At Kidlitcon 2017, in Hershey PA Nov. 3 and 4, I'll be running a session on using this adaptation of the Myers Briggs personality test to springboard a discussion on participants' blogging strengths and weakness, and how to use it as a starting point to think about what makes you happy as a blogger and a book reviewer, and things you might like to change. I don't actually Believe that it is all true, necessarily, but I find MB an interesting take on preferences for ways of being in the world that has lots of applicability to the ways in which we review books.
Please take the personality test below (I might tweek it a bit in the next two weeks) and let me know your blog's personality type in the comments. I'm still working on the descriptions of each book blog personality, and I'll be putting those up probably next weekend.
In the interests of simplicity, the test is divided into four sections, labeled according to the MB categories. When you score it, you will be one of the two types for each section, and you'll end up with four letters, one from each section.
Note: “You” conflates your blog and yourself; it's not the actual you. When appropriate, you (the blogger) should answer the questions as if it was your blog answering them.
Extrovert vs Introvert (E or I)
1. do you
(a) comment on blogs that are new to you, and try to reply
to most, if not all, comments you get on your blog?(b) wait for other bloggers to find you; when someone comments on your blog, mostly you just wish for blogging platforms to come with “like” buttons.
2. do you
(a) seek out new blogs to read; it’s always good to make new
blog friends!(b) feel comfortable staying in touch with the few blogs familiar to you that you’ve been following from the very beginning; those are enough to make you feel connected.
3. Would you rather
(a) participate in all manner of blog social activities
(hops, readathons, challenges, blog tours, using other types of social media to
promote your blog posts, etc.)(b) stay quietly in your own corner of the blogosphere
4. In your blogging
circle, are you
(a) pretty well caught up on blog reading and blogger news(b) not caught up either of the above
5. Do you
(a) actively seek out connections to publishers and authors
to expand your social network?(b) feel pleased when such a connection comes your way, and try hard to remember to foster it.
If you have more "a"s than "b"s, your blog is an extrovert, if not, it's an introvert
Intuition vs Sensation (if you are new to MB personalities, read the description here, after you take the test!)
1. In writing a
book review are you more likely to
(a) do it in what seems to you “the usual” way (either your
own usual way or an external idea of normative book blogging format)
(b) do it your own way, and not always the same “own way”
2. Writers of
blogs should(b) do it your own way, and not always the same “own way”
(a) “say what they mean and mean what they say.” Clarity of
communication is important. No one has
the time to spend much effort trying to figure out what you are getting at and
then maybe get it wrong.
(b) enjoy the pleasure of communicating more elliptically through analogy and metaphor, not coming to the table with interpretations and critiques already set in stone but exploring your way to conclusions in the process of thinking about the book while writing about it.
3. Is it worse to(b) enjoy the pleasure of communicating more elliptically through analogy and metaphor, not coming to the table with interpretations and critiques already set in stone but exploring your way to conclusions in the process of thinking about the book while writing about it.
(a) skip from topic to topic from post to post without any
concern for coherence or continuity of the ensemble, so that people ask “what
is even the point of the blog? Is it books or garden pests? If the former, childrens or adult? If the latter, slugs or starlings?”
(b) be in a rut, so that people ask “didn’t I read this same post here last week?”
(b) be in a rut, so that people ask “didn’t I read this same post here last week?”
4. Are you more
likely to give a positive review to a book that is
(a) sensible—realistic people and scenarios, played out in a
believable way?
(b) imaginative—requires some suspension of disbelief
(b) imaginative—requires some suspension of disbelief
Nb: This is not a
question about taste in genres. Obviously,
fantasy books require more suspension of disbelief. But there are plenty of fantasy books that
make sense, and others that don’t feel as much need for sense. The point of the question is – how quickly or
how often do you reach a point of saying “I can no longer suspend my disbelief,
this is not a book for me.”
