Blogging: Why Are Reviews So Unpopular?

Posted on by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Hello, You! 😁

As a book blogger who mostly focuses on posting reviews out of sheer love of writing them, I have seen many wonders throughout the years why their reviews always seem to be the least popular posts that they’d have on their blog. It’s a legitimate question, after all. You’d think that reviews would be the most interesting posts that a blogger could offer since it presents their personal experience with a product so that others can judge if they want a piece of that action too or if they prefer to exchange some thoughts on it.

While we all have various reasons to write reviews, I have come to learn quite early in my blogging life that the reasons why reviews might seem unpopular aren’t anything that should stop you from pouring your heart out in writing them.

PLATFORM.

This is quite simple. I’m not an Internet guru to offer you insight on what platform is the future of blogging in the next couple of years but where you publish your review clearly plays a role in who and how many people you reach out to. Personally, I am quite fond of WordPress’ community and the readers that it allows me to reach out to. On top of the features that the platform offers, it should be noted that one should look into how to make use of the tags they put on their posts to make them easier to find through WordPress’ Reader.

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POPULARITY.

Nothing surprising here, huh? I’d even break it down into two categories: the product’s popularity and your own popularity. The former is your choice. Do you want to consume and review only what is popular in the community or will you overlook the traffic associated with such products (e.g. reviewing Harry Potter) to share whatever you want to consume? The latter is a process that you’ll likely gain over time through consistent blogging habits. As people discover what you are able to offer through your blog, they’ll start sticking around for various reasons.

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GENRE.

As much as I’d love to believe that everyone loves everything in the world, this is not true. People will always gravitate towards things that they know, things that they already love, and they’ll willingly avoid what they know they wouldn’t ever consume. Take my content for example. My reviews on my blog reflect my reading habits and that essentially means that a good chunk of my reading is comic books/graphic novels. Do I expect everyone to read them as much as I do? Hell no. Do I still remain hopeful that I could change some minds into trying them someday? Hell yes. 😉

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SEQUELS.

It’s a bit logical but, if you never thought about it, now’s the time. Sequels are the bane of many readers. When it comes to books, if the reader hasn’t yet read the first books, there’s very little chance that they’d want to know what you thought of the next ones. After all, spoilers are scary. The littlest information could ruin everything for some people.

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THE SYMPOSIUM THEORY.

As you grow to understand why reviews seem so unpopular, you’ll also start to forge your own idea of how blogging works. The Internet is a boundless universe and we are quite insignificant compared to other bloggers or just other websites.

This is where I saw the blogging life as a symposium.

Poster Session: Presentations

As an academician, it was inevitable that I ended up seeing the blogging game as a symposium. What exactly is one though? A symposium is simply a formal gathering where researchers around the world present their work, discover other researchers, and discuss the latest developments in their respective specialization. During these events, there are also poster sessions where each researcher (or team) stand next to a poster they’ve conceived to talk about a project they’ve worked on. Other researchers then simply walk around, stop, listen, and discuss with the researchers of the poster presentations of their choice before moving along.

I see blogging as something similar, where each blogger presents their review on any given day, leaving it out in the digital world for followers and new readers to stop by, read, and comment whatever they want about it. This means that, on top of all the factors mentioned above, the timing of the review, the availability of the reader, the mood in which they are to read what you have to say, and much more come into play. On a good day, these people will share what you had to say with others, whether it’s word-of-mouth or through their own social media platforms, and send more people your way. On a bad day, people are simply busy reading other things or doing other things rather than attend this “symposium”.

So, what does it all mean in the end? Quite simple. Just keep on reviewing whatever you want to review! See it as a piece of your thoughts being immortalized for the potential reader who will come seek them for advice on their next purchase, confirmation of their own opinion, or even to rant with you. ❤️

Kurt Russell Christmas GIF by NETFLIX - Find & Share on GIPHY

What do you think makes reviews seem so unpopular? How do you see the blogging game? 😁

TILL NEXT TIME,

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Published by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Reader. Reviewer. Researcher. Criminology Ph.D. Candidate. Montreal, Quebec (Canada). Want to know more? Connect with him!

