"Tiger and I thought it might be time to start a meme to discuss some of the frustrations that are unique to book bloggers. What happens when the hobby you love becomes more of a chore?This meme will appear on the first and third Mondays of the month. Tiger or Karen will give us a question to respond to and a linky for sharing our responses and developing community.
This week's question is: Memes. Love em or hate em? How many do you participate in? Which kinds do you like best? Do you feel like there are too many?
I love memes. They give me a concrete reason to post something every day. I like participating so that I can find out about interesting books. I also like the sense of community. I have found bunches of blogs that I now follow through my participation in the memes I do. It is an unusual week when I don't add a new blog to my Google Reader.
I participate in a number of memes a week routinely and will occasionally participate in others. Other than this one, these are the ones I do routinely:
On Monday, It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. She is a fellow Minnesota blogger. This meme gives me a chance to report on what I have read and list (mainly for myself) what I plan to read the next week. I do this one at my Inside of a Dog blog.
On Tuesday, Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. I participate in this one on both of my blogs. I post a teaser from the book I will be reviewing on Thursday which is sort of like two posts for the price of one.
On Friday, Book Beginnings is hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader and Friday 56 hosted by fredamans at Freda's Voice. They essentially do the same thing for the book I review on Saturday as my Teaser Tuesday post. Again this is something that I do on both blogs.
On Sunday, I used to post weekly on In My Mailbox hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren on both blogs. Now I have switched to Stacking the Shelves which is hosted by Tynga of Tynga's Reviews. I like this one because I often get books months in advance of when I will be reading them. It gives me a chance to showcase a book a little before I get around to reviewing it.
I will occasionally do Waiting on Wednesday which is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Since this one is for a book that has not yet been published and, since I am trying to read some of the books already on my shelves, I don't do this every week. I usually do it when I already have something on pre-order.
The memes I chose to participate in all have to do with spotlighting books. I don't do memes that require me to disclose personal information or even information about what I like or don't like. Basically, I am really boring and can't imagine anyone caring if my favorite color is pink and my favorite food is hamburgers.
What I like about the memes I participate in is that, except for Stacking the Shelves, I can do them quite far ahead of time and still have content posting on my blog even when my life gets crazy busy. I will often do a bunch of posts on a Saturday morning or Sunday while I'm doing laundry.
What do you think about memes?
I don't really like memes at all. I think that they are a pattern that we need to break out of.
ReplyDeleteBut that's just me and I have no clue at I am doing...lol...
I respect the fact that lots of people love them...but they make me feel boxed in and uncreative.
I've found so many books and new authors through memes.
ReplyDeleteI think they're great as long as we're having fun with them and don't feel obligated to do them.
When I took a two month blog break I relied on memes a few days a week because as you said, you can do them in advance.
I like the idea of showcase memes as I too have loads of books that I won't get to for a while and I feel they need at least a little time in the spotlight! I don't really do any other memes other than Showcase Sunday though as then I'd never be able to fit all my reviews in! :) I find that my readers tend to way prefer reviews and cover reveals, anyway.
ReplyDeleteGreat answer! It's so cool seeing what everyone thinks. :)
teaser tuesday is so fun! i agree it's like a two for one for the book.
ReplyDeleteI like doing memes for the discussion they foster and as a way to spotlight some books. If I don't think I will be able to visit other blogs participating in a certain meme, I just don't do it that week.
ReplyDelete