It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

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DECEMBER QUESTION: Book reviews are for the readers. When you leave a book review, do you review for the Reader or the Author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?

MY ANSWER: The short answer would be all of the above. The long answer is more complicated. In general, I write reviews for myself, to keep track of what I read and didn’t read and what I liked and disliked. I also have a file on my laptop named DidNotFinish, where I list all the books I didn’t finish because I disliked them. In alphabetical order, starting with the author’s first name, so it is easy for me to find whether I read a particular book or not.

I keep all my reviews on my computer and copy them to GoodReads. I don’t review on Amazon. Sometimes, I mark the books I didn’t finish on GoodReads as well, but most of those unfortunate titles are only in the above-mentioned file on my laptop.

I have to point out that my reviews are not literary critique. They convey my subjective opinion. Sometimes a book is a bestseller, beloved by many readers, but it doesn’t work for me. Then it goes into that file and on GoodReads. My DNF wouldn’t damage a bestselling author’s reputation, so I feel free to express myself. My reading is for my pleasure, and if I can’t derive pleasure from a book, I usually don’t bother finishing it.

On the other hand, sometimes the author is a newbie. In that case, if I dislike his/her book, I usually enter it only in my file and don’t touch its GoodRead page. I don’t want to spoil the chances of a new writer by damning their first or second book with my DNF. My opinion is subjective after all.

What about you? Do you read everything to the end? What if you don’t like what you read? Do you ever abandon books in the middle? Do you write reviews for such books? Tell me in the comments.