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Filed under: Reading, Writing | Tags: book reviews, Booking Through Thursday, books, memes, Reading, Writing
Do you think reviewers are obligated to put up a good review of a book, even if they don’t like it? Have we come to a point where reviewers *need* to put up disclaimers to (hopefully) save themselves from being harassed by unhappy authors who get negative reviews?
The short answer to both of these questions is no, in my opinion. While I think that it’s important for reviewers to disclose any biases they may have in favor of or against a book, including perhaps that they received the book for free, it’s absurd to expect a reviewer to say only good things just because they got a free copy of the book, nor should a reviewer feel obligated to do so.
Any writer who expects such and would go to the lengths of harassing a reviewer who gave them a negative review needs to, in no particular order: grow up; get a life; stop writing. The business of writing and publishing is harsh, and it isn’t for the thin-skinned. Successful writers learn to deal with criticism. In fact, successful writers know that criticism is essential for them to become better writers. They learn to parse the constructive criticism from the destructive criticism. They use the former to improve themselves and their writing, and they ignore the latter. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be writing for anyone but yourself, your significant other, and your pets. You certainly shouldn’t be sending free copies of your books to reviewers.
Filed under: Reading | Tags: Booking Through Thursday, books, library, memes, Reading
Even if you are a die-hard fan of the public library system, I’m betting you have at least ONE permanent resident of your bookshelves in your house. I’m betting that no real book-lover can go through life without owning at least one book. So … why that one? What made you buy the books that you actually own, even though your usual preference is to borrow and return them?
If you usually buy your books, tell me why. Why buy instead of borrow? Why shell out your hard-earned dollars for something you could get for free?
I love libraries. I’ve killed entire days in libraries. In college, I would make it a sport to find the most hidden, inaccessible study desk I could, and then I’d just set up camp. However, I generally buy books rather than checking them out from the library for a number of reasons.
First, I am king of the overdue book fine. I don’t have a lot of time to read, so it usually takes me a while to finish a book, which means that if it’s a library book, I have to renew it, and I tend to forget. It’s easier just to buy the book I want, and then I don’t have to worry about how long it takes me to read it.
Second, my wife and I share and trade books with our friends. Because our friends live all over the country, we usually only get to see them once or twice a year, and under such circumstances, library books don’t really work.
Third, my interets run to the arcane, shall we say. Even though I’ve been lucky enough to live near some really good public libraries, they rarely carry many books on certain topics that interest me, such as Serbian history, historical linguistics, or archaeoastronomy. With the Internet, though, it’s easy to find books on those subjects.
But of course, the ultimate reason is that I just really like everything about books and can’t imagine life without owning at lease a few hundred.
