Hello Everyone! I don’t think I’ve posted this picture my cats, Myra (left), Puck (top), and Hero (right) – and I needed a picture for this post.
I just wanted to drop a quick note and say that I’m going to try to make Wednesdays about discussion posts in the spirit of Feed Your Addiction and It Starts at Midnight’s Book Blog Discussion Challenge. I can’t promise to post every week (I just had a baby, after all), nor can I promise that all my discussions will be about books or book blogging (the world is a many-splendored thing, after all). I will try to stay away from politics, other than side issues like, perhaps fracking. (Good Frack! I just pulled fracking out of nowhere!)
I have heard that well-written discussion posts garner a heck of a lot more hits than book reviews. Personally, I’m a book review sort of person, but I also have a lot of thoughts running through my head. Maybe I should share them with you. So to all those book bloggers out there – Do you find discussion posts get more hits than reviews? What kinds of discussion posts would you like to see on my blog? How do you come up with ideas?
Thanks for your thoughts!
Hibernator's Library 
I’ve heard the same and am thinking about doing more discussion posts. What’s held me back is that I find a thoughtful discussion post takes much longer to write. Obviously you don’t have to read a book first, but since I’d be reading anyway I don’t include that in my calculation!
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Yes, exactly! I’d be doing the reading anyway – and my book reviews tend to be more like mini-reviews. I’ll watch your blog for discussion posts if you decide to post them – I need to figure out what kinds of things people post. 🙂
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I did the Book Blog Discussion and have noticed the Discussions get far more traffic than my reviews. But one caveat, this year I wasn’t terribly consistent with either.
I’ll be doing discussion posts again – every other week on Monday’s. To get inspiration I looked at some of the past discussions people posted on Feed Your Addiction and Googled Blog Discussion Post Topics.
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I probably won’t find that much to say about books, but I’ll try. I’m not promising to be regular about my posts, but I’ll try. Thanks for your input. It’s much appreciated.
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I think it kind of depends what kind of book it is and how it is presented in the review. However, I do think book discussions are a bit better since it allows for more viewer interactions.
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Yeah, my book reviews tend to be fairly short and to-the-point. I think people who put more thought into them get more traffic than I do. 🙂
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I like both. For older books, I think both work well, as the books usually contain universal issues that the writer was trying to communicate. With modern books GENERALLY I don’t find them as deep so often reviews are simply retellings of the story or elaborations of the reader’s personal experience. In that case, I prefer reading discussions, however I think the discussion might only be interesting to people if it’s something they relate to. Does that make sense? In any case, I think both have their place in different manners and under different circumstances.
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I tend to write much more in-depth reviews for classics, because, as you say, they are deeper in content. Though I am more likely to read a review than a discussion post at the moment. However, I’ll have to read some more discussion posts if I’m going to work on discussion posts.
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Honestly I think it depends. I sometimes read reviews because I’m interested in reading the book myself and want to see if it’s worth my time (or if I’m better off not reading it at all). I think a lot of people like discussions because then you’re not afraid of spoilers and they spark more conversation than the usual lines of, ‘Oh, that looks interesting. Let me put it on my TBR” or “That’s a bummer. I hope your next read is better.” I have trouble finding discussion posts to write though, but I’ve found it easier over the years. Usually, when I write one post or blog hop, a post idea come up and sometimes I’ll write it down, sometimes I write them immediately because I’m already at the computer. Sometimes I get them from conversations with fellow book bloggers, but I always have a way to write them down unless I’m at work and can’t pull out anything.
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Yes, I noticed that I got a lot more comments on this post than I do on most of my reviews. Discussion posts present more opportunity for conversations, as you say. 🙂
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I like putting up discussion posts. Lately I have been running short of ideas however. I sometimes try to turn my postings about books into semi – discussions posts.
I really look forward to reading what you have to say in your posts.
Love cats. Your cats are cool.
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Thanks Brian! I love reading your posts because they are so in-depth. Not many people think so much about their book reviews.
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I haven’t posted any Discussions, I usually don’t have much to say and I would have no idea what to discuss! Also, I think it would take too much of my time to write something, I tend to over think things. I’m looking forward to your upcoming posts.
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Thanks! I hope you enjoy them – assuming I can find something to write about, lol.
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