Oh it's been quite a while since a rant, eh?
So let's jump right in: Book Tags are one of the most difficult things in the world for me to do. I just have the kind of stress that no one ever talks about so I'm like, "is this all in my head?"
From what I've seen, people love book tags! They're like memes but there isn't a set day so it doesn't bug the crap out of me when I'm scrolling through my feed. Book tags are also specifically designed for me to talk shit about a book [and for it to be okay because... BOOK TAG!]
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| Oh, Cassie [I'm still not alright with Gen 1 moving on] |
The graphic not being visually clear.
This one makes me want to scream. No matter how well I create the image, when I stick it in Blogger, it does a freaking Instagram [lowers the quality] and makes for a very angry Nova. Now you could say, "why not just use text? Skip the graphic!"
And I'd be like:
I guess part of it is my fault - I like things done a certain way. Since I've done all my book tags with graphics, I don't think I could start doing them without because that's weird. Also, there's a joy I get in making the graphics [not that there's much creativity - I use the same template.]
The amount of books I've read is sad.
I see someone who's read over a thousand books laugh at me from their book castle. Truth is, I've only read like 300 books and even worse, only remember... maybe, half of that? Jeez, I'm getting old and I'm only fifteen. I'm also really fussy with books - or I've become fussy so when the question is like, "list a book that had a forbidden romance you liked." [Lolol, Book tag, you think I read forbidden romance! Even more lolol, you think I like it!]
Am I not a true booknerd? Of course not! Anyone who says otherwise can challenge me to a flailing contest and epically get kicked in their deckled edges. However, you're going to see some overlap in book tags that I do. For example, if you find the Book Tag label, I'm pretty sure one [or more] of Leigh Bardugo's books are in each tag. I have no shame for this -
You might call me a fan.
This is the biggest reason book tags are difficult. How do you guys read so much and read such different stuff? [Or maybe I'm a stuffy grandma. I should get the cauliflower Asian hair now.]
I always feel so unoriginal!
Sometimes, when I do a book tag that's pretty narrow in choices, it makes me feel like I'm doing a meme and that sucks! Like for the Find Me book tag, the question was "find a book with headphones on the cover." UHHHH, THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE? Guess how many other people thought of the same book?
I'm not as much of a special snowflake as I'd initially thought.
So with that in mind, I'm always like, "what's the most original book I can think of?" That's partly why it seems like I've never read anything. A) I haven't read that much and B) I'm also really picky. This is just a recipe for disaster for someone like me. Sometimes, I'll go to my shelf and pick out a book from there because I cannot think of something. And even worse, sometimes, I'll change the question to suit my thirst to be different. That's when things get reaaaaal.
Instagram Book Tags = me lazy as f
On instagram, book tags are more like "take a picture of a book with these qualifications." Something like, "your current read" or "your fave author!" [Current read is a mess to deal with because I finish books in two hours so I would have to take a picture of a book I haven't started and post it at the right time - when I'm actually reading it. My fave author? WHAT EVIL BEING WOULD ASK SUCH A QUESTION?]
Sorry guys, most of the time, I think up concepts on random. Doing a book shoot for a specific reason seems limiting to me which is why I'm always behind on book tags. Sometimes, I'll get lucky and my vision will match up with a tag [boo-yeah!] but that's very rarely.
Most of the time, it's just me going with it. I don't like taking pictures of series because I have to carry them outside and back in. Plus, I don't have any series where all the covers match and all the editions match. [I constantly mourn my HP collection because it's so bad.]
Welp. Thanks guys for listening to me rant. This is therapeutic, if you haven't try it, I strongly suggest it. [Also aromatherapy - bath and body works candles, you are my reason for still being
Am I the only one who has problems with doing book tags? Do you have them too? Let me know! I want to hear the things that bother the crap out of you because odds are, they probably bother me too. [I'm suuuch a poet.]
Haha, I loved this post! I too have a love hate relationship with tags. It depends on the tag and my mood I guess. Some are really fun, with great questions, to which I can answer in a creative way, but I hate those tags, where my answers will most probably be the same as the others'.
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel like, tags take a lot of time to be compiled. I have to go make a list of the questions, think of answers, come up with graphics - which is the worst part:) - and finally sit down for about an hour and put up the post, which, tbh, don't even get that much of traffic.
But to their defense, they are fun, though:)
I feel like you tag me the most and I love you for that! If you didn't tag me, I would be doing them at all :P
DeleteAnd I've actually never thought of traffic. I check my daily stats but not based on posts. I only break 1000 when it's a giveaway so I don't really care anymore
My main problem with book tags is that I'm usually way too lazy to do them, so I often procrastinate. Graphics are also another issue! I'm never sure if I should have a different one for every post, for every question, or just reuse the same one in every post. I loved this post, by the way!
ReplyDeletePrecious @ Clockwork Desires
I reuse the same layout because I don't want to change haha
DeleteI love the idea of book tags, but I can never for the life of me answer all of the questions. Some of the questions are SO HARD! I saw a Mean Girls book tag floating around I thought OUUUUU FUN! However, I then read the questions and basically decided I don't have the brain power for that.
ReplyDeleteSarah @ The Reading Petal
I've never heard of a Mean Girls tag but I would love to check it out now. Some of the tags are a little out there too so I'm like nah
DeleteOh, don't worry, Nova! I'm terribly behind in doing tags, and I've got like, a hundred books in all, but that could never make an awesome photo for a color tag.
