The Thing I Hate About Reviewing Books

First off, I want to mention that those of you who have been nagging me about how long it's been since I blogged need to get lives. You know who you are.

On the other hand, I was seriously annoyed when Kathy Flake went to Ireland and didn't blog the whole time she was gone, and have been tapping my foot in irritation at Planet Raw Milk's lack of entries since late July, and really had very dark thoughts about the week that passed without anything new over on Dogma, so I'm as bad as anyone else, I guess. I just didn't actually SCOLD them about it. Well, until  now.

Back when I first started writing for magazines and newspapers, I was really excited at the trickle of review copies of books I would get. When I was running the pet care area for AOL, that trickle became a river... but I still liked it. I would doggedly plow through pretty much every book I was sent, and always managed to find a nice word to say about everything.

What the heck is the point of a book review if the person writing it isn't honest?

So I changed my policy and started only reviewing books I liked. (Which is a shame, because I have a gift for ripping things to shreds.)

And that leads me to the current state of affairs as regards reviewing books.

I get so many books now that I couldn't possibly read them all. I ship a fair amount of them out to my staff over at PetHobbyist.com, because we recently started a pet book newsletter and have a section in our bookstore for reviews. It eases my guilt a bit.

But the worst, the absolute WORST, is when friends or acquaintances send me copies of their books to review. As long as I have nothing bad to say about the book at all, everything is fine. But let's face it, there aren't that many books that I have NOTHING bad to say about. One book I got from an acquaintance not too long ago was pretty good, but it had a sub-theme in it that made me want to tear my hair out and go beat the author up. The sub-theme had nothing to do with the main point of the book (in fact, IMO it was a total distraction and should have been left out, and not just because it annoyed the hell out of me), and I could easily have dismissed it with a single sentence and reviewed the book pretty favorably.

So, what's hanging me up? I can't review the book without expressing my view on the sub-theme, but I also can't bring myself to hurt the author's feelings. So the book sits there, read but unreviewed, while no doubt the author is wondering... is she going to review it? Did she get it? Did she hate it? Should I ask her?

And I sit here hoping against hope that he never, ever does.

Comments

[Travis]

Ahhh, the problems when everybody wants your opinion. ;)

Scold? I never scolded. I simply mentioned very nicely that you were a bit behind on your blogging duties. Scold? Hmmph.

Travis

[gina]

Hey ... I've been sick!

[KathyF]

Sorry about that; glad you missed me! I know what you mean about the reviewing thing. Being a writer and a reviewer is tough.

Did you get cholera too Gina?

My blogging will resume tomorrow when the company leaves. I totally respect those who blog with children around. Right now one is sitting in my lap.

[todd]

Hehe, I believe this is the second time you've chastised me for not posting. I have a few things bookmarked that I'll get to soon. We just got back from vacation, which explains one week's worth of postlessness.