Masha du Toit

As part of Book Bloggers Appreciation Week, I’ve been partnered with Sassy Brit of alternativeread.com.  We drew up a list of questions for one another.  It was fun!  Here is Sassy, answering some of my questions:

The header of your blog says “joining authors and readers together”.  Can you share something about your blog’s purpose?

Well, I like to think that I helping both authors and readers. For authors I offer extra promotion, by publishing their reviews, book excerpts and other writing news, and at the same time I’m giving my readers new ideas for reading material – joining them together, on the blog and in my chat group.

I can’t read without making notes! Well, I can, but I have to force myself to do it. I don’t think it really spoils the experience, but it does change it, in that I analyse them much more than I did before. I have to say that is part of the fun for me; taking it all in, not just the story, but how it was written, what I feel I liked, disliked and how it affected me emotionally when I read it.

I’m not that keen on them. Although ratings will give you an general indicator to whether the book was liked or not, there are several different levels on various major book sites, and they don’t always mean the same. In the past I’ve asked the authors in my chat group, what they thought about us rating their books. The general consensus was that they wouldn’t like it.

So, I have come up with other ideas for those authors that have written books of excellence — An award called the “Sassy Seal of Approval” and I am in the process of making some others for my reviewers to hand out themselves. I also believe that it’s not always that simple to rate a book — some are clearly exceptional, and others have good as well as bad points. The review should reveal all, and I don’t mean spoilers when I say that. 🙂

I don’t think it’s fair to show spoilers for a couple of reasons. By writing reviews we assist in promoting authors books, and a spoiler can take out the mystery and intrigue, which would normally encourage a reader to buy it in the first place. So, I don’t write them personally, and do warn reviewers against it, but I am very grateful for those reviewers that give us advance notice if there is going to be a spoiler coming up. That way I can choose whether I read it, or not. To me it’s like waiting for the football highlights to come on to see if my favourite team have won, and after waiting all day and avoiding any kind of football news, someone walks in and blurts it out! LOL

I do try to read most genres, as I’m pretty open-minded and like my reading to be varied and fresh — new authors, genres and sub-genres are always popping up. In general, if I’m struggling with a book I’m not enjoying, I can usually (but not always) find something good to say, as well as what I disliked about it, while being fair and honest on both accounts.

Oh, to get into the habit of preparing my posts in advance! That’s a huge help as it really ensures you keep on top of the blog, when there are so many posts to publish.

Thanks Sassy!  I enjoyed this.  I highly recommend that other visit her amazing blog at alternativeread.com.