Where I Stand on the "Great Matter"

Sigh... OK, some of you guys probably KNEW this was coming...

I realize that some of you aren't going to be happy with my view on this, and most just want to drop it already, but whether you agree with me or not, just know that the reason I'm speaking out on it is because I appreciate and respect my followers enough to be honest and up-front with them about my opinions.

So before I show you guys my book haul for this week, I'm feeling the need to quickly explain something: Pretty much all of you know what has been going on this past week with the Story Siren being accused of plagiarism, and almost everyone at this point has very strong feelings about it one way or the other-- myself included. And while at first I was on the fence about the entire thing and just kept quiet so as not to rock the boat, I realized as I became more informed and enlightened about the TRUTH that I had to say something. 

It basically comes down to this:  Due to the actions and behavior of Kristi from the Story Siren (who runs In My Mailbox) I will no longer be participating in IMM and have switched over to simply doing a "book haul" for the time being. I'm also no longer following her blog or any other of her social media outlets. Let me just say that this decision was NOT made lightly, nor was it based on emotion, personal bias, or personal connection to either side. It has nothing to do with me trying to be confrontational or pretending to be better than somebody else. But the thing is, that after objectively reviewing the evidence and claims from BOTH sides, I have concluded that things were done very wrongly on the Story Siren's end, and then continued to be badly handled after they were made public. And NO, I am NOT going to support that.

For me, this whole fiasco goes beyond just the whole issue of plagiarism-- and I'm absolutely NOT downplaying the seriousness of knowingly stealing someone else's thoughts, ideas and expressions, but there is SO much more to it than just that. There's the fact that the SS had taken on a leadership role in the blogging community and was profiting from that position only to abuse it. That she had spoken out so vehemently against the very thing she was found guilty of, AND that after she was found out, her first reactions were to deny the charges that were backed by solid evidence, and THEN to address everyone with a non-apology while lamenting the loss of her viewership and publishing contacts. But what REALLY, TRULY sends me over the edge with this, is that she only publicly apologized to those she stole from as an after-thought, and not once did she defend them as the victims in all of this. On top of that, she didn't give her followers enough credit and respect as to directly state WHAT she was apologizing FOR in the first place.

To me this all shows a complete disregard to everyone involved-- those bloggers who were most wronged-- and to the readers who trusted her, admired her and looked up to her. On top of that, it looks to me as though she's set herself high above the blogging standards she once so passionately preached about. This is not OK with me. Nothing in her outward actions to the blogging community has shown any true remorse or humility for what she did, and it just doesn't sit well with me. This isn't even ABOUT whether she owes ME or US an apology-- it's about having the decency to apologize to those you have wronged, and then acting like you really ARE sorry.

I also had the mentality for a few days of, "why can't everyone leave her alone already? She has already apologized twice! What do they want her to do at this point?" But after looking at everything A LOT more closely, I realized that there really had not been an apology where it really mattered OR a direct admission of what she did-- and once again, NOTHING was said initially to the ones who actually deserved a public apology. Instead, they have all had to deal with an enormous amount of heated backlash because Kristi never bothered to defend them or ask her supporters to leave them alone. She didn't even give credit to their claims which were backed by clear, indisputable evidence that she had stolen from them. In the words of Grit & Glamour, it was "a weak apology at best," because it was only made after she realized she wouldn't get away with her FIRST non-apology.

As for her excuse that she didn't realize what she was doing, well I'm sorry, but you CAN'T feign ignorance on something that you were claiming to be an expert on just a few months before. She even SAID in one of her posts on plagiarism that those who KNOW what plagiarism is are lying if they say they didn't realize what they were doing:

In her own words awhile back:

“Plagiarism is wrong. No matter how you look at it. There is no excuse… ‘I didn’t know…. I didn’t mean to… I did it subconsciously.’ No, you didn’t. You did know and you did mean to.


Plagiarism isn’t just copying and pasting word for word and passing it off as your own. It can be taking someones work and changing around the sentence structure, getting out your thesaurus and changing a few words here and there… basically taking the central idea tweaking it and passing it off as your own work.”

