Amanda Reads Mpls Guiding Principles

I started as I meant to carry on, but never stopped to tell you why I’m here or what I’m planning to do. Better late than never, I suppose.

When I created this space in November of 2023, work was overwhelming and unrelenting, and I was in the process of watching the beginning of Tropes & Trifles, a romance-only bookstore in Minneapolis. The latter was very cool and inspiring! Watching the romance community rally behind a new bookstore made me miss having my own corner of the internet to talk books.

As for work, well, that also made me missing having something that was mine. And so, Amanda Reads Mpls was born. But I am also a planner and I like structure. Between my first five years of book blogging, over a decade of cohosting a read-a-thon, and what I learned working in publishing, I had thoughts about what I wanted this to be.

General internet caveat: this post details what I am currently doing for this space at this particular moment in time and is not intended to be prescriptive. There’s no right way to talk about books. (Unless you’re a jerk. Then you’re doing it wrong.)

I won’t review every book I read.

When I first started blogging in 2011, I reviewed almost everything. It was a lot! Writing and publishing reviews is work, and a big part of why I eventually burned out. So what I post here is a small percentage of what I read. For context, I read about 100 books per year, plus or minus 20 books depending on how good of a reading year it is.

Listen, I can’t even maintain a Notion workspace with reviews or comments for myself on all the books I read. I’ve tried! It turns into a chore. And yet, I know future Amanda is going to hate the choice because she’ll be stuck going, “Huh. StoryGraph says I finished that book but I have no idea what I thought about it.” Sorry, future Amanda!

Which is to say, there are a lot of factors that influence which books I review. Some are not book related at all! It can often just be the amount of time or energy I have the day/week/month I’ve finished a book or how much the general state of the world makes me need to focus on something I can control.

Other factors are more book related. I’ll review books I’ve requested on NetGalley here because that’s part of using NetGalley (and it helps increase my odds of getting approved for future books). Books I love are easier to write about, and some books are just too important not to write about.

My tagline “i read books. sometimes i post about them,” isn’t just meant to be a funny nod to my sporadic posting—it’s actually how this whole space runs.

I don’t use a star rating system

I find rating systems tend to be wildly subjective, and not just from person to person! Back when I was rating books (because yes, I absolutely had my 10-point enjoyment scale that translated back to a 5 star system with half stars), I found that my rating could be affected by things like what book I’d read before or what kind of mood I was in. I’d look back at two books with the same rating and go, “Wait, I felt so differently about these books.”

It can take time and effort to learn how someone rates books, even if they have a more consistent scoring system than I do. Everyone brings their own lens to reading—their beliefs, their bookish preferences, their life experiences—which affects how we ultimately view the book.

I’d rather tell you upfront what led me to read a book, what I liked or didn’t like about it (and why), and give a recommendation. You can draw your conclusions from there. I haven’t purposely set out to only write about books I liked, but they skew that way—and I acknowledge that what doesn’t work for me often works for others, and I’m happy to match people with those books.

The only place I rate books is NetGalley, and only then because they force you when you leave feedback. Listen, I want books that bury deep inside me and stay with me and make me want to shout with ALL CAPS ABOUT HOW GOOD IT IS and flail around a little in my feelings, and sure, you can put a star rating on that, but the reaction speaks for itself.

What I platform matters

I work in publishing, in marketing and publicity, and I understand the way this industry puts money behind certain books. A larger title budget usually equals more marketing and visibility, which often means more success. Far too often, those are books by and about white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied people. And they do just fine without me reviewing them!

Because I try to read widely, I also try to make sure that what you see on this site reflects that. Try—because I know there’s always room to do better.

As I also get into writing longer-form pieces on book topics (like this one), choosing the topics I cover is also important. There’s a lot of drama and toxicity in the book world, and I have no desire to contribute it. Unless it needs to be called out, I guess?

My point is, what I review and post contributes to the overall conversation online. And some books and topics don’t need more fuel or help. But some do! So I’m going to talk about those.

I aim for transparency

Some of this transparency is dictated by FTC rules! You’ll know if I’ve received a book in exchange for a review (this is usually from NetGalley) or if I use affiliate links (I don’t, but buy from your local indie or Bookshop.org if you can!) (The library is great too.) because I’m required to disclose.

But I’m also going to tell you if I have a connection to the author or book or if I have a specific set of preferences that make me think a certain way. I’ll tell you where I got the book or who recommended it to me. If you want me to tell you the books I’ve reading and not reviewing, or the books I don’t like, we can do that too.

Right now, this a labor of love! I am not making money from posting and currently have no plans to create subscription plans or paywall content. This platform allows me a certain number of free subscribers, and if I somehow surpass that, I may have to find a way to cover expenses, but I don’t want to this to turn into a chore or a job. Because that’s how I quit the first time.

I’m always evolving

My reading preferences change, I learn things that affect how I view the world (and the books I read), I experiment with new things. This space will evolve with me. Thanks for being here with me!