On My Reviews

As the description below Neth Space states, I’m not a professional reviewer of any sort. In fact, aside from a technical writing course for scientists and engineers I had in college, I haven’t had an English/Literature course since high school – which was more than a few years ago. I say this to emphasize that the reviews I write represent my own opinions and not any true criticism. These reviews are intended to be relatively brief, spoiler-free and not detailed critique. In some respects, I like to think that the reviews I write are for the ‘ordinary’ reader, not for those with a master’s degree (or higher) in literary deconstruction or the like.

I will say what I think and feel – I will not write marketing propaganda. If I dislike a book, I will let you know and I will tell what I didn’t like about it. The same can be said for my liking something – I want you to get an idea of what I liked about it. I typically read books of my own choosing and books that are recommended to me by people I trust to do so. This will skew my reviews; it looks like I like everything I read. I also receive (Advance) Review Copies (ARC) from several publishers - I certainly appreciate these, but my review will be based on how I feel about the book, and to the best of my ability, won't be influenced by the fact that the book was provided by a publisher rather than purchased by me. If you want to know what books I've reviewed were provided to me, this post lists them.

I know many people really dislike ‘scoring’ or ‘rating’ a book; and equally as many people prefer it. I have chosen to rate books on a 10-point scale. A score of 5 is what I refer to as a take-it or leave-it book, which basically means that it is equally bad and good. This is the line I will typically draw between considering a book worth recommending and worthless. Since I generally choose my books and I know what I like, I’ve only scored a few books 5 or below. A score of 10 is what I consider unsurpassed – this is essentially the perfect book in every way. I am terrible at dealing with absolutes, which means I will probably never score anything a 10. Even a score of 9.5 would be considered astronomically high. With this style of scoring, anything scoring 7.5 and above is an excellent book receiving a very high recommendation from me. Scores between 5 and 7.5 are still recommended, but there is probably something about the book that I didn’t like, even though the book as a whole is still ‘good’. I rate books by how much I enjoyed them (for whatever reasons). So books of wide-ranging 'quality' might score the same, of course this is like comparing apples and oranges and is a failing of ranking system like I use. Hopefully my reviews will provide enough for you to be able to judge my tastes versus your own, because in the end, it matters what your thoughts are, not mine.

I saw a similar explaination on reviews over at SF Signal that caught my attention. While I don't agree 100% with everything he writes, the general review philosophy is similar to mine, and the vast majority of what he says applies to my reviews as well.

As I mentioned above, I am certainly willing to read an occasional ARC. To contact me, follow a link in the Contact Me section on the right.

Happy Reading!