James Devo's Blog - Posts Tagged "reviews"
Reviews
I've never really left reviews before except to warn people off a product. I'm not really a believer of music reviews as I find it so subjective - just tell me who you think it sounds like and I'll make my decision on that.
Movie reviews I've been a fan of - before the internet I used to go through the Time Out and Variety film review books obsessively, wondering if there was some hidden treasure I'd missed out on.
Since the web came on line, I liked certain sites and followed some religiously, from aintitcool to io9, Den of Geek and ScifiWard, usually enjoying the snark about films I knew I wouldn't enjoy, the tease of films I was looking forward to and finding that unknown great.
Book reviews are different though. I dislike snark in book reviews. I only read a book review if I'm already interested, if I think I'll like it or already reading, or already read it.
Sometimes I read reviews after I've finished it in an attempt to keep the world it created alive in my head.
("People who bought this also bought this" can pull me into a new author, especially if it mentions someone I already love - I discovered Iain Banks' Wasp Factory because he was compared to Martin Amis and I know whom I prefer now.)
I guess this is why I've found myself on Goodreads writing reviews for the first time. Everybody here loves books, some genres more than others. And a lot of people here were so passionate about writing they tried it themselves. Perhaps their reviews are their only creative outlet.
And as a writer, I know reviews are more important than financial reward. Well, they are to me, anyway. I'm never going to get rich off this but I might get to feel good by enriching someone else's life with a twisty turny tale with interesting characters in it.
And I guess that's what I try to get across in my reviews.
And I'm grown up enough to not finish books now. And if I don't finish, I don't think I should review it. It may have had a twist at the end that I missed and that's my problem, not the book's. I'm not Simon Cowell. I'm just someone with an opportunity to attract like-minded people to a book I enjoyed in some way, And with so many indie books out there, it's important to do that, show there is an alternative, encourage the writers to keep writing, get better, keep trying.
Thought I'd put this out there now I'm reviewing stuff. If I'm dumb enough to accidentally read something I may not like, that's a risk I'll take, and if it encourages some form of scumbaggery, I might give it a bad review, but that's yet to happen.
I do judge a book by its cover, and it usually works.
Movie reviews I've been a fan of - before the internet I used to go through the Time Out and Variety film review books obsessively, wondering if there was some hidden treasure I'd missed out on.
Since the web came on line, I liked certain sites and followed some religiously, from aintitcool to io9, Den of Geek and ScifiWard, usually enjoying the snark about films I knew I wouldn't enjoy, the tease of films I was looking forward to and finding that unknown great.
Book reviews are different though. I dislike snark in book reviews. I only read a book review if I'm already interested, if I think I'll like it or already reading, or already read it.
Sometimes I read reviews after I've finished it in an attempt to keep the world it created alive in my head.
("People who bought this also bought this" can pull me into a new author, especially if it mentions someone I already love - I discovered Iain Banks' Wasp Factory because he was compared to Martin Amis and I know whom I prefer now.)
I guess this is why I've found myself on Goodreads writing reviews for the first time. Everybody here loves books, some genres more than others. And a lot of people here were so passionate about writing they tried it themselves. Perhaps their reviews are their only creative outlet.
And as a writer, I know reviews are more important than financial reward. Well, they are to me, anyway. I'm never going to get rich off this but I might get to feel good by enriching someone else's life with a twisty turny tale with interesting characters in it.
And I guess that's what I try to get across in my reviews.
And I'm grown up enough to not finish books now. And if I don't finish, I don't think I should review it. It may have had a twist at the end that I missed and that's my problem, not the book's. I'm not Simon Cowell. I'm just someone with an opportunity to attract like-minded people to a book I enjoyed in some way, And with so many indie books out there, it's important to do that, show there is an alternative, encourage the writers to keep writing, get better, keep trying.
Thought I'd put this out there now I'm reviewing stuff. If I'm dumb enough to accidentally read something I may not like, that's a risk I'll take, and if it encourages some form of scumbaggery, I might give it a bad review, but that's yet to happen.
I do judge a book by its cover, and it usually works.
