{"id":7899,"date":"2020-09-19T07:35:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T05:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=7899"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:25:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:25:02","slug":"vom-niedergang-der-buchblogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2020\/09\/on-the-decline-of-book-blogs\/","title":{"rendered":"On the decline of book blogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

In recent months, books and book blogging have taken a bit of a back seat for me. Over the coming weeks, that\u2019s going to change again, and I\u2019ll be reaching for books more often. A few days ago, I did a little round through my favorite book blogs to see what\u2019s going on. And I realized that, despite my reduced blogging time, my own blog has actually been quite active. It seems that the hangover has set in\u2014after the hype that peaked especially in 2015 and 2016, many have lost their enthusiasm or at least significantly reduced the number of new posts. I found Tobias from buchrevier.com<\/a>\u2019s post particularly fitting, as I agree with him on several points, and he expresses exactly what I would assume applies to many other book bloggers as well.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For me, the world of book bloggers has changed noticeably since the big peak in 2015\u2014when I also started blogging. Many of my favorite bloggers now mainly shine through inactivity. Some have completely said goodbye. First and foremost, Karla Paul\u2019s Buchkolumne<\/a>, one of the pioneers of the German book blogging scene, seems to have been completely abandoned. Or Jochen\u2019s blog lustauflesen.de<\/a>, practically a veteran of the book blogging world: one post in 2019, otherwise offline. Or Katharina from Kulturgeschw\u00e4tz<\/a>, who openly reflects<\/a> on the fact that her blog will only play a minor role in the future. Or Nord-Seiten<\/em>, a blog that is still pleasantly active and well-established, but wasn\u2019t it once run by two avid readers? These are just a few examples; I could name more. It feels like many book bloggers who were highly motivated in 2015 now have very little wind left in their sails.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In his article on buchrevier.com<\/a>, Tobias criticizes the strong migration to Instagram and notes that it has become the leading medium, slowly displacing blogs. That\u2019s an observation I can only confirm\u2014especially in other areas, like parenting blogs. Many bloggers who used to be much more active can now be found on Instagram, regularly updating their profiles while their blogs are treated rather neglectfully. From my perspective, that\u2019s a questionable development. Sure, Instagram is quite a nice thing, and I\u2019m there too and used the app more intensively for a few weeks. I followed about 1,500 bookish people and added quite a few to my list to get an overview and then sort through them later. In total, I found myself picking up the app surprisingly often, scrolling through the new posts. What if I missed a great book recommendation, a new deluxe edition, or whatever else? In the end, I took stock and asked myself what I had actually gained from this constant stream of images. The result was sobering\u2014there hadn\u2019t been a single noteworthy book recommendation in weeks. The same books keep appearing over and over again. Sometimes beautifully staged, but like an endless infomercial in which the Top 100 from the Amazon sales charts are permanently promoted, as if it were difficult to find them otherwise. Over and over you see the new book by Ken Follett, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes<\/em> (Die Tribute von Panem X<\/em>), then the YA evergreens Ophelia Scale<\/em> and Obsidian<\/em>, and then a whole series of YA romances that all look the same. Yes, I\u2019m exaggerating a little\u2014there are of course other books too, even classics, though mostly the well-worn ones. But the question is: how efficient is it really to look for good literature on Instagram? If I look through the main publisher catalogs, I\u2019m already covering pretty much what\u2019s being shown there. And you won\u2019t find any in-depth book reviews next to the pretty pictures anyway\u2014so the platform offers no real added value. If I spend several hours a week on Instagram, that\u2019s mostly just thumb exercise and mental downtime. My time is too valuable for that\u2014especially with three small children, I need to manage it wisely. A carefully chosen book that\u2019s presented in detail on a blog is something entirely different. Quality over quantity. Take Tinka\u2019s literaturaustausch<\/em>, for instance\u2014she posts maybe once a month, but I\u2019m always happy when she does, because she introduces books well off the mainstream that are truly worth reading.