What makes you leave a comment?

Image from birindersignh.blogspot.com

I have what should be a fairly easy question to answer for you all today, but one that I have been contemplating seriously over the last week or so.

What makes you leave a comment on someone else's blog?

I first started pondering this question when I noticed that a couple of my reviews had gone up and although they had attracted many viewers, not a single person had left a comment.

I had a look through some of my statistics and noticed that this is actually a bit of a trend. Take for example, my 'Most Popular Posts'widget in the sidebar. I have this set to display the top 5 most viewed posts in the last week. At the moment, one of the 5 posts is a  very old post from last year. Even though it has attracted the most views this week, none of those people have actually left a comment on the posts. Then another of the top 5 posts is a more recent one, but again no one has left a comment on despite the large number of visitors.

So what is it that makes us leave a comment?

I actually find it harder than I expected to identify the reason I leave a comment on some posts and not others. Most of the time, I leave a comment on reviews of books I have read before and can therefore contribute something from my own experience of it, or else I leave a comment on reviews of books that I want to read at some time in the near future.

A lot of the time, it depends on what I feel like I contribute with my comment. I am guilty to leaving those comments that say something along the lines of: "I would really love to read this because of all of the good reviews about, thanks for reminding me to give it a go". Although these comments are well meant, I do sometimes worry that they aren't very useful - they don't contribute anything to the discussion or review of the books that's for sure.

Image from The Reputation Manager

Most of the time, when I do leave a comment I want to contribute the discussion about the book. I want to comment on something the reviewer has said about the book - something that shows I have read the review and given some thought to what I have said.

I think this means that I probably comment more on reviews of books that I have read, rather than those books that I haven't. But this is very limiting. On some occasions, where someone has read a stunning review of a book that I have read, but the review is so thoroughly insightful, I don't leave a comment because I feel like I would only sound dimwitted in comparison with the reviewer.

These are some of the factors that influence how I comment on other people's blogs, but I wonder what it is that influences other people. No doubt these factors, plus many others infuence our decision. For example, things such as the length of the review, the quality of the review, the genre of the book, the content of the review, the images (or lack thereof) in the review, the length of the paragraphs and many many others.

I also wonder if there is something more to it. Something related to our modern day use of social media, which is let's face it, what blogging is a form of. Why we use social media to interact with people and how we use to interact are no doubt big influences on how we use blogs and therefore how and why we leave comments on other people's blogs. At the moment, I don't feel qualified enough to espouse an opinion on how our use of social media in general might effect these types of decisions - but I would love to hear other people's opinions on this issue.

I don't have the answer to this question, but I would very much be interested in what other people think. It is the sort of question that could answer many other questions. How do you attract follower/readers? How do you build an online community? How do you make your reviews interesting and appealing to others to read? How can you use social media to share your interests with others?

So what do you think? What is it about a review that makes you leave a comment and more broadly, why do you think people in general might comment on other blogs?

A changing blogging community and some self evaluation



Signficant Elements





Lately I have been pondering this blogging thing.

I started Page Turners in June 2009 with a simple desire to review every book that I read. That's all. Nothing noble. Nothing particularly intellectual either. I just wanted to be reminded of times back in high school when a book became so much more special and enjoyable because of the deeper understanding I gained of it through study.

Once I started, I then discovered the wonderful world of book blogging. I truly felt as though I was part of a community that valued the same things that I did, and valued my participation in it, just as I valued everyone else's contribution to the community. I explored the community by surfing the blogosphere, joining memes, starting a few memes of my own and slowly getting to know more and more people. I was familiar with a lot of people's blogs and a lot of people were familiar with mine.

That sense of community still exists out there and I am very grateful for it.

All the same, I can't help but notice the changes that have occurred over the last couple of years. Lately, people seem to have an increasingly directed approach to their blogging. People now seem to blog about particular genres or for a particular audience. There are classics blogs, YA blogs, crime blogs. These more targeted blogs have always existed, but 2 years ago there just didn't seem to be the same quantity that there is now.

Don't get me wrong – I think that this is a great thing. If I am looking for a good crime book to read, I can have a look at my favourite crime blog. If I am looking for a good science fiction book to read, I can have a look at my favourite science fiction blog.

In the face of this change, I have begun to consider more critically my own blogging experience.

