✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.
This week’s topic is:
Writing & Posting Book Reviews
Suggested by: Laurie @ Laurie is Reading
Prompts: Writing book reviews is a huge part of running a book blog. Do book reviews make up a big part of your blog content? Do you prefer to write long or short reviews? How does reviewing advance copies (ARCs) and working directly with authors and publishers change your approach to writing the reviews? Do you post on platforms other than your blog (i.e. Goodreads, The Storygraph, social media) and do those reviews differ from what you share on your blog?
Do book reviews make up a big part of your blog content?
One of the main reasons I started this blog is because I first discovered NetGalley ARCs and I wanted a place to share reviews so that I could gain access to more of them. Oh, there was so much that baby panda blogger didn’t know! 😂 I had also decided that I would review all of the books I read and post them here as well. I was surprisingly successful at doing this for roughly 90% of my reads over the years but within that time, I’ve also made decisions for my blog that changed how much or often I post reviews.
For example, two years ago I decided to stop posting reviews for books lower than 3 stars on my blog, although I still post them on other sites like Goodreads. Other factors have also influenced the change in how many reviews I share on my blog but I still like to try posting one per week, if possible.
So I would say that reviews have always been a significant part of my content but right now, it doesn’t feature as prominently anymore. There’s a part of me that still grapples with guilt over it because why else would I have a book blog if I’m not posting reviews, right? Obviously, it’s my blog and I can do whatever I want, and while this works for me right now, I know that could also possibly change in the future!
Do you prefer to write long or short reviews?
I wouldn’t necessarily say that I prefer to write long reviews but whether I like to admit it or not, I can be quite verbose, so even when I intend to write something short, it usually ends up long… 🫣 It’s not that I even have anything particularly interesting or different to say that others haven’t already, but my brain enjoys waffling on while covering all my bases with the world-building, character arcs, relationship development, plot, etc. Before I know it, I’m usually paragraphs deep and I tend to still have more to say, lol!
Something that I want to try harder at doing this year is writing mini-reviews. I’m aware that I tell myself this every year (lol), but seeing as I have written very few reviews so far in 2025, I’m hoping that mini-reviews will motivate me to start writing them again. I don’t know what’s in the air this year but my review brain has been stuck in struggle town since January 1st and I’m not sure how to get out!
How does reviewing advance copies (ARCs) and working directly with authors and publishers change your approach to writing reviews?
As I mentioned above, I started this blog for the ARCs, so I don’t think my approach to writing reviews has changed or differed because of it. I approach writing reviews for books I own the same way I approach ARC reviews, and I can’t recall bloggers mentioning if they do things differently for owned vs. ARCs but I would love to know if you do! That said, I’m obviously more likely to prioritise reading and reviewing ARCs, especially if I’m on a blog tour, I’ve signed up for an ARC, or the author has reached out to me directly and I’ve accepted the book to read.
Do you post on platforms other than your blog (i.e. Goodreads, The Storygraph, social media) and do those reviews differ from what you share on your blog?
I mostly post on Goodreads first before copying the content to my blog just because there’s less formatting involved. I try to post on Storygraph too but it’s been so hard to stick to that platform as Goodreads is more convenient for me as a Kindle reader. (And I know—I don’t want to support the ‘zon either but as a reader from an international non-Western country, it’s still the most cost-effective and accessible for me!) Sometimes the reviews that I cross-post will be shorter on my blog or more refined because I end up editing what I’ve written even more.
I’ve been considering posting more reviews on bookstagram again but I just haven’t got around to doing so yet. I’m still trying to take baby steps with that platform because the fear of burning out (again) still dogs my every step, haha.
Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who joined the discussion this week! 👇🏽
Annemieke @ A Dance with Books
Elle @ Unwrapping Words
Ju @ Bookflowerpath
Emma @ Pages of Emma
Leslie @ Books Are the New Black
Lin @ Lin’s Perspective
Leyre @ Read You Leyre
Raji @ Worlds Unlike Our Own
Abyssal Librarian
Lost @ The Chronicles of Tick Tock
Tiffany @ Romantasy Life
Yolanda @ Past Midnight
Briana @ Pages Unbound
Rachael @ The Green Tea Librarian
Jillian @ The Bookish Butterfly
Kim @ A Cuppa Books
Kristina @ Books and Daschunds
If I’ve missed your post this week, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments and I’ll add you to this week’s list of community posts ASAP!
