Insecure Writer's Support Group: Writer vs Reader

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
        For all intents and purposes, this is meant to be a book review blog as well as my author blog. I can’t remember the last time I read a book with the express purpose of reviewing it. My review policy is up and I’m still taking requests but I have a sneaking suspicion that most people who submit are just ignoring the guidelines and trying their luck. This is why I delete 99% of the requests I get. Most of them don’t even refer to me by name but just called me “Blogger.” A lot of the novels I’ve been asked to read aren’t in a genre that I enjoy. 

         The thing is, the more I write the more critical I have become. I feel like I’m treating every novel I read as though I’m doing edits on it for a friend and often this is what makes me not want to read a book or stop reading it altogether.

        To date I’ve started at least four requested novels and at best I’ve read them to the ten per cent mark and then put them down and have never picked them up again. Once upon a time I used to be one of those people who would finish a book no matter what. Now the slightest thing can make me stop reading. If the plot is slow, I lose interest. If the romance is cheesy or if there’s any hint of a love triangle, I lose interest. I find myself making notes not in an attempt to write a review but with the aim of providing the author with constructive editing advice.

        I long for the days when I used to be able to read just for pleasure. But I’m starting to worry that because my mind is so geared towards writing, that those days are over.