I’ve been wondering a lot recently – when going through my WordPress or Twitter feed, what makes me click into a post? What excites my interest?
Original content
This is clearly the most important for me. I love reading discussion posts and lists that I won’t be able to predict. Alternatively, if the content isn’t completely original – such as in a tag or something – I like to see books that I don’t necessarily know about. In pretty much every book tag there’s a book where Harry Potter is an answer, but I’m kind-of bored of seeing HP everywhere. Give me a book I’ve never heard of before by only answering the tag with diverse books, for instance!
Reviews
This is a complicated one for me, because I love a review, I really do. However, choosing which reviews to read is a completely different matter. I often don’t read reviews of hyped books, unless it is clear from the title of the post that the blogger has a completely new take on the book. This is related to the first point, but I really like reading reviews of books that I’ve never heard of, or have never read a review of before. It is hell on my TBR, but discovering books is just so much fun!
Header
Ok, call me shallow, but I really appreciate a good header. I just like graphics! And it implies that the blogger has really thought about their post and taken their time with it.
Pictures
If there’s a list of recommended books, I always appreciate it when there are pictures of the covers to go with it. Not only does this help break up the text, but it also sometimes helps me remember the recommendations later, such as if I’m browsing in a bookshop. I also like it because on WordPress it shows some of the photos as I’m scrolling through, so I get a little sneak peek into what books are going to be discussed. I like that.
What do you think? What makes you click into a post to read it?
whatthelog.wordpress.com 
OMG I NEED covers when looking at list posts. I don’t usually read the text associated UNLESS the cover is interesting to me. So when I see any sort of list without images/covers of the books, I literally can’t go on XD It’s terrible.
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Yup! It just gets a bit dull without them I think.
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I click on reviews if the book is already on my TBR, it’s written by one of my must-read everything they’ve written reviewers or if the title sounds interesting – I know I sholudn’t go by the title, but I can’t help it!
I click on discussion posts a lot, but I like the discussions to be concise! Please don’t write toooooo much!
I used to click on memes, but they just usually repeat the same books over and over again, even the same diverse books.
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Yup, agreed with all of this. I don’t think it is a bad thing to go by title though – I’ve definitely read books because the title was catchy.
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I’m that weird person who reads more reviews than tags or lists 🙂 Not that I don’t click on or read tags of lists, but I enjoy reviews and discussion posts more.
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That’s not weird at all! I also prefer reviews and discussions to tags 🙂
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I read reviews if it’s a book I’ve never heard about or I’m sitting on the fence about whether to read a certain book. But mostly, what makes me read a post is… having the time! 😂
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Haha great answer!!
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I tend to read things by people I already know or people I want to get to know better. For the most part, I try mostly to get a feel for what’s out there in terms of content ideas. I’m still pretty new to blogging about books and blogging regularly in general. Total noob, actually. Dude, I am also totally following your comment on pictures and headers, because I, too, love some nice graphics. My question for you is about those GIFs some people use? What do you think of those?
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I think it depends – on mood, time available, the blogger who’s writing, etc. There are some bloggers I read regularly, some I read when I’m commenting back, and some who I like to see matched with particular topics – for example, a book I’m interested in to begin with, with a blogger who has a unique reviewing style is more likely to get a read! 🙂
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Awesome answer! I definitely agree with all of these – there are some bloggers I tend to read more than others too.
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I agree so much with this! The only part I’m iffy on is the photos of the book covers. I like seeing covers but I honestly want followers to focus on the review, and not judge the book by it’s cover. I save the covers for my Instagram account.
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That’s a fair point – I definitely admit to judging books by their cover, so not including them is a good way to focus solely on the content 🙂
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There are a few blogs I try to read every post from (yours being one of them), while others I read occasional posts or maybe am returning a visit or looking for information on a particular title or subject. If the cover or title seems scary then I won’t click on it. If I’m on a break but using a library computer then I just read children’s book reviews.
I read mostly reviews. The only reviews I won’t read is if it’s for a book I’ve already purchased or placed a hold on, if it’s a book I’ve read but haven’t reviewed, or if it’s a popular book that’s gotten a lot of hype. I prefer reviewers who do both positive and negative reviews.
I like to see a picture in every post, or if no pictures then to have some bold text, headers, quotations, or font changes to break it up a little. Too many gifs or rant-style reviews annoy me.
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Aww, thank you very much! That means a lot to me 🙂
That’s really interesting – do you mainly read reviews to discover new books, rather than confirming that books you already have are good? (I hope that makes sense.)
I’m also not a fan of gifs in blog posts – they distract my eyes too much from the text.
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That does make sense, and that’s correct. If I already have a book, then I’m not making a purchasing or borrowing decision, so other reviews can wait (exceptions being #ownvoices reviewers or if I’m feeling conflicted about a book).
The other aspect has to do with my job. I also read reviews for books that I probably wouldn’t like, in order to get a feel for the area. At one time this knowledge came mainly from places like Publisher’s Weekly or School Library Journal. These days blogs are much more useful, especially regarding diverse books. While my TBR is always increasing, the information I absorb is invaluable for purchasing or weeding decisions. Reading lots of reviews online is almost like professional development for me, but also fun!
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This makes me want to write a post about the same topic. Yeah, unoriginal. Lol. I will read a post if it isn’t long winded. I’m more of a paper reader so if I see a very long review I won’t read the whole thing. I also don’t read tags unless I like the blogger personally.
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Do it!
I’m the same about length, I find long reviews really tiring.
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Sigh. I feel like they’re as long as the book.
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I really don’t like when posts are super text heavy without any pictures to break it up! It’s really not that hard to copy and paste a cover from Goodreads 😂
Reviews are a tricky one! I want to read all of them because I know that they’re the least viewed post and I know that people can put a lot of work into them, but I also only like reading reviews for books I’ve read or OV reviews.
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