Happy New Year!

Welcome to the New Year! I haven’t been around much. The holidays always seem to take more out of me than I expect, and blogging gets set aside. What little ‘extra’ time I find, I spend reading. So I have a lot of catching up to do!

During January, I am going to try to put up a few posts regarding my 2013 reading and blogging, as well as some goals for 2014. So let’s start off with goals…

First let’s talk about blogging. I was doing pretty well until Thanksgiving, and then things got sporadic. So it is time to reevaluate.

• I have been doing a lot of reading but have not been very good about writing reviews, and even worse about posting reviews, even when I’ve taken the time to write them. So I am setting a goal of a minimum of 1-2 reviews each week. Since I do have a backlog, I will probably be doing 2 per week for the first couple of months, and taper down to 1 per week as my blogging catches up to my reading.
• I also want to get back to pointing you to freebies and contests. I had been blogging every Friday, but when things got too busy, I missed that. So instead, I am hoping to tweak the blog a bit and add a tab at the top that will be a list of current events. And hopefully I will be able to keep that up to date.
• I also hope to do some random musings and discussions about reading and blogging. I hope this will be interactive and that you will post in the comments. I’d like to know what you think.
• Lastly, I hope to continue participation in the Teaser Tuesday and Waiting on Wednesday memes, though possibly not weekly. I don’t always have a book I want to blog about, but I do enjoy participating, as it helps me keep up with new releases. I may modify my Waiting on Wednesday post to tell you about a book I am waiting to read, whether or not it has already been released.

Next, challenges. I don’t do well with challenges. While I usually hit my mark in READING the books for the challenge, I seldom get back to REPORTING what I read, so I never really complete the challenge. For that reason, I do not plan to particpate in many reading challenges for 2014. Here is what I plan

• The Goodreads 2014 Reading Challenge. I have committed to reading 52 books, or one per week. This will be the fourth year I have participated and at the same level. I’ve actually read 57, 55, and 53, so 52 is attainable, but still a challenge, since I don’t see any ‘extra’ time this year.
• The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge at Historical Tapestry. Historical fiction is by far my favorite genre, so the main challenge will be actually checking in and logging my reading. Right now I am signing up at the Medieval level, or 15 books. If I find that most of my reading is historical fiction, and I am remembering to check in, I will up that to Ancient History, or 25 books. But since one of my personal goals is to enrich my reading by trying different genres, I’m not going to commit to more than 15 at this time.
• Another ‘challenge’ is not an official challenge, but as I mentioned, I want to ‘broaden my reading horizons’. So I am going to take a look at Goodreads ‘Best Books of 2013’ list and attempt to read one book from at least 10 different categories. I will not restrict myself to the winners, but may choose from any of the nominees on the list.
• Another informal challenge to myself is to clear some of the books from my bookshelf and ereader. All these freebies are wonderful, but I really need to commit to reading some of them. So I am challenging myself to read one book per month that I already owned as of January 1st. Hopefully I will split them between ebooks and print books.

In addition to these, I hope to tweak my blog over the next month, though I’m not sure how far I will go with it. So keep watching. And tell me...do you have any reading goals for 2014?

Talk 2 Me: 'Borrowing' photos

This week I am not asking what you think as much as asking for your advice.

Earlier this week there was quite the discussion on one of the genealogy sites I frequent regarding copyright and the ‘stealing’ of photos for your web site and blog. A lot of people post photos of their loved ones with their family trees, only to find them pop up on other trees and sites, sometimes linked to the wrong person, and always without prior permission. This led to a pretty heated discussion with comments ranging from ‘it’s stealing just like if you downloaded and album and then uploaded to share with the world’ to ‘don’t put it on the internet if you don’t want me to take it!’. And of course everyone thinks they are right!

Moving away from genealogy, I started thinking about my book blog. Almost since I’ve had it, I’ve ‘borrowed’ cover photos and synopses from sites like Goodreads and Amazon. I’ve kind of been of the opinion that it is ‘free advertising’ and the would encourage that. I kind of sound like the attitude up above, no? But the big thing I took away from the genealogy discussion is this; most people really do NOT mind sharing photos, but they DO want to be ASKED! So now I’ve reached the point that I feel like I need an ‘official’ source for my info. I would like to ask permission from Goodreads, but I can’t seem to find a link to request that permission.

So my question for you all today is....