And now to THIS:

"I thought only content could be plagiarized. Changing a few a words around with a thesaurus, or simple copying and pasting content. It seems as though taking a general topic and rewriting it is plagiarism... It was a confusion of inspiration and plagiarism on my part."

Here is MY response to this statement:

1.) You know perfectly well what plagiarism is, don't even try to deny this-- it's right on the FRONT PAGE of plagiarism.ORG and you've clearly defined what it is in previous posts. If you aren't sorry for what you did, OK fine, but don't sit there and treat your readers like they're idiots. Your claim that you were "confused" is the very height of hypocrisy.

2.) No, it does NOT seem as though taking a general topic and rewriting about it is plagiarism-- but going to somebody else's work and blatantly copying their style and expression of a general topic IS-- and that's exactly what you did. It wasn't "inspiration;" it was flat-out copying.  

If you look carefully at the evidence, this was not a case of someone just re-using ideas or content that had already been published a million times before on the web-- she directly STOLE the expression of those ideas from people who had worked hard to have their OWN VOICE. That is plagiarism, not just the regurgitation of common knowledge.

And as for her leaving 2 vague apologies on her blog and then washing her hands of the whole matter, I think it is very badly done to just brush something you did under the rug so quick and neatly when you were calling out others for the exact same thing multiple times in the past. Not to mention-- I just was not partial to her overall attitude in addressing this. I thought she came across as tactless, arrogant and above reprehension. She covered her bases and put out the fires where things directly affected her, but didn't deem it necessary to address those who really got burned. I don't know about you guys, but that seriously ruffles my feathers.

Is it my place to judge whether someone is truly sincere in their apologies? Absolutely not. It could be that at this point the SS really is sorry for what she did, I really can't see how she couldn't be. But it hasn't been expressed well at all, and the entire thing has just left me with a bad taste in my mouth, one that isn't going away for a long time.

This statement is not meant to incite more drama or controversy-- God knows we've all had enough of THAT for one week. It is simply to express to my readers where I stand on the issue and why. I want to make it clear that IN NO WAY do I condone, approve of, or support the Story Siren's actions or how she handled the plagiarism charges made against her, and I will not be associated with her blog or any memes or promotions directly connected to her blog. THIS IS NOT A PERSONAL ATTACK on Kristi OR those who choose to continue following her blog and/or doing IMM. I'm not trying to "PUNISH" her, she doesn't even know who the heck I am. Also, I have nothing against the personal choices of my fellow bloggers and I'm not trying to convince you to make the same choice as I am-- that is up to you to decide for yourself. All I will say is that I have VERY good reason for not wanting to have anything to do with her blog anymore.

I realize that at this point, all of this has already been stated ad nauseum and we're all looking to just DROP IT and move on-- but I couldn't really move on until I had explained where I stand. I'll just end this by saying that I love and appreciate all of you my followers, and know that you will respect MY decision as I respect YOURS in this matter. I'm also honestly, extremely saddened by everything that has happened. And that's really all I want to say about this. 

RELATED LINKS:

http://www.beautifully-invisible.com/2012/01/i-think-weve-been-plagiarized-sort-of-the-story-of-the-content-thief.html

http://www.gritandglamour.com/2012/01/31/bitch-stole-my-content-plagiarism/

http://www.gritandglamour.com/2012/04/25/now-its-my-turn-for-a-clarification/ 

http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_what_is_plagiarism.html

Mean or Honest? Bloggers & Negative Reviews

Hi Guys! It's time for a little personal reflection in Libraryland...
(and yes, that's me making funny faces at the camera)

So, today I was browsing through Goodreads and reading people's reviews for a bunch of different books-- some were for books I liked, and others for ones that I didn't. And as I was reading, I noticed something that seemed to come up again and again-- readers apologizing profusely for giving their honest opinions about a book they did not personally care for.

