The itch to blog has returned.
Mostly I want to review the books I’ve been reading. Not that there have been that many but I’d still like to share my thoughts with the internet public.
I had dreams of writing actual criticism. The sort of essay / critique that you might see on Strange Horizons but with a few more gags and less quotes from the source material. But I just don’t have it in me. My brain, filled with the ongoing calamities of work and children and being a mostly loving husband, means that when I actually have free time, well time other than reading, I’d rather be playing Fifa 13. (My Career Pro, imaginatively named Ian Mond is playing for Man U as a Striker and has my features… if I were a zombie).
Also I look at all those nice review sites and see how they spend time putting up a picture of the book and a detailed description of the plot (that hasn’t been stolen from Wikipedia) and information on the publisher and where you can buy the novel and, etc… and I just can’t be fucked.
I just want to tell you in 250 words or less that I read this book and it was shit. Or great. Or middling. Or one of the great disappointments of literature.
Maybe rather than crap on about what I want to do I should, you know, do it.
Fine. OK. I’ll stop whining. I’ll review some fucking books.
I think that’s fine. I put a fair bit of work into reviews…ok most of the time I do but I do wonder really if a) anyone reads b) it makes any difference to the authors sales. Sometimes I think people/readers get more value from podcasts- not that you’d know mind you because no B#stRD comments, well rarely.
Most people – unless their super famous bloggers – struggle to get book review comments. Just check the reviews on Strange Horizons and you’ll see that generally the comments stay at 0.
Perhaps you should just write “This was a bit rubbish,” and then wait for me to hassle you into giving increasingly bizarre reasons as to why you hold such an opinion (“I didn’t find an entry point…”). We could call it the Pulling Teeth Collaboration. Or something.
Dave your suggestions are always worth reading.