Lately I have noticed things like my reviews are only getting 2 – 6 comments instead of 12 – 15 or sometimes more. My followers have remained steadily at around 264 for the last few months instead of growing gradually as they did in the past. I am not discovering many new blogs and there seems to be a decreasing amount of posts in my blogger dashboard Reading List.

These things aren't necessarily bad things except that I can't help but wonder how they reflect my participation in the book blogging community and what I want from that participation. 

Alexander Technique

My reading has no direction; unless reading what I am in the mood for can be considered a direction. My blogging equally has no particularly direction or target audience. I can't help but wonder much this is a factor in the stagnant followers or my decreasing volume of comments. The sense of community I once felt is slowly slipping away and I feel as though my inability to change in the face of a changing blogging community is to blame.

I admire blogs with direction and a purpose, who write for a target audience and build up a large community around their blog. I equally admire readers who are reading with a goal or focus and not just whatever comes to hand.

I no longer want my blogging just to be a record of what I have read. I want it to be something more than that. I want something more from my reading as well. I just can't identify what that something 'more' is.

A good starting place might be to get back into some solid memes and find some fabulous new and refreshing blogs to follow in the hopes that it will inspire my own development.

From there who knows? I am a directionless blogger and reader looking for some direction in a changing online community. This is where my journey has lead me and who knows where I will end up.

Have you ever been called a "novel-wimp" in a comment?

Today I received my first ever discourteous comment - in which someone called me a "novel-wimp".

I couldn't stop laughing when I first read it. Come on - novel-wimp! That is hilarious and I intend to use it at some appropriate point in the future (only about myself of course).

I feel a little bad for Josh (the commenter). When I read his comment my first reaction was to laugh, and my second was to wonder whether he is actually somehow related to the author and when he felt that his family member/friend was being unjustly criticised he jumped to her defence.

Having had time to reflect, I think that Josh just really loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, because it is this book that he left the following comment on:

This review's conclusion is silly. I don't agree at all. I don't read a lot but, I wanted this novel to be twice as long. In fact, I wanted it to be 6 feet cubed so I could open it up and climb into it. This is a book for people who actually enjoy reading. Don't be racing your way through this book for your book-club. The footnotes and word-geekery only made for a richer experience. Don't be impatient and don't be a novel-wimp or you will never be able to properly enjoy the best kinds of novels. I'll be re-reading it as soon as my memory has finally stopped harassing me with Clarke's imaginings.

I admit that I got a bit carried away in my response, but what can I say? Maybe his passion rubbed off on me? Here it is:

Wow Josh, don't hold back. My conclusion is silly, I'm impatient and a "novel-wimp", tell me what you really think! Although I have had people disagree with my opinion about a book, I have never had anyone be so forthright.

Sometimes, I have to admit, I have a look at someones blog and see that they have reviewed entirely paranormal fantasy books, and I wonder to myself about their taste (sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone), but I have never gone so far as to actually leave them a comment accusing them of being someone who doesn't "actually enjoy reading" or a "novel-wimp" or someone who "will never be able to properly enjoy the best kinds of novels".

Sometimes, I even disagree with a reviewers conclusion, but I have never left them a message telling them that their "conclusion is silly".

Do you know why? Because it's kind of rude. So, either you are rude OR you are extremely passionate about the book that all other considerations have become secondary to the defence of your most beloved novel. Given all the wonderful praise you have lavished on the book, I hope that it is safe to assume that it is the latter.

I really wanted to enjoy this book as much as you did, and I thoroughly expected too. Unfortunately I didn't. It sounds to me like the things that you loved about the book, are the things that didn't really do anything for me.

This doesn't mean that you enjoy reading more than me; it doesn't mean that my conclusion is silly or that I will never be able to properly enjoy the best kind of novels. It also doesn't mean those same things in relation to other people who didn't enjoy it as much as you did.

It simply means that we each had a different, but equally valid, reaction to the story.

I hate to be cliché and use a quote here, but I can't help it. No doubt it's the silliness in me coming out. In Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon wrote "…a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind…" Each of us is an individual, with unique life experiences, and with that comes different interpretations of, or reactions to, the same book.

Thanks for your comment, but perhaps next time you could express your own passion without being so judgmental?

