Some Thoughts About My Book Reviews

I have been thinking about a book review that I published yesterday about David Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood. In short, my review of that particular book was positive, but not effusive. Because I focused on errors/ambiguous wordings and on what I think that book lacked, it is possible that I came across as being too harsh. As a result, I'd like to know if I should use an unambiguous rating system, such as something like Amazon's five star system, to help you quickly assess what I think of the book?

I like to publish positive book reviews on my blog, and generally refuse to even finish reading a book that I dislike (I have a "100 page rule" where I allow myself to stop reading if a book has not appealed to me by page 100). Because of my bias towards publishing positive book reviews on my blog, perhaps you think I never finish reading a book that I disliked, or actively hated. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, but my time is limited and my reading list is very very long, so instead of making it a sport to trash books on my blog, I prefer to invest my time in reviewing those books that I have enough expertise to assess reasonably accurately and that I enjoyed enough that I want to write about them after I've finished reading them.

When I read a book for review, I write notes in the margins (in pencil -- I hate defacing books!), circle misspellings/typos, and I mark, with tiny neon-colored post-it tabs, specific sections or sentences that I found interesting for a number of reasons; either because I want to do some fact-checking, because it is incorrect or because I might want to quote it in my review. Then, after I've finished reading a book, I usually wait one or two days to write the review so I have a chance to think about it. When I write the review, I have the book in-hand for quick reference. Additionally, when I have a similar book that was published awhile ago in my personal library, I compare the newly published book to it. So, when I read a book for review, it takes a fair amount of time and intellectual investment on my part, as opposed to reading for pleasure.

Of those reviews that I publish here, some take only a few hours to write while others take as long as one week for me to finish. You might be interested to know that I have read a few -- a very few -- books that are so excellent that they intimidate me, leaving me wondering what I could possibly say in a review, when all I can do is sigh in envy and wordless admiration.

I find it annoying to read a book review that is only one or two sentences long. That doesn't tell me anything about the book, it only gives me a brief snapshot of what the reviewer thought about the book -- an opinion that I might not share. I also find it tremendously annoying to read show-off-y reviews that are filled with clever and obscure literary allusions to books that I've never read: what does that tell me about this particular book?

So I write lengthy book reviews, and I try to include as much detail about the book as I possibly can. In this day of Amazon and other on-line book stores where people are often purchasing items unseen, I try to write my reviews with this in mind. Instead of blindly pimping books for publishers, I write my reviews specifically for book lovers who wish to spend their money carefully, who wish to browse through books for hours, who wish to have that intimate "hands on" feeling of actually holding a book and reading passages in it before they finally make their purchase.

Even though I have my own opinion about the books I've read, I know that my readers might not share that opinion. Thus, I try to write my review so that my readers can make up their own mind as to whether I have reviewed a book that they would like to read. I am pleased when I learn that a reader decided s/he wanted to read a particular book that s/he might not normally have chosen otherwise, based on my review.

I am not paid in cash by anyone to write book reviews, unless you consider a free review copy of the book to be payment (I do: I usually review books that I'd purchase if I had the money to do so). But if I ever do sell a book review, I would be paid $25 for it, according to my sources -- which is not exactly rent! However, I doubt any print publication would purchase one of my reviews without requiring me to make significant rewrites to fit their format.

Some books are given to me/purchased for me by readers, but most of the books that I review are mailed to me for free by the publisher's publicity agents, and many of these publicity agents are people whom I've come to know as friends over the years. Through them, I have learned that editors, publicity agents and authors actually do read my reviews -- quite an honor since I am only an amateur book reviewer, at best! So I feel a responsibility to make sure that my book reviews are as fair and honest and as clear as possible for all concerned (without being boring).

So, considering everything I've told you, let me get back to my original question; should I institute an unambiguous rating system for my book reviews, so my assessment of a particular book is clearer and can be quickly assessed by you?

My proposal: A "book report card" where I rate books on an academic standard scale (100-90-80-70 or "NA" when a particular classification cannot be made from the copy of the book that I reviewed -- for example, some review copies are uncorrected proofs or they lack illustrations) as follows;

1. Quality of the book (cover, binding, paper, etc.)
2. Quality of the editing and writing (is the prose actually readable? Are there lots of spelling errors, cut-and-paste errors, etc? Is the writing clear and concise? Are the ideas presented logically? Is the information well-organized? Is the index usable/useful? etc.)
3. Quality of the information presented (is the information scientifically accurate? Up-to-date? Correctly referenced? etc.)
4. Quality of the illustrations/photographs (are they easy on the eye? Are they appropriate for the material presented? Are the captions helpful? etc.)
5. Quality for price (Is this book worth the retail price or is it only worth purchasing at a discount?)

Does this rating system make sense to you? Is there something else I should include in this rating system to make it more useful for you? Even though I review books mainly for my readers' edification, I would appreciate input from authors and publicity agents, too. (Who knows, maybe one day I also will publish a book?) So if you have anything to add to this list, please let me know in comments so we can discuss it.