Now, this really got me thinking, because it bothered me. Why are these lovely readers apologizing again and again for honestly saying what they didn't like about a book? Do they think they are offending someone? Are they afraid of getting bullied by the big-bad Goodreads trolls?? Are they ashamed to admit that they read a book and **gasp!** didn't like it?

I was confused by this phenomenon-- mainly because I have absolutely zero problem with stating quite clearly that I hated a book.

No apologies for being mean.

No blaming myself for not liking it.

No excuses for why I thought it sucked.

I just hated it, plain and simple.

So let me try to explain my way of thinking as a reader and a reviewer of books-- and I know not everyone is going to agree with this and that's totally OK.

Basically, I go into reading books for many different reasons. Sometimes I'll pick something up because the cover caught my eye or the story sounded particularly intriguing. Other times-- I won't lie-- I start a book because it got tons of ranting and negative feedback and I have to see if the thing is really as big of a train-wreck as everyone says it is. In some cases, I'll absolutely love a book I started out thinking I might not like. Take Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick for example-- I LOVED it! And other times I go into a book with the best of intentions and I just can't stand it-- The Replacement by Brenna Yavanoff would be a good instance. One star all the way, baby.

But does that make me a horrible reviewer-- just because I gave the Dreaded One Star and made my point very clear as to why I gave that rating?

I really don't think so. Not only am I giving honest feedback on how I felt about a book-- which is informative to other readers-- but in a lot of cases I almost feel like I'm still promoting that book with the negative review because so many readers think like me--> WOW, it sucked THAT bad?!? I have to go check this one out and see for myself!

So, there ya go. I get to rant, and the book gets more publicity than if I'd meekly watered down my opinions and merely stated "it just wasn't for me guys, SORRY, don't be mad, I'm not trying to be mean..."

In fact, I should probably point out yet another phenomenon here-- which is that my MOST POPULAR reviews on Goodreads and my blog are not for books I loved and raved about but rather-- you guessed it!-- for those 1 and 2-star reviews where I really got on my soapbox and ranted my little heart out. Which leads me to believe that people do appreciate honesty and find those kinds of reviews to be both heartfelt and interesting.

Now, let me also state that there is a BIG difference between giving legitimate reasons for not liking a book-- even ranting a bit-- and then totally abusing and otherwise trashing a book or author. Ranting I can deal with, if the reasons for doing so are backed up, but it is never OK in my opinion to trash someone or their hard work just for the heck of it. I do rant at times, but I don't think it's unprofessional, because a.) I always explain WHY I'm ranting, and b.) I would never tell someone NOT to read a book just because I personally didn't like it.

And here's another thing-- are you one of those people who doesn't thoroughly trust the reviews of people who give 4 and 5 star reviews for everything?? I know I am - because I just can't relate to it. If you totally love every single book you read, well that's great, but I don't, so your reviews probably aren't going to be that helpful to me, because I have no frame of reference for how you're judging your books, other than hey, you fall head over heels for every single one. I gain much more insight into a reader's thoughts once I've read BOTH their negative and positive reviews.

Finally, I always have my Review Policy to fall back on, just in the in-case that someone has a serious issue with what I have to say on my blog or any other public platform where I voice my opinions:

"LC's Adventures in Libraryland reviews books within the Young Adult Fiction genre. I freely choose the books that I review based on whether or not I think they will interest me and be enjoyable to my readers. As I'm sure you can tell, reading is a great passion of mine, and I have no reservations about stating my personal thoughts and opinions about the books that I read. I DO NOT pass over a review simply because I did not like a particular book: I follow my rating system and will post both positive and negative reviews.

Also, just because I may not personally like a book does not mean it's a "bad book." Everyone likes their own thing, so even if I seem particularly "harsh" about a book, I want to emphasize it is just my personal opinion. I would encourage everyone to read the books I review-- positive or negative-- and judge for themselves whether it was good or not. That is the whole point of blogging reviews for books, after all!"