ReplyDeleteAs for the the blog post tags floating around, I really enjoy the Find Me tag, but other than that, I'm just so lazy to get to any other tag. Ugh.
The color tag is NOT for me. I don't have ANY yellow books at all. it's horribly frustrating. Most of my books are dark colors so I would just have a lot of black.
DeleteThe Find Me tag i cool but I don't like how the questions are all the same so I see a lot of repeats :/
I always feel like I talk about the same books - I've read around the same number of books you have, probably less.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite horrific at Instagram tags, it takes me agessss to complete them.
The originality of my answers also bothers me. Sometimes I just want to choose Harry Potter for everything, but of course that's already been picked by a trillion other people.
In saying all that, I find book tags to be really fun, and I'll always complete them eventually!
I don't even try for the Instagram ones. i personally, hate doing more than one book in a picture. It never looks good.
DeleteAnd UGH HP is obviously the answer for everything.
You definitely have a point here. I love doing book tags, because like you say they're dependent on my own schedule unlike memes. And some book tags make me think a lot about interesting comparisons between books! But you definitely raise some good points here against doing book tags on a personal level. I don't have an Instagram, but that sort of book tag does sound difficult to do. Great rant :P
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alyssa!
Deletehaha I totally agree, I have a lot of trouble actually doing book tags.
ReplyDeleteUnlike you though, the main reason I have trouble doing them is because I always forget about them! I write up a template post in Blogger and I'm like, yeah I'll finish that off later. And then I forget about them for a month, and it's like, well, I should probs do that soon lol. Just had a look at my templates list and I have two tags that I kind of haven't finished off yet. Should definitely do them soon...
Oh that's very true. I don't like doing one a week so I space them out to one every two weeks but since the date seems far away, I don't end up doing them sometimes! VERY good point.
DeleteTHIS IS LITERALLY ME, NOVA (on almost all counts). I want to use Harry Potter for 90% and have unoriginal answers for the other 10%, usually. I also realize how few books I've actually read! And Instagram ones could be great but either my pictures are lame and not eye-catching or anything special or I'm too lazy to get the books to even take a picture. I have SUCH a hard time with book tags, which is why it takes me forever to get to them, if I even do.
ReplyDeleteHARRY POTTER IS LIFE. IT"S SCIENCE. Aw :( Don't say your pictures are lame! Sometimes it's hard to get a good picture for tags because they can get SO specific.
DeleteHear, hear. I love many books but when put on the spot with a question, usually only 3-4 pops to mind so I want to answer all the questions with the same series. These memes stresses me out.
ReplyDelete*pats back* that's why it's hard to do them. it's not worth the stress.
DeleteYour views are interesting, especially because I love doing book tags! Actually, the problems you listed above are the ones present when I'm doing a regular tag, like "post 5 facts about yourself" and whatnot. Also, the image quality issue on Blogger may be because you're using the wrong image file type. Try PNG. Often with JPG/JPEG is that they are compressed, which means information and therefore quality gets reduced to save space. Plus, Blogger tends to do this naturally, for some reason, on top of the already problematic file type. Hope this helped. :)
ReplyDeleteOH I HATE PERSONAL TAGS. They seem so limiting to me and some of the questions make me want to scream. "What's your fave..." I live by the "no faves" rule so these questions are automatically out.
DeleteMy pictures are PNG but the problem still happens :(
Sometimes, I really like book tags, but then I realize that I used the same exact books that I did in the last one. Some tags are original and hilarious (like the What Would You Do For A Book one) but others are just kind of redundant.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I haven't read as many books as other blogger either! I read like three a week, and I still do not feel like that is enough. For tags, I feel like I just fall back on classics, like Harry Potter, Huger Games, and Divergent. I know that most people are probably tired of hearing about them, but I do not have any other answers.
Great discussion, as always, Nova!
Yes! I definitely agree with this. Before doing a tag, I always like to look at a question. If they're kind of boring and typical, then I probably won't do the tag. it's interesting how people create tags though.
DeleteGood on you for ranting and getting all of your thoughts out, Nova! There were a few weeks where I tried to catch up on book tags on Instagram, and posted one almost every day. Then I felt like the people I was tagging was getting a bit overwhelmed and then I realised that I'm never going to catch up because more will come, and you'll keep on getting tagged for the same tags so I stopped. I think book tags are a great way for inspiration but yeah, sometimes they can get a bit tedious.
ReplyDeleteJeann @ Happy Indulgence
That's true! I've been tagged after I did it and I'm like, "no man! I don't want to do it again XD" So right now, I always appreciate peoples' tags because it means they're thinking about me but I don't really like doing them anymore.
DeleteIn all honesty I am not a fan of book tags AT ALL. My co-blogger loves them but I want to cry sometimes when I have to add my part to it. Most of my posts have to have a graphic or gif in them. Unless I am being serious. I want personality to my posts, blogger literally makes everything look grainy and pixalted. What the hell! I forget half the book I read too, and I haven't read thousands. I think I just hit four hundred. There are so many plots that it is impossible to remember them all. It doesn't make us bad bookworms. It makes us people. I really love this post, I relate with everything you said. Tags will always be the bane of my existence!
ReplyDeleteAmber ❤The Book Bratz
Gifs are always so hard to find. I never understood it. I was always like, "WHERE DO YOU GET SUCH PERFECT GIFS" because I use Google Images and I don't know if that works for every situation.
DeleteAnd yay! I'm glad we agree <3