79 thoughts on “Blogging: Why Are Reviews So Unpopular?”

  1. In my experience, a review might not be popular at first, but over time it might continue getting views long after other posts that were initially popular disappear into the ether. Glancing at my statistics for the year, I see that six of my top ten posts are book reviews from 2019 and 2020– easily topping my ‘About Me’ page and my ‘Anticipated 2020 Releases’ post. The tenth post in that list is ‘Why Review Books?’. So 7/10 of my top posts are reviews or about reviewing. They may not have the initial splash, but over the long run, I think my reviews have brought me more traffic and followers than anything else.

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    1. You’re absolutely right there hahaah I’ve noticed that a lot of my own top posts are reviews too, some that I never thought would even get that much traffic, others that led me to conclude that there must’ve been a high school project on that classic and everyone went looking for answers on the Internet hahahah It’s also why I think people shouldn’t be discouraged by getting little comments on reviews. Views speak more on the post’s popularity and those are gained over time for sure!

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  2. I second Kim’s opinion; sometimes the original impact of a review might not be fully realized and only after some time you see people coming back to your review – and often not even bloggers, just random people looking for some information and opinions about a book. Among our most popular blog posts are reviews of fairly unknown (and quite old!) books: Zelazny’s The Dream Master (1966), Cook’s Water Sleeps (1999), McKillip’s Winter Rose (1996).
    So yes, I’d say keep reviewing whatever you like and don’t let yourself be bullied by the demands of popularity – after all, if you want to make a career from reviewing, WP is probably not the best place for it anyway 😀

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    1. I agree, and there is also another difference, from my perspective. I’m less likely do comment on a review of a book I haven’t read (how many comments like ‘o, cool book, maybe I’ll add it to my TBR?’ does a review need?), but when the post is about an issue, like this one, there is usually something I feel I can add to the discussion 😉
      Reviews definitely are definitely the meat and potatoes of a serious blog 🙂

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    2. I totally agree. I do have a slightly more pessimistic perception on “views” though, considering that we can’t forget about the bots that come spam our posts too, giving us free views that mean absolutely nothing in the end too hahahaha It’s why the “popularity” of reviews for many bloggers is understood as likes and comments instead, thus making it often seem that reviews seem so unpopular! :O My own top posts are also book reviews though and I do hope that they were viewed by real people who were curious in the book/my thoughts on it hahahah And I agree, for sure, WP is not the best place to go to if you’re looking to simply review the popular stuff! 😛

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  3. As someone who’s blog mainly covers reviews for, well pretty much everything (lol😂) I can’t really say why. Because well I have very little to compare them too on my own stats. I have noticed of course a difference in popularity between certain reviews. It often depends on the topic. Some movies are more popular than others, some anime shows as well, and books….well…you get the idea😊 Like you I love writing reviews, and as it’s my main focus on my blog I don’t think that will ever change, nor will I stop writing them. In the end while of course you do hope that people read your posts (if no one does, then well that would basically mean you are writing for yourself) blogging really is something that should be fun, and you should never let yourself be guided to what you MUST write about😊
    I loved the Kurt Russel gifs in this post by the way😂

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    1. Absolutely. I feel like the reviews that get the most attention from readers are those of popular things that everyone might have heard of or even already consumed and loved too! 😮 But, exactly, I think it’s important that people remember why they write reviews and that they shouldn’t be discouraged by it. In the long term, once people will have discovered what you reviewed in the future, there’s likely more people to pass by your review and discover what you had to say too! 😀

      Hell yes for Kurt Russell love!! 😛 Saw him in Death Proof recently, after also my recent viewing of The Thing, and just felt like sharing more of his stuff thanks to this post! 😀

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  4. Fantastic post Lashaan! I totally agree that reviews are the most popular unless it’s a well known book or film. I’ve noticed this more and more over the years, and don’t expect much interaction when I review a less popular title. Sometimes however I’m pleasantly surprised and that’s always a bonus. I love your symposium analogy and think it’s a perfect way of look at the blogosphere! 😀

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  5. Great post! I only post reviews. I try to post other features but reviews are main thing of my blog and I got followers and views solely from reviews so those who says nobody is interested in reviews, I don’t believe you. It tend to get less views than other features but is not totally unpopular. in fact, readers like to read opinions on the book and it has good influence as well. I agree with you, genre is big reason why reviews are unpopular. Another reason is, interactions or discussion is not easy with reviews, specially when reader is not aware of the book or doesn’t like that particular genre.

