#BookLover Thoughts Opinions and Experiences #NationalBookLoversDay

#NationalBookLoversDay https://t.co/cocK6kf2rF Writing Book Reviews As An Author https://t.co/Ofuuwmz48w Fractions of Existence https://t.co/5N7FROJrqZ Lumber Of The Kuweakunks

Celebrate by writing reviews, reading an urban fantasy, or solving a short story fantasy mystery

— J Lenni Dorner (@JLenniDorner) August 9, 2022

That's my tweet for National Book Lovers Day. 

I can't overstress the importance of book reviews to authors. Several bookselling websites use the number of reviews to determine the ranking of a book and author. Not the positive or negative, not the stars earned. ⭐ It's all about how often a book got a reader to put fingers to keys ⌨ and say something, anything at all, about what they just read. 

Interestingly, it's especially difficult to get our fellow authors to write reviews. Even knowing how important reviews are, authors are often scared to write them because they don't want to say the wrong thing. It might burn the relationship with a fellow writer, or offend an agent or publisher. Some authors stick to the "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" rule. I tried to help alleviate this problem by writing a guidebook, "Writing Book Reviews As An Author." 

There's also a full-length novel and a short story available from my collection.

Currently, there are 41 books on my list of "favorites" on Goodreads. Check those out!

Top 5 from that list (in no particular order)

1. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard  -- Futuristic Fantasy Sci-fi (Speculative Fiction) [Amazon lists it as a historical romance for reasons I cannot fathom, as the subway scene makes it clear that this story takes place either far in our future or in a multiverse version of Earth, but certainly not in the past. 🤦🏽‍♂️]
   
2. Runaway by J.R. Vincente -- Erotic Choose Your Own Adventure novel.
   
3. Fragile Remedy by Maria Ingrande Mora -- LGBTQIA+  Genetic Engineering SciFi Fantasy (Speculative Fiction)
   
4. Magic at Midnight by Ronel Janse van Vuuren -- LGBTQIA+ Dark Fairytale Fantasy
   
5. Self-Help 101 or: How I Learned to Take Over the World Through Tolerating My Family by L.G. Keltner -- YA Holiday Humor Romance
   

I don't know if it means anything that my top 5 list here happen to be all female writers. I can easily add Stephen King and Patrick Rothfuss. It may also depend on my mood, because I have a slightly different list on my NaNoWriMo Profile.

What books would you recommend to me, based on the ones I just suggested to you?