Do reviews make up a big part of your blog content? If you’ve been blogging for a while, do you find the ratio of reviews posted has changed over the years? Do you write reviews differently for ARCs vs owned? What about if you post on other platforms?
dinipandareads 
This was a great topic this week! I think we all handle book reviews so different from each other so it’s good to see other people’s thoughts on it.
https://romantasylife.com/lets-talk-bookish-writing-book-reviews/
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Great post!
I already did this post in November, so I didn’t write one for today.
My post: https://laurieisreading.com/2024/11/01/lets-talk-bookish-book-reviews/
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Maybe you missed mine? I created it already and decided to send it in for a suggestion later on 🙂
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I nodded my head so many times as I read your post. YES! Mini reviews are hard, though if I am being honest, my reviews are never that long. HA! And same, I don’t care where I got the book, my review will be honest. Since I do read a lot, I did decide to only feature books that rated 4 or higher. I also limit reviews to two days a week featuring two books in each post. It has been working well. I do same thing with reviews too – post on GR and copy when I am ready to post.
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I enjoy reading your reviews! As someone who doesn’t write particularly long ones, I do like reading longer ones from others on books I have read. I often find longer reviews touch on things that I don’t notice (being such a vibes reader lol).
I also feel the Goodreads vs Storygraph point. SG is my preferred platform because az sucks, but it is a lot easier to actually submit the reviews on GR.
Here’s my LTB:
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This topic was really fun, and it was interesting to see what everyone else deals with writing and reviewing the books they read. I am impressed you managed to review 90% of your reads, haha. I’m so bad at this, at least before I started my blog. I thoroughly enjoy your reviews, and thank you. I found so many good and interesting reads that are waiting for me!
I too find Goodreads more convenient but I try to post on the other platforms as well. Goodreads is the OG of the book review community haha
https://linsperspective.com/2025/03/14/lets-talk-bookish-writing-posting-book-reviews-14-03-2025/
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Currently, my reviews are restricted to my twice monthly wrap-up posts, where I review everything I’ve read up to that point in the month – I think of what I write in those posts as ‘mini reviews’, although honestly, even thought I’ve only been doing this for a couple of months, I am already finding that those reviews are getting longer as I get more into the groove of finding things to say about what I’m reading! I do want to start doing a few longer reviews in individual posts, when I have something I particularly want to cover in more detail, but the wrap-up post style works quite well for me with time constraints etc.
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This was a fun topic, from a first-time talker!
https://acuppabooks.kimdeister.com/friday-meme-ing/
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Yay, I’m so glad that you’ve joined and that you enjoyed the topic as well! 😍
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I tend not to write reviews for the three star books as often. With so many of them, I struggle with what to say. And chances are good that if they are mediocre I’ve already started to forget them.
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if that can help your guilt- I’m not a fan of reviews 🙈 If I cross a blog that’s only reviews, I walk away.. I much more prefer something more personal. Either some conversation posts, lists, recs, anything where you can see more of the blogger behind!
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I’ve noticed Storygraph doesn’t seem great for reviews in general. If I post something there, it’s usually just a couple sentences, and many other people seem to do the same thing.
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Great post! I agree with so much of this. Although, I have epically failed posting mini-reviews in February and now. I should work on that. haha. It’s been interesting to see how many of us think about tackling reviews and such. Storygraph… I love it so much, but there are some issues. It’s not as review friendly, in my opinion!
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[…] Let’s Talk Bookish: Writing & Posting Book Reviews […]
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Back in the day when I worked on my school newspaper I always wrote the book reviews and loved it, but although my love for books hasn’t diminished, I haven’t written about or reviewed books since my school days, so it’s kinda feeling a bit alien to me now. Thus I wasn’t sure whether to write any reviews when I restarted my blog, or just talk about my reading goals and leave it at a rating, however I’ve challenged myself to get back into it. So no long reviews at present, just a few sentences, but I’ve found it’s been good as well as difficult, to just sit and contemplate the book a little once I finish to really discover how it made me feel and what I did or didn’t get out of it 🙂 xo
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[…] proper discussion post and have been wanting to write one for a while. When I saw this topic on the Let's Talk Bookish list, I knew that it's a great topic to help me get back to writing discussion […]
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[…] by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @ dinipandareads! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and […]
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