Blog Posts I Loved in December

By Birdie

This is one of my favorite memes.  I love that it’s only once a month, and I love that it’s all about showing love for our blogging friends.

Thanks so much, Kristin at Kristin Kraves Books, for creating it!

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Has Bookstagram Become Superficial?

This was such a unique and bold opinion piece about Bookstagram, and whether or not it’s become too caught up in the ‘perfect picture’.  I thought Camilla did a wonderful job discussing the Bookstagram world without alienating.  It was particularly interesting because I’ve hesitated to throw myself into the Bookstagram world just for this reason.  I try my best to take nice pictures, but it’s with my phone and regular ole house lighting.  The Bookstagram world can feel intimidating.

An Open Letter to Netgalley and Goodreads

It’s crazy how much goes on in the publishing/blogging world that we’re not even aware of.  I understand how rights world, but I guess I never thought about how people outside the US don’t have the access to ARC’s that I do.  I try to live an aware life, so I feel like this makes me a bit of a dunce.  That’s why I really loved this article on The Book Corps.  I frequently get denied -got one today- but at least I have the option to try.

Are We Making The Error of Looking for the “Perfect” Diverse Book?

This discussion piece!  It felt like someone was speaking out about something I’ve been secretly feeling for a long time!  Is there even such a thing as the ‘Perfect’ diverse book?  Isn’t it more likely to believe that the characters experiences would be individualistic?  I’m sure there are areas that are similar, but not everything, and I think that we (who love diverse reads) want something that’s everything.  It can’t exist.  So, that’s why I loved that Mikaela at The Well-Thumbed Reader covered this topic.

Worst Fantasy Novel Plan- Ever!

Okay, this blog post was just funny.  It hit all the Fantasy tropes we all poke fun at, and in a hilarious way.  I did think, as I was reading it, about how it reminded me of The Lightning Struck Heart but since that’s supposed to be a comedy (slap-sticky) it was probably what TJ Klune was shooting for.  It was very well done by The Orangutan Librarian.

I can’t wait to see what posts others chose to highlight this month!

Thanks again for creating a really fun monthly meme, Kristin!


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About Birdie

Don’t look for her in any bar, club, crazy raging party, or anywhere there may be a large gathering of strangers. She’s more likely to be found tucked into the corner of the couch watching one of her favorite shows, or preferably under a comforter with her current novel.

27 Responses

  7. theorangutanlibrarian

    Wonderful post!! And thank you so much for the lovely shoutout- so glad you liked that post!! I’m really looking forward to checking out the Open Letter to Netgalley and the post on diversity because I agree with the premise.

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  12. Krysta

    I have to admit I didn’t agree with many of the posts you mentioned. 😉 I don’t agree Bookstagram is superficial precisely because it’s a photography platform, not a review platform. I think that certainly people might become too caught up in trying to buy more books or more popular books just to take photos (we can’t all have rainbows of books unless we all buy tons of books!), but I don’t see why people should be expected to discuss books on a photography site.

    And I was saddened to see the kerfuffle over GR and Netgalley because it was ill-informed. GR and Netgalley weren’t doing comparable things. GR is run by Amazon, so probably trying to get money–I don’t know what their business plan is. :b But Netgalley didn’t do anything but take away a request option from countries where the books can’t legally be distributed because of distribution rights. The only difference was that, in the past, bloggers could press a button requesting a book they knew they weren’t eligible for (and I saw many bloggers admit to this) and the publishers would have to go through and waste time eliminating those entries. Now the publishers can simply make the book available specifically to countries where they are legally allowed to send ARCs. Nothing changed there (except that now you can’t futilely press a button), but people got into an uproar.

    Then Nosegraze pointed out on Twitter that nothing had changed and everyone stopped talking about the situation without publicizing the truth to their blogging audiences. Honestly, it was disheartening to see outrage spread without any evidence to support it and then to see the evidence pointed out and everyone ignore it to save face. My opinion on this has certainly been unpopular–I’ve gotten more than one angry comment when I suggested Netgalley was just helping publishers follow the law–but there it is.

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    1. Birdie

      I don’t actually disagree with you. When I read the article about NetGalley and Goodreads giveaways I definitely understood the the distribution rights, and that they were just following the law and making it easier on the publishers. I was more sharing the article because I never really put much thought into how countries out there didn’t have access to read all the books that I do in the US. And I was sharing it because I can agree that, for them, it sucks. No matter what legal reason there is.

      As far as the Instagram thing, I don’t think it needs to be a review site for books. That wasn’t why I shared the article. It’s a image sight. I thought it was an interesting perspective, and as someone who doesn’t have the lighting and backdrops and fancy camera, sometimes bookstagram can be intimidating.

      Thank you so much for commenting! I love when people comment back with a polite disagreement. Discussing and friendly debating is so much fun, so I really do appreciate it. 🙂

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      1. Krysta

        Oh I didn’t think you agreed with every point in each post! I was just adding my opinion to the discussion! I did notice one of the final comments on the NG article mentioned NG set up different sites for different countries. That seems like useful info for bloggers to access U.S. books, though I haven’t seen anyone else mention it. But, yeah, it is always difficult consuming media from a different country. There are foreign books I couldn’t get and it was indeed sad for me.

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