The Bookish Naughty or Nice List

 

As much as I hate to admit it, it’s about that time of year—Santa is about to be making that list and checking it twice. So before he has time to lump us into one category or another, let’s just sort some things out here for ourselves.

I was browsing around the blogosphere, you know, like one does when I ran across this tag on Cait’s blog over at paperfury.com. This tag was originated by Jenniely, over here at Jenniely.com, and basically comes down to one thing—have you been breaking the unspoken bookish “rules” this year?

The idea is simple—just take a look at the list and see which bookish sins you’re guilty of (naughty) and which ones you’re not (nice). And then we can get this all straightened out and save Santa some time, right? After all, he’s a busy guy. You know, once a year.

Here we go, time to condemn myself.

Received an ARC & not reviewed it

Well, shoot. We are not kicking this off on a good note. To be fair, I was only expecting to receive the one ARC (Bad Man), and the publisher surprised me with a second one, which I gave a shot, but I’m not sure it was my type of thing. I ended up not finishing it (though I intend to one of these days…famous last words of all bookworms, am I right? “I’ll read it someday soon.”) and I also didn’t post a review for it. But I did read and post a review (and lots of pictures!) of Bad Man by Dathan Auerbach.

And to be fair, the ARC in question is the only ARC I’ve ever not reviewed….does that get me any nice points back? Please? Just like, one or two?

Having less than a 60% feedback rating on NetGalley

I’m giving myself all the nice points for this one, because I actually have a 100% feedback rating on NetGalley. In the interest of total honesty, I don’t request a lot of things on NetGalley. I pride myself on actually having impeccable self control on there—if I think I won’t be able to finish or review it, I don’t request it. So, why am I able to have self control in that one aspect of my life and no others? Excellent question. I don’t have an answer for you. I’ll get back to you when I come up with one, but, uh…I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you.

Rated a book on Goodreads and promised a full review was to come, but it never did

I don’t make promises I can’t keep. If I’m not going to review a book, I’ll just be real with you—it’s not happening. Some things I just don’t have it in me to review, or I don’t feel like dissecting it. And I think that’s okay. I definitely don’t review every single thing I read. And when I do review, I tend to wait until I have the whole review ready before I post. You know, to avoid making promises I can’t keep.

Folded down the page of a book

Yeah, I do this. Fairly frequently. Call me a monster. Go ahead. I’ve been called worse. The thing is, they’re my books. They’re meant to be read and loved and handled. When I see a book that was dog-eared and beaten up, I know that book was loved hard. It went places with its owner. If it were a library book or a book that didn’t belong to me, I wouldn’t dare. That’s just rude.

But if they’re my books, put me on the naughty list if you must, but I will do. What. I. Please.

Accidentally spilled food on a book

I’m pretty sure I spilled Ramen on the book Baby Teeth, like, today. I don’t know what to tell ya here. I’m a mess. I’m a very messy, very clumsy person. I literally just dropped a chicken tender covered in ranch dressing on my keyboard fifteen seconds before I started typing this. (Don’t panic, I cleaned it up. I’m not just tapping ranch further and further into the keys.) As a clumsy human who likes to read and eat simultaneously, I’ve just come to terms with the fact that accidents are going to happen. And I try not to eat like, spaghetti or something while I read paper copies of books. Other than that, there’s not much I can do.

DNFed a book this year

Several, in fact. Cherry. The Wicked Deep. Heart of Iron.

However, I also pushed through a lot of books that I really didn’t like this year. But some of them, I just couldn’t make it. Life is short. Sometimes you have to give it up before it keeps you from moving onto reading something that you actually like or that actually benefits your life in some way.

Bought a book purely because it was pretty with no intention to read it

Am I saying I’ve never done this? Absolutely not. I definitely have bought beautiful copies of Romeo & Juliet or House Editions of Harry Potter that I don’t intend to read. I’ve read other copies of them. These are editions I just want to look at.

I’m just saying I haven’t done it at all this year. You hear me, Santa? Not once this year!

(cue someone reminding me of a pretty edition of a book I bought and have no intention of reading here)

Read instead of doing something important

Look, there are two types of bookworms in this world. Bookworms who read when they should be doing something “more important”, and liars.

