My Credo?

[reviews_and_ramblings]

A new friend on this LiveJournal, I will not say who to preserve the privacy but if she agrees I will do, asked me if I ever voice my likes and dislikes on books. She was very kind (and if you are wondering I was not at all bothered by the questions, I love that you made them) and she seemed really interested in my answer. She also told me that she can understand when I liked a movie, but not the same with books. She for example didn't understand my prefercenes on Genre. She asked if I'm available to discuss my reviews.

Well I decided to post my reply here since she was not the first to ask it; to some question I already posted in the past, to some other probably not.

I don't rate books and that is a choice I will not change. Other blogs do that, and I have the feeling that sometime the rating is used with other purposes. Just an example, I read a book, it was particular, sure, but I thought it was very very good. Then I read a review by another blog, it gave 1 on a rate 1 to 5. I wondered, since I'm not English and it wasn't really my genre, if I wasn't wrong in my thought. Then a very important reviewer, university professor and expert in Mystery (it was a Mystery) said to me that the book was wonderful... mmm, I still don't understand that 1.

Anyway I'm always up to discuss one of my review if people ask or leave a comment. But people don't leave comment. I'm sure people read them, I also see the outgoing clicks to buy the book (or at least to further browse it), and some publishers/authors told me that when I post a review the sells go up. So why people don't comment? I don't know. But I prefer no comment to some flaming fights/wanking feast or to have 40 comments from 5 people, I hate the long threads where the same people add something only to raise the number of comments.

I don't like all the books, only that, if I really don't like a book, I prefer to not post about it. If I liked it so and so, I try to list the positive things, but people who know me said that they can understand when the book was not exactly my liking. Same as when I love a book, my friends said that it comes clear from what I wrote.

I love historical romance, but not if they are too heavy. I like contemporary, I prefer comedy to drama, I don't like very much fantasy and even less sci-fic. I like Young Adult. But basically, I read almost all, the important thing is to capture my interest long enough.

And now, I'm ready if you want to discuss all of above ;-)

Comments

[minami77.livejournal.com]

eh, quello degli amici/nemici l'ho notato pure io e non solo per quel che riguarda questo genere, come immagino che anche tu già sappia, ma anche nei confronti di tanti nuovi "autori" emergenti. Non so all'estero la situazione quale sia, ma qui davvero a volte è insostenibile.
Per questo apprezzo un punto come il tuo dove cerchi di dare una recensione imparziale :)

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Questa è un'altra cosa che odio, quando qualcuno distrugge il libro di un emergente. Se davvero non ti piace, io lascerei perdere, non credo che un autore alla prima uscita impari qualcosa da una recensione davvero negativa, è troppo "sensibile", quindi meglio lasciar perdere. Se invece ha la pelle dura, beh magari puoi spiegare, con gentilezza, perchè non ti è piaciuto il libro, ma anche in quel caso, la "distruzione" non è nel mio stile. Elisa