I guess my final word is this: You as a reader should never have to apologize for not liking a book. It is perfectly OK to state why you didn't like something you read, and that's not being mean, that's being honest. In fact, your negative review of a book is just as worthy of respect and consideration as the next person who couldn't stop gushing about it. I actually consider it my responsibility to my followers and fellow readers to be as honest as possible, and I think I'd be doing them and myself a disservice if I wasn't perfectly honest about my likes AND dislikes as a reader. Furthermore, all authors should know that when they are published, they are putting their work out there to be seen and judged by the public-- that is the very nature of being published. If an author is not OK with receiving BOTH positive and negative feedback, then I'm sorry, but they are in the wrong profession. I am not an author, I am not published, and I give credit to each and every writer who is. That takes hard work and guts to put yourself out there. But just as it is their right to speak their minds and put their honest words out there, it is our right to do the same!

*****

So in honor of the books I couldn't stand, I'm leaving you with a fun feature: A showcase of the very best of the worst on my blog! Here are the books I ranted on and on about-- but you know what? I remember every single one, and I had so much fun sharing my thoughts about them. Also, in no way did I think reading and reviewing these books was a waste of time-- each one gave me the opportunity to express my opinions and hone my abilities to analyze and critique works of fiction-- and to me, that makes reading even a crappy book worth it.

But don't take my word for it, go out and read them yourself! In fact, I guarantee that after reading some of these negative reviews, a couple of you are going to bump these up on your lists to read next, because you have to see for yourselves if they really, truly are as bad as I thought they were.

And honestly? I seriously hope that you do-- because I'd love to hear what you think about them too! :)

~LC's Best of the Worst~

Click on the cover to go to the review!

 Of all the books I've read and reviewed on my blog, this is probably the one that I take the most issue with-- want to know why? Click on the cover to find out!

I was so dedicated to explaining why I couldn't stand this one, that I even included cartoons to illustrate my dislike!

The totally creep-tastic cover did not save this book for me-- like, at all. Couldn't stand it. Click the cover to find out why...

Holy crap, this one was a serious train-wreck for me-- beginning to end!

Ah, yes-- the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. I love it and hate it at the same time. Impossible you say? Read my reviews for all 3! :)

Pretty, empty words with a zero-action plot and no character motivation was my main beef with the second book in the Matched trilogy. It was beyond boring-- and that's me being totally honest.

The reason I haven't been blogging lately...

Hi Everyone!!

OK, so as some of you might have noticed (or maybe not, with how busy you are!) I have not been posting nearly as often as I usually do.

This is because a couple of weeks ago I decided to get myself a puppy! Her name is Sophie and she is a Pekingese-Pomeranian mix. At 11 weeks old, she is extremely curious and full of puppy energy and she has definitely been keeping me busy. Because of this, I have not had much time to devote to reading and reviewing.



Now, before Sophie arrived home, my typical day went something like this:

10:00am: Wake up (nope, I'm not joking, I don't have to work until 4pm so I slept in a lot!)
10:30am: Take a shower and get dressed
11:00pm: Go to Starbucks, get coffee and read for a few hours
4:00pm: Go into work
9:30pm: Get home, read and blog for a couple hours

Things are a bit different with a puppy around! My typical day now is something like this (and also, I'm off work for a couple weeks, so this is without that added in!):

2:00am: Take Sophie out to potty
5:30am: Take Sophie out to potty again
8:00am: Take Sophie out... you guessed it! To potty again
8:10am: Get Sophie breakfast
8:25am: Take Sophie for a walk
9:00am: Put Sophie in kennel for a nap while I get ready for the day
10:00am: Play with Sophie
12:00pm: Get Sophie lunch
12:00-5:00pm: Couple more potty breaks and playing with naps in between
7:00pm: Get Sophie dinner, take outside, back in to chill out
10:00pm: Bedtime!


