Christopher Day asked David Dennington:

I notice that your average rating n the site for the books you have read is quite high at 4.5. Do you think that this may be because you are a writer yourself and you have a natural disinclination to criticise fellow writers as you know hard they have worked to write a book and get it published? Or are you just good at judging a book by its cover?

David Dennington As an author, yes, I am careful not to damage the feelings of other authors. If I don't have something positive to say, I'd say nothing. I know what it takes to write and publish a book-hours of researching and soul searching. Hours of drafting, rewriting and editing. A nasty review is like a punch in the gut. As Hemingway said, 'Writing's easy' just sit in front of your typewriter and bleed'. Therefore, I do not post reviews of books below three stars normally. And let's face it, five stars is rather absurd in reality. It means the work is perfect. It puts you in the realm of Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky and other great writers, which would be unrealistic for mere mortals like me. I count myself lucky. I have not received too many nasty reviews. One in particular I think was meant to be just downright nasty. What's strange is when you get a review which is spiteful, and then another which is wonderful and they both give three stars! That's hard to figure out. Sometimes, you see reviews which look like they've been written by people who wished they could write and their reviews come across as bitter. This applies to the professionals I think, who sometimes slam top authors. One thing I have learned is this: everyone is different. Some may love your work, finding it arouses their imagination and curiosity, whereas others may find it dull. I think it's a good thing that authors get a wide range of reviews. When reading a big author's reviews, and they are all gushing, you know many are false. This is really noticeable with political books. They usually receive either five stars or one star reviews. It seems to me that armies of fake reviewers have been at work. One last thought that gives me solace is when I look at Hilary Mantel's reviews for Wolf Hall, many a just downright awful. But she won the Book Prize twice! Go figure...

flag