It has been a hot minute since I participated in let’s Talk Bookish. Either the topic didn’t speak to me or I missed one which I will be saving for a later time. However, this week’s one could be interesting as opinions differ. Davida Chazan @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book review Blog suggested this week’s discussion: Quotes and Excerpts/Extracts.

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted by Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Since April 2022, this meme is hosted by , Aria @ Book Nook Bits and since February 2025, Dini @ DiniPandaReads is the co-host. Let’s Talk Bookish is a meme where participants discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and share their love by visiting each other’s posts.

Prompts: Do you like to use quotes from books in your book reviews? If so, do you prefer to keep them at a minimum or do you include as many as you can? Do you like to make posts with excerpts or extracts from novels? Do you think that quotes and excerpts/extracts make readers more or less interested in reading the book? Why or why not?

Do you like to use quotes from books in your book reviews? If so, do you prefer to keep them at a minimum or do you include as many as you can?

This answer is short and sweet: no. I am the worst in remembering quotes and I don’t care too much to even try to remember them. Furthermore, I’m reading digitally and consume lots of audiobooks whilst doing chores or travelling in between. This makes it harder to stop and mark a quote, because I hear them and you just can’t do that in audiobooks. But I’m the same with ebooks as I use an app that allows me to lock my screen when voiceover is reading the book to me in text to speech. I therefore don’t remember quotes and logically can’t add them to my book reviews.

Do you like to make posts with excerpts or extracts from novels?

I’m not too sure, maybe I’m translating this wrong in my head. Personally I only use the Goodreads blur and if they’re insufficient I will write my own synopsis. For my Dutch reviews I do this definitely as my review structure is different. I would never post full extracts, because they might give away too much.

Do you like to make posts with excerpts or extracts from novels? Do you think that quotes and excerpts/extracts make readers more or less interested in reading the book? Why or why not?

When I read reviews and I see a quote, I just skip over it. I don’t care, I want to experience the book for myself. Quotes can give so much away and in my opinion, reviews are for the reader and have to pinpoint the things you like or couldn’t resonate with in this novel. It’s your reading experience, and quotes/excerpts/extracts distract from this experience and might give away a potential spoiler for anyone reading your review. They definitely make me less interested to read a particular book, unless the summary provided by the publisher is insufficient. Then a self-written synopsis would be ideal. That’s what I’m considering now, to replace the provided synopsis by my self-written ones in my future reviews. I just am not sure yet, because where to put them? Oh well.

How do you feel about quotes/excerpts/extracts? Do you put them in your reviews and why or why not? Do you prefer using the excerpt provided by the publisher or to write your own synopsis?