Book reviewers

Reading Reviews

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
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I asked a question recently about how people use reviews to choose books and discovered that a number vehemently refuse to read reviews. I could not help but mentally cry “ouch” because that is one of my principle activities on this blog, having written roughly 1700 reviews over the last ten years. I write reviews with the hope that they will both help people find books they will love, and also avoid books that aren’t for them. I love sharing what I read for that reason.

Some people don’t share that love, I think, because they think choosing books is a very personal choice and they don’t want anyone else meddling with that. Some don’t want to know too much about their books before they read them. And some have been burnt by reviews that led them to books they could not finish, they were so bad. Some consider reviewers part of a literary set removed from life. I respect all of those reasons.

I’m also aware that I’m heeding reviews all the time, even when I’m not reading them in papers, literary review publications, or blogs. Part of it is that I’m around friends who read and they tell me about books and I’m always learning about books I’m interested in because my friends are interesting! On the Facebook page I host, people talk about books they are reading. They are not reviews, but sometimes, a book stands out, particularly if a number are talking about it. As I write, I’m reading Demon Copperhead, by Barbera Kingsolver, and loving the book. I don’t think I read a formal review about it–I’ve just heard a number of people rave about it. I will review it when I’m finished but I bet at least one person reading this just added this to their mental “I’m going to check this out” list.

So reviews come in lots of forms. I do read a number of review publications as well, including the New York Times Review of Books, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Christianity Today. I also read a variety of newsletters. One of my favorites is Hearts and Minds Booknotes from bookstore owner Byron Borger. He’s steered me to many interesting books, including a number I’ve purchased from his store.

Booksellers and librarians actually can be trusted reviewers, especially if they’ve gotten to know our reading tastes. They know what’s out there and can suggest authors we’ve not explored based on some of the ones we like. I usually find them much better than an algorithm!

Sometimes I like to read reviews of a book after I’ve read it. Often, my own thoughts are still forming and a mental dialogue with a reviewer will crystallize my own assessment of a book, whether I agree or not or have a different take altogether. Sometimes I find myself wondering, “did we read the same book?” That makes me ask why I am asking that. If several reviewers are touching on a particular issue in or aspect of a book, that suggests that I might want to notice it, and when I write about the book, give my own thoughts on the matter.

I don’t pay much attention to either Amazon or Goodreads reviews (although in the interest of full disclosure, I post some Amazon reviews and copy all my reviews to my Goodreads account). Frankly, there are just too many instances where the system has been corrupted, often to the hurt of authors.

I try to follow reviewers who have steered me well in the past. I’ve been heartened when I hear from someone who read a book I reviewed and found the book helpful and follows my reviews because of that. That’s what I and any ethical reviewer strive for.

Like most readers, I’m eager to find the next “good read.” Some are repeat buys of authors I love. I don’t need a review and I’ll likely buy their books until they disappoint me. But I like discovering new books and new authors. Reviews, whether via the informal buzz of friends or a well written review in a publication help me sift from the welter of books the ones I want to check out.

So what do I say to those readers who don’t read reviews? Basically, if what you are doing to find books you love is working, who am I to say you should do any differently? But if you want to learn about books you might not have heard of that you might like, the reviewer is your friend. Any of them are readers just like you and love to talk books with anyone who will listen. And that, I think, is one of the coolest things about the bookish community.

How Many Books Do You Review?

/ rtrube54 / 2 Comments

My

My “to be reviewed” pile.

How many books do you review?

That’s a fairly easy question for me to answer. For the last couple of years I’ve reviewed about 120 books a year or about ten a month, or two to three a week. This month, I’ve reviewed eleven. I review books I’ve read and completed, and I review just about anything I read, unless I’ve reviewed it before.

I generally read for about 90 minutes to two hours in the early mornings and an hour or so most evenings and then catch as catch can. I usually have something in my bag if I have a break between meetings. Sometimes, airports and planes have proven a great place to read. (Up until now I’ve resisted getting a smartphone, and I think this allows me more reading time).

That means I read fairly quickly and one of the things I’m wrestling with honestly as a reviewer is the balance between reading quickly and reflectively. Perhaps the best answer I’ve found so far is that the reflection part comes when I’m not reading, and also when I actually write reviews.

I was curious about how I stack up to other reviewers and found that I’m about in the middle. At one extreme is Nenia Campbell, a Goodreads reviewer. In a 2014 Washington Post article, it was reported that she had reviewed 1557 books on Goodreads in the last 12 months and was their number one reviewer. That’s 30 books a week! And she reads everything from bodice-rippers to Jane Austin to works of philosophy. My 2-3 books a week is positively pedestrian! But then to put it all in perspective, a Pew Research Study shows the average American adult reads 5 books a year.

I found a more realistic spread in a Baseball Book Reviewers Roundtable where reviewers reviewed between 10 and 175 books a year, with most between 30 and 60. In a Times Literary Supplement article, I learned that George Orwell reviewed about 700 books, plays, and films over two decades, about 35 per year. In 1940, he reviewed 135 in 67 review articles. He also wrote an essay on book reviewing, where he speaks of the regular reviewer as anyone writing over 100 reviews a year (I guess I qualify). He gives an unflattering picture of the reviewer’s work:

“Every writer, in any case, is rather that kind of person, but the prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books is a quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job. It not only involves praising trash — though it does involve that, as I will show in a moment — but constantly inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous feelings whatever. The reviewer, jaded though he may be, is professionally interested in books, and out of the thousands that appear annually, there are probably fifty or a hundred that he would enjoy writing about. If he is a top-notcher in his profession he may get hold of ten or twenty of them: more probably he gets hold of two or three. The rest of his work, however conscientious he may be in praising or damning, is in essence humbug. He is pouring his immortal spirit down the drain, half a pint at a time.”

One of the difference between Orwell’s time and our own is the rise of those who aren’t paid for their reviews, including most of those on blogs or Goodreads. Editors can assign books to read that the reviewer has not choice but to write on. For bloggers, there is more choice but the temptation of the review copy can lead us to read things we otherwise wouldn’t touch. Publishers who send them like prompt reviews as well. There is a temptation to be driven by this so that they will keep sending you books. I’ve had to start saying “no” and learning to be really selective and only request what I really want to read, and only when I’ve finished what i already agreed to review. As it is, I have a stack of eight TBRev (To Be Reviewed) to distinguish from To Be Read.

What it seems to come down to for me is keeping my freedom to read what I love and enjoy what I’m reading. it seems that is the freedom we have when we aren’t making our living by this work but simply sharing and engaging with others about what we think is worthy of reading. And the right number of reviews is simply what one can do without compromising that love and joy and worth and becoming Orwell’s jaded reviewer.