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    1. Thanks, Yesha! People like you deserve more respect for only doing reviews and sticking to it no matter what! 😉 I totally agree about the inability of many to discuss or react to reviews, especially when they haven’t read it themselves! We can just hope that readers will know, after reading our reviews, if the books are for them or not! 😀

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  6. I agree with you, it’s about whether the book is popular and known, whether it’s the first book in a series, and also depends on the reader’s interest. While the initial response may be low, reviews are evergreen posts and they have the potential to get views over time. Some of my reviews from years back are getting traction now through search engines. With reviews we need to think of the long game.

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  7. Yep, for the most part my non-review posts get more views, likes and comments than the reviews. I have one of those “top posts” widgets on my site and out of the 10 posts it lists, only 2 are book reviews. Technically, there is a 3rd, but it is one of my old “Surviving a Bad Book” series so I don’t count that as a review.

    I think it comes down to, once again, why someone is blogging. Are you blogging to get numbers? For me, I can’t stand when I go on a “blog” and all I see is “Days of the Week” posts. A review is original and I know the blogger has put some effort and their own words into the review. Reviews are solid.

    Genre definitely plays a part. I don’t follow people who mainly review romance, of any variety, or exclusively YA. I do feel bad for people who follow me, as I realize my reading is all over the place, not just SFF like it used to be. Between various classics, manga, non-fiction and western, I think my SFF reviews make up about 2/3rds of my stuff instead of the 90% it used to be 😀

    That being said, if a blogger can write some original, non-review stuff and do it well, they can turn their blog into a general interest blog that leans into a bookish direction. I found the bloggers Mr&Mrs NW, before they disappeared, to be of this variety. They wrote a lot of great non-review posts that I loved. And they weren’t pre-digested pap prompts.

    When I check out a new persons blog and I see more prompts than reviews, I don’t usually end up following them. I want to read the blog of someone who is committed to books as I am.

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    1. A portion of my top posts are reviews too but I would’ve never been able to guess that those reviews would’ve gained that much traffic too. It is a long-term process though, as I realize, on a daily basis, that many reviews gain reviews over time and that they end up up there in the end.

      I too prefer the dedication of bloggers that publish more reviews than all the extra content (tags, features, etc). They really just say more about the blogger, how they think, how they experience the world, than any other post too.

      Haahah my book reviews ended up getting filtered and sharpened over time, focusing more on classics, SFF, and then all the good stuff in the visual story-telling world. I can’t really tell what new followers or the quiet ones even expect from me anymore but I don’t really care either now. I just review everything I consume and enjoy, giving others the chance to learn about them too!

      Ahhh, I remember following those two at the end of their blogging time, discovered them through your blog too hahaha Quite sad that they vanished so suddenly….

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  8. I did a similar post to this one a while back, because I also found that reviews are often less “popular” on a lot of blogs (although there ARE blogs that only do reviews and work quite well). I think, in my eyes, it also just has a lot to do with people sometimes not wanting to know anything about books before having read them themselves and/or it being a bit more difficult to engage with a review you in general (this means my view of popular posts is also measured by engagement and not just views). A lot of discussion posts and tags just make it simpler to comment than a review sometimes does. But I really enjoyed this post and definitely can see where all your points come from!

