Saturday, September 12, 2009

I Hate Spoilers and The Perfect Book Review

So, when I decided to start this blog, it was because I couldn't stop writing about books in my other blog, which wasn't supposed to be about books. So I thought, hey, it would be cool to have a blog in which I can JUST write about books.
And then I thought - wouldn't it be cool if in that blog I review all of the books that I read?
The problem with that, though, is that I HATE book reviews. They always give a plot summary and talk too much about the development of the characters and the things that happen in books. There are almost ALWAYS spoilers. And let me tell you, I HATE spoilers. Seriously.
To the point in which I base a book on its' cover and its' placement in the book store. Because most of the time I don't even want to read the back of the book because it will tell me too much about what's inside. I like to know next to NOTHING about a book before I read it.
To me, the perfect book review would say next to nothing about the actual book itself, instead talking more aboutfeelings that were had during the book, about whether or not it was readable, and, if it has to talk about that sort of thing, about if it was well written and if the plot and the characters were well developed. I just want to know that they WERE well developed, not about HOW they were well-developed.
If it takes place in a fantasy land, great - you can tell me that the fantasy land in which it takes place was amazingly well created and thought out and the reader will almost feel as if he is in that fantasy land.
But don't tell me ABOUT that fantasy land. Because I don't want to know. I will discover it when I read the book.

So anyhow, that is why I decided to do my reviews how they are. The summary comes last because I know that *I* wouldn't want to read the summary. It's there at the end for those that want to, but easily avoidable for those that don't. In my what I have to say section, I talk about impressions and feelings and flow without, I hope, giving away anything about the book.
Because I just can't STAND that.
And I always wished that someone would do book reviews like that for me.

Right, so that's why I decided that I had to do this blog, and that's why it's done how it is and why my reviews are how they are.

:-)
the end

2 comments:

Spiggy said...

That makes sense!! That's probably also why your reviews make me want to read the book and the summaries don't...

I am the same way about movies. If they have a good title or the poster looks cool, I want to see it (I'm pretty sure I got that from you!) And once I want to see it, I can't stand watching trailers. I hate them. Inevitably the director puts the BEST parts of the movie in the trailer. And I would prefer the best parts to be a surprise so that I can enjoy them. Otherwise, what's the point of paying to see the movie if you already know what happens and have already seen the best parts?

Booklogged said...

I with you on reviews. I call what I write a review, but it's usually not. What shall we call these non-reveiw reviews that we write?

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