I don't mean to embarrass Josh by posting his comment in an entirely separate post. I am being honest when I say that it is nice to see people feel so passionately about a book. Hopefully more people can be just as passionate about reading books, as opposed to watching reality tv and other such crap on television these days.

I just thought that you might all enjoy reading the comment as much as I did. "Novel-wimp" is a great phrase and rest if the comment is just so brazenly vitriolic that I couldn't help but share it with you.

So, to all of those novel wimps out there - what do you think? Do we lack an enjoyment of reading if we don't like the same book that someone else does? Are our conclusions silly if someone else doesn't agree with them?

More importantly, will we never be able to appreciate the best kind of novels if we don't enjoy Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell?

Over to you! 

PS. If anyone thinks that I have gone too far with this post, please let me know and I think about taking it down.

The results are in on labels in the sidebar!

Well, it seems that the label widget in my sidebar is here to stay!

15 lovely people participated in the poll are the results were as follows:

• 5 people often use the widget to navigate other blogs
• 8 people rarely use the widget to navigate other blogs
• 2 people never use the widget to navigate other blogs

Given that is a total 13 people who use it to navigate other blogs at sometime or another, it seems as though it is a useful widget to have in the sidebar.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion - overall I would say that most people agreed that the biggest use labels has was as a tool for organising and accessing their own posts.

The other most common theme in the discussion was that most people found the label widget useful when they discovered new blogs. They use it as a tool to determine what the blogger enjoys and commonly reads and whether or not they share the same literary tastes and interests.

I hope that this was useful to everyone, and it was certainly useful to. Another poll come your way soon.

Labels - use them or lose them?

Labels - use them or lose them?

It's that time of year again - the time of year where I think about what changes (if any) I will make to my blog. Already I have posted a poll about rating books, and you can see the discussion about this here and the results of the poll here.

Now I am wondering - does anyone use the label's widget to navigate around other people's blogs?

You know the one I mean. It's definitely a widget in blogger (although I am not sure about wordpress) and it often appears in people's sidebars.

It essentially takes all the labels you apply to your posts and creates a pretty list of them is different sized fonts according to how many posts have with that same label.

I label my posts and I have this widget in my side bar - but it occurred to me - I have almost never used this widget to navigate around other people's book blogs and I wonder how often people use it to navigate around my own.

So my main question is this - do you ever use the 'label' widget to navigate around other people's blogs?

If the answer is NO, then my second question is this - why do you have a 'label' widget in your own sidebar?

If you don't have a label widget in your sidebar, then this question isn't for you as I am assuming your answer would be that you don't display the widget because you don't use it on other people's blogs, although if your explanation is different please share it with everyone.

If the answer is NO, then my third question is this - why do we give our posts labels at all?

My answer to this would be that it helps me search for posts with more ease. For example, I want to write about a post about my top 5 Australian books read in 2010, all I need to to is click on the 'Australian' label in the edit posts tab in blogger, and I am given the list of all my Australian books to have a look through and pick the best 5. What do you think?

I am looking forward to your comments and the results of the poll.

Results of the review rating poll

The results are in!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll and the to everyone who participated in the great discussion that followed my original post about rating books within your review.

Most people said that they rated their books mainly because it helped that gain some overall idea of how they enjoyed the books that they had read in the last year.

The results of the poll were that:

• 9 people said that they always look at the rating given by the reviewer,
• 6 people said that they sometimes look at the rating given by the reviewer, and
• 3 people said that they never look at the rating given by the reviewer.

Whilst I am one of those people who is only interested in the review and never looks at other people's ratings, I will continue rating books I read on my 1 - 8 scale as I always have. It seems that it assist them majority of people and it definitely has its place in the book blogging world.

Hope that has helped other bloggers out there who were having the same thoughts.

A poll on 'review rating systems' - I need you!

From The Value Engineers website

I have been having some long and serious thought (well, some thought at least) about rating the books that I review.

As you may (or may not as the case may be) have noticed, I developed my own personal system of rating books out of a possible 8 stars. Rather unconventional but it worked for me. A lot of people seem to go for the more traditional route and rate their books out of 5.

What I have begun to wonder about lately, however, is how much attention people actually pay to these ratings as it were.

Do people really care whether someone rated a book a 3 / 5 rather than a 4 / 5 or are they just interested in reading the review and having some discussion.

