I love reading book reviews. I don't
believe in the concept of 'objective reading': there is no one 'true'
way to read a book because a book isn't an objective reality of its
own. A book is different to every reader - changed by their memories
and associations and motivations, the mental and emotional state
they're in when they read it. Think of a book you've read again and
again. Every reading is a completely different experience. The text
hasn't changed but, for you, the book has changed.
So I love reading book reviews. They're
an insight into a book as it was read by the reviewer. I enjoy
reviews for books I haven't read - adding and comparing the different
readings to create a collage of what I may expect from reading the
book myself. But most of all, I enjoy reading reviews for books I
have read. I compare different reading experiences, marvel at the
difference of reading, and gain insight into my own experience. I
think this is a similar motivation to my love of 'headcanon' and the
idea of fanfiction.
Very important to me is is the belief
that everyone deserves a voice - I'm greatly in favor of blogging and
self-publishing, as well as reviewing. I love that the internet lets
us break down the bottleneck of traditional publishing and limited
shelf space to allow more voices to be heard. Book reviewing no
longer belongs only to select magazine and newspaper writers.
I also love writing book reviews. I
love sharing my interpretation of a book. But I also love the act of
writing a review, and how it changes my own perception of a book:
even thinking about writing a review changes how I read a book while
I'm reading it.
I love writing reviews but, like all
writing to me, it's also difficult and exhausting and anxiety-ridden.
Even blog posts are very difficult for me to write - this is why you
see so few posts from me. Even if I manage to struggle an idea to
completion, I worry that it's not 'good' enough to share. I'm working
to overcome that fear. If you're reading this then - yay! - I've
succeeded, and you're a valuable part of the process. I appreciate
it!
Writing is fraught with difficulties,
but it's always worth the effort and I'm always glad I did it. I'm
trying to cultivate a habit of writing book reviews. I hope I'm not
alone in enjoying reviews penned by authors, and I hope that others
will enjoy my insights and perspective. I also like feeling that I'm
'giving something back' - adding to the conversation around books
which is especially crucial to small genres.
My ultimate goal is to write a book
review every week. I haven't reached that goal yet, but even my
every-few-weeks attempt has taught me a lot and, I hope, has added
something to the conversation. Since I decided to attempt more
reviews, I've written four with a total of over 2.5k words.
In the future I'd like to write reviews for books
which are less popular, to increase the value of my contribution to
the community and also to broaden the scope of my reading within the
genre.
Here are the four reviews I have
written since I decided to attempt more reviews:
Blood Bonds by Kayla Bain-Vrba