Which one are you?

Choose wisely.

Skim read a book

The entire book? No. But remember earlier when I mentioned that there were a few books that I really wanted to DNF but ended up pushing myself through just to be able to finish them and fully assess the situation? Sometimes I reach a point with books which are really frustrating me where I want to get done with it but I’m already so disillusioned that I’ll admit, maybe I only skim the last few pages. It’s for the sake of being honest with myself and realizing that if I don’t speed read a few pages, they’re not getting read at all.

Failed your Goodreads goal

See, here’s the thing…I definitely didn’t fail it. My Goodreads goal was only 50 books. I’m positive I surpassed that. The problem is, I just didn’t keep track of it. About halfway through the year, I grew really disillusioned with constantly updating my Goodreads and kind of just…stopped.

Yeah….more on that later.

Broke a book buying ban

I haven’t, I swear. But to be fair, I’ve really only been on one during the recent holiday season, so I haven’t had much of a chance yet. I’m sure if you gave me long enough I’d scrounge something up.

Borrowed a book and not returned it

Does it still count against me if I accidentally stole a book?

I know, I know. You’re thinking that it isn’t possible to accidentally steal a book. But you see, my friends, it is. It totally is.

Earlier this  year I was living with my friend Chelsea, and she had some books sitting around, and I had some books sitting around, and then the books were sitting around together, so when I moved out, I kind of just scooped up all the books thinking they were mine and then I found a copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in amongst my books and found myself wondering, when in the heck did I buy this—oh. Crap.

Sorry, Chelsea.

Finished a book but didn’t add it to Goodreads

Yeah, turns out I’m the actual worst with this one. The actual. Worst.

I was on that Goodreads grind like white on rice for about six months. I tracked every book I read, reviewed a good amount of them, gave them star ratings, updated my reading as I was going.

And then in about June or July I just got so tired of it. I just wanted to read and not update it page by page as I went, and feel like I was reporting to someone. I mean this isn’t BookIt—I’m not even getting free pizza for this, so why? So I totally stopped keeping track on Goodreads. So if you look at my page, it really looks like I just stopped reading dead in the middle of House of Leaves and never picked up another book in my life.

But that’s not the case, I swear. Trust me I’m still alive and reading on a regular basis. I’m just not tracking it on Goodreads anymore. Will I ever start again? Eh. I don’t know. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with that site, so I’m not making any promises.

Because I don’t make promises I can’t keep, remember?

See what I did there? Brought that one full circle.

Left a review too long and forgot the book

Okay, fine, I admit there are times when I intend to write a review of a book and I just wait too long, and by then, either my angry fire inside about how much I hated the book has died down a little bit (you’re welcome), or I waited long enough that even though I remember the book itself, I can’t remember the exact tiny details, and then I feel like I’ll just be writing generic statements that anyone could throw out there. But I never forget the book entirely! So, half and half?

Wrote in a book you were reading

Only all the time.

My main thing I like to do is underline or put certain passages and sentences in brackets, or put little stars and asterisks by things I really like. I tend to mark sections that really stand out to me or that I want to go back to for some reason, either for review purposes or just for personal purposes because I want to be able to reread them. I’ve been doing this since my early college years, and then for a few years I took a break and wanted to be part of the club that keeps my books in pristine decision.

Turns out, that’s just another club I don’t fit into.

So I left, and I’m back to my instincts: writing and underlining the heck out of my books.

Sorry.

Just kidding, no I’m not.

Okay, so I don’t even think we need to do a tally. Y’all have eyes, and I’m 100% certain you can see how much red on this page. But for shits and giggles, let’s go ahead and count it up anyway.

The official tally:

10

5

So, fine, Santa. Go ahead and skip my house this year. Put me on the naughty list. If that means I can live my bookish life with all my bookish sins, I’ll take a lump of coal. I’m from the coal country of Pennsylvania anyway—it’s nothing I’m not used to.

So, what about everyone else? Are you naughty or nice according to this list of bookish habits? Which of these are you guilty of, and which would you never even dream of doing? Is Santa going to be skipping your house this year? Let me know in the comments! You know I’d love to talk. <3