Book Reviews

As a lover of books, I try to review the books that I read. Up until recently though that only consisted of a star rating, usually on Goodreads. Recently though I have been trying to write more in-depth reviews. This does not come naturally to me though. I really hate to bash books if they are not that good (with a few exceptions). But I do feel a need to warn other readers if a book is terrible.

For me, writing about a bad book is much easier than writing about an amazing book. I think this is something that is more prevalent in this day and age with the internet at everyone’s fingertips. I feel like more people are quick to jump online and write a bad review about a restaurant or an experience that they had than to write a glowing one.

I personally have started to write more in-depth reviews recently to try my hand at writing more often. I often find it easier to write about a subject that I am passionate about such as books or reading. Sometimes though reviewing does not come naturally to me. I find that when I read a book I generally do not read with a critical eye. I don’t look for mistakes or missing punctuation. I read to escape and to enjoy what I am reading. This does sometimes pose a problem when I go to post a review of something though. Even if I love the book I struggle to put into words the joy, amazement and wonder that I felt while reading it. To me, reading is a very personal thing and varies person to person. So while I may have loved a series or book others may have hated it. I find myself comparing my reading tastes and reviews with other readers that have read the same way. Sometimes this is great! Reading others reviews of books that I have read can sometimes open my eyes to things I did not glean from the book when I read it. Other times it can be a bad thing to read others point of views before you have shaped your own. I find myself reading a review of a particular book that I loved recently and all of the other reviews were not the best. This made me question myself. Did I really pay attention while I was reading? Did I miss something as I was reading? Am I really that unobservant?? Should I even be reviewing this??

How do you like to review books? Do you simply give a starred review or do you go more in-depth? What websites do you use to review? I am always curious to hear how others review books.