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I wanted to take another look at Twitter and Facebook too, but after just a few posts\u2014full of moralizing, self-righteous \u201clet me explain the world to you\u201d content (something many women in the German-speaking world seem particularly good at), political statements merely echoing mainstream media, and half a dozen posts about gendering correctly\u2014I had to close the browser immediately. Maybe all of that is justified, but it feels like the same topics have been beaten to death for years, in an obnoxiously know-it-all tone that I just can\u2019t stand anymore. I wonder what good it does to denounce the disadvantage of women for the thousandth time in a social bubble where everyone already agrees. In the end, social media is all about distinction and self-presentation. That may be nice for ego maintenance and grooming social connections, but for me, it adds no real value.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019ve always loved the diversity of blogs\u2014that not everything is concentrated on the three major social media platforms controlled by three corporations. Book blogs make use of what the internet was meant to be: a network of networks, where everyone can communicate and share content equally. Especially when the blogs are self-hosted. Sure, discoverability is always a bit tricky, but at least in principle, it feels more like a society exercising its freedom and using an open web for the free exchange of ideas\u2014rather than being just a consumer on a platform. Though I\u2019ve read several times that the internet is no longer much of a \u201cnet\u201d and that only a handful of sites grab most of the traffic, with the structure resembling a tree where a few nodes control large parts of the flow.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So, it feels like the book blogosphere is going completely down the drain! Well\u2014only feels like it. After my rant about social media, I kept clicking through book blogs, especially those I don\u2019t visit regularly\u2014that\u2019s the mistake, the oft-quoted narrow view of a small part of the big picture. In my list of top German book bloggers<\/a>, there are over 1,200 book blogs<\/a>, and compared to previous years<\/a>, that number has remained steady. After the GDPR came into effect, there was a noticeable drop, but the book blogosphere seems to have recovered quite well since. Of course, the list isn\u2019t perfect\u2014not all blogs are included\u2014but qualitatively, you can say the scene is neither shrinking nor growing. It\u2019s a constant ebb and flow: some blog less, others more, one stops, another joins. If you click through some of the blogs in the list, you\u2019ll find quite a few with high posting frequency. The circle changes, and from time to time, you have to broaden your horizon again\u2014especially when the old familiar blogs have gone quiet. It\u2019s only natural that initial enthusiasm fades or that life circumstances change.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I do find it a bit sad that there aren\u2019t as many emotionally charged discussions as there were in 2015 and 2016. I remember debates like \u201cmaking money with blogging\u201d (which, of course, was nonsense) or \u201cfeuilleton vs. book blogs,\u201d or the Amazon-bashing\u2014it was entertaining and fun to follow. But maybe those discussions still exist, and I just don\u2019t see them anymore? Maybe on Facebook?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

On Lesestunden, I\u2019ve noticed that feedback and comments have noticeably declined. Visitor numbers are slightly down too, which makes sense since I\u2019ve treated Lesestunden somewhat neglectfully lately. I\u2019ve also been less active on other blogs and definitely have some catching up to do. Maybe it\u2019s due to a shift toward social media. In other areas, it seems that the big, long-established blogs are still doing well, while newer ones struggle to gain traction. That has always been the case, but the willingness to leave the cozy Instagram comfort zone seems to shrink further as the platform\u2019s offerings grow. And here I agree with Tobias from buchrevier: there really are some great blogs with high-quality content that get little or no feedback but still keep going. Comments have always been rare, and when you look at book reviews on blogs, a comment underneath is more the exception than the rule. Maybe the clicks tell a different story, and the exchange happens elsewhere (on Instagram & Co.?), while the blog is seen as a one-way medium? Although, from what I\u2019ve read in Instagram comments, that\u2019s not exactly intellectually demanding either. Grooming, again. Simplify your life: a new intellectual modesty that\u2019s now en vogue? It reminds me a bit of Amazon: there was a time when everyone suddenly bought everything only there, as if the internet had no other stores\u2014as if there weren\u2019t plenty of other reliable online shops with good service. I never understood that, but perhaps it\u2019s the result of the brain\u2019s latent evolutionary laziness, combined with a herd instinct as old as humanity.