Friday, July 8, 2011

Where Are My Book Reviews?

This is a question some of you may have been asking.  Since I'm a writer, you'd logically assume I'd talk a lot more about what I'm reading, though most of my reviews lately have been about other media (movies, television, etc...).  There is a reason for this, so let me explain.

I'm the first to admit, I'm not the world's greatest reviewer.  It's really not my forte, and as a writer of fiction I feel that many of my views are biased when it comes to the written word.  I'll read a book, and as I try to put down a report on it, I find myself wondering if I can really judge other people's work.  As a fellow writer, I will have the tendency to be overly critical (I notice every typo), or I try to be overly generous (ignoring obvious flaws to elevate a fellow author).  You must understand, for one writer to judge another is like General Motors doing a critical review on Ford trucks.

Of course, I can be as professionally detached as anyone, though it takes conscious effort, and setting myself into a reviewing mindset often knocks me off course with my fiction writing.  No sense screwing up my rhythm for a few amateurish commentaries.  Spouting some opinions about movies and tv shows is a lot easier, so they'll dominate my Wednesday Reviews feature for the time being.

I'll still let a book review slip through here and there, and I'm working up a few right now about books I read quite a while ago, though I'm never going to be renowned for book reports.  I have enough of those to write for my own books when I'm trying to sell them to publishers.  I can tell you, it's not as much fun as you might think.

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