In honor of having written 1001 blog posts, I did a little bit of searching here, to see which books I loved so much that I couldn't restrain myself when writing about them. Here are the results of my searches on various permutations of "I loved this book."
The Night Fairy, by Laura Amy Schlitz
The Museum of Mary Childe, by Cassandra Golds
What Darwin Saw: The Voyage that Changed the World, by Rosalyn Schanzer
Blackbringer by Laine Taylor
Glass Slipper, Golden Sandal, by Paul Fleishman
Ludo and the Star Horse, by Mary Stewart
The Spell Coats, by Diana Wynne Jones
The Ghosts, by Antonia Barber
Hannah's Winter, by Kierin Meehan
Shark and Lobster's Amazing Undersea Adventure, by Viviane Schwarz
Mail Harry to the Moon, by Robie H. Harris
The Happy Hockey Family, by Lane Smith
But now I am having a very hard time playing fair, because I know I reviewed lots of other books that I loved. And it was hard not to go back and find their reviews, and sneak that phrase into them....sigh. I shall have to be more mindful of this in future, and when I love a book, I will say so openly and proudly, casting aside the shackles of dispassionate reviewer mindset etc etc.
I myself like it when people I know and trust say they love a book, and will not even take the time to read their review too closely if the L word is in it--I'll just add it to my list. How do other people feel? And how many books have you told the world you loved?
I, too, try to hold back from gushing too much in my reviews, but I love it when other people do! As a reader, sometimes it is great to just be able to say, "so and so likes it so I'll add it to the pile," without reading the review. Also, I avoid even minor spoilers that way.
ReplyDeleteThere are always labels if you don't want to revise the review itself.
ReplyDeleteThen, too, people can just click the words "loved it" and get a list of all your "loved it" reviews.
As a reader, all your comments influence me.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Charlotte on 1001 posts. That's a great accomplishment.
Good point about spoilers, Lawral! That's an advantage that hadn't occured to me.
ReplyDeleteLabels might work--but then I might just have to have labels for "wonderful" "really really good" etc and it is a slippery slope to madness! Or stars (though I don't think I'll ever go the star route. I would spend too much time dithering).
Thanks Natalie! Viz influencing readers of the blog--I guess one good thing about saving "love" for ten books out of every thousand is that it doesn't get cheapened, and you can be sure I do in fact love it. Also, if I use the word "gosh" I am being especially sincere. "Oh my gosh" even more so.
Congrats on reaching your 1000+ posts!
ReplyDeleteI'm too afraid to search for "love" on my blog, because I suspect that I use it quite often.
Hooray for 1001 posts! I wish I were crazy in love with more books, though I do like a great many of them. As for love? I'm with you on The Night Fairy. I love Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series in general and The King of Attolia in particular. I guess we're talking about recent books--oh, When You Reach Me! And probably The Graveyard Book and Alabama Moon. Yum--good books!!
ReplyDeleteI often can't restrain myself from the word love in reviews when me and a book have clicked. I just make sure I write why I loved them so no one can say I didn't warning them (without giving away what happens).
ReplyDelete