Increase Discussion Posts
For some bloggers, rereading may seem like a waste of time because they have already reviewed a book and do not wish to do so again. However, rereads are an opportunity to go beyond the book review. Consider what parts of the story captured your interest, troubled you, or confused you. Then write about those moments!
Discussion posts are actually a great way to continue to talk about the books we love because reviews are only so long. In focusing on main considerations such as the pacing of the novel or the growth of the protagonist, we may not have time to discuss other areas of interest–doing so would take the review off track or make it too lengthy for anyone to read! One way to get around this dilemma is take each area of interest and make it into a separate discussion post. This allows you to keep on trend with the expectation of having discussion posts on a book blog and gives you an easy source of inspiration from which to draw from when writing them.
Improve the Quality of Discussion Posts
Personally, I never catch everything going on in a book on the first read–and I expect hardly anyone else does, either. During the first read, I am often caught up on the plot and the characters, as well as in my emotions about both. I’m reading for pleasure, for entertainment, to find out what happened! When I am finished, I do, of course, have thoughts about what happened, but I need to go back for a closer look to solidify those thoughts.
Because rereading allows time to delve into the details of a book, it produces more interesting and more informed discussion posts. Rereading gives the ability to point to specific textual moments and to quote from the book, both of which provide evidence to make any argument made strong. It also ensures that we are not missing anything important. It is awkward to make an argument about a book that only takes into account, say, the final third of the book, and ignores everything leading up to that part–because we forgot! In short, the person who has reread a work typically has an advantage over someone who has not.
Post More without Reading More
Bloggers generally seem overworked and stressed about it. There is so much to do while blogging! A typical book blogger might read, review, write discussion posts, do some web design or formatting, take photos for the blog/Instagram, and keep up with social media accounts. Not to mention organizing any link-ups, round-ups, book tours, giveaways, etc. So how do you keep on generating content when it’s so hard to find time to read with everything else going on? Once you have reread a book, you have a more solid grasp on it and thus can, as stated above, generate multiple discussion posts from it. Post more without reading more!
How does rereading improve your blog?
I never thought about this! Love it. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
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I’ve actually been wanting to film a video on why rereading is important to me. I just haven’t gotten around to doing it and planning it yet with how busy the school semester was, but all of these points are great and I haven’t really thought about it in the context of blogging before. Wonderful post!
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I love rereading! Like C. S. Lewis, I think that the rereadability of a book is a mark of its quality. I find it sad that many bloggers seem so intent on reading the latest release that they feel they can’t spend the time to return to a favorite!
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I usually don’t reread because I have so much I want to “catch-up” on but I really should. There’s usually a lot of things I forget about as I write my reviews and I really want to change that.
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Yes, there are so many books I haven’t read and I want to! Life is too short to read all the books!
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It’s an interesting idea and I honestly didn’t think about it that way.
I tend to reread non fiction only and very sporadically but your points do make sense and are definitely something I will keep in mind
Thank you!
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I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
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I never quite considred it like this but that is very true.
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I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
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That’s all so true. There’s always a tension between wanting to squeeze in as many new books as possible, but also wanting to re-read old books to enrich them and pick up what we might have missed. I’ve learned to opt for doing that almost every time.
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Yes, I want to read soo many books! But it’s always comforting and rewarding to return to an old favorite!
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Love the points you make here. Ironically, I am currently in the middle of considering titles I failed to connect with initially for rereads and possibly documenting my second encounter on the blog as I explore them again. So this is great!
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That’s a really good idea as I think we tend to reread favorite books because we love them so much but don’t consider picking up a book we didn’t really love to see if maybe we can fall in love with it. Are there any books in particular you’re considering rereading?
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I am working on a list this week, but Caraval is at the top 😂 With the rave reviews for the sequel lately, I want to try reapproaching it with a different mindset. I am not sure which other I may decide on. I am going to comb through GR to see which I did not finish.
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I’ve heard such mixed reviews for Caraval, it sounds like my type of book but I think I’ll check it out from the library before deciding if I want to purchase. I was thinking of brainstorming some jbooks I either didn’t finish or didn’t really love and trying them again. I’m a total mood reader so I think that might play a part in at it as well
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I am a horrible mood reader as well!
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That’s bold! I mostly reread books I like, though I have returned to some classics like Hemingway. Spoiler alert: No matter how many times I read Hemingway, I still don’t like him. 😉
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Haha, yeah I am pretty sure there are a few classics I have tried to find a love for and always fail 😉
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Great points. I love re-reading books and then talking about my initial reading experience compared to my rereading.
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Ooh, that’s interesting!
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This is an interesting take on rereading and blogging with some points I hadn’t considered before. I recently posted a reread review on my blog (which I haven’t done in a couple years) and found it received a relatively high number of comments because, I think, readers could reminisce on the first time they read they book and/or consider whether they’d also like to reread it.
