Why Do I Read and Review the Books I Do?

Up until about the fall of 2017, there were only so many genres I would read. And, admittedly, I still do. I have my set preference. I do like Romance, Romantic-Suspense, and True Crime (Ann Rule – “And, Never Let Her Go”; “If You Really Loved Me”, etc). I also don’t stray from my tried and true authors.

I didn’t get into historical fiction (still not 100% there), psychological thrillers (nowhere close to 75% liking them), or biographies (I’ve read two; have two on the TBR [to be read] list). But, anyone looking at my GoodReads account wouldn’t know that.

[One of Summer 2019's thrillers - Alex North's "The Whisper Man"]

[The description of it. I considered it a "Slender Man" meets "Silence of the Lambs"]

So, why the change?

I started getting what was called “Advanced Reader Copies” or ARCs as they are commonly called. These are usually unedited, paperback editions of the “to-be-released” book.

The main idea of an ARC is to get it to a select few people to generate social media “buzz” – drop hits, photograph the books, talk about them (sans spoilers), read AND review them. Build up interest to increase release-day sales (even pre-orders).

As a result of getting free books, it was easy to challenge myself to go outside my preferred genre and writers. After all, with a limited amount of money, I hate to buy a book then detest it. I’ve found that the description and/or premise sounds good, much like what one book I just finished did, the book isn’t as good as I thought it would be.

There were some I was so excited about – and after reading, I wanted to be repaid for my time. Yes, they were THAT bad. 

[Allison Pearson's "How Hard Can It Be?" - sounded good at the time I signed up for it. was definitely a "not the greatest read" book]

["Chronicles of a Radical Hag (With Recipes)" - sounded like a great book. I ended up winning this from Bookish, and glad I didn't trade points for it]

 

So, if the book was free (either through a reviewer program or something similar), I wasn’t out anything except time.

Libraries were not an option to borrow books from until I recently (as of August 2019) when I got my car “mostly” repaired.

While I hate to (because it’s rather long), let me explain what I mean by mostly repaired …

Since midway through 2016, my car has been having some SERIOUS mechanical problems. Due to the grace of God, and a lawsuit we didn’t think would ever get settled, we got some money. As a result, at the end of July, I spent over $2500 on a rental and repairs (steering column, wheel, alignment, starter motor). But, my car still has quite a bit of work remaining to be done – a water pump, tire pressure monitor system replaced, transmission flush, and fuel system service. I just went over 150K on the car (as of this blog – 150,023 miles). And, obviously I didn’t have the money then; don’t have the money right now; or in the foreseeable future to finish repairs.  

150K miles isn’t bad on an 11 year old car, but given that in 2015 I put over 22,000 miles on it – that’s a bit excessive. And, if you’re wondering where the total came from, well …

* 400 miles per week for my mom’s work as I took her back and forth (we lived 20 miles one way from where she worked

* A 707 mile vacation to California

* 226 miles for NASCAR weekend (4 days).

* Various “errands” (shopping, doctor visits, etc)

Sorry to expand and deviate from the topic a bit, but I know that some people won’t understand if you don’t explain, while some are “TL, DR (too long, didn’t read)” types. It’s hard to be concise and yet specific. Can’t please everyone.

So, no, driving to a library in 105°+ temps is not an option. I don’t have bus service where I live and a $20 Lyft or Uber round-trip ride is not affordable. If I’m going to do that – why not just buy the book? Barnes & Noble does have a 30 day return period, and Amazon is pretty good about returns as well – both do tend to necessitate leaving the house. Hopefully y’all get the idea.

I thought I’d explain the library and car situation in case someone asked “why not just use the library”. And, if anyone mentions eBooks – I wrote a blog about that …

In short, I gotta do what I gotta do. That’s all I can do.

Anyway …

Getting back to the topic of the blog …

I didn’t always review books. But, as some of the conditions for getting a freebie was to review it – that’s mainly why I started. I also started doing it as it was earning points through another “freebie” book website (bookish.com). In addition, I’ve been part of launch teams whose mission it is to read the book, review the book, and post about the book to build up interest. 

[This was my first launch team - Gary Sinise's "Grateful American"]

[Also proud to be on the launch team of "Lulu's Cafe" by T.I. Lowe]

In between, I started reviewing some books I’d already read to build up my profile to get more opportunities. The more reviews I have, the more chance of getting picked to do more – thus more “free” books.

It benefits the writer and it benefits me. How can I not do it? Thanks to Just Read Publicity Tours I’ve got three social media “tours” for September and October lined up along with a blind book tour (they send you a book you’re matched to). So that right there is four free books to promote, read, and review.

I still read the books I am interested in and are already in my collection, but I am building up a diverse collection of other authors and genres as well at little to no expense. As a result, I was asked to join another website, which analyzed my reviews and profile. That’ll be in another “blog” though.  

That’s it right there!

Hopefully you’ll all appreciate my reviews along the way. They’re honest whether the book is a review copy, a library find, a neighbor find, or I’ve bought it. I try to write my reviews so that everyone can make up their own minds if they want to read something.