Coming off a horrible reading/blogging slump, I discovered something: I have too many ARCs and they are part of the problem.
I love ARCs. I really do. Who wouldn't love free books, right? And I have discovered some amazing authors because of NetGalley and Edelweiss. I don't blog because of them, but man, they sure are a nice bonus.
So what's the problem? The problem is that I have no willpower and I have found myself requesting almost every ARC that looks even remotely interesting on NetGalley.
I don't think it's a coincidence that I have DNF'd several ARCs this year. As a matter of fact, the
only books I have DNFd have been ARCs and there have been several books that I keep reading, despite my desire to just delete it off my Kindle and be done with it.
Over the past month, I think I realized why I was in such a slump. I had so many ARCs for the month of October (I still do actually because I am majorly behind). The ARCs that I have read aren't necessarily bad, but they have been so boring. Meanwhile, I have all these new releases on my Kindle that I actually purchased and I REALLY want to read. But I can't very well not read these ARCs, now can I?
Over the past month, I have only visited NetGalley once. I didn't even realize I was taking a break from NetGalley, along with everything else, until I looked at my ARC spreadsheet and realized I hadn't requested a new one in a while. And it feels kind of awesome to not be adding five new ARCs for every two books that I read.
So I decided to keep my ARC-free streak going. I'm not saying that I will never go on NetGalley again or that I will never request ARCs.
No, no, no, no. But I am tired of getting ARCs that I am not excited about. If I get approval for an ARC and my response is "meh," then I probably never should have requested it to begin with. I know there is a chance I may lose some of my willpower, but for right now, I am going to try my very best to only request ARCs that I am genuinely excited about. And if I don't get any new ARCs for a while? Eh, I still have
plenty of reading material, believe me.
Now if only I could get a handle on that pesky habit of mine to buy way too many books . . .
Have you ever taken a break from requesting ARCs? Have you ever requested ones that you weren't even sure you wanted to read?
SAME. I'm in the same darn boat as you with requesting anything that sounds remotely interesting, but I keep putting most of them off. I'm trying to be selective, but I can be greedy sometimes. Part of it also I think because I'm nervous that if I don't read the latest titles no one will want to comment/visit the blog, which is ridiculous given how well some of my backlist title reviews do. I signed up for a library card, so I've been getting a lot of older books to read and I'm so excited. I think starting next year, I'm going to instate a only request X number of books a month policy for myself in the hopes that it will help.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you've been able to take a break from requesting though and I hope this 100% means you'll be DNFing less books!
I take breaks all the time! ARC's are great and all, but I also want to read new releases and books that I've been meaning to get to! Normally I'll set it up so I'm reading about 1-2 ARC's a month and 4-6 regular books (I normally read anywhere from 5-10 books a month) so I can pace myself. And I never let myself have a build up of over 10 ARC's. It just got so stressful when I didn't regulate it and that's when the reading slumps take over! Hopefully you'll pick up some more fascinating books soon!
ReplyDeleteLaura @BlueEyeBooks
*rasies hand* THIS HAS BEEN ME THIS YEAR!! I got to like the middle of the year and realised whenever I got a book package from a publisher I wanted to cry. And that's noooot a good reaction to books, right?!? but I was so overwhelmed!! I didn't request them, they just turned up, but I still felt the same guilt about NEEDING to read and review them all. *gulps* So I took myself off several (but not all) publisher lists and I've been focusing on reading library books and books I've bought...which are ones I specifically choose and have been talked about a lot by other bloggers. It's been soooo good and got my spark back for reading. HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING WHAT YOU WANT. 😂
ReplyDeleteI completely understand! I started getting into ARCs and then I realised that I have WAY too many books on my TBR already - why would I add to this already stress-inducing list? Also, I'm always worried that I won't like them, and then I've wasted all this time reading something bad, when I could have read something that I really wanted to read. Good luck with cutting back on book buying though - that's TOUGH!!
ReplyDeleteGAH yes. So, I had been doing pretty well with this. Because I had noticed that I was also getting approvals and being very apathetic. And I had been REALLY thinking before I pushed "request". And I am now SUPER caught up- actually wayyy ahead- with ARCs in the first time in forever. But then for whatever reason, the other day I saw a book that I had been kind of curious about on Netgalley, and Idk if it was an old habit or whatever, but BOOM, I clicked Request... only to then realize "wait, maybe I don't care about this book...", and then started reading and confirmed my fears. Like I legit thought it was a whole other genre basically. And as for buying fewer books... Idk, I am poor but it doesn't even stop me half the time so I have no advice bwhahah.
ReplyDeleteYES YES. I need to take a break from requesting so many ARCs, and actually, I have. I really only request the ones I am truly interested in, and I limit myself a lot. Also I saw Shannon ^^^ do this exact thing when I was over at her house. She pushed request for something that she vaguely remembered hearing about, when really it wasn't even a book she was interested in. GOOD JOB SHANNON :P Hahahah just kidding. But I want to aim to not do that, to always look up the synopsis to see whether I REALLY want to read it!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great discussion topic. I have been trying really hard not to request new ARCs either, I already have so many that I need to get through. :/
ReplyDeleteOh boy, can I ever relate. I go through genre phases, so I had to learn to not go crazy with requesting any particular genre because I will grow weary before I finish them. Now I request less, and have a goal to read one ARC, and then one book that is either on my backlist or something that looks interesting that I have received without request. Nothing is concrete though. I try to allow myself as much flexibility to keep reading fun.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck finding your groove. You will.
I pretty much only request books I'm really excited about reading any more for this very reason. There are just TOO many books to read. With BEA books, reading them all has become practically an impossibility and it can seem really daunting!
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction