The Book Stacks

(Today’s Guest Post is brought to you by the mighty Gillian Polack. She is a writer, reviewer, and a mighty good cook who lives in Australia. Thanks Gillian!)

I’m hijacking Elisa’s space today. I normally blog food history on another 451 blog and about life, the universe and writing at my personal journal. Since I spent my morning writing book reviews, my head space today is that of a reviewer. Consider yourself lucky – when my head space is that of an historian I’m obscure and when I’m in my fiction-writer space I’m just strange.

Most of us get our book recommendations from friends or from friendly bloggers like Elisa. Basically, we find people who have similar taste to ourselves and we trust their judgement and read the books they suggest.

Some of us find out about new books through reading reviews. I write reviews for Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus, so I get feedback from readers and writers on my reviews. I thought you might like to share some things I have discovered.

Firstly, most writers don’t like even mildly negative reviews. Don’t listen to the writers. Don’t even listen to me as a writer, complaining about my reviews (even though all my fiction is – of course, entirely perfect and any reviewer who doesn’t instantly adore it is imperfect). The writer might be completely right about a review sucking, but they might also be 100% wrong. It’s always better to read the book or story yourself and find out what you think than to rely on a writer’s view of someone’s view of their own work. There are just too many layers of bias, one on top of the other, and the book is in too much danger of getting lost somewhere. So if you see a big argument between a reviewer and a writer, get hold of the book (or an excerpt- these days quite a few books are excerpted on the web) and make your own decision. Or find another review, one by someone you know you can trust.

Secondly, reviewers are not God. I would like to say ‘present company excepted,’ but I would be lying. It doesn’t matter how authoritative we sound, all we are writing is our views of a given book. It’s a skill, writing a good review, but having that skill doesn’t make us arbiters of taste.

The trick with using reviews is to find out how much the reviewer’s taste overlaps with yours. If – for instance – I have the same sense of humour as you (this would worry many people, so don’t admit it in public) then you can probably trust that we will find the same books funny. If you’re obsessed with historical accuracy, then that’s another reason I might be the right reviewer for you. And if you particularly adore young adult fantasy then I might be reviewing your next favourite book, because I often review young adult fantasy books. I don’t much enjoy hard-boiled cop stories, so if you find a review of one by me, move on and don’t bother reading it. Unless you’re reading it for the jokes – reading a review for jokes or for literary merit (and some reviews are so brilliant they’re an art form of their own) is entirely sensible.

These are the things to look out for: the personality of the review, the skills of the reviewer, and the sort of book the reviewer regards as particularly comfortable. Especially watch out for outstanding writing: a well-written review makes good reading, regardless of what the book’s about.

Before you read a review to find out the next book you want to read, check out a bunch of reviews by that reviewer. Think about them as a person – how they approach books, and how they think about writing. Work out if you can trust them. Make sure your next book is a good one.

Gillian Polack, Food Past, Book Reviews, Reader’s Advisory