I don't find my recall suffers when marathoning. In fact, if I watch episodes week to week I often forget what happened the previous week and it flows worse and my recall/understanding of the overarching plot suffers. I definitely prefer watching seasons at a time and have been doing it that way for... well I think longer than most people.

I will say the only time I do forget what I just watched is when my mind wanders to internety things and I get distracted by twitter/blogs etc. Reading something while ostensibly watching something is a guaranteed way to take less TV in.
My recent post Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

This looks like a really interesting exercise. I'd try doing it myself... except I really really don't want to go through 2.5 years worth of spreadsheets (100+ books a year on average) and put in all the publishers. (Maybe I can just start from this year...) I think mine would be most heavily weighted towards Angry Robot because I've read (or have in my queue) almost every Strange Chemistry (YA imprint) book they've put out, as well as a few of the default imprint SFF. Interesting to note that for me Hachette would be a much smaller percentage because I don't do paper RCs and they don't do digital RC (although they are starting to, to be fair). I'm surprised Voyager/HC don't feature more prominently for you.

From what I've seen in AWW, on the literary end of things there are bloggers interrogating books more in the way that you mean. But I've definitely seen less of that in spec fic (except for some of the more literary books/books masquerading as mainstream literature).

Regarding book blogging becoming unpaid advertising, I agree (although, obviously, paid advertising wouldn't be a significant improvement). This is part of the reason I refuse to participate in "cover reveals" and if I'm going to be part of a blog tour I always ask for an interview. That at least brings value content that I have some control over (I've seen some authors do really terrible guest posts that bring nothing to the blog, so I want to steer away from that risk.

On a related note, have you seen the series of interviews Shaheen (http://speconspecfic.com/) has been doing with publicists from big(ish) publishing houses? What I find really interesting is the answers to the question "What is your position on receiving reviews for books you have not sent to a reviewer?" They've mostly ranged from "that doesn't happen" to "gosh, what a nice surprise". And that surprises me. I don't know any book bloggers (although I know they exist) who review ONLY books publishers send them. So does that mean the publicists just aren't hearing about unsolicited reviews (because they're not notified of them) or does it mean they don't care about/pay attention to older books they've released (and by older I only mean a few years)? This is tangential to what you brought up, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Back to your earlier point, I'm a bookblogger partly because I wanted to build some connection with the (Aus) community. (And also because I like talking about books, of course.) I don't see it as something I will be doing permanently. At some point I would want to transition to being mostly a writer rather than mostly a book blogger. For now, though, this is what I'm doing, especially since with PhDing I don't have enough spare brain for much writing. But it's definitely been a valuable way to stay in touch with the community. My first foray into the Aussie spec fic community was more than a decade ago when Voyager had an online forum that was actually good and fostered friendships. (It fizzled out as they paid less attention to it. There's a new one now and it's crap.) I'm still friends with people I met through that but without bookblogging I think I'd feel like I was sitting on the outskirts looking in, rather than feeling like I was a part of something. (And this has gone way off topic relative to your original questions...)
My recent post Tsana's March Status

I find I'm definitely more likely to mince words if I'm reviewing a book by someone I know or am likely to have further contact with than, for example, a random American I will probably never meet. I will still write an honest review in both cases, but I suppose it's the difference between "the writing didn't grab me" vs "here is what was wrong with the writing style". In any case, I try to justify what I say with non-spoilery examples, it's just a matter of how detailed those examples might be.

Also, I think it's easier to write negative reviews sometimes. And certainly it can be more fun. Like a reward for finishing a crap book. But I don't write that many of them because I'm usually not too far off on choosing books to read that I'll like.

I also think that if a group of us (Aus spec fic book bloggers) got together to start an anonymous group review blog (as a random example), some of our readers would probably be able to pick out our styles anyway. Your suggestion, in the context of print reviews, of keeping the critic anonymous but revealing gender, ethnicity and politics probably wouldn't work in a small pond. That alone would likely be enough to identify the reviewer, especially if they were from anything resembling a minority.
My recent post Metastasis edited by Rhonda Parrish

Ooh, congrats on the publication! Very exciting :-D
My recent post Rare Unsigned Copy by Simon Petrie

I did not know she was Australian. I'll have to keep it in mind if I ever stumble across the book.
My recent post The Dreaming (Volume 1) by Queenie Chan

Ooh, for QUILTBAG I want to recommend Pantomime by Laura Lam. Intersex MC raised as a girl runs away to join the circus as a boy (+ magic).
My recent post Challenge round-up: Australian Women Writers

Sounds like this is one to add to my TBR.
My recent post Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

I've only ever heard SMOF used in a derogatory context (or more specifically, in blog posts complaining about SMOFs being jerks, mostly). I've always taken it to mean the fandom gatekeepers, even if they're not presenting themselves as such, and hence it's the object rather than the term itself that strikes me as negative.

I'll second you on it being more of an American thing, too. It think the Australian community is much more inviting and, quite frankly, I'm not sure I want to have too much to do with US fandom. (Not sure about UK, I have less knowledge and hence opinion there.)
My recent post Hal Spacejock: Safe Art by Simon Haynes

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Personally I liked how she wrote the guy with the damaged arm (whose name escapes me). I just bought book two the other day and I'm looking forward to getting to it.