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Interesting! Approaching the review like that can also give readers something else to comment on. If they don’t remember the book, they can think about the value of rereading.
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It is such a difficult battle between wanting to get your hands on new titles and like you mentioned being able to read detailed enough to provide discussion posts that are unique and thought-provoking. I remember back in college there were a good handful of books that I ended up reading for multiple courses and I am still amazed at how I could turn out new research papers for all these titles. I think I will definitely incorporate some previously read titles into my reading list each month to hopefully get some interesting discussion posts. Thanks for this great post!
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Yes, it’s a struggle! There are so many books coming out that look fantastic (or that were released five years ago and that I’m just getting to, haha!). But at the same time there are many books I already know and love, and I want to read those, too! There isn’t enough time in the day!
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There really isn’t enough time in the day too bad sleep can’t be replaced hahaha. There are so many titles that I’m like wait that’s not new anymore oh man where have I been haha
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Thank you for this post! I agree with you whole-heartedly. I recently read a blog post where a girl was talking about being in a reading slump and how all she wanted to read were books she’s already read. I’d love to have been able to refer her to this post in my response encouraging her to follow her heart.
I’ve already been thinking the second half of this year will be dedicated to rereading more of my favorites, particularly because I’m trying to up my writing game, but also because I want to update all the reviews that are housed at my current (and most likely permanent) blog. ^_^
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That sounds like an ambitious blogging goal! But I think rereading can be a lot of fun! I love rereading particularly because I mostly reread books I love. So I go in knowing it will be wonderful and then it gets even better because I keep seeing cool details I missed the other times around
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I only can only reread the books I love! My opinion is rarely changed by rereading books I’ve read recently, but like you I find myself picking up on other things or focusing on something different.
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Not to repeat myself from another post of yours I just commented on, but I have been listening to audiobooks as a re-read. I have some favorite series that are on book 12 and I love when the new books come out, but it was 10 years ago when I read the first novel and I don’t really remember the fine details. The audiobook gives you a different emotion to connect with than when you read a novel. Of course, I have also had it backfire if I didn’t like the way the narrator reads the book, but you get my point. I have done re-read posts and you’re right, you get to explore the book on a different level! Another great post!
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There are some books I like even better as audiobooks, especially those in the thriller genre. The narrators really read with heightened emotion, so words on the page that look overdone or cheesy to make have a lot of fear when spoken! I’m also a big fan of memoirs in audiobook form.
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That’s definitely true! Sometimes the books with beautiful prose sounds so good when spoken where if I’m reading it sometimes I get a little bored. However the downfall to audio is that it’s much harder to skip ahead!
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When I was listening to Behind Her Eyes, I guess what was going to happen next. I wanted to get to the confirmation faster, but you can’t speed up a digital file (or if you can, I don’t know how to).
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Overdrive has the option to play the audiofaster, but if you go to like 1.5x or faster, the narrator just sounds like a chipmunk…
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Well, only by 30seconds or so! Otherwise its a risk where you’ll end up in the book, for sure!
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That sounds like a great way to reread! I think audiobooks can be fun, too, because you can hear how someone else interprets the book. Sometimes it’s now how I did. Sometimes it’s better!
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Do you have any concerns about rereads and discussion posts if many of your followers haven’t read the book even once? How successful are those posts?
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I usually reread classics. Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever reread a YA book other than the later Harry Potter books. I think with classics it’s easier to find people familiar with them as a of people have read the books for school or also reread their favorites. So in that sense the discussion posts can get interaction. But Briana once did a discussion post on Marissa Meyer’s Heartless when it was big in the blogosphere (a little after it came out and everyone had reviewed it) and no one really looked at it, so that was interesting.
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Good note! Thank you.
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This was actually quite insightful. Are you not worried no one will respond to a separate discussion post about a book though. I can only Imagine this being successful if you are talking about classic literature or something that is reasonably popular at the time
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We do discussion posts on books all the time. We do a lot on Tolkien and I just did Little Women. We do get a lot of interaction. 😊
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I absolutely love this discussion! I really agree that rereading can allow you to open up other areas of discussion, even if you’ve read the book before 😀 And you’re so right about there being so much more to learn about a book the second time round (and the third etc 😉 ) Wonderful post!
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I see a lot of bloggers who don’t reread and it is so confusing to me because I am all about rereading! If a book is good, you WANT to reread it, right? It doesn’t matter that you already know what will happen because the book is just that good!
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Yes I know what you mean!! I love rereading- that’s why I keep all my favourite books- they’re not there for decorative purposes! (especially not stacked up in boxes in my cupboard 😉 ) Exactly!
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Such a lovely and thought provoking post! ❤️
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Thank you! 🙂
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Reblogged this on aislynndmerrickssondotcom.
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I’d never thought about the blogging benefits of rereading. Another idea would be to host a rereadathon with some blogger friends!
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Ah, yes. Though I’ve found that it’s very difficult to get people to commit to that sort of thing.
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