This is a Friday meme hosted by Patricia of FiktiveWelten. Every week she asks a question that you can answer. Everyone who would like to participate, just answer her question, link to her blog, and write a comment under her post to let the others know that you are participating. The entire rules you can find here.

This week Patricia is asking if we rather break-off the reading of a book that can´t catch us at all or if we go all the bitter way and finish it. Oh boy, after I´ve read the question I couldn´t help it but think of one certain book, that fits exactly the criterion and made me kind of rant in my review. In a decent way, but still, I was ranting about it. My rating was below zero and for the very first time since I was reviewing books, I had to give a rating I didn´t want to give. To be clear, I wanted to give no rating at all but had at least to give one star.

A non-reviewer (someone who doesn´t get reviewers copies by publishers or authors) can just stop reading the book if it turns out to be a real pratfall. That person might be a bit pissed for having spent some money and time on it, but that´s about it. But as a reviewer, who gets most of the books for free from publishers or the author directly in exchange for an honest review, I don´t have the luxury to just stop reading. At least that is how I see it. To be able to write a proper review I must know the entire book. And that contains that I must read it all the way to the end, no matter how much I dislike what I read.

To call it a bad book after just a few pages is just not possible. Every author and publisher has the right to know why I didn´t like it and my review must explain it in a decent but clear way. To be blunt: It is the book, that I tell my opinion about, not the author itself. Over years I read and reviewed books and never had to struggle to get it to read or how my rating would be because every book I read was somehow fitting my taste in genre, the writing style, or some other criterion I had. I read the summary and checked if and how the cover spoke to me. I was lucky and rarely had a book that didn´t quite fit and where I had to give less than three stars.

But to be honest: Even after all those years as a reviewer I very rarely chose a book only because many other readers have loved it. And therefore, given a high rating. I still go with my instincts, if a cover “speaks” to me or not, and if, in combination with that, the summary makes me want it. If I have the chance to read an excerpt, great! And if I like what I read there it goes onto my reading list and has the high chance to be read and reviewed by me.

Sometimes it happens that I read a review from someone else and get curious because of the way how the review was written. When I can feel the excitement, the fun they had with that book, and the thrill they got out of it in every line of their review then this is another criterion that counts for me. And if the genre fits, so why not?


How is it with you?


Happy reading


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2 comments:

  1. Hi Vi,

    toll beschrieben und kann ich alles so unterschreiben!

    Bei Hypes ist es in meinem Fall beispielsweise auch so, wenn ich zu oft darüber lese und wirklich alle volle Punktzahl verteilen, verliere ich schnell das Interesse. Das klingt dann irgendwie wie ein Buch ohne Ecken und Kanten, was sich dann oft auf Story, Charaktere, Schreibstil usw. herunterbrechen lässt. Oder es geht mir bei allem Trubel einfach nur noch auf die Nerven, sprich ich kann es nicht mehr sehen. ;o)

    Abbrüche bzw komplette Reinfälle habe ich seit meiner Rezizeit auch superselten. Davor deutlich mehr. Scheint so, als seien unsere Sinne im Laufe der Jahre geschärft ...

    Liebe Grüße
    Patricia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Freut mich, das wir uns da gleich sind. Ja, ich finde, eine Rezensentin zu sein bringt eine gewisse Verantwortung mit sich. Halbe Sachen kann man da einfach nicht bringen.

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