Tang-les #2
A weekly a portmanteau of TANGents and rambLES
Ramble #1: My effort to lower my screen time this month has turned into what feels like an aggressive use of my local library and 5 books done in the first 9 days (and 2 prompts checked off for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge!!). Here are a handful of hot takes:
Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World – Lauren Fleshman
- Lindsay rating = 3 ½ stars
- Ten-word reaction: thoughtful, sad, infuriating – but I wanted more of her voice
- PSRC Prompt: #7 – a book about women’s sports and/or by a woman athlete
The Dark Angel (Ruth Galloway #10) – Elly Griffiths
- Lindsay rating = 3 ½ stars
- Ten-word reaction: twisty and dense but not enough exotic; loved Ruth’s growth
The Stone Circle (Ruth Galloway #11) – Elly Griffiths
- Lindsay rating = 4 stars
- Ten-word reaction: Nelson being all in his head is all I need
Meet me at the Lake – Carley Fortune
- Lindsay rating = 3 stars
- Ten-word reaction: I knew where it ended, but I so liked them
- PSRC Prompt: #43 – a second chance romance
Blue Lightning (Shetland Island #4) – Ann Cleeves
- Lindsay rating = 4 stars
- Ten-word reaction: I didn’t give it enough credit; the end shook me
Tangent: I sometimes wonder what the librarians think when I’m picking up holds multiple times a week. My challenge is, if I try to grab them all at once, I forget and then I lose them.
Tangent: I am quickly burning my way through what is left of the Ruth Galloway series and am planning to hold myself to 1 a month until I finish it up.
Ramble #2: I have my own rating system I use for my reading:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
this book changed my life
this book grabbed my heart / brain / spirit
I truly couldn’t put this book down
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
this book was super compelling
this book / character made me feel seen
I just really loved reading it
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I liked this book, but…
I wanted to know how it ended
It was a book I read
⭐️⭐️
this book I read because I read this series, but
It was just so meh / devoid of character
I should have put it down and moved on
⭐️
did not finish
hate-read
just awful
This has really helped me think about what I’m reading (vs. plowing through) along with my 10-word reactions (which I did not do last year but went back to for 2024).
Tangent: Having seen how spicy Goodreads ratings can be, I’ve stopped noting ratings there and have been using Storygraph for ratings and I am overly excited about how I can do ½ ratings on SG! It has helped with my ridiculous amount of 4-star reads where so many were really 3.5, haha!
Do you rate your reading or do reviews? Any tang-les so far this week?
That's an impressive start to the reading year! I like your rating system.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that the librarians see it all and that someone coming in multiple times a week doesn't even register a blip on their "odd" scale.
Thanks! I needed some personal guidance and it's nice to have some structure around how I think and write about books (even though I know I'll do more than 10 words when something moves me to) (either in a good way or the other haha!)...
DeleteI've heard so many good things about Storygraph! And I love your rating system. Smart!!
ReplyDeleteI like how clean it is vs. Goodreads (but I'm still using both) (and a spreadsheet) ;)
DeleteI like your rating system. I am often at odds with goodreads ratings - always they are opposite to how I feel, for better or for worse. Someone else has mentioned Storygraph as well, so I should look into it!
ReplyDeleteI try not to look at ratings before I read books for that very reason!
DeleteYeah, I pick up holds when they come in and sometimes that means I'm going to the library three or four times a week. They don't even blink anymore. And some of them even recommend books to me these days based on what I'm picking up. Although, to be honest, my reading choices are quite broad because I'm doing the PSRC, too, so I don't even know how they pick on patterns!
ReplyDeletePeople do like that Storygraph allows half stars. It seems like an interesting competitor for Goodreads.
I have been thinking the same about the PSRC... My trends that I've had for the last few years in terms of genre and such are going to be out the window!
DeleteLove your ratings and your ten-word reviews! That's a fun way to capture your reaction to a book. I haven't been to the library yet in 2024, but I have checked out half a dozen audiobooks already.
ReplyDeleteI still use Goodreads (the thought of trying something new wearies me) and my quibble with the app right now is that it is counting rereads as TWO READS. So my reading challenge for the year says I have read 4 books when I have only read two. Grrr.
Oh, that would bother me intensely! Rereads are such a part of my life and I want them to count the right way. Hoping Goodreads fixes that bug (if they acknowledge it's a bug) (and before I start my yearly rereads, haha)!
DeleteLove your rating system!! I've been on a DNF streak lately... The books were just bad... So I gave up. I need/want to find a book that will make me inhale it :)
ReplyDeleteI totally get that, Daria! I want a book I can't put down. I am trying to navigate this reading challenge I'm doing where I know I won't fall deeply in love with every book, but I don't want to hate read something just to check off a prompt.
DeleteI signed up for Goodreads but NEVER update it. I think it's still showing a book from 1-2 years ago. I don't really track my books - no challenges, no formal TBR, no goals - so it just isn't on my radar!
ReplyDeleteI love that, thought! You read for the love of reading!
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