For Mia

New Year Falling

About book reviewing

They say all writers should read as much as they can but I have to confess, it’s not so easy when your time is limited. I’m also in a phase of my life where writing is of much greater importance to me. I've become a bit of a slow reader! However, when I do read something I make an effort to review it because I feel it is so important. Authors need reviews as without them they simply cannot progress, neither in terms of improvement or public awareness.

I do think that the rating system has become a little inflated. So many books get five-star reviews now that it is difficult to see where things truly lie. I guess it's natural as a lot of friends do the reviewing too! Of course, they may still be very good books and utterly worth the rating.

For that reason, I make a point of writing a proper review. If I give four of five stars then I want to explain why I am doing so.

Likewise with lower ratings too although, since I target my reading carefully, I feel this is less likely to happen. Note that I would not post a review where someone has only one or two stars: It’s unfair to the author. The truth is if I am reading a book I am hating, possibly because other reviews have misled me, or it's simply not for me then I'll stop and go read something else. Why torture myself?

Nearly every book has something good to say about it and I say it. If there are negatives, then I tend to bring them out after the positives in my review: “The book might have been even better if …”

Note that it is important to always, always, always try and say only positive things when discussing the author and impersonalise negatives by referring to 'The book' or 'The story'.

ABOVE ALL ELSE: Enjoy your reading first. Write your review afterwards.

Anyway, those are my brief thoughts on reviewing, which I’ll try and expand it sometime in the future.

My reviews are posted here http://madden-brooker.com/Book-reviews/book-reviews.html (click on the covers to link back to the full versions on this blog site.)

The real reason writers have poor self-confidence

Insecurityscrotum the word auditor sneaked out from under the sleeping writer’s hand. He counted carefully, made notes of the grammar errors. Giggled at the descriptions. Then he climbed up to the writer’s ear and whispered …

“You are just so shit. Useless. Pathetic.”

Fantasy Me: Marlene Dietrich

Oh, those old movies seen as a kid! Dietrich (along with Becall) is mainly responsible for a lifelong temptation to start smoking.

My stories reflect my soul