Maureen Johnson started an interesting discussion on Twitter the other day about what makes a good book blog. Opinions varied, but one thing that emerged is that some folks dislike and/or distrust book blogs that don’t contain negative reviews.
As you might have noticed, I don’t do negative reviews. And I’m not going to start. The reason for this is quite simple. If I start reading a book and it’s lousy, I don’t finish it.
I believe that a lot of people are less fond of reading than they might otherwise be because as kids, they’re forced to finish crap books. Or good books that they, for whatever reason, just don’t like. For example, Charles Dickens never blew my skirt up—not as a kid and not now. But I’ve wiled away more hours than I can count with Ed McBain, starting when I was about 8 (yes, my dad was of the mind that I didn’t need to be restricted to kids’ books because reading, by definition, was never going to harm me).
Some people think it’s important to give a book at least 50 pages before giving up on it. My threshold is more like 10 pages. That said, I have occasionally finished books whose characters I was not fond of because they were good stories. Just like I don’t adore every person I meet, some book characters just piss me off. I think that’s OK. I just read one such book, in fact. I didn’t like any of the characters, but they told me a great story so I put up with them.
Oh, and I walk out of bad movies too. So at least I’m consistent.
To be clear: I do marketing/PR/publicity in my day job, but I’m not compensated for anything I do here. If that ever changes, I’ll include a disclosure statement, but I’m never going to sell my honest personal opinion of a book. I’ve managed to get a hold of early review copies of books, but never with any kind of caveat of a positive review, or any review for that matter. I think it’s pretty obvious that what I’m writing here is my opinion, and I’m happy to share my excitement about books, authors and characters I like. If you’re looking for snarky beat-downs of unreadable drivel, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
I’d love to know what you think…do you find book blogs that don’t contain negative reviews less valuable? What do you think makes a book blog interesting and readable?
I think you know my take on this, since I also do not finish books I don’t like and do not write about books I don’t finish. I don’t have unlimited time and I sure don’t want to waste what time I do have giving any kind of attention to books I didn’t like and thought unworthy.
Most people who know me and have talked about books with me know I’ll say when I didn’t like a book – if the book comes up in discussion. I’ll explain why I didn’t like the book. But I’m not going to waste time I could be reading, listening to audiobooks, writing other reviews, working around my house, walking my dogs, sleeping…you get the idea.
Life really IS too short for bad books.
I am 100% with you on the “life is too short for bad books” argument. And I’m an avid subscriber to Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50, so I do usually give a book at least 50 pages to woo me, but if it’s not working then, I move on. If I stop at 50, I don’t write about it because I don’t think that’s fair—you can’t comprehensively review a work if you’ve only read, say, one-sixth of it (assuming the average novel is about 300 pages). But if I read more before bailing out, I *might* write about my reasons for stopping. Maybe.
Negative reviews only make me trust a blog more if I’ve ever suspected that the writer’s positive reviews were less than genuine, and that doesn’t happen often. What I’m looking for in blogs is authenticity, an engaging voice, enthusiasm about books, a unique point of view, and a discussion of how/why a book works or doesn’t work.
I won’t post bad reviews just out of courtesy. The entire purpose behind my blog was to give back to the writing community. I want to see people succeed, I don’t want to waste my time writing about a book I didn’t like. I will, however, find the book a home and be honest about why I chose not to read it or why i didn’t like it. Thankfully, this has only happened twice.
Mostly commenting because I adore the phrase: Charles Dickens never blew my skirt up—not as a kid and not now.
Heck of an image. 🙂
I won’t post super negative reviews of a book a publicist sent me, or an author… because I feel for the fact that they put hard work into crafting a book that I might have disliked.
I have had quite a lot of fun taking apart books I’ve read from the library, though.
What’s even harder, sometimes, is the books that were… adequate. Not great giddy-pleasure lovely books, nor scathing-hate-targets. That’s where chick lit hits me a lot of the time. Functional, but underwhelming.
And I know that’s pretty much just a personal preference.
But it makes it tough to write about a book. Sometimes even tough to finish reading it.
Your post explains why you don’t complete bad books, but it doesn’t provide a justification for why you don’t write about that experience. I find the “life is too short” explanation to be less than convincing. How long does it take to write that you started a book, but you didn’t like it, so you quit reading?
I don’t know you personally, but one of the concerns I have in reading reviews from blogs is how concerned the bloggers are with cultivating and maintaining a friendly relationship with the author community. Does this compromise the objectivity of the review? Is it fair to call it a “review,” which implies some sort of evaluation?
Overall, I do find blogs that don’t contain negative reviews to be less valuable. What’s the point of reading the review if I already know the conclusion of the review (the blogger liked the book) based on the mere fact of its appearance on the blog?
Good points. In short, I wouldn’t write a review of a book I stopped reading because I feel like it would be unfair. Books are so personal, and what I love another might hate, and vice versa. That said, I think I could probably do a better job of explaining why I liked a book I did, and will try to do that! I think being involved in the author community actually helps because it can create opportunities to find/create different kinds of content. Honestly, I can see that it could potentially compromise objectivity on occasion, although it’s not an experience I’ve had personally. Your point about the “review” term is a good one…perhaps I just think of book blogs more as book “recommendation” sources 😉
Erin,
This is a very timely blog for me to read. Up until recently I posted about everything I read in my blog. If I didn’t finish a book I would mention that as well as my reason for not finishing it and leave it at that. Obviously I wouldn’t call that a review, but more a reminder to myself to maybe think twice before picking up another book by that author.
And that’s just it. Until recently my blog was just my personal way of keeping track of what I had read. Yes, it was public, but I never wrote about the books I had read with an audience in mind.
Recently I have started receiving books to review from a few English publishers and now I find myself facing a dilemma. It hasn’t happened yet, but what do I do if and when I receive a book that just isn’t for me, a book I truly dislike? Do I still put the review out there, or do I keep quiet.
When I find myself facing that situation, I’ll probalby contact the person who’s sending me the books and ask what I should be doing, but still, it is something I’ve been thinking about.
Personally I don’t think there’s anything wrong with mentioning in a blog that you didn’t finish a book. After all, not every book is for every reader. What I don’t like though are reviews that read as if the reviewer wants to take the author down. On the rare occassions that I don’t finish a book I try to articulate why the book didn’t work for me, making it as clear as I possibly can that it is just my opinion, and/or my mood at the time of reading.