5. Are you more interested
in(a) reading and reviewing the many (all too many) very fine and excellent books that you have on hand, all of which you want to read
(b) getting all the beautiful books because they exist and are beautiful and you need them
6. In picking your next read, do you
a. think calmly about
past experiences with the author, publisher and genre, and how much you really
think along the same lines as that one reviewer who gushed about it.b. instantly know in your heart based on chance book review reading/word of mouth that you and book x are destined for each other.
7. Would you rather
a. discuss how a book can be useful
b. discuss how a book can spark readers' imagiations
If you are mostly a, mark yourself as Sensory, if b, mark yourself as N (Intuition)
1. Are you more
drawn to praising the
(a) convincing, really “well written.”(b) touching (“this book gave me all the feels.”)
2. would you ever give a book you didn’t personally like a
more positive review than you really think it merits as a piece of writing
because of circumstances extraneous to the words on the page? (for instance, the author is in a desperate
situation and a positive review might lead to a few more book sales so the
children don’t go hungry, or maybe you think a particular publisher or author
deserves support for publishing/writing this particular book)
(a) no
(b) yes
3. When making a critical statement, are you(a) firm; no one would miss the point of the statement (ie, this book is [x not good thing]. I did not like this book. This book is bad. Etc.)
(b) so gentle that when you write a review that you think clearly lays out why you didn’t like a book, people refer to it as a positive review. (ie, “although there are doubtless many readers who will appreciate the extraordinarily detailed delicacy of the world building, I was not one of them of them.” ]
Select b if people have left comments saying “so glad you
liked this one!” when in fact you didn’t.
4. Which affects
your reviewing choices (both what books to review and what to say about them)
more?(a) consistency of thought—holding all books to a certain standard
(b) harmonious human relationships – not wanting to hurt feelings (this doesn’t have to mean praising what you don’t like. It could just mean bumping up a book you have a personal connection with in your review queue, and putting more effort into writing about it. Or not mentioning a picky small thing that doesn’t make or break the book (like an author saying “plush vegetation” instead of “lush vegetation.” Or not reviewing a particular book at all.)
5. When reviewing a
book, are you more comfortable making
(a) critical statements based on the internal logic of the
book and how well it is doing what it set out to do(b) value judgements that might not make sense to anyone but yourself, or that might be the result of ideologies that you are bringing to the book
6. In making
decisions about what to read and how positive to be about it, do you feel more
comfortable
(a) relying on standards that you apply more or less consistently(b) spilling the feelings of the moment onto the screen
If you are more a, give yourself a T, if b, then give yourself an F.
Judging vs Perceiving (again, if you don't know what this means, refer to the website after answering...)
1. Do you prefer toJudging vs Perceiving (again, if you don't know what this means, refer to the website after answering...)
(a) schedule posts in advance, and stick to those deadlines
(b) put posts up whenever
2. which do you enjoy more?(a) the joyous sense of completion and accomplishment you get from hitting post
(b) that period after reading a book when you daydream about what you’ll say about it, and you haven’t yet embarrassed yourself with hideous typos.
3. Do you have blog
posts
(a) Scheduled days, weeks, or even months in advance(b) in mind as possibilities for some vague future time that may or may not ever happen and you probably will forget you meant to do it.
4. Do you pick the
books to review
(a) with careful thought and some degree of planning (either
for coherence or for variety of genre or some such)(b) randomly (even if you thought you might have some string of reviews in the works that had thematic coherence, it’s liable to go out the window)
5. Which makes you
happier:
(a) to have finished reading and reviewing a book(b) looking at all the wonderful books to come
6. which ability do
you value more?
(a) being organized and methodical, so that the posting
doesn’t become a vexing, possibly emotionally negative, chore(b) being able to sit down and let a review pour out whenever you are so moved.
If more a, give yourself a J, if b, give yourself a P. Tiebreaker--if you've ever said "I'm all caught up" you are J all the way...
You should now have 4 letters (which you should please leave in the comments,or send me privately if you are self-conscious?), and you can read about your blog personality type on line, or wait a week or so for me to write book blog personality descriptions....
thanks for playing!
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