Thoughts about reviewing books
Although I started this blog back in 2006, I didn’t write any book reviews until January 2008. I’d been logging my reading material for the previous two years, and I came to the conclusion that it might be more interesting (and bring more readers to this blog) if I actually wrote properly about what I was reading. I decided to aim for two books per month, mostly things that were new (or at least, new to me).
My first review was The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris. In fact, this novel was really the catalyst for my decision to write reviews. I was familiar with her other novels – especially Chocolat, of which this was a sequel – and while reading, I found myself having so many thoughts about the actual novel itself (rather than just getting submerged in the story) that I wanted very much to write them down. So I did.
This review was the first that I’d written probably since my early teens – and those would have been for my English class. I didn’t really think about how I was going to structure my review or what information I wanted to include, beyond deciding up front that I didn’t want to give away too much of the story. I just wrote the review, and rearranged some bits afterwards, and called it done.
Now, ten reviews down the line (not quite having stuck to my two per month), I’m wondering what I’ve got myself into. I’ve generally awarded 6, 7 or 8 stars out of 10 to the novels I’ve read, and I’m not sure if that really reflects on the books themselves or just my desire to actually like what I read! I seem to have reviewed mainly fantasy and SF novels – but then, those are the genres I read most – but I have read outside my comfort zone. I’ve also discovered some new authors, thanks to this blog having been found by some publishers who offered me advanced reading copies. Free books, how can that ever be a bad thing?!
But in writing my reviews, I’ve realised that I’ve been going about this whole reviewing thing in a very haphazard way. So, here are my current plans for ‘how to review a novel’:
- Try not to have any (many) preconceived notions about the book.
This can be hard if it’s written by someone you’re familiar with, or if you’ve read other reviews; I try and avoid reading those until afterwards. - Read the book. If there’s anything that really strikes you on this first read, make notes.
I haven’t written notes for the reviews I’ve done so far, but I think I really should – when it comes to write the reviews, I often miss things out that I’d thought a few days before. However, I haven’t yet decided whether to make notes during the reading (while my thoughts are fresh), or do afterwards so as not to disrupt my reading flow. - Do some research on the book and the author.
Why now, not before? Well, to avoid preconceived notions. And I wrote some of my reviews without bothering to find out more, whereas in retrospect it would have been useful to know when Markus Zusak (The Book Thief) decided to use Death as a narrator, or interesting that Nick Harkaway (The Gone-Away World) is the son of well-known thriller writer John le Carré and received a huge advance for his book… - Read the book again and make any more notes while you’re reading.
I generally try to read any book I review at least twice before I write the review – partly so I feel I’ve given it a fair go. - Write the review. Try and structure each review in roughly the same way – collaborative ones aside, of course.
Although I haven’t had a conscious plan for structuring my reviews, they have basically broken down as follows:
- introduction: author, title, where it fits with their other work, what genre it might come under
- a few paragraphs describing the plot, with minimum spoilers (although sometimes I have to add a few otherwise the discussion doesn’t make sense)
- a few more paragraphs describing what I thought of the story; its plot, the writing style, anything else that’s relevant
- a quick summary of my thoughts, and sometimes a recommendation (you’ll enjoy this if you like X and Y)
So… Do any of you write book reviews? If not, why not? And if you do, what do you think of my brand new 5-step plan?
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on July 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Book reviews are a regular feature on my blog. I set out this year to review every book I read, but haven’t lived up to it. I’ve written about some of the most important books I’ve read.
I like your five steps. I think it’s a good set of guidelines. One thing I try to do is not write a book report. This is very important to me when I review classic books that kids may be Googling for book report fodder. I’d rather not be copy pasted and handed in as a paper.
on July 6th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Heck, that’s a really good point, Tina. I never even thought of kids needing book reports.
Mind you, I don’t think anything I’ve been reviewing would be anything a teacher might set a student to read…
on July 6th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
I also recently started a book review site. I like your approach. Mine is just hit or miss mostly not to give away the ending or too much of the story. I also always try to link the author’s name to their website in each review in case somebody wants to see what else they’ve done. I also include new authors in my blogroll.
