More Goals For The Month Of August – Some “Background” Plans

 

Ok, so this review-a-day seems to be working out (sort of).  I technically have not been posting every day, but the number of reviews equals the number of days in the end, so I don’t really care. … I’m not about to get technical with myself during my summer break. 

I have two slight situations that I am wanting to address…

The first situation – books that I have won via giveaways.

Now, I know that this is my own fault – there is no rule/law that says I HAVE to enter the giveaways (and technically on some sites it is not REQUIRED for me to write a review…) but there are a couple of reasons why I keep entering.  The only one I feel like mentioning though is that I want to expand what I read.  Some of you (those who actually read my reviews and blog posts) may have noticed the majority of what I read are paranormal YA books.  Nothing wrong with that (at least in my book) but I would like to know more about different genres.   (There are a whole variety of reasons being THAT too, but let’s move on.)

Potential solutions:

I was seriously considering the following: post a review per day of a book that I won.  Meaning I would read the book throughout a day instead of the other books that I am reading from my personal collection) and then stop at the end of the day and review whatever I had read.  The issue here is that I like completing books and I didn’t think that a day was a fair enough time to really get to know a book.

What I have decided (oh, I had a whole list of options, but the following has made the most sense to me): I will read the giveaway books until roughly page 100.  If by that point the book has not drawn me in, then I will stop and write a review and CLEARLY STATE where I stopped and why I stopped.  That way if the book ends up being awesome at the end (as was the case with Living Dead Girl) the author and my readers will know that my review does not include that, etc. 

The second issue – books that authors have personally asked me to review.

This issue is once again completely my fault.  I want to help people out and as a result I tend to forget about my other responsibilities.  Plus, the majority of these books have been ebooks.  (Those who have read other posts by me know that I am having some trouble adjusting to the concept of the ebook.)  I have forgotten about them more than once.  Thankfully, the book that I am currently reading (The Forgotten Ones) has kept me intrigued and has increased the chances that I will remember the other books. 

Possible solution:

This is a fairly easy fix.  I have kept a list of who has sent me books, etc. on a “personal request” basis.  I will tackle these after I finish The Forgotten Ones (I only have roughly 30-40 pages left – might even be able to finish it by tomorrow).  After I finish the book that I am reading I will go in order that I received the books. 

The last issue (which is really a combination of the above, hence why I do not have a different “counter” for it) – books that I have won through LibraryThing.

ONCE AGAIN – yes, this is my fault.  Books sound interesting and I enter and BOOM I’ve won some.  … Now, the reason this is a combination situation is because I have won both ebooks and physical books.  I did not keep close track of what I entered in and therefore get confused on what came from where (I’ve also found a couple of sites that post free kindle books…). 

So my solution here – I’m going to start on the personal requests whenever.  Yep, that’s how specific as I am going to get.  These requested books are embedded in with my personal collection, ebooks, and giveaway wins in my mind/house… So therefore that is how they will appear via my reviews.  I’ll read these all of the way though (unless they’re utterly ridiculous) and post my reviews once they’re done.  I believe I have told every author that has contacted me to feel free to nudge me if I am taking too long.  I don’t want them to think I’m taking advantage of them or anything! 

 

This month of August is going to be crazy (as far as book reading and reviewing goes).  I’ll have to come up with something calmer once classes begin…  Wish me luck!

 

Thanks for reading!

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