I was pondering something the other day; my aim of reviewing every book I read.
I started doing it for every book I read as a sort of resolution back sometime in 2007. Fast forward to 2015 – that is pretty much 8 years I have been doing it and I was wondering if perhaps it is time to stop.
The reason being I read a review of a book where the reviewer had written “because how many books by the same author should you review”.
So my question to myself and all of you readers – How many books by the same author should you review?
I was thinking in the region of ‘series’ reads where the reviewer I have quoted above was referring to the third in a series of books being written.
It got me onto Agatha Raisin, which is a series of books I am reading and enjoying and so far I have reviewed each one. I have recently completed book number 15 – BUT do I need to review it?
They are of an enjoyable formula. Agatha Raisin has a wonderful ability to get up everyone’s noses, despite her overwhelming desire to be loved and she invariably turns up where there is a dead or body two to be found. She becomes involved, the police become exasperated but she still gets to the truth before they do. Obviously as the series has gone on, there are some changes, but in the main the characters and the scenarios remain the same.
The other question in my head is – do I WANT to review it? The answer is the same as the first question.
I think you can probably gather that I have come to an answer – that I actually don’t need to review every one.
I can tell you I have read them, it is clear on my ‘Read’ page at the top of this blog, my ‘Challenges’ page (I have even taken off my standard challenges to review every book I read) as well as my monthly roundup posts. But I think for this particular series and maybe some others reviewing every book is becoming outworn. There may be a book I read in the future that I will want to share from a series of reads and then I will review it. I have that flexibility and choice and I feel much better for it.
I can spend some more time reviewing the books I really want to talk about, rather than thinking I need to plough through all of these reviews to get something down, because it was a challenge I set myself.
I am hoping that this makes sense – I am not abandoning reviewing books, I am setting free the concept of reviewing every book I read, especially when they feature in a long time series of books which differ in the vaguest of means.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
The Book Jotter 