{"id":16966,"date":"2024-05-19T20:39:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T02:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/?p=16966"},"modified":"2024-05-19T20:39:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T02:39:15","slug":"i-used-to-take-pride-in-finishing-every-book-i-started-openbook-blog-hop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/?p=16966","title":{"rendered":"I Used To Take Pride In Finishing Every Book I Started. #OpenBook Blog Hop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Open-Book-Blog-Hop-Banner-pros-and-cons.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12605 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Open-Book-Blog-Hop-Banner-pros-and-cons.png?resize=920%2C460&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"920\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Open-Book-Blog-Hop-Banner-pros-and-cons.png?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Open-Book-Blog-Hop-Banner-pros-and-cons.png?resize=300%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Open-Book-Blog-Hop-Banner-pros-and-cons.png?resize=768%2C384&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Open-Book-Blog-Hop-Banner-pros-and-cons.png?resize=700%2C350&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Open-Book-Blog-Hop-Banner-pros-and-cons.png?resize=150%2C75&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>May 20, 2024<\/p>\n<h3>What determines whether or not you finish a book you&#8217;re reading? Do you review books you didn&#8217;t finish?<\/h3>\n<h4>I used to take pride in finishing every book I started.<\/h4>\n<p>That doesn&#8217;t happen anymore. If an author spends the first three chapters of a book describing a world, with paragraph after paragraph of nothing but description of scenery, chances are I won&#8217;t wade all the way through. If there are major grammatical and spelling errors, it pushes my buttons. Then there&#8217;s terrible storytelling. Many of us have experienced that. I used to ignore everything and skim, not read, all the way to the last page. (No, I won&#8217;t be naming names.)<\/p>\n<p>But somewhere along the way, I decided I don&#8217;t have time for that. There are so many good books waiting to be to read, why waste my time on bad ones?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve made exceptions for authors I&#8217;ve enjoyed in the past, but the current book doesn&#8217;t feed my soul or mind, hoping that it will get better. Or deciding I&#8217;ve outgrown an author. This usually happens in a series, when I don&#8217;t see any real growth in the characters, and I stop following the story.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3698\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?resize=300%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?resize=525%2C350&amp;ssl=1 525w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?resize=150%2C100&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?w=1840&amp;ssl=1 1840w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Do I write them reviews?<\/h4>\n<p>Bad books? In short, no.<\/p>\n<p>I refuse to review books that deserve a one or two star rating. (If I haven&#8217;t finished reading them, I won&#8217;t review them!) Chances of me writing a three star review are slim. Heck, sometimes I feel bad giving a deserved four stars. I want to encourage other authors, especially indies or those with small presses. Shoot, I worry about pointing out obvious typos in a non-critique setting. (Yes, I hope someone will let me know if I&#8217;ve made a typo that has been missed by my editor.)<\/p>\n<p>By the way, I struggle with writing reviews almost as much as I struggle with book blurbs. Yes, I know all I have to say is that I loved the book, but I can&#8217;t do it! I have to write more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If you follow this blog, you know the drill. This is where I tell you to go check the other authors on this hop by following the links below.<\/p>\n<p>And, as always, please stay safe until the next time!<\/p>\n<p><!-- start InLinkz code -->\r\n<div class=\"inlinkz-widget\" data-uuid=\"2f8d810492ea44fea8a435641b1aa526\" style=\"width:100%;margin:30px 0;background-color:#eceff1;border-radius:7px;text-align:center;font-size:16px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif\">\r\n<div style=\"padding:8px;\"><p style=\"margin-bottom:15px;\">You are invited to the <strong>Inlinkz<\/strong> link party!<\/p>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/fresh.inlinkz.com\/p\/2f8d810492ea44fea8a435641b1aa526\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" style=\"padding:5px 20px;background:#209cee;text-decoration:none;color:#efefef;border-radius:4px;\">Click here to enter<\/a><\/div><\/div>\r\n<span style=\"display: none;\"><script async=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/fresh.inlinkz.com\/js\/widget\/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef\"><\/script><\/span>\r\n<!-- end InLinkz code --><\/p>\n<p>What determines whether or not you finish a book you&#8217;re reading? Do you review books you didn&#8217;t finish?<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I used to take pride in finishing every book I started. <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/?p=16966\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[5,258,48],"class_list":["post-16966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-book","tag-openbook","tag-reviews","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-books-436498_1920.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paJdTo-4pE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16966"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17004,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16966\/revisions\/17004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}