Not that I was under the impression Ariel and I are doing anything revolutionary or novel over here (Ha, get it? Novel?), but I’m always momentarily surprised whenever someone mentions “other bad books blogs”, leaving me to hide my embarrassment and just nod and act like, yes, I am very familiar with these “other” bad books blog, and I am totally familiar with what you’re talking about.
I totally know that they exist, and that Bad Books, Good Times is hardly the most popular or the first thing that had this idea (although I am still really surprised we have the Twitter handle @BadBooksBlog, which seems like it would have been an easy one). For my part, this blog was partly inspired by Ryan North’s Back to the Future tumblr (because my love for Ryan North is well-documented), but beyond that I’ve never really bothered to explore how other people (our… contemporaries?) get their bad book-based snark on.
So rather than getting off my lazy ass, I turn to you guys. You’re already here on BBGT, so clearly you are all people of fine, discriminating taste. What blogs like this one should I be reading?
Well there’s this blog called How about them apples (dazzlemethis.wordpress.com) and it wasn’t a really bad books blog because it just focused on Twilight (which is a bad book) but it was pretty damn funny.
The only bad books blog that I’ve really gotten into (besides BBGT, of course) is SnarkSquad.com. They had a Fifty Shades series going for a while, but the hands-down greatest part of their site is their readings of the old Sweet Valley High books. They’ve only done the first dozen or so books in the series, but they’re absolutely hilarious. I think they may also have done some Babysitters Club books? Basically, I like ruining my own childhood, nbd.
OMG I WANTED TO DO BOTH THOSE SERIES!! Shit now it’s going to look like I’m copying them…but I swear there are facebook chats with Matt where I said I wanted to do them.
I am totally going to check this one out! I loved SVH when I was a preteen!
I’ve been on quite a few in the past, but the only one I’ve really read consistently (besides this one obviously) is Reading With A Vengeance on tumblr. The chapter-by-chapter reviews are pretty harsh and a bit nitpicky, but they’re also really detailed and pretty fun to read. The writer has done quite a few books, including Hush, Hush, The Hunger Games series, FSOG, and Divergent. I also occasionally frequent Mark Reads/Mark Watches, but that isn’t much of snark website since he tends to review things he, you know, actually enjoys. But he did do a critique of the entire Twilight series years ago that was pretty awesome.
I also read “das-sporking.livejournal.com” – initially to see them tearing the Twilight Saga to pieces, then I’ve noticed they also did the Fifty Shades saga. But they have a lot more. I had also begun reading “Conjugal Felicity” sporking the Maradonia Saga.
I second Reading With A Vengeance (http://readingwithavengeance.tumblr.com). I’ve read a lot of her work, and I particularly enjoyed her sporking of The Selection series as well as the books by Cassandra Clare (which I would love to see on this blog too). I must admit, I haven’t read her Hunger Games chapters, because I kind of enjoyed THG and she was pretty tough on it just in the first chapter alone. But I still enjoy her sporkings.
I also love reading Doing In The Wizard (http://ronanwills.wordpress.com). He’s probably one of my favorite sporkers. He’s mostly into fantasy books, but I love fantasy and it doesn’t get nearly as many people going through it to find issues as the YA genre does. So even though he hasn’t done as many books yet, I love the blog. His finished reviews of the novels by Patrick Rothfuss are awesome.
I used to read Eragon Sporkings (http://eragon-sporkings.wikispaces.com) a ton, but the main sporker hasn’t updated very often ever since the release of the last book (which she hasn’t finished with yet). Still, it’s really enjoyable, and there are extra books done by other people that are hosted there too, so it’s got a lot to read.
There’s also Impishidea (http://impishidea.com/spork/), which has a ton of different sporkings by a ton of different authors. I haven’t been there in ages and I don’t remember my favorites anymore, but the site is easier to navigate now (I noticed when I took the link), so I may go back and read a few soon. Sorry I can’t be more specific though.
I also enjoy Conjugal Felicity (http://conjugalfelicity.com). Their sporking of the Maradonia Saga is probably the best on the site, although I enjoyed their other works as well. Again, a lot of it is fantasy, but some – like the aforementioned Maradonia as well as Eragon – is YA as well.
I also like Satireknight (http://satireknight.wikispaces.com). There’s plenty of books on their site, and while not all of the sporkings are finished, I still found it enjoyable. Some fantasy, some YA (again, Eragon comes up a lot; as it should).
And last but not least, there’s Das Sporking (http://das-sporking.livejournal.com/335339.html). The community has done a lot of different books, including ones you guys have already done. They’ve also done some fanfics, which I don’t read (bad fanfics aren’t as entertaining to me, plus I just don’t like the idea), but there’s a lot to choose from. I remember really liking the sporker by Zelda Queen, but there are a lot of different authors.
You can also find some good ones by going to the Antishurtugal livejournal community (http://antishurtugal.livejournal.com), but you have to check the tags and do some searching, so even though I’m linking it I wouldn’t go there first. Navigating it can be frustrating.
… I hope you enjoy this list. I didn’t realize how many of these sites I know and regularly read. Lol. I need a life. Especially since these were just the main ones I could think of off the top of my head…
I used to read Jenny Trout’s blog when she did 50 Shades of Grey but I never got into her other stuff. I think I also read one called 50 Shades of Suck or something like that. That was how I got here, doing a Google search for 50 Shades of Grey.
But, honestly, you are the only book blog I read. I tend to read snarky blogs but about fashion or annoying You Tubers etc.
To be honest, I look forward to your blog emails the most. I really like Read It and Weep at read-weep.com . It’s a podcast/website with some pretty funny guys and guests. They have done everything from FSOG, Divergent, etc. to Gilmore Girls. They have like 250 episodes, but I don’t listen to all of them just due to the subject. They also have a revenue stream and get fans to sponsor episodes or buy things online to support them. They are not in college anymore so I am not sure what my $5 is really going to help with!
It’s not a bad books-exclusive blog, but I also really like Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.
I read Straight Guy Reviews of Bad Romance Novels for a while but I think he stopped writing the blog, I will have to check. Smart bitches, trashy books is a favorite!
I haven’t really gotten into the blogging thing all that much (working on that…) and I have never been on Tumblr. I only have a handful of blogs I follow (this one is the only bad book blog) and the majority of those were either recommended, stumbled upon by accident, or I felt obligated to do a return follow. Out of those that I follow, I only actually read two of them everyday (when life doesn’t get too busy), and that would be this one and Bo’s Cafe Life.