Tuesday, April 13, 2010

How do you feel about memes?


 If you don't know what a meme is-it's usually a weekly or biweekly event that occurs on one certain day of the week. For example: In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren, Teaser Tuesday hosted by Should Be Reading , Waiting on Wednesday hosted by Breaking The Spine-are just some of the few, but there are a lot!

Each day of the week I look at my google reader and it's filled with meme after meme. It almost feels as if there are more memes than actally book reviews. I was just wondering if that bugged anyone or if you genuinly like it.

I really like looking at In My Mailbox to see what everyone's gotten throughout the week and I also really like Waiting on Wednesday because I learn about a lot of new and interesting books that I add to my own wishlist. So what do you think about memes? Hate em or love em? And what memes are you favorites? 

15 comments:

Mg (LWS) said...

I like this question. My thought to this is, I've created some of my own memes that review books or manga. Like I have Madness Manga Mondays were I review a Manga I've read. Or in the music world I review a song with Tunes Thursdays. I find there are a lot of memes that are the same, with the same idea, and that annoys me a bit. But that is the way the thinking of the blogger world goes. If you keep a meme centered around something on your blog or that you have your blog involved with I think its alright.

Kathy said...

There are some I like and others that I don't participate in. I also think it can be, to me, a writing prompt. I don't always review books, I usually just write my thoughts about a book, the author or anything that the book makes me think about. The memes really just get me started :o)

My very favorite meme is one I started. I call it "First Line Friday". I LOVE first lines. I will actually stand in a bookstore and read first lines out of random novels. A friend created a graphic and I feature First Line Friday every week. I'm not the only one with a meme celebrating first lines... Becky at Page Turners at http://pageturnersbooks.blogspot.com/ hosts Book Beginnings... check her blog, too.

AnAddictedBookReader said...

I used to have a lot more memes but Ive kinda stopped because they do get a little annoying and repetitive. Right now I only do WoW and IMM memes weekly, and I think I will just do those two for a while : )

Corrine said...

I like doing IMM and Teaser Tuesday, and sometimes I'll do WoW as well. The last few weeks I've only been doing the IMM one though (until today that is). Sometimes I find it clogs up the pipes, but on the other hand, I sometimes will find books that wouldn't normally capture my interest do just that in the TT posts. :)

Julie said...

Good question! I don't mind memes and I participate in a few. For book blogs, I prefer the ones that are recaps of what people have read because I get good ideas for books that way - although I get annoyed when the people just list the books they read without any links! For my other blog about the things I do with my kids, I like all sorts of memes because they give me good ideas for things to do with my kids. In my reader, I just skip over the posts about memes that I don't care about.

With all that said, I don't follow book blogs that just do memes - and it seems like there are some out there that do. I really want to see book reviews and other topics as well.

My Book Barn said...

I enjoy some memes & have participated in a few. That being said, I do get tired of seeing the same ones over & over on hundreds of blogs. I have even seen some memes with basically the same posts on completely different blogs! I typically see that on the In My Mailbox & Waiting on Wednesday posts. You would be amazed at how many people are waiting on & receiving the exact same book! I more so prefer the memes that help you learn more about the blogger & what types of books they enjoy or really want. For example: A-Z Favorite Books Meme. That's just my 2 cents!
~Angela

Emidy @ Une Parole said...

I don't have a problem with memes as long as they aren't over-used. I would say that 2-3 memes (or less!) a week max. is a healthy amount, but I ususally don't skip over a blog just because they post a lot of them. That being said, if all a blogger does is post memes to fill the gaps, that's not good at all!

Lea Kelley said...

I'm not really a fan of memes, especially if that's the only thing on the blog. But I don't quit reading the blog, I just skip those posts.

YellowBanana said...

I love memes. IMM and Waiting on Wednesday are really interesting, like you wrote, and even when I have no reviews to post (normally this is because I can't be bothered to write a review:P), the memes still keep the blog going.

BTW, you've won a couple of awards over at my blog :D

Tales of Whimsy said...

While I LOVE Teaser Tuesday ('cause I get a mini feel for the book) and enjoy Waiting on Wednesday ('cause it gives me titles to be on the look out for) - I am not a fan of Mailbox Monday.

Jess F. said...

Yes and no. I mean I just started the meme's and the few that I do do .. I like since it gets me to talk about either the books that I'm reading now or those I want to ... and even if no one reads them ... if I don't happen to write a review about that book later on ... I feel at least I'm a getting to write something about it then. *shrug*

Sara said...

Sometimes it IS a bit annoying to read 50 teaser Tuesday or wow posts in a row!

I like reading IMM posts and WOW posts though! It's fun to see which books other people have gotten, and get tips on upcoming reads!

I'm not a big fan of Teaser Tuesday though, I rarely read the posts, just skim through!

2-3 memes a week is ok, but memes every day? Hmmm...

Rebecca Chapman said...

I am really glad you mentioned this because I have been wondering the same thing lately. I participate in quite a few memes and then I startes hosting a few of my own. But it just became too hard to do everything. So I cut out most of mine, and kept my two favourites: Lights Camera Blog Action (where I interview other bloggers on a Friday) and Book Beginnings on Friday (thanks for mentioning it Kathy!!). Then I do 3others. Its Monday what are you reading, Teaser Tuesday and Booking Through Thursdays.

Even with the 5 in total it is sometimes too much.

What i think is most interesting is that question of there being more meme posts than reviews. That is true of my blog, but I think that's because I can't get through too many books in a week because I only get to read on the train to and from work. The blog would be pretty boring if I only posted a review once a week.

So as long as its not crazy, I don't mind more meme posts than reviews.

Anonymous said...

I have to be honest, but they're really beginning to bug me :( It's becoming akin to spam, tbh, my Google Reader gets PACKED with memes, to the point where all actual book reviews are pushed aside by meme after meme after meme, and I have to trudge through them all to find a post I'd actually like to read.

The most annoying thing about them is that everyone does the same freaking stuff ... Waiting on Wednesday, for example ... OMG ... everyone is waiting for the same books, and puts up the blurb of the SAME BOOKS as everyone else, so you've read one, and you've basically read them all, then you have to go through them to get to anything else.

I don't mind interesting ones, like Character Connection, or stuff like that where people post DIFFERENT things, lol. BUT the others ... grrr ... they're starting to get on my nerves.

In fact, I went through the blogs I was following and stopped following quite a few the other day, because all I saw on their homepages were memes, and nothing original / interesting etc.

Carol Fleserieu-Miller said...

I'm new at blogging and the memes are all new to me. So, I like them and am not sick of them. I have participated in Musing Mondays and Teaser Tuesdays. They really are helping me get to know other book bloggers and I like that!