What motivated my consideration was how much of our blogging is for us and how much for our readers?

When I started Page Turners (or Becky's Book Reviews as it was known initially... yes, I know you are astounded by my creativity) I started it as a reading diary. I then discovered the book blogging world and it became what it is today.

I undoubtedly write for an audience as well as myself - but what is a good balance?

My original goal was to write about the books that I read as a method of exploring the themes and issues and really thinking about what I had read. A rating system doesn't help me achieve this.

What I want to know is, does it achieve it anything for my readers? Are you really interested in what I rate a book, or do you stop reading at the end of the review?

So - now is your chance to have your chance. Please contribute to my poll by clicking on one of the three options I have provided.

I would also like to know what your view on rating systems is. Do you have one? Do you find it useful? Do you find other people's rating systems useful or not?

How do you review a series of books?

This year I have made a point of trying to read a few good series of books that I felt I needed to either read or re-visit.

These include The Tomorrow When the War Began series by John Marsden, The Earth's Children series by Jean M Auel, the Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur Conan Doyle and the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde.

As I have been thinking about how I felt about the books and my observations of them, it has seemed that often what I want to say about one equally applies for the others.

So, you will notice over the next week or so that I have written reviews that review the series itself rather than the individual titles. When I have felt that I need to say something specific about a particular book I have done that. Otherwise it tends more toward general discussion of the series, even if I haven't read all the books yet.

What do you do? Do you think review them all separately or together?

Page Turners 100th Book Review!

Page Turners has just posted its 100th review!

I know it isn't an anniversary as such, but it feels like a real milestone. My first review was in June 2009 and my most recent was published on the 2nd of November 2010, which I think is a fairly respectable amount of reviews.

My review skills and methods have definitely changed over time, but the enjoyment I get from thinking about the stories, the writing and the authors has never ceased.

Just for fun, I thought I would share a collection of some of my reviews with you. I know you probably won't read them all, but have a look at some if you get the chance. I am a little bit disappointed that of all my highlights, only one book is Australian (The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak which got 8 / 8 stars), but I hope that I can remedy that one day soon.

 My 100th Review

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck; winner of the Pulitzer Prize 1932

My First Review

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

  

Books that got 8 / 8 stars

So far, 10% (or 10 out of a 100, yes... i can do maths) of my reviews have received 8 / 8 on my personalised rating system which you can see in my side bar.

5 of those 10 books are Harry Potter novels. These are the other 5:

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (Australian)

The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox

I couldn't recommend one over any other, except to say that perhaps of all of those books, The Vintner's Luck has the most unique content, By Night in Chile had the most unique writing, We Need to Talk About Kevin had by far the greatest emotional impact upon me and The Book Thief was just fabulous. Jane Austen... what is there to say that we don't already know.

Yet again, thanks for the support and comments over the last 100 book reviews!

New poll, favourite genres and other reading updates

New Poll

Earlier today I saw a post on someone’s blog about their personal preference for three columned blog layouts. It got me thinking about what other people prefer. I am definitely someone who likes the two column layout; I like having a big posting area so that the posts aren’t all squished up the middle. But it is definitely possible to have a three column layout without that problem. So I thought I would set up a poll to see what other people think about this design issues. Feel free to vote in the poll.

The Book List Meme

Rebecca at Lost in Books is hosting a meme today, asking what your 5 favourite genres are. Here are my top 5:

1. Contemporary: I like reading modern books about modern issues. It feel somehow more relevant to my life.

2. Classics: I love the old language used in classics and I feel authors from long ago somehow seem to more accurately capture the essence of what it is like to be human (sounds a bit lame I know)

3. Literary: For me, it isn’t just the story that I love (although it’s a large component). I also love the actual reading process. To get some enjoyment from it though I need to be challenged. Anyone can read trashy romance and the like. I could read young adult fiction as a teenager. But now as an adult I need age appropriate material that challenges me. Not that there isn't a place for a bit of Harry Potter or Dan Brown. But generally I want to be reading something where the language itself is also part of the joy of the book. Literary fiction provides that to me.