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    1. I’m definitely proud of all those bloggers doing only reviews on their blogs, even if not all their reviews interest me. The dedication is just so deserving of mad respect. 😀 I went by engagement instead of solely views too when asking the question for this post and think that it’s not something that’s easy to achieve unless the whole world and your target audience in specific know about what you’re reviewing. But I definitely agree. When it comes to engagement, those “other” posts are just so much easier for everyone to say their piece without feeling like they’re in unknown waters. 😮 Thank you so much for your kind words, Kat! Stay safe. 🙂

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  9. Popularity bumps simple things. If it’s not easily digestible the ‘dumb masses’ don’t want it along with other points being made about ‘spoilers’. I make a strict point not to spoil things about the story when I review. I’m not one that gets upset at any kind of spoilers, I honestly don’t get it, but then again reading someone verbatim telling me, this happened, that happened, then this happened, then that happened IMO is NOT the way a review should be done and is the same reason I skip the synopsis on some review sites. The intricacies of a story, the random details is what creates an ‘atmosphere’ of a book and someone would have to work really hard to ‘spoil’ an atmosphere.In any case I’m not confident in the ‘popularity’ factor in comparison to something being ‘important’. They are way far apart.

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    1. By the way, where DO you review? I tried finding a blog associated with your name but couldn’t. 😮 And your name doesn’t have a redirect link to your blog or anything either.

      I agree about how a review is written plays a huge role in how likely people would come to check it out. It should invite us to read it for ourself and not have everything spoonfed to us before we even got the chance to read it for ourself! 😮

      I find that “popularity” today is closer to how social media works and how things “trend”. Often, it’s very politically-driven and that makes it difficult for other non-political content to become relevant/important/popular.

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  10. I definitely find that my reviews of more popular books get much more action, which is sad because its the smaller press and less known books that need the attention. But I agree with a couple of commenters, my reviews tend to have “legs” and I continue to get weekly if not daily views of some reviews I wrote years ago.

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    1. It’s what I love about reviews too. They grow legs, hands, a mind of their own sometimes, when we give them time! Some of the more obscure stuff definitely need more attention, if people were just a bit more willing to dive into them… 😦 Up to us to be even more convincing though. We should all try and write brilliant reviews like you do! I know that works a lot. 😛

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  11. I like your symposium metaphor – and totally agree with it – and I think it describes very well the “mechanics” of review reading: either people are looking for a specific review or they are “walking by” and are attracted by the subject at hand and stop to learn more. And let’s not forget that people in the book blogging community are also motivated by their curiosity about new books or discussions about authors and their work and they might actually *seek* those reviews on a daily basis… 😉

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    1. Right? It made so much sense to me and couldn’t have been a better illustration of how it works in the blogging game. Not everyone is a super-mega-duper star in the world, especially on such a writing-heavy platform, to draw that much attention to all kinds of reviews that interest people or not. We all have a niche that we fit in and end up contributing in one way or another! 😀 Thanks for reading, Maddalena!

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  12. I’ve always suspected that it has a lot to do with book bloggers being a sort of insular community. We follow bloggers who read the same sorts of books, and we often shy away from reading reviews of something we’re reading so as to either avoid spoilers or not have our own reviews influenced. I suspect that’s why we always see more likes than comments. Like so many others have said, though, reviews can find legs in the strangest of places. I have no idea why, but my 3rd most popular review for this year is an old Gena Showalter review that only had 2 likes last year. If I knew why/how people were stumbling across it, I’d exploit that for my other reviews!

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    1. I wish I knew the secret too. 😮 So many posts where we truly want more people to discover said book would get so much deserved attention that way! I do think that a lot of cliques are indeed formed depending on the kind of content we drop and it’s sad that some people don’t take the time to explore beyond it, discover new people with new interests along the way. The community could grow in unimaginable ways! 😮

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  13. I believe from personal experience that the platform has to do with it. Perhaps even ones own location, if we are talking ARC’s. These issues have lead me many times to ponder and dial back expectations. Ultimately, don’t expect popularity…just enjoy reading and move on. Authors need their books reviewed even after the first waves die down. Books are timeless…social media is not, hence the struggle with keeping up producing popular posts.
    Great thoughts, Lashaan. 🙂

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    1. Absolutely. Although, this past couple of years have seen digital books/audiobooks grow tremendously, making the reviewer’s location almost irrelevant hahah The platform, however, is definitely something huge when it comes to evaluating the reception you get to your posts. It’s why I love WordPress for what it is. But I agree. Reviews are timeless and they will live as long as your blog, and that’s how they become popular at the end of the day! 😀 Thanks for stopping by and reading, Scarlett!

