Up Close and (un)Conventional #11 – Bought vs ARCs

Posted 18 December, 2014 by Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms in Discussion Posts / 13 Comments

Up Close and (un)Conventional

Up Close and (un)Conventional #11 – Bought books vs ARCs

Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. This is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I’m discussing books I have bought versus ARCs I have requested and received. Going through the books I have read in 2014, I noticed a strange trend! Especially when I worked on my whole year wrap-up post. It seems I’m much better at reading ARCs than I am reading books I’ve bought. While it’s not so difficult to figure out why I read the ARCs first, it’s still a little disconcerting that I favour the ARCs so much I kind of put all the wonderful books I buy on the back-burner.

Not only am I much better at reading the ARCs I receive, but I review all of them, too! And I don’t review all my owned books that I read for some reason, and that really makes me sad. I have some books I have rated four or five stars, and the poor things are sitting on my ‘read’ shelf all sad and confused because even with such a good star-rating, they haven’t received any more love from me, no gushing or squee-ing, and that really isn’t fair.

As I said, it’s not difficult to figure out why I read my ARCs first, because when I request an ARC and receive it, normally, it’s at least a while before the official release-date for the book. And I don’t know why, but I love reading books before they hit the public at large, it’s almost as if I’m part of a secret or something. And I (almost) always post my review of an ARC around the time it is released, if possible a few days before the release date. And even if I received, read and reviewed a lot of eARCs in 2014, and was very happy to read them, I think I should concentrate a little more on the books I have decided to spend my hard-earned money on as well.

Are you the same as me? If you receive and ARC, do you bump it to the top of your to be read list? Are you better at reviewing your ARCs than your owned books, or are you still able to read the books you’ve longed for and then bought?

Have a great, bookish Thursday!

Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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13 responses to “Up Close and (un)Conventional #11 – Bought vs ARCs

  1. I’ve been recently asked to review books for a publishing site, but I’ve also recently counted all the books I have yet to read on my tablet : close to 800… So, maybe I’ll do the ARCs later, but I’ll be serious and clean that e-reader or else I would feel obliged to review the books I receive first. But I know what you mean when you say it’s like being part of a secret, it’s so tempting 😉

    • I know, I usually read my ARCs before I start reading my own books, so it’s truly a viscous circle! I love getting exciting books to read for review, but I also know there’s a good reason why I bought the books I have…
      Thanks for stopping by, Iza.

  2. It feels like I read more ARCs that I do books that I’ve bought but I haven’t went back to check. I’ve tried to alternative between a review book and ones that I’ve bought, but it doesn’t always work out haha.

    • I know, right? I still get really excited when I am accepted for an ARC, so I usually start reading them very quickly, and then, up goes my review.
      Thanks for stopping by, Christy.

  3. Great post, Lexxie. For me, it’s a toss-up…I do tend to read my ARCs sooner because they’re usually for blog tours. I’m not so good at bumping ARCs from Netgalley up in the queue though. The rest of the time, I’m reading books I purchased. I’m planning on reading many more of the books I’ve purchased in 2015. I’m cutting back on blog tours and I’m *trying* to stay away from Netgalley. 😉 (unless it’s to post a review) Oh, and I’m going to *try* to cut back on my one-click addiction in the new year as well. bwahahaha That’s going to be interesting. 😉

    **BIG HUGS**

    • Oh my goodness, I’m trying my best to stay away from Netgalley, too, but it’s really, really hard!! And yeah, staying away from one-clicking is going to be very hard.
      I hope we’ll both be able to manage, Brandee. *BIG HUGS*

  4. I do feel that I read more ARC’s than anything which is something I need to change because I have a lot of books I have bought or downloaded for free that I never get too. I write reviews on everything I read but I tend to not write bought book reviews right away or care when I put them on my blog, something else that needs changed. This coming year I MUST cut back on grabbing from Netgalley and Edelweiss but it’s those auto approvals that kill me..plus the emails..lol. 🙂

    • Yeah, I’m wondering if I’m just going to opt out of e-mails from Netgalley and Edelweiss. I have read and reviewed 140 books from Netalley this year! That’s over half the books I’ve reviewed here on the blog :O
      I hope you’ll be able to figure something out for next year, Stormi 🙂

  5. Wow I admire how well you do with your ARC’s, I am a hopeless mood reader and even though I love reading ARC’s before they are released, it happens quite often I don’t. I feel like in general I read more review books then books I bought, but I don’t know the exact stats. I have some books I bought and really want to read, like Kelley Armstrong her latest 3 books and here I am a half year later and even though she’s one of my favourite authors I still haven’t read those books yet. It’s a bit sad. My plan for next year is to get a lot of review books done for Coyer and then focus on the books I bought.

    • I am a mood reader as well, Lola, which is why I’m kind of surprised at all those ARCs I’ve actually read this year 🙂
      I have books by my favourite authors on my kindle as well, and I just haven’t gotten to them – it makes me both sad and a little mad at myself.

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