When I opened my own business over a decade ago, my reading life took a dive off a precariously stacked mountain of books. A few years ago, after finally getting the glasses I didn’t realize I needed and deciding I needed to make space in my life for things nonbusiness related, I began reading again. I perused my TBR (To Be Read) pile. I renewed my library card and tried a few e-reader apps to replace the first gen nook that stopped functioning years ago. I also made time to visit a book shop that opened near my business.
Then, as days between my website postings turned into weeks and then months, I started wondering why I couldn’t include something else, like book reviews, on the site as a way to keep it “active”, engage my readers, and share something fun. (Because, I’ll be honest, even though I may not post a story or essay as often as I used to, it doesn’t mean I’m not writing. It just means I have nothing written that I can share…yet.)
That’s how this page came to be.
What’s going to be different about my reviews are their lack of ratings. Ratings are tough, and completely subjective. While my review will still be subjective, that’s the nature of a review, I won’t simply consolidate it into an arbitrary number. For example, I don’t usually enjoy detective novels or murder mysteries. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t great who-done-it’s out there. It just means I’m not likely to enjoy even the most well written one as much as someone else might. To be frank, not everyone has to like every book, especially award winners, just as not everyone enjoys the same TV shows or movies. And that’s ok.
As a writer, I understand that every author pours all their creative energy into every sentence they write. So, I’m trying to share what I did or did not like in a way that lets you decide whether or not to read the book rather than judge the writing. I’ll try to say things like “I didn’t enjoy their style” instead of “the writing was horrible”. Sure, sometimes the writing might be horrendous, but language is fluid, and maybe it really is more about my reading style and learned grammar rules than the authors skill with language.
All opinions are my own, as I mentioned we won’t all like the same thing. That’s ok. After a few reviews I’m certain you’ll learn what I like and don’t like, and that will determine if my reviews are helpful to you. If they aren’t that’s ok, just keep turning those pages, swiping that app open, and listening to those tales.
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