is thought-provoking, as I usually don’t rate books as “good or bad” right off the bat unless its egregiously out of line. Let’s explore the prompts that our lovely host Rukky has set out for us!

If you see good representation in a bad story, do you still consider it a good book?

For me, that’s a nope. Yes it’s great to see good representation anywhere. Is it enough to salvage a terrible book? Probably not. Of course, this all depends on many factors than just the representation and the story. But for me, it’s almost like what’s the point of having great representation if the story is so bad that no one wants to read nor promote it? Who will get to see and read about the good representation? So it’s a no from me for this one.

Are you more lenient with an ‘okay’ book if it has an important message?

This question on the other hand, I would have to say I do tend to be more lenient. I might even try harder to look for excuses reasons as to why it might be a good book over an “okay” one. Sometimes I think the moral of the story (or even just the journey) can truly be a very critical one, and therefore I might try to promote it even if it wasn’t the best book. That being said, I don’t run into these kinds of books too often, so I’m speaking more from a hypothetical standpoint.

How do you deal with a book that you disliked/hated if you think it still has an important theme?

I…fortunately don’t think I have run into this problem yet. I think the most is that I thought there could’ve been improvements, but since the book still had a good message and theme, I’ll give it a pass for not being the most superb of writing. Besides, writing style, etc. could also be subjective, right? Whereas the importance of some theme cannot be denied nor is it up for debate. Hypothetically speaking for a book I disliked/hated though… I’d have to say that I’d probably be honest with it. Like yes the book does seem to explore and talk about an important theme but I personally didn’t like it for x and y reasons. I think it would probably be best to acknowledge the shortcomings while still being honest with its strengths.

Do you think we should actively recommend books with positive/important messages even if we personally didn’t like the book?

Now this is an interesting one. For me I think the keyword here is “actively”. It would be easy enough for me to passively say “seems like it had a good message” without putting too much other emphasis on it. I feel like it might just be better to acknowledge such books when it comes up, but I think it would be even better to find books that you did like with a good message to promote. It’s always more effective to recommend and promote books that you personally enjoyed – people can definitely tell. The “important message” would be weaker if you are only half-heartedly promoting it, and therefore might lose value.

What do you all think though? Is the message of a book that important? Or just something trivial?

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