4. Crime/Mystery: Having said the above, I can still be a sucker for a good mystery or thriller, like an Agatha Christie or a No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

5. Spanish: I know this isn’t a proper genre, but I love reading books in English that have been translated from Spanish. There is something about the way that the Spanish language translates into English that just really connects with me.

And those are my 5 favourite genres. Head over to her blog and join in!

I finished The Passage by Justin Cronin! 

Lastly, I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. I have finally finished The Passage and despite some mixed feelings when I reached the middle of the book, I really loved it. It was extremely tense and exciting. As someone who is more of a literary reader than a trashy paranormal reader, this was the perfect opportunity to get a nice mix of alternate reality with good writing. I hope to review this book next week, but I know that a lot of people are interested in this book so I thought that I would give a little initial summary of my feelings.

The results are in on sidebars

Thanks to everyone who participated in my most recent poll - all about the use of sidebars and how much attention we all pay to them. And the results are in.

31 people placed their votes and:

• 18 of them pay some attention to the sidebar on a blog, they skim the whole thing to see what's there,
• 7 people pay lots of attention to the side bar and find lots of interesting things there,
• 4 people come a close third, saying that they pay no attention whatsoever to the sidebar, and lastly,
• 2 people only pay a little attention to the sidebar, but only to the extent that they have a look at the widgets closest to the top.

I was surprised that the last option only got 2 votes, because that it probably where my habits are, although sometimes it depends on the day and how much time I have, then I might in the group with the 18 other people.

Thanks for sharing your habits! New poll coming soon.

Book rating trends

As you might have noticed, I have developed a rating system out of 8 stars. Larissa from ...... was kind enough to design the images for me and I display my rating system in the side bar.

I don't just rate books out of whole numbers, they get halves as well. I award them an additional 0.5 when my feeling about the book is actually a combination of two star ratings.

Anyway, you probably don't need me to explain this to you.

The reason I am going into this is because I finally got around to rating every single book review I have ever done (now a total of 60) with this system. Because I only started using the star rating system relatively recently, a lot of my reviews missed out. Not anymore.

And here is what I have noticed. I am a very big on rating people in the mid-range. 15 books have 6 / 8 stars, and 12 books have 5 stars.

Then 6 books have 6.5 / 8 stars and 7 books have 7 stars. Very dense in the mid - high range.

I award full stars very rarely - in fact only 2 books of the 60 have got 8 stars. Similarly, I seem to rarely read a terrible book, with only 2 of the 60 books receiving 2 stars. None have received 1 star.

This is probably most interesting to me because it is my reading and my book reviews, but it has made me wonder... maybe I am not being discerning enough? Is it normal for all these books to be receiving such similar rating or should they be more spread out than they are? I suppose in the end it doesn't matter. I am going to rate them what I think they deserve, but it is interesting to think about.

Sidebar widgets poll

Well, I am getting into a "poll-ish" kind of mood and I can't help myself but post a new one.

Thanks to everyone who voted in my last poll: Where would you prefer to get your second hand books from? Of the 30 votes:

• 22 were for local markets, 
• 5 were for independent online bookstores and 
• 3 were for ebay. 

I have to say I am very surprised that ebay came in so low.

And now.... drum roll please.... my new poll!!! (Just by way of explanation, I am very sick at the moment and have been lying in bed all day long, so small things are exciting me right now)

I want to know what everyone thinks of the sidebars in blogs? Does anyone pay much attention to their content? I know for me, I do have a look in the sidebar of different blog sites, but I probably don't look at everything. Those widgets down the bottom definitely suffer for me.

What about you? Do you pay much attention to their content? Feel free to vote in the new poll and air your opinions!

New book poll!!!!

I have just posted my first ever book poll! It is in the top right hand corner of Page Turners and is all about buying second hand books.

I would love it if you could leave a vote, I am very interested to see what people have to say.

How do you feel about memes?

There was a very interesting post I saw on Smitten With Books recently, entitled: How do you feel about memes?

It was a timely question because it was somthing that I have been thinking about lately. I recently cut out a lot of my special features, and have been thinking about narrowing it down a little burther by cutting out at least one the memes I currently participate in. Not because I dislike them, but because I am finding it very difficult with work at the moment to find the time to keep up with them all.

It's a good questions though - how many memes are too many memes.
If you are interested in this, I suggest that you read her post about it, and the comments that other people have left about the issue. It is interesting reading.