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  14. Now there is a good question! I definitely observe that on my blog. Reviews of very hyped book will still get a high number of views though (my review of Girl, Woman, Other is my most popular review ever) but since non of us choose our reading based on expected number of views (I suppose) that is just an observation, not an action point. Oh, and re HP – these days it may not be the best to review if you want views – by many it’s considered politically incorrect to highlight anything by “she who must not be named”. But that is completely different discussion post!! 😉

    I couldn’t agree more, of course we should review what we feel like and accept some posts are less popular than others. Honestly, it would be difficult to keep being motivated if you had to think about optimising views instead of writing about what you love and find interesting. There is a balance somewhere though, and recently I have thought a lot about the right mix of content (my posts are all over the place). Perhaps I will write a post about that. One day….

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    1. Yep. I’d be surprised and a bit disappointed in people who only read what’s popular for the sake of pumping numbers. That is quite sad. 😦

      Hahahahaha I almost went back on the idea of using HP as an example as I wrote it too. And you’re right. That’s another political issue though. And, actually, come to think of it, if the post is about “she who must not be named”, HP, and what she had recently said, I think you’re likely to get a lot of viewers converging your way to discuss about it all hahaahah

      Ouuuh, you got me all curious about your thought process there. I think you should explore other content if your mind is telling you to, especially if your imagination wants it. It can be quite enjoyable to do something out of the blue for yourself and for readers of your blog. 😉

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      1. Hahaha, of course you are completely right regarding discussion posts about HP – I have seen a few of those – all of them with lots of comments. So ok, perhaps not a bad example after all 😉

        I love to write different kind of posts, but I do wonder if I am spreading out too much? Serious reviewers may find my content too light and readers of more popular literature may find my books too *serious*? In other words, I am writing for a niche which doesn’t exist? Anyway, as others have mentioned having good blogging relations / blogging friends can overcome that hurdle. So now you are going to point out, I haven’t reached the stage, where I comment on your comics reviews – maybe, one day 😛

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  15. What a fascinating post Lashaan! It’s real food for thought. I’ve noticed with my blog (I’m not a reliable regular blogger AT ALL 😬) that my non review posts get far more traffic, especially if they’re quite short. Quite funny. Or quite rude 😂 If there’s any adult style content, swearing, or a book which has sex in it a lot brings em in, or just me posting random shit that I think is pointless tends to work well too. Weird world we live in but there you are 🤣

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    1. Hahahh thank you so much! And I soooo agree. I think one other key quality to those non-review posts is how relatable they can be! The more people agree with what you have to say and what you’re talking about, the more traffic you’re SURE to get. 😛

      Boy, oh boy. The conclusion you’ve come to on what brings people your way makes me wonder a lot of things on people indeed hahahahahaha 😛

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  16. I think reviews are less popular because they tend to be long and people are now used to go quick and assimilate only the first layer of information. Also people do tend to gravitate towards something funny or scandalous and reviews are rarely like that.
    And you are right to write what you like because the blog is yours and you should do as you please. You also made me discover your universe. It is still not my own BUT now I know more about it and I am very pleased with this as I have a curious and inquisitive mind ;;-)

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    1. Yep. The shorter they are, the more people are likely to take a glimpse at it and discuss about them too. It is sad that we’ve come to a time where people can’t in fact take the time to read and discover things instead of being hot on their feet!

      Ahahaha thank you so much for your kind words, Sophie! I’m glad to show you a side of the world that you aren’t often in yourself and hopefully it’ll continue to feed a desire to discover them for yourself someday! 😀

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  17. Interesting post and not something I was really aware of. Granted, my blog isn’t in the literary realm and I don’t do very many reviews compared to other posts, so that could be why. As with many things, I suspect there’s no one answer, but many, most of which have likely been covered by yourself and in the comments. With posts like this the comments can really add a lot (not that mine is doing much this time around 🙂). But I completely agree with your conclusion to continue reviewing whatever it is you want to review. If you’re enjoying what you’re doing then hopefully some of your passion shines through, and that’s what will keep folks coming back. I may not always be interested in what you’re reviewing, but I am always interested in your review, if that makes sense. So keep on keepin’ on!

