I know a lot of people are really incredibly professional and detailed about how they review books. They review absolutely everything they read, they review even when they hate the books, happy to lay it all out there for everyone to read, they have metrics and data points and a scoring system and everything.

And that’s cool if that’s what you want to do

I don’t do that

I mostly review books that I’ve enjoyed in some aspect, and I have to admit I am mostly positive, there are times when I’m downright effusive.

There is nothing inherently wrong with either approach, at least, I don’t think so. Others may tell you differently, and that’s okay, it’s the nice part about having opinions they don’t have to be the same.

Let me lay it out for you

I think it takes a lot of effort, and time, and love and work to write a book. If i really don’t like your book I’m probably just not going to say anything about it, unless someone asks me directly what I think about it and then I will let them know what I thought with the caveat, that its just my opinion.

Just because I don’t like a book doesn’t mean it’s not a good book. It just means I didn’t like it for whatever reason. I’ll give you an example.

I hate Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (shock, gasp, the horror) I know right, I’m a terrible person. I had to read it in high school and I flat out did not enjoy it one bit. I found it boring, and overly verby and it felt like nothing actually happened ever. Thats my experience as a reader, albeit one at 16. I understand why its important historically, I can see why other people love her work, but for me its a no.

How does this help you?

It doesn’t

Reviewing is by its very nature a subjective process and it should be. If everyone loved the exact same things in art and literature and music the world would be a very boring place and all those beautiful acts of creation would be totally necessary. How sad would that be.

Back to the point. When I review something it’s because I have something I want to say about it. Because I liked something about it, because it made me question something because it made me laugh, it made me cry it made me think about my life or the world in a different way. Because it left me breathless in horror, in anticipation, in joy in sorrow in stunned silence. Because I just couldn’t get it out of my mind and I had to share it.

With you