Where do you get the cover photos and information you use for your blog? Have you formally asked permission? Do you feel the need to ask permission?

I guess maybe I AM asking you ‘what do YOU think?’ And I’m looking forward to your answers!

What Do You Think? Ratings - Part 2

Just after reading that post, I visited A Bookish Affair and found even more reason to get my ratings systems nailed down and visible for all. The short version is, in addition to her blog being plagerized last week, she had an unfortunate confrontation from an author who was displeased with the review her book got. Meg was asked about her rating system (right at the top of the page!) by the publicity company. You can read the details on Meg’s blog, but the bottom line for me is....I need to have my ratings system well thought out and visible to all.

So I did some thinking and here is how it went...

I started out with the Goodreads system. I’ve always loosely based my ratings on Goodreads stars, but embellished is some with half-stars because I need those ‘in between’ steps. I thought about using 10 stars, but 10 stars seems a little overwhelming and I think most bloggers are used to 5 being a top ranking!

I also thought about using something other than stars. I’ve seen a lot of custom ranking bars around; fish, hearts, sea shells, magnifying glasses, etc. But since my blog is pretty general, nothing stood right out for a ‘theme’. I’ve always liked Roger Eberts ‘2 thumbs up’ for movies, but since I have trouble with only 5 stars, using only 2 thumbs would be way too confining! I guess I could use fingers, with 5 fingers as a top rating, but what about the bottom. When I give a book 1 finger, is everyone wondering which finger I am giving it?! So stars it is!

For reference, here is the Goodreads system...

★                  - did not like it

★★               - it was ok

★★★            - liked it

★★★★        - really liked it

★★★★★    - it was amazing

And here is MY system....

★                  - dislike; I shouldn’t have wasted my time

★★               - ok, but just barely; flawed but not a total waste of time

★★★            - liked it, but pretty average; not a big with a major impact on me

★★★★        - liked it a lot; will definitely recommend to others

★★★★★    - loved it; among the best I’ve ever read

I also give half stars to bump a book up if I think it is better than the star level indicated but not good enough to be bumped to the next star level.

Occasionally, after time as passed, I may revisit a book. It may have aged well and I realize it is more memorable or has more meaning for me than I originally thought. Or it may be, that in comparison to other books I’ve read, it doesn’t stand up as well as I thought it would. In those cases, I may adjust my ratings up or down by a half star or more.

So...that’s it! What do you think?
You can find review my ratings system at anytime by clicking the link at the top of this page.

What Do You Think? Rating Books

I recently came upon a discussion by Megan @ Love, Literature, Art & Reason that got me thinking about my star rating system. Basically, Megan uses a star rating system based on the Goodreads rating system and wondered if other readers interpret her ratings the way she means them to be interpreted. I think that is a really good question and one we all need to think about when we rate a book.

Here is my reply to her question....

• Great discussion. I also use Goodreads as a guidline, but also use half stars. To me, a 1 is a dislike and I shouldn't have wasted my time with it. A 5 means is is among the best books I've ever read and I will be thinking about it for a long time.
• In between is a 2, which means is was just barely ok, but probably had a lot of flaws that kept me from really liking it. But also not a total waste.
• A 3 to me is a pretty 'average' book. I liked it fine and don't regret reading it, but it is not a book that impacts me or I will be thinking about, and possible not even remember, a month from now.
• A 4 means I really liked it, I'm glad I read it and will recommend it to others, but it falls short of being one of my best books ever.
• I also do half stars, usually for books that fall just short of the next star. For example, I often give 3-1/2 stars to books that I think are a bit above average; I enjoyed them but would not recommend bumping other books of your pile to get to this one. Does that make sense?           

I have noticed that I often change my rating as time passes. For example, I may initially give a book a 3, but after discussing it at bookclub, or writing the actual review, I realize that there was more substance to it, more to think about,  than I initially gave it credit for.  And after time passes and I think back to it, it is a more memorable book than I realized. I may raise it a half star or more.

One thing this discussion has made me realize is that I need to think about my ratings system and really spell it out, both for you, the reader of my blog, and for me. I need to be a bit more consistent when I rate a book so that when I give a rating it always means the same thing. And I need to make that easy to refer to, as in, I need to have it visible on this blog.

So look for it. I want to spend a little time thinking about it and defining my terms, but I hope soon to revisit this, and to have a well defined rating system in place soon!

What do you think? What is your system for rating books?