Happy National Author’s Day! Take time to celebrate all of the wonderfully talented authors that provide us with our most treasured past time: READING.
Part of our role as a reader is critiquing the work of an author. It is an easy path to follow however I learned a valuable lesson not long ago. Here is my reviewer story.
I am an enthusiastic Goodreads user. I would be absolutely lost without it. If you are a bookish person and are not familiar with this service….stop…and follow this link to educate yourself NOW
Okay. Back to my story. I have used Goodreads since 2011 and as time has gone on I have become a more active reviewer. I recently read Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt. I stumbled upon it at a public library and devoured it. It fit in perfectly with my quirky, strange reading interests. I learned he wrote a book before Cannibalism and immediately sought it out. The book was Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures. Hello. The title alone told me this is a book for Jamie! However, to my great disappointment, I did not like the book. I wrote a poor review on Goodreads. To my amazement, author Bill Schutt commented on my review. This led to my corresponding with the author and to a great realization. I let my reader expectations get the better of me. I LOVED Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History so much. I went into Dark Banquet with incredibly high expectations that it was going to be even better. That was a big mistake on my part. Each book contains different subject matters that warranted different presentations by the author. My review of Dark Banquet was written out of spite and my own disappointment. I was wrong to do that. I went back and changed my review. Both books by Bill Schutt are fantastic. I highly recommend them if the topics appeal to you.
To surmise, don’t critique an author’s hard work based off your own disappointment. Do not be quick to write a review. Judge the book for what it is and not what YOU wanted it to be.
Please explore the great work of author Bill Schutt!
This Bookish Life 