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on July 6th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Very timely! I’m supposed to be writing a review for a book written in French. I have been supposed to be doing it for months now, and as a result have done very little of anything. It has been most incredibly difficult. I find I can’t just skip back a few pages, or look something up quickly, because the words don’t pop out at you from the page as they would when you scan for something in English. Anyway, you have spurred me into further action, and even though it’s non-fiction, I’ll follow your plan.
I have done brief book reviews in the past, but nothing much recently. I haven’t felt I could, with this one outstanding
I really do need to get it out of the way.
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on July 6th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
[...] Sharp Words has a five step plan for book reviewing. [...]
on July 6th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I think Number one is critical – even going so far as to avoid reading the blurb on the back or admiring the cover too much.
My own personal feeling about Number 4 is that I would *hate* to read any book again so soon – this would make it feel like work for me and I would soon come to resent having to do this work.
I enjoy reading and reacting to it – a forced reread would kill all that for me.
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on July 6th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Erf, good luck with that, A! Rather you than me.
And you’re bang on, Ken – it can be hard sometimes to re-read something fairly soon, which is why it’s often more than a month between me reading something for the first time and then writing a review (more than a month clearly not being a brief time for me between reads, considering my reading speed).
If I really find myself having trouble re-reading something, I do give up and just base my review on the first read. But that just means it’s more important that I start to take notes…
on July 7th, 2008 at 6:29 am
I’ve been doing book reviews that sometimes stray into the report realm for about 2 years now. I’ve done 27,and do enjoy it. They are listed here:
http://cromely.blogspot.com/2006/09/book-reviews-index.html
As I read the books, I have about 20-30 book darts attached to the back page. This are small, thin, metal book marks ideal for marking a passage. If a particular passage strikes me as interesting, I flag it with one of the darts. When I finish a book, I transcribe all those key passages and go from there. Sometimes it can take a month between the time I finish a book and the time I finish the review.
The great things about it is it really helps me remember the books I read, and the details in them, months later.
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on July 7th, 2008 at 7:50 am
For my part, I’m always glad when people manage to get through a review without mentioning my father… if someone finds useful or interesting comparisons, that’s one thing, but I don’t believe anyone has yet made any kind of actual critical point after name-checking him. It’s just a necessary (?) part of writing about me, a bit like the tags red-top newspapers hang on people: “Busty Siobhan, 22″, “Fiery redhead Alex, from Dulwich”… “Harkaway, son of novelist John le Carré”…
And to find someone who actually avoided all that and read the book without knowing it… bliss.
By the same token, I think you loose something the more “professionally” you approach reviewing. Certainly if I’m reading a book because I feel I have to, my responses are very different from when I’m just reading because I want to. I used to do some film reviews occasionally, and I’d be watching for something to say – which usually means something negative. The entire experience is different, and I’m not sure that difference is one which adds anything to your ability to tell people how they will feel watching. (Although perhaps we’re all critics now, rather than just audience members.)
So I’d urge you not to mess with the formula you have too much. But then, I would – you were nice about my book
If your curiosity now that you’ve found me out is overwhelming, I wrote a piece about being “son of” for the Telegraph – in print, the title was: “Do you know who I am? I hope not” Online it seems to be “le Carré with ninjas”. I was happier with the print version… Anyway, it’s here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/06/28/boharkaway12.xml
Cheers,
NH
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on July 7th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
It’s a nice post, and reading it I feel that I should write more reviews – not just books, I mean, but reviews in general. I think being able to write in a certain format, with clear ideas about what has to be put across, is good practice for any writer.
Fiendish’s last post: Some Fiction
on July 7th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
What a great set of steps for reviewing books! I think that when I review a book, I tend to leave off the author stuff – I just review the actual book and don’t give a lot of details about the author or their previous (if any) writings.
Like Tina pointed out, you don’t want to write something a kid (or college student) could just copy/paste into their book report.
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on July 7th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Cromely: I like the idea of book darts. I think I just need to get the post-its out, actually. I don’t tend to include passages of the novels though the way you do, though, although to be honest, I’m not sure why I don’t include a few snippets sometimes as illustrations.
