[DISCUSSION] Do You Get Tired of Seeing the Same Books Around the Blogosphere?

I think we all know that feeling. 

It’s the week of a popular author’s latest release or a month before the release of a heavily anticipated book release. You check your Reader, and you may check out a couple of reviews from your closest blogging friends when they pop up. Then you check your Reader the next day, and some more reviews pop up of this book or ARC. You like them, but don’t really read them past skimming them for a couple of seconds. Then the next day, there are EVEN MORE reviews of this book. You skip them, because you’ve read the review of the same book a million times, and there’s only so many times you can say a book is “wonderfully diverse” and “spectacular” and “raw” before you’ve heard it before it just becomes completely numb to you.

So I wanted to ask the question: do you ever get tired of hearing about the same books over and over in the blogosphere? I thought it’d be nice to do a pros and cons for this one so we can see both sides!

1. You’ll feel like a part of the community. I mean, if we all read most of the same books, you’ll always feel like you’ll belong in the blogging community! You’ll always have someone to talk to about the book, whether you like it or hate it, and you might find new blogging friends that have the same taste in authors, genres, series, stand-alones, etc. And we all want to be a part of the blogging community, right?

2. You might be more inclined to read it. I know there have been lots of times where I was NEVER planning on reading a book because it didn’t interest me in the slightest, but because I saw so many raving reviews for it (and, okay, because the cover is absolutely STUNNING), I went ahead and decided to add it to my TBR. It certainly doesn’t mean I’ll read it, but the fact that I was convinced enough to add it there is pretty good! It shows the community definitely has influence.

3. Our book reviews might be read more. I mean, reviews are usually really poor when pulling in stats, but when you factor in a book being severely underrated or no one knows about it, even LESS people are inclined to click on your review. So, who knows? Maybe if someone recognizes a household name, it might get you more clicks on a review! I know my reviews of The Hate U Give – a hyped debut – and This Savage Song – a V.E. Schwab book – were wildly popular when I published them, but my review of Ubo – which was an e-ARC from a little known publisher and an author I’d never heard of before Netgalley – not so much.

4. You’ll be seeing different opinions. I mean, even if everyone went to go see Infinity War when it comes out (CAN YOU TELL I’M EXCITED?), everyone will come out of the theater having a different opinion about it or remembering a different part of the movie or what their favorite and least favorite parts were. The same thing comes with books. Even if pretty much everyone on this very earth has read Six of Crows, it doesn’t mean that you’ll see people who liked different parts of the book over others, or which parts stood out to them, or which parts they hated, or which characters they loved, or if they even liked the duology at all. It’s always nice to see different opinions on books in the blogosphere!

1. It gets tiring and annoying. I can definitely attest to this. I know that I can sometimes get so annoyed when it seems like a publishing company has given anybody who owns a blog the same ARC and everyone says it’s SO, SO amazing. Like, yeah. I got that. The first hundred times.

2. You might want to see something new. I mean, this doesn’t even apply just to books, but basically everything else. If you do something so many times or watch movies in the same genre in a row without a break or play the same game over and over, you’ll eventually get tired of it and want something different. Even for books I love, like The Hate U Give, I remember getting so tired of seeing all the five-star reviews for it. So, of course I want to see something new, like a review for a backlist book or a horror novel! Show me something different.

3. You might not want to read it anymore. I know I actually end up doing this a lot. I mentioned earlier that I can be pushed by rave reviews to add a book to my TBR, but I can also push it off just as easily. I feel this way with contemporaries more than any other genre. If I see 84081048 reviews talking about how it’s diverse and has a focus on family and is about a road trip and finding yourself, why should I even read the book when I know it’s going to be so predictable and boring?

4. It can feel like an echo chamber. I mean, sometimes we can get caught up way too much in keeping up with the shiniest ARCs and newest releases that we’re all basically reading and reviewing the same books, and though it can be a good thing, it can also have its downsides. I mean, even with The Hate U Give, which I loved, after seeing SO MANY reviews for it, I already knew what everyone else’s would be after it – it was raw and real and important and why #ownvoices is needed and Starr was an amazing main character and the family aspect was great and I loved the female friendship and it was amazing. Which isn’t a bad thing, but, in a way, it starts to sound really manufactured after hearing it over and over. Does that make sense? Hopefully it does.

Basically, yeah, I can definitely get tired of seeing the same books over and over and OVER again.

I mean, there really isn’t a solution to this. We can’t really force anyone to read backlist books or underrated releases – people are free to read whatever they want, no matter what – but it’s always nice to see something new being reviewed on my Reader, for sure!

How do you feel about seeing the same books in the blogosphere? Do you get tired of it or do you enjoy the hype? Any other feelings?

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