When I first started blogging, I imagined myself as a snarky critic that would say whatever I felt and whatever came to mind about a book I was reading. That's generally how I speak with friends. I pride myself on my "quick wit." You should hear me talk about Twilight. I could go on for days about my idea for a sequel where Bella ends up divorced 15 years later and is left as a vampire single mom. Think dating is tough with a kid? It's even harder when you want to suck your date's blood.
Anyway, I digress.
I wrote a couple reviews early on where I was pretty harsh on some books. And then I started meeting authors. And it kind of dawned on me that these people put a lot of effort into their work. Writing is an incredibly emotional experience that requires soul searching and putting yourself on the line. Even people who write stuff I think is junk have spent a lot of time writing something for others to enjoy. And, I sacrifice nothing by reading their books. Yes, I give my time, which could be considered valuable. But, if I don't like a book, I generally don't finish it. Unless it's REALLY bad, then I finish it so that I can talk to my friends about it later and say how bad it was.
But, using the veil of the internet to post mean things about someone's hard work just isn't something I'm comfortable with. So, if a book is bad enough that I can't come up with a few good things to say about it, the review doesn't go on my blog. But, I will post it on Goodreads, because many of my friends are on there, and I feel an obligation to warn them about books that may not be worth their time.
One last note on this subject. Earlier this year I heard Brandon Sanderson speak at a conference about the Fantasy and Science Fiction genre. I took away from his speech this nugget of wisdom: we spend too much time focusing on the "junk" in the genre, when frankly, it's such a small portion of what's out there. For instance, instead of saying, "You liked TWILIGHT? What a bunch of crap. There are so many better vampire books out there..." we should say something like, "I'm so glad you liked that book. Since you liked that one so well, here are some others that I'm sure you'd enjoy."
Others may disagree with my philosophy on bad reviews, and that's fine. There are lots of blogs and places out there to read those types of reviews. But, I feel better knowing that I most likely haven't written something that is going to make a starving author cry themselves to sleep.