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I wonder if it\u2019s really the case that the operators of book blogs and the active heavy readers on social media primarily come from the literary industry. Instinctively, I\u2019d say Tobias is right again\u2014most are professionally involved in literature in some way. How many pure readers are there who run a blog, who write their opinions completely independently, who aren\u2019t booksellers, work in online marketing for a publisher, or are authors themselves? And how visible are these independent avid readers? Looking at the choice of books, it\u2019s striking that mainly the same new titles are discussed\u2014or not discussed at all, just held up to the camera. During my more active time on Instagram, I realized what a cultural shift this platform has caused. I followed a few larger influencers outside the book world and was shocked at how aggressively they advertise, how masses of followers consume this endless stream of ads, showing off junk that no one needs, that only someone who already has everything would buy\u2014bloated by a wasteful consumer world chasing the next dopamine hit. Even moderately known Instagrammers prostitute themselves to advertisers, holding up some overpriced water carafe with scent capsules and proclaiming how wonderful their life has become with it, how they now drink only from that bottle. Sure, in other fields that\u2019s extreme, and in the book world there\u2019s not as much to gain. But after seeing that, I can\u2019t help but wonder: how authentic is it when someone holds a book up to the camera? Especially when the picture is decorated with a few sentences and the book isn\u2019t actually reviewed? Of course, the question of how independent someone\u2019s opinion is when they receive a review copy is old and well discussed\u2014but it takes on a different dimension when many bloggers are now professionally involved in the book industry. Even the choice of books changes. Someone who wants to refresh their online reputation with a blog as a professional reference won\u2019t turn to some shabby old classic edition but rather to the latest bestseller\u2014or the shortlist of a current literary prize, ideally from their dream employer\u2019s publisher. And when you look at those selections, there\u2019s a bitter aftertaste. Of course, there\u2019s nothing wrong with passionate readers sharing their love for books even if they work in the field\u2014but it does narrow the perspective. And that\u2019s what interests me most: discovering great books off the beaten path and, alongside new releases\u2014which certainly have their place for me\u2014finding unknown literature presented without bias. A great example of how well that can work is Petra\u2019s blog and her latest post<\/a> about a book that sounds truly wonderful\u2014and one you definitely wouldn\u2019t easily come across otherwise.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In the near future, I\u2019ll definitely be searching more actively again, going through the top list properly, and seeing what\u2019s happening on individual blogs. I\u2019ve neglected that far too much in recent months, and now it\u2019s time to rediscover the book blogs. Who knows, maybe I\u2019ll still end up complaining. A bit of unease remains, even though I don\u2019t believe the book blogosphere is dying. It\u2019s changing\u2014and for me, that means finding something new in it, redefining my own position. Independently of Lesestunden, because writing about books and sharing my thoughts here still gives me great joy\u2014and that won\u2019t change. My focus on beautiful books and classics will definitely stay. I\u2019ve always been in the niche of niches with my lovely classics. And I hope some of my long-time readers are still around and drop by now and then. The visitor stats at least suggest that. I promise: when I post something new, I\u2019ll also share a picture on Instagram and try to lure you back here. I won\u2019t give the field over to social media that easily.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What about you? How do you see it? Are book blogs losing out to social media? Do you still visit book blogs regularly? Have you lost interest in blogging? Or have your life circumstances changed? Or are you blogging as usual and see no change? Write me your thoughts\u2014I\u2019m very curious and would love to hear your feedback!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent months, books and book blogging have taken a bit of a back seat for me. Over the coming weeks, that\u2019s going to change again, and I\u2019ll be reaching for books more often. A few days ago, I did a little round through my favorite book blogs to see what\u2019s going on. And I … <\/p>\n

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