Sunday Salon – On Reading Lots of Books and Writing Reviews of Them

One of the biggest problems I have in writing reviews, after having written so many, is how to make my reviews sound different. All those words that review advice columns say never to use? After a while, I have used them all, over and over, because one simply runs out of new words. And sometimes, clichés really do describe my reading experience. But I get sick of using the words “interesting” “intriguing” “poignant” “compelling” “a must-read” “good characterization” “lyrical” “poetic” “page-turner” “it had me on the edge of my seat” etc.

(Yes, I have a thesaurus, but even it doesn’t have enough words for the number of reviews I have written!)

I also tend to include overmuch information on what the book is about. Why? Because ultimately, these reviews are for me, aand I have a shrinking memory about the size now of maybe an almond. I read many, many books, as these pictures of some of our bookshelves will show. As an example of this memory shortage, I will note that I schedule reviews in advance, and put my reviews on my blog reader so I can see when they come up. I can’t say how many times I see the review and say to myself, “Oh, I think I remember that book – who wrote the review?” Of course, it is I. (Or even worse, “Oh, what’s that book – never heard of it!) [Note: many people would have written “Of course, it is me” instead of “it is I.” I just can’t do it, in spite of the lamentable fact that “most people are cool with improper grammar.”]

Supposedly, there are “three golden rules” of book reviews:

1. The review must tell what the book is about.
2. The review must tell what the book’s author says about that thing the book is about.
3. The review must tell what the reviewer thinks about what the book’s author says about that thing the book is about.

In addition, I think it’s important to know something about the genre, so you can rate that book against its peers. For instance, I have read many post-apocalyptic books. Thus I can not only say the future [and these days, the present as well] is very scary , but I can compare each book vis-a-vis others in the category. For history and biography, I believe it is especially important to know about the subject, so one can ascertain if the author is providing a “fair and balanced” picture. Thus, theoretically, the more you read, the better your reviews.

Furthermore, I think one needs to make writing “interesting” (sorry about over-using that word). I can be bored even by my own reviews. I feel increasingly monotonous. This is why the choice of words is so “important” (another over-used word). How we love it when we read writing with sentences that sing. How sad that many reviewers (including me) only rarely can do that themselves.

What about being critical? As fun as it is to be “snarky,” it’s hard not to be nasty rather than just amusing. Authors think of their books as so personal – a part of who they are – and one just gets reluctant to hurt someone else that way. Besides, “it is a truth universally acknowledged,” as Jane Austen and S. R. Ranganathan (on the “laws” of library science) might say, that for every book there is a reader. If I don’t like a book, there is no reason someone else might love it, and that fact should be acknowledged and respected.

But alas, this desire to be “nice” sometimes means one is not completely honest, which vitiates the whole purpose of the review, at least for me. On the other hand, the more one reads, the more one learns to avoid certain genres and/or authors, and so the probability of ending up with a clunker is considerably lower.

What does all this mean? For me, it means I probably will stop reviewing eventually. It has gotten boring, and I’m out of words. I won’t, however, stop reading, and Jim and I will probably continue to post at least some thoughts about books on LibraryThing, because I love all the statistical information it provides about what we read and what others read. [If you care to follow our reviews there (and actually, we post more there than we do to the blog), our collective username is nbmars.] We both will also continue to post on Legal Legacy, a blog focused on history and legal developments.

Anyone else feel the same way about reviewing books?

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