Book Blogger Confessions (4)

This meme is hosted by Tiger from Tiger's All Consuming Books and Karen from For What It's Worth on the first and third Monday of each month.

This week's question:

Memes. Love em or hate em? 
 
I like memes, in moderation. Perhaps moderation isn't the best word choice, as I don't mind a bunch of meme posts as long as there is other content as well. I want to see original content that doesn't follow the mold of a meme post, like reviews and author interviews, etc. If a blog only has meme posts, I won't even bother following.

How many do you participate in? 
 
When I first started blogging, I participated in every one I came across. When added into the reviews I was writing, there would 2-3 posts posted each day. This of course became quite chaotic, and made things feel cluttered. At the time I was trying to build my readership and the memes definitely helped, especially the follower hops. After a while I started to slowly cut out all of the excessive ones, and for the longest time I only participated in two, It's Monday What Are You Reading? by Book Journey which is a recap post, and Waiting on Wednesday by Breaking the Spine. I just felt these two were enhancing the content of my blog as a recap helps catch people up to what I've posted in case they missed anything, and the Wednesday posts helped me to feature upcoming books that I'm excited about.

Recently, I also started the T.G.I.F. meme by GReads! because I love the questions it asks. This is newer, so I'll be trying it out for a while until I decide whether or not to make it a permanent feature.

I had just started to participate in the IMM meme, but with all the controversy going on, I'm staying far away from anything to do with that fiasco good or bad. Also, I've participated in this meme a few times whenever the topic has intrigued me. Since it posts on Monday, my other Meme day, it isn't competing with a review, again, keeping down the clutter.


Which kinds do you like best?

The ones I participate in, answered in the previous question. :)

Do you feel like there are too many?

Yes, and no. Yes, because they can get overwhelming when a blogger posts too many. I also hate it when my feed reader gets clogged up by a meme with a ton of similar posts from people I'm following, especially when there are multiple different ones on the same day. No, because memes are a great way to interact with other bloggers, and some are really thought provoking and great discussions. In the end, I think it's all about balance.