Fiendish: well, being a technical writer, I pride myself on being able (in theory) to write in a concise and clear manner. Sometimes, anyway.
I’ve found that having a structure to my reviews helps me make sure that at least most of the info I want to include gets in there though.
Margaret: thanks for the compliment! And I don’t really include much author stuff beyond things like it being a debut novel, or else if they have something really well-known (as with Joanne Harris).
on July 7th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
And Nick Harkaway’s comment gets a reply all of its own, because, you know, ZOMG an author actually commented on my blog! (OK, fan-girling over and done with now…)
Actually, it’s a bit daunting to think that the author of something I’ve reviewed has read that review. It’s something I’m very aware of with the next book I’m reviewing, Living with the Truth, because I know Jim sometimes does read this blog and will almost probably definitely read the review. (So if he doesn’t comment, I will be disappointed.)
Anyway, thanks for commenting on this post, Nick – and in response, I much prefer being an amateur reviewer, and definitely one who does it for the love of it.
OK, I do feel a certain obligation with books I’ve been sent, to produce a timely and coherent review, but I’ve been lucky so far that I’ve enjoyed all of my ARCs. I’m dreading getting one that I find really hard to read, and that I might end up forcing myself to read.
The other novels I’ve reviewed are ones I’ve bought or picked up at the library, and I’ve definitely chosen to review those just because I wanted to.
It’s not something I’d ever want to do for a living though – and I imagine that as a pro reviewer that it might be difficult to read things ‘cold’ the way I did with The Gone-Away World.
I really liked your article in The Telegraph by the way – I’m so glad that when (if) I finally produce something worthy of sending to an agent, I’m not going to have to contend with something like that!
on July 8th, 2008 at 9:05 am
I’ve been aiming at one review per month. I think I might be a little ahead. I only read the book once. I find reading very hard at the moment at the moment anyway but my logic is that most people will only read a book the once. Most of my books I’ve only read once. I don’t write notes but I’ve not reviewed a hard book yet. I think it’s a good idea actually.
Once I have the book in my head and some idea how I’m going to tackle it I’ll go ahead and read all the reviews I can find so that I don’t simply say what everyone else is saying or if I am then I want to make sure I’m saying it in a different way.
It’s important to me to include decent, representative quotes from the book. I like to hear the author’s voice not the reviewer’s. It’s also of paramount importance that I don’t reveal any major plot points and that can be hard because often the end is when the author ties everything together and the book makes sense. It’s helpful if I can find a similar author that my readers will recognise to use as a comparison.
I don’t have a particular shape for a review other than ending it with a recommendation and a brief author bio. I do always make a point of including a sizeable picture of the book’s cover. I don’t like stars myself. There are too many factors to consider. I’m been told several times that my reviews make people want to read books they’ve never heard of. That’s good but I also take the responsibility quite seriously. This is a personal recommendation. I’m not sure what I’ll do if I find myself in a position where I need to review a book I hate. Make up new rules I guess.
Hope this is of some help. It’s a bit rambley. It’s late. I’m tired.
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on July 8th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Jim, thanks for your comments on reviewing.
I get what you mean about not wanting to say what others are saying about a book – but I’m too afraid of contaminating my own thoughts to want to read other reviews, and I don’t think it’s worked against me too much so far.
I probably should start including quotes though (hey, an excuse to cover Living with the Truth in purple post-its – or would you prefer another colour?). I do always have a pic of the cover – which generally has an Amazon affliate link if anyone bothers to mouse-over it. I should probably include a ‘click to buy’ note somewhere!
on July 8th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Catherine, I tend to go for pastels myself. Make of that what you will.
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on July 10th, 2008 at 4:03 am
[...] of Sharp Words is working a little differently with her book reviews and it’s coming along better than she’d [...]
on July 14th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Congrats on the WOOF contest win on http://plotdog.com. I do some reviews including books. I don’t really use a process to this point, but maybe I should. This was a helpful article so I stumbled you. Great work and again, CONGRATS
on July 15th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
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on July 18th, 2008 at 8:40 am
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on July 21st, 2008 at 6:35 am
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