Book Reviews: Writing and Reading Them

Now that I've committed to writing a book review for at least 12 books (see here), I realized that I have never really been a big person on reading book reviews. I mean, sometimes I'll go on Amazon and look up the reviews of a book that I've heard of and might seem interesting, but I never really paid attention to things like format. I regret it a little bit, but then again, I don't know how many people pay meticulous attention to the formats of book reviews (aside from length). So I thought that, before I get started, I'd write a short blog explaining how I'll be writing my book reviews so that you'll be able to easily read and understand them. And if, for some reason, you ever desire to write your own reviews, you'll have a basic format to follow.

Obviously, the first thing that you must record in a book review is the Title and Author of the book. Next, I’ll be writing about the Target Audience for the book. Not all books are equally good for all people. Although target audience may stretch a little bit (i.e. sometimes it’s good for a girl to read a “boy” book to learn a little bit of how a boy’s mind works), in general, readers will appreciate knowing that the book was or wasn’t intended for them before they read everything you have to say about the book.

Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic says to “Relate to your readers your history with the book.”¹ Although it may not be entirely necessary, I like the idea of letting you know how I came across the book. Maybe I was hesitant to read the book, or maybe it was something that jumped out at me because it had a unique title.

Now we get to the heart of the review. I’ll be writing down my impressions of what the book is communicating and how well it does that. Every book has a main point, and the quality of the book is often determined by how well it communicates that main point. I’ll be careful not to reiterate what the book says (otherwise there’s no point in you getting the book!), but I’ll be trying to allow you to be well informed in your decision to read the book or not.

Lastly, I’m going to take an idea from a friend of mine² and finish off with three or four of my Favorite Quotes. I’ll do my best to leave page numbers that the quotes were on, but I’m reading some books on Kindle, so some of my books only have Kindle Locations and not actual page numbers.

¹ http://foodblogalliance.com/2009/07/tips-for-writing-a-book-review.php

² http://bradsarian.com/category/book-reviews/