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    1. Yep. Pitching these kinds of posts does help garner a lot of hypotheses from other bloggers just to see if we all share a similar experience or not regarding the matter of discussion. Your own thoughts on it are definitely precious, my friend. It reminds us of the importance of relativity and the multifactorial causes of review unpopularity. 😉 And yes, I absolutely understand what you mean. I’m always happy to hear your own thoughts as a non-consumer of some of the things I review too. And if I ever do get you to actually consume them, I know I’ll be pretty proud. Even more if you fall in love with them. 😉

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  18. Great points there, Lashaan! I don’t have much to say though, as I mostly only post book reviews LOL and occasionally authors Q&A which is least popular as compared to book reviews. And I don’t really know much about popularity – like if a post will be popular or not, because I think what’s most important is we read what we want to read, review what we want to review and leave the rest to the readers. But this post I reckon might be one that will gain many responses! 😉 But hey, you’re a popular blogger! 🙂

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    1. Good point, Jee! I think it’s important for people not to get their minds all bloated on the idea of becoming popular, or just having popular reviews or whatever. Just write and read what you want from whoever you want, and be happy! 😉 Ahhhh, I wouldn’t say I’m a popular blogger though. Like all things when relativized, I nothing compared to some that I know hahaha I just interact with awesome people like you who show interest in me/my posts as much as I do in them/their posts. 😉

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  19. I’ve never thought of it as being like a symposium, but that makes sense to me, now that you’ve mentioned it. To me, it’s all about preferences. I think most people gravitate to reviews of books they’ve already read or may want to read. So a review might not be popular at first, but it might gain views later as people look up the book.

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  20. Very interesting Lashaan. I review because I like to share my book love. I don’t really pay attention to statistics, but I am going to take a look and see. I know I read book reviews all the time, so I just assume others do as well. I am too old to change the way I have been doing it.

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    1. Same as you, Carla! Reviewing brings me joy before anything else. The bonus of seeing others read it and leaving their thoughts just motivates me to keep on doing what I love already. No need to change your ways. I think your routine works well for what you WANT to achieve through your blog and hobbies. 😀 Thanks for reading, Carla!

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  21. Your gif choice gladdened my heart in this one! 😍😍 AND SO SO TRUE!!!! As book reviewers, it hurts when the reviws are actually the leat popular posts on our blogs but hey…..while we love the discussions the posts bring, WE ARE ULTIMATELY WRITING IT BECAUSE WE ENJOY IT – so should we stop just because it’s seemingly unpopular?!?!????! 😱😱😱😱😱 Nooooo.

    And to be honest, reviews are the easiest posts to write anyway because….well…you don’t have to brainstorm for the content, readin the book provides you with more than enough of it! 😂🤣😍❤

    LOVED LOVED LOVEDDD THIS POST, Lashaan! Brilliant as always!

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    1. My gif selection is nothing like yours though hahaha Yours have an artistic flair to them and clearly you create them from scratch too!!!!! Stop hiding it hahahah

      Exactly. 😉 I think that it’s the ultimate test for many bloggers who give up reviewing over time too. 😉 It shows that maybe they never really wrote reviews because they enjoyed them in the first place! 😮 😮 😮 😮

      Thank you so much for reading, Rain! 😀

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  23. Awesome post, Lashaan! You have a great point. I also think this depends on how you’re measuring popularity. For example, my book reviews for the books I have discussion questions also published for receive high views (not as high as the discussion questions, though!), but little to no comment traffic. Are views the measure of popularity we’re measuring? Is it about comments and the discussion?

    Honestly, I write book reviews mostly for me. They help me keep track of what I’ve read and what I enjoy and don’t enjoy. I don’t care what sort of attention they get. I love talking to people about what I’ve read, but I don’t mind if no one comments because they aren’t interested in these books. I don’t read the “popular” books. I read what I want!

