Another month has flown by (seriously, we had our first frost here in The Netherlands but I still haven’t wrapped my head around summer being over) so it’s time for my monthly list of blog posts I really enjoyed:

I got a good laugh out of (and was slightly disturbed by) Shruti @ This Is Lit’s post where she lets a computer programme write a blog post in her style and reflects on the outcome. Are we all going to be replaced by bots soon? Read this post to find out.

Margaret @ Weird Zeal recommends books based on her favourite TV shows. I think this is a brilliant idea, plus she likes a lot of the same series as me so this post is doubly perfect.

Luana @ Ink Stained Forest took a tour of London bookshops and her photography is incredible.

The Portuguese Bibliophile’s post on her weird and bad bookish habits was very funny & relatable.

Shealea @ Shut Up Shealea opened my eyes with her post on how tired she is of the whiteness of the goodreads choice awards. Thank you!

Holly @ Nut Free Nerd makes some excellent points in her explanation of why she doesn’t rate books anymore.

And lastly, Caitlin Althea gives some good advice on how to keep your audience’s attention. She talks you through it in a cheery voice and gives lots of examples. Definitely helpful!

Also, I wanted to add a big HURRAY for everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo this month! Whether you’ve reached the goal or only written a few thousand words, I am super impressed! Well done!

Wanna catch up with me? These are my posts of November:

Comment below! What is the blog post you wrote this month that you’re most proud of? I’d love to have a look :).

P.S. Have you signed up for the Bookending Winter Event yet? I’m one of the hosts this year and I promise it’s going to be a treat! Find more information and the sign up sheet here.

10 thoughts on “My Favourite Blog Posts of November!”

  2. I’m so glad you liked my post, thanks for the feature! I’m def going to check out some of those other posts, they sound really interesting!

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  4. Yay, so so glad that you enjoyed the post 💛💛 I loved Shealea’s post on the Goodreads Choice Awards as well, and Margaret gives the best recommendations!

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  6. It’s unclear how the Goodreads Choice Award nominees are selected, but it seems to be a mixture of number of ratings, average rating, and staff influence. This is all they say for eligibility criteria: “We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 15 books in each category. Opening round official nominees must have an average rating of 3.50 or higher at the time of launch. Write-in votes may be cast for eligible books with any average rating, and write-in votes will be weighted by the book’s Goodreads statistics to determine the top five books to be added as official nominees in the Semifinal Round.”

    I think the staff do influence the awards to some extent since The Toll was nominated before anyone really had a chance to read it. However, I think number of ratings matters a lot since the YA fantasy books (besides The Toll) have ratings between 12,000 and 69,000 while Descent of the Crane, which is suggested as a better nominee by Shealea, only has 3500 ratings. Of course, the staff could have picked that instead of The Toll as their choice (The Toll only has 6000 ratings so far since it was released only a few weeks ago). However, they may consider things like the fact that Scythe ha 85,000 ratings and won a Printz Honor award, and so The Toll was one of the most anticipated YA titles of the year.

    In my opinion, the GR Choice Awards usually heavily feature bestsellers, regardless of their quality, so it’s not surprising to me that the list isn’t very diverse because, frankly, the bestseller list usually isn’t that diverse.

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    1. Thank you for leaving such an extensive comment 🙂 It’s always nice to hear that the posts I like resonate well with other people too. I agree that the problem is much wider than just the Goodreads choice awards, though I would argue that they still have a responsibility to consider diversity in their shortlist. Have you commented on Shealea’s post too? She’ll probably enjoy hearing from you. 🙂

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      1. I did comment on her post, too!

        I think the problem with the GR Choice Awards is that they disproportionately favor bestsellers. And maybe that makes sense when you only have a few days to vote for each round. You have to vote for the title you’ve heard of or read, and that’s likely going to be a bestseller. I mean, I read over 100 books this year and I’m not familiar with many of the nominees. So I’m stuck voting for that one book I’ve read, which may or may not actually be the best book on the list.

        I’d rather see a system where a more extensive nominee list is released early on. They can include titles that will be published later in the year, if they want, and just have the awards at the end. But then they can include worthy, diverse books that maybe weren’t going to be bestsellers, people will read them to be able to vote, and those books will have a chance to win. They also may get a boost in sales from being nominated and people going out to purchase in order to vote.

        If you think about it, it is really weird that the GR Choice Awards are maybe the one book award where voters aren’t expected to read all the nominees and actually consider which one is the best.

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