This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you follow a lot of blogs but rarely read them or do you follow a few you read regularly?

Kind of…both?  I’ve mentioned on other occasions, especially while discussing how I plan my reading, that I like lists and I tend to be ridiculously organized.  It applies to my blog reading too.  I use NetVibes to subscribe to lots of blogs, and I have those subscriptions grouped into Favorite Blogs, Secondary Blogs, Tertiary Blogs (because I like the word!) and Blogs From People I Know (off the internet, I mean)  The Favorite Blogs are a relatively small number and I check them pretty carefully; ditto the People I Know Blogs.  The rest are bigger groups that I tend to skim quickly.

My particular blog-following quirk is that I never manage to make time daily to read blogs.  Usually I spend one chunk of time once a week to catch up on everything–so if you’ve ever wondered why I comment on multiple posts on your blog in one day, that’s why! 🙂

I’m pretty much terrible at checking-in with the year-long reading challenges I join (more on those next Friday, by the way!) but I do make an effort to keep up with the posts for Carl’s seasonal reading experiences.

If I ever write a best-selling novel and don’t have to work any more, I expect I’ll read more blogs more frequently…but until then, this system seems to work.  What works for you?  How do you manage your blog reading?

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Are your reviews more of a rehash of the story or do you comment on writing style, characters, and reflection?

Well, I certainly aim to do more than just retell the story!  I generally do include a paragraph or (for very complicated plots!) two of storyline, so readers will have some context when I start talking about characters or other aspects of the book.  However, I feel like plot summaries are what the back of the book, or the Amazon description, are for.  In a sense, that’s the objective part–what happens in the book.

I feel like my job as a reviewer is to provide the subjective part.  Duly noting after our last blog hop discussion that this is just my opinion, my goal is to let you know how well the story was carried out.  Was the interesting premise actually interesting, or did it end up dragging?  Was the awesome-sounding heroine as cool as I hoped?  Did the romance hinted at in the plot summary turn out to be believable, or ridiculous?  Was the book funny, sad, or moving–sometimes the contents of a plot summary will hint at those things, but did it turn out that way?

Knowing what happens in a book does help me decide whether to read it or not–but I’ve read plenty of books that were terrible despite great premises.  Only retelling the plot means only looking at one part of a book, and only one aspect that can make it worth reading–or not.

And now I’m curious what other people are expecting from reviews!  When you read book reviews (not just mine!), are you mainly looking for a description of the story, or do you also want to know the reviewer’s subjective opinions? 🙂

Don’t forget, you can win a signed copy of my fairy tale retelling, The Wanderers! Just put #WanderersGiveAway in your comment to enter.

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question is a very BIG one: To you, what qualifies a book as good or bad? Are some books objectively better than others, or is it purely a matter of opinion?

I don’t think this one can really be treated as an either/or question.  There are some qualities of a book that, generally speaking, will make a book good or bad–but there will be exceptions to every rule, and there will be dissenting opinions on every book.

Trying to be as broad as possible, I would say that, for me, a good book requires characters who are complex and believable according to human nature; an avoidance of overt stereotypes, including (perhaps especially) gender stereotypes (although archetypes are completely acceptable); a plot that is both interesting and plausible; and writing that demonstrates a command of language and grammar and (at least a smidge) of the beauty of words.

So it follows that a bad book would have flat or implausible characters who may be stereotypes, a dull or impossible plot, and poor command of words.

But I already have a problem right there, because Edgar Rice Burroughs is one of my favorite authors, and he has completely flat, stereotyped characters more often than not (but he has thrilling plots and landscapes, and a beautiful way with words).  Like I said–exceptions to the rule.

It all gets much more wobbly though, because one person’s complex character will read flat to another; one reader will find a plot gripping while another finds it dull, while a third will say it’s full of implausibilities anyway; and gorgeous prose to one person will seem incredibly dense to another.  And this doesn’t even address the subject of whether a book has something profound to say, and whether it can say it alongside good plot and characters, or at the expense of those, and whether that choice matters (I say yes, many would say no).

Whew, it makes me wonder how I dare state public opinions on any books!  I think implicit in writing a book review is the understanding shared by reviewer and reader that this is my opinion, one I hope would be shared by the majority of the people who self-identify as interested in the same kind of stories I like.

And there, I think, I stop!  Would you like to take on this question? 🙂