Monday Madness 6-6-16

June 06, 2016

Monday Madness 6-6-16

Monday Madness

Hello everyone!

I have sadly noticed a change in the amount of readers which I assume is because of the new books I have been reviewing such as literary works, however I want to speak with you all about this month's plans and beyond. I have decided to change my TBR once again for June to allow more freedom. I will be removing myself from the Hobb-A-Long read-a-long that Sam from Sam's Nonsense on YouTube is hosting for the remainder of the year, to read these books slowly and not attempt to read such giant books at a fast pace. This is not to say I will not read the first book at least this month, I will complete book one and start number two but I sadly cannot keep up with the quick pacing and read my choice of books.

In future I will be reading a balance of Literary fiction, Science fiction and Fantasy. I will be getting some more fantasy reviews out very very soon; especially with the new books I purchased today. I love to read all genres and photograph them as a treat with the reviews, which hopefully you all will see more of with up coming book reviews and chats. I will bring this blog back into focus more on the Fantastical and SciFi, however I just wanted you all to know that you can expect some different genres to appear on my blog occasionally. If you all have any other discussion post ideas or posts you want to see please let me know on Twitter @komondor70 or in the comments!

Hobb-a-Long Goodreads Page

Sam's Channel

Discussion of the Day: Buddy Reading/ Book Clubs

Reading and book clubs have been around for a long time now, and with the invention of the internet they have spread far and wide! A book club or reading group can be a small group of two friends who are casually reading the same book and having conversations surrounding the plot, to 500 plus people in a large Goodreads chat group talking about a book that is chosen in a given month. Preferences between these two extremes vary almost as much as the books being read in them, personally I lean towards the small and personal book groups with a few friends. My preferences include in real time conversations about the books, knowing everyone reading along, getting to read leisurely with the group, avoiding spoilers, and more.

I have a habit of getting into a lot of buddy reads with groups of my friends both online and in real life and I often find them hard to keep up with and deter me from reading; you may be wondering why I continue to join in on read-a-longs then. Truth be told I like to be in the conversation about books and the publishing world, which has led me to meet some amazing people who love books that I would like to discuss books with. In this desire to discuss books with people, I feel many times that I read different titles than them and that we may not have enough to comment about that will be an intelligent addition to the conversation, hence why I try to read the same book alongside them.

This tandem buddy read system where I can talk one on one with a friend about a specific book that we are reading together works for me if it is in a small group where I know everyone and can chat with them all. With a smaller group everyone is able to discuss their thoughts and see the different sides of the group, where I feel a larger Goodreads group you cannot do that; at least without being spoiled for some things. I love doing individual buddy reads so our conversations can become in depth and spoiler filled according to our place in the novel! I also feel a better analysis of the book can happen when you have rapid fire conversations together about a passage, rather than having hundreds of people slowly commenting on a Goodreads thread.

Getting to read books with people is a great motivational tool for some, however for myself I am finding that I have a group of friends I occasionally read books with on Voxer that I love to chat with which I find motivating. If the buddy read is like a large Goodreads buddy read I do not comment and get anxious by the amount of comments I have to catch up on to "keep up" with everyone. While I do not think that commenting on threads is essential to being a Goodreads Buddy reader, I do feel that it is what can make a buddy read enjoyable. Personally I find it difficult to comment and bring my thoughts to the table in large groups because I feel as though I am just copying a previous thought. Being a reader brings me so much joy, especially sharing my experiences and thoughts with you all however I prefer small buddy reads without a strict time table to read the book and lessor chances of being spoiled for the book. I think this issue I have with large reading groups is one of the reasons that I am not going to be able to continue actively doing the Hobb-a-long with Sam. The reasons include time deadlines, commenting in a long thread/ avoiding spoilers, and the lack of realtime conversations about the books.

I will be joining in on some read-a-longs occasionally on Goodreads however I felt the need to bring this topic to the foreground to get my readers opinions about the topic. Do you find reading to be a personal/private hobby, or do you like to read with as many people regardless of the conversations occurring?

Recent Purchases/ Hopeful June Reads: