Bookish Memes & Games – Let’s Talk Bookish

Heyy amigos and welcome back!! I hope you’ve all had a great week and are doing well.

I am back this Friday with another awesome topic for Let’s Talk Bookish. Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by me and Dani @ Literary Lion, where we discuss topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts.

Today’s topic is: Bookish Memes and Games – Fun Filler or Worthless Waste of Time? (suggested by Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog)

It’s pretty ironic that this question about memes is part of a meme, but I’m so glad it was asked anyway. Thank you so much to Davida for suggesting this topic!! As a meme creator/host and participant, I feel like I’ve gotten a complete look at what it means to participate in memes.

First of all, a meme is “an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation” (thank you Google). And that’s exactly what bookish memes are. They’re initiatives started by somebody in the book community that gets passed on to other people who take part and pass it on to others.

Book tags work exactly like that. Someone creates a list of questions, tags some people and gives them questions to answer, and then they answer and tag others, and it keeps going like that through the community. They could honestly go on for forever.

Bookish memes like Let’s Talk Bookish (LTB) work similarly too. LTB happens every Friday and is all about trying to help other bloggers get comfortable with writing discussions. I always try to do the linkup so you can read and comment on other bloggers’ posts on the topic. That way, the discussion spreads beyond just a few blogs.

When I first started blogging, I did the more common bookish memes, specifically Top Ten Tuesday (TTT) and WWW Wednesday. TTT gives a prompt each Tuesday where you list 10 books or things based on the prompt. WWW Wednesday was hosted every Wednesday where you mentioned what you’d just finished reading, what you were currently reading, and what you planned on reading next.

I did TTT for about 6 months after I started blogging, and WWW Wednesday for a year before I stopped. It’s not because there was anything wrong with them; they’re actually really great memes that can give you things to post when you need some inspiration. WWW Wednesday in particular was my favorite because I got to share weekly reading updates.

However, I kind of got tired of them because I wasn’t really posting anything that was mine. It wasn’t unique to me, and that bothered me after a while. Every week I posted a TTT on Tuesday, a WWW on Wednesday, and a book tag on Thursday. Reviews depended on whether I drafted them in time for Monday. There was no chance for me to just write a “creative” post because all my time went to writing all the other posts that I did every week.

During this time, back in the good old summer of 2019, I decided that I wanted to do something of my own which is how the absolutely amazing Let’s Talk Bookish was born. i’m obviously not biased at all

It is ironic though that I got tired of having to write posts on a certain day every week, and then I chose to start a meme that happened on a certain day every week. But to be fair, LTB is not limited to Fridays, and it’s alright if you do it some days (or weeks) later.

I started LTB to get myself to stop being so afraid of writing discussion posts. I’d only written two discussions between December 2018 and August 2019. I’m pretty sure that since then, I’ve probably done about 40 to 50. And I love working on LTB because all of y’all make it worthwhile! The participation, the comments, and of course, my awesome co-host Dani all remind me to keep doing this and keep posting, even if I don’t feel like doing anything else.

So here’s a shoutout to all of you, and especially to Dani, because without her, I don’t know if I’d be able to keep up with this anymore. 💕✨

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How many bookish memes do you participate in?

Currently, LTB is the only meme that I participate in. However, now that I’m thinking about WWW Wednesday, I might actually start doing it again just to share some reading updates. For a book blog, I don’t talk about the books I’m reading as much as I should.

Do you interact with other people’s weekly meme posts?

I’ve not done much blog hopping lately, so no. But I do read the LTB posts and want to eventually get around to commenting on them. Sorry if I start leaving comments on posts that you don’t even remember anymore!

Do you feel like the amount of interaction you get makes the time spent on the posts worth it? 

Yes, it’s totally worth it. Fridays have become my best days for views and comments, and I absolutely love that. It honestly makes up for the lack of posts and interaction during the week, even though I do want to do more.

I also think what makes LTBs even better in my opinion compared to TTTs or WWWs is that it’s about discussions, so there’s always a chance for someone to voice a different opinion on the topic. If it was a TTT or a WWW post, then it really depends on whether or not you have read the book I mention, or if you’ve heard about it, which doesn’t always leave room for long rambly comments.

Of course, TTT and WWW still have their merits, and I’d suggest you check them out if you haven’t heard of them before.

Overall,

Bookish memes offer a great opportunity to help you find post inspiration, or even to get you to write posts that you don’t want to do on your own. It’s a wonderful way to bring people together and get interaction on your blog. Sure, they can get repetitive and boring, but ultimately, I think they can be a lot more interesting and fun.

This Week’s Participants:

Dani @ Literary Lion | Lotus @ Pages of Starlight | Ruby @ Ruby Reads and Reviews

Evelyn @ Evelyn Reads | Jheel @ Krisha’s Cozy Corner | Millay @ Millay’s Musings

Rian @ Dogs and Books | Jillian @ Jillian The Bookish Butterfly Blog | Kristin @ Lukten av Trykksverte

Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog | Raji @ Words Unlike Our Own

Marley @ Dragon on a Book | Kristina @ Books and Dachshunds

So, I decided to just read through all the comments on my blog that were older than October, and like them instead of replying to each one. I’m sorry, but it was just a lot and very overwhelming. This will hopefully let me move on. New goal for 2021 is to stay on top of comments and not let them pile up. Hopefully that’s one goal I can achieve.

What do y’all think of bookish memes? Are they fun fillers or a waste of time? Have you ever thought about starting your own? What are some of your favorite memes? Share your thoughts in the comments below!