In between of course there is some down time to read, but it isn't like I can just hang out at Starbucks with a triple grande Caramel Brulee latte and read for hours on end like I used to. Plus, with the holidays, things have been even more hectic, so her schedule and mine has been messed up and she's been pretty fussy... I have had a dog before, but I am really trying to train and raise Sophie to be an awesome, happy dog, so when I do have time to read lately, it has been to read doggy training books, such as the following:

As you can see, I pretty much swear by Cesar Millan, AKA "The Dog Whisperer's" methods of doing things, and Sophie so far has been pretty good at following along! As we both get into more of a routine, I'm hoping to have more time to devote to reading and my blog, but I wanted to give all my lovely readers an update on what has been going on! And of course, I had to show you guys just how stinking CUTE she is! She is very well-behaved and even sat still long enough for me to take a few photos of her next to some ARCs :)

Haha, I think she was wondering, "Why is Mommy making me sit next to a stack of books?!" 

Hoping all of you are having a great holiday! And as always, Happy Reading :)

Reflections on How Blogging Changed My Life

So I was recently visiting the wonderful book blog called Parajunkee's View-- basically the epitome of book-blogging epicness-- and saw that she had recently published her 10,000th blog post. Now, I think we can all agree, that is quite a milestone! To commemorate this achievement, Rachel, AKA Parajunkee, spent some time reminiscing on how blogging had changed her life. Well, I thought this was an awesome idea, because I know that for me personally, blogging has become a major part of my own life and what I do now. I think it is a great idea to reflect on our achievements as book bloggers, so I hope that what I have to say here inspires you to look at what you have accomplished as well. Because you know what? Whether you have 50 followers or 5,000 followers-- if you are a book blogger who loves to read, review, and share your passion for books with other people-- you have something to be proud of!!

OK, so I'm going to tell you a little of my story as the blogger behind LC's Adventures in Libraryland. I started my blog back on March 23 of this year. Up until then, I barely knew what blogging was and I didn't even have a Twitter account. My first book review was for Fallen by Lauren Kate (Which looking back, I now think I gave a fairly generous review of haha). After about one week of blogging, a wonderful blogger named Deborah from Deborah's Books, told me she loved my blog and was giving me an award! I couldn't even believe it-- I thought, hey, somebody is actually reading and LIKING what I'm writing and how I'm presenting my blog! SWEET!! I took this as a good sign and continued trying to learn as much as I could about how to create and maintain a successful blog.

I started joining in all the weekly book blog memes, like Teaser Tuesdays, Waiting on Wednesdays, and of course Follow Me Fridays by Parajunkee. Slowly but surely, my following started to grow, and by May 13th I was hosting my first ever giveaway to celebrate the 200 follower mark. I also did a major redesign to make my blog more readable (see old design was darker!). But you know what has been most rewarding? Reading some absolutely amazing YA books, and meeting some incredibly talented and supportive bloggers who have helped me to develop a hobby into something that I am really passionate about!

Today I am nearing the 1,000 follower mark, which I am really excited about. I am also now able to confidently contact authors and publishers to request ARCs for early reviews (see nerdy picture of me below lol), I'm co-hosting online events to promote new books and authors, and I often get emails from new bloggers asking for advice on how they can get their own book blogs to grow. Honestly, that is one of my favorite things about blogging, besides gaining new followers and receiving ARCs in the mail-- I absolutely love to help and support other bloggers, because that is how I became successful with my own blog-- by looking to those who came before me for tips and advice.

I would say that blogging has definitely changed my life. It has become not only a hobby and pastime, but something I am genuinely passionate about-- I love doing it, and I spend most of my free time reading, reviewing, and interacting with the blogosphere. I am now thinking of taking classes in web design so that I can expand my blog to include design for other blogs as well. I think that sites like Parajunkee's View that give honest advice on blogging are so cool, and I am very grateful for all the help I have gotten from them!

I hope that new book bloggers can be inspired just by knowing that you don't have to be a blogging genius or a high-tech web designer or a professional writer to have a successful book blog-- just be committed to providing the best site you can for you and your followers, and always be open to learning new things. Basically, just do what you love and be proud of it! That is the best advice I can give to any new blogger.

And as always, "Happy Reading" to you all!