I haven’t done so many book reviews recently and fewer still that have been sourced from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme. Why so? It does hinge on LibraryThing, which is still running the programme with a monthly release of new books. Having filtered down to show things available in the UK, I scroll through and mark things I’m interested; what you get depends on a lottery system. Demand outstrips supply so you will win either one or zero books and I think the algorithm marks you down if you have a history of not producing reviews for what you have previously been sent (although no compunction to say that you liked it).

However, I have found that there is often little that attracts my interest. Furthermore, quite often, the books have been underwhelming. There have been a few where keeping the book seems like an adequate reward for the time invested in reading it and writing a short response but the hit rate is fairly low.

It’s not a bad programme and I think it has sharpened some skills but, while I’m glad it keeps going, I going to continue to be much more selective about putting my name forward to receive something and my notes on books will probably more often come from other libraries.