    But I do get grumpy if my discussion posts are left unattended. I put a lot of time and effort into those posts. That still happens to me… but I’m a small-time blogger, let’s be real.

    I agree with you that blogging is similar to a symposium. Though, in my corporate world, I think of it as a convention. Potato-Potatoe. The trick here is finding the symposium that meets your needs and focus. I don’t want to go to a symposium focused on blog traffic and social media. I want a symposium focused on middle grade, YA, and adult books in speculative, historical, or contemporary fiction. I would also be down with a symposium about community – libraries, book clubs, etc. That’s the REAL symposium I would want to be in. Yeah. All community, all the time. 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much, Jackie! You make a great point that I purposely avoided breaking down here. The whole premise behind this post was on this “impression” many seem to have that reviews don’t draw as much as attention as you’d expect. And I think the main reason that this impression exists is mostly related to the “comments/discussions” that seem so few. But it’s only when we look back at “views” that we actually realize that some reviews actually garner silent views from all kinds of people (and maybe even bots too hahahah).

      Absolutely, I too do reviews for myself first. Everyone else who come and share their thoughts on them is the bonus that motivates me to keep on going.

      Hahahah I hesitated between calling it a convention too but since reading The Symposium, the word stuck with me and made it sound cooler hahahah 😉 And yes. I think many like to stick to the symposium that meets their interests. I personally don’t do that just because the “presenters” (bloggers) are either not that into connecting or are simply inexistant (e.g. it’s quite rare to see bloggers with a huge love for comics and whatnot on top of SFF). I’ve remained open-minded and try to just stick around with bloggers with interesting content because THEY make it interesting hahaah

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      1. Oy. Bots. I mean, I just don’t understand it. My guess is that a lot of my silent views for the Newbery Award winners I’ve been reading are because students are seeking other sources to reference for homework. 😉 I know it’s that way for some of my discussion questions!

        I’ve spent some time thinking about what sort of Symposium I am seeking. And in the blogging world, I’ve decided it’s one where the presenters are thoughtful, intellectual, and open to the community. I am interested in exploring more depth and meaning in texts where I can. A synopsis followed by “I LOVED IT” isn’t what I’m looking for. I really want to dig into the story, the writing, the art– whatever it is! So, I don’t think genres matters as much to me as how the content is presented.

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  26. For me, I somewhat ironically tend to avoid reviews for books I haven’t read yet. This is largely because I’m a blogger too, and if I know I’m going to read a book (especially an ARC), I want to go in with as “clean” an impression as possible to form my own thoughts. I like reading reviews for books I HAVE read, to see what did or didn’t work for other people. I like your analogy of book blogging as a symposium, that’s a great way to look at it. 🙂

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    1. Ohhh, I can totally understand that. It’s why I also fear reviews for a lot of the new releases in various other fields of entertainment (movie, video games, tv series, etc.). I even avoid trailers, beside the first one. I just want to experience what I look forward to with a completely clean slate too hahaha Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post! 😀

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  27. Quite interesting. I see many people chimed in.
    All of this is news to me. The review blogs I check out usually seem rather popular. People exchange their opinions on the product, add it to their list, or say why they are not going to do that. I see these review blogs as a tight-knit community. But I’m not really someone to go by reviews, so… yea… it has to be a very interesting review to make me try it.
    I am curious about my fairly new segment – Golden Reviews. I will keep an eye on the stats.

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    1. Yep. It’s not a “general” issue. Not even a real issue either. It’s more like an impression you get when you start playing around with more than just “reviews” (e.g. tags, discussions, lists, etc.). Those kinds of posts just naturally draw in more attention, more interaction. 😮

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      1. It’s the nature of the game – if you write about baseball, you will get people who love baseball and those who hate. However, if you write about sports in general, you might get a wider selection. Same with specific blogs vs. “lifestyle.” Everyone has one, so everyone has something to say.

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  29. If ever there was a blog to explain that you never know what is going to be popular it is this one. I’m sure if you knew exactly what the public wanted you would soon get bored. It’s much more fun to post about something you really like and see what reaction you get – even if it is none at all or a very negative one.

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