Why I Don't Plan to Write Bad Book Reviews

This is an updated version. 

Today, I want to state reasons of above topic. Called it a bonus post as it is still March and I've written three posts already. And if you're wondering why... it's better to write thoughts while the idea is fresh. Something I keep on learning about.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Anyway, a day or so ago, I was thinking of book reviews. More specifically book reviews on blogs. Writer blogs. They do good and sometimes bad reviews. But these bad reviews are good in the sense that they not only write about what they didn't like but also what they did like and the reasons behind them. They are the sort of reviews that make you thoughtful, evaluate if you agree or don't agree and if you wish to read it yourself or skip it. It's even more helpful if you can get two different reviews on the same book - the good and the bad - from writers that you trust their tastes links to yours. And that also got me thinking that I wouldn't do good bad reviews. My reasons are:

1. I don't believe that I can write out a helpful review, as in not ranting how bad it was for me.
2. Focus on not only the bad but the good as well, as in "this is what I didn't like about it" and "this is what I liked about it."
3. Be thorough in details, particularly in the spots that I didn't like (mostly because of terrible memory).
4. I think it's important to write well thought out book reviews, especially on the ones when they got on your "hate" or "okay" bookshelf.

But these reasons are the not only reasons that I don't plan to write bad book reviews. It is also because:

1. The focus of this blog is on not writing book reviews. I only plan to write book reviews to share my favourites with you and recommend them at the same time.
2. I don't wish to waste time on writing bad reviews. I rather discard it and move on.
3. The fact that a book seen as good or bad depends on the individual person. For me personally, I don't want to stop anyone from reading it and experiencing it for themselves when they had originally wanted to. Bad reviews are advice not to read it and I find myself not wanting to hand out that advice here. It's of my opinion that people should decide for themselves rather than someone else doing it for them. I find myself still wanting to read something even though someone reviewed against it. The only time I would discard it is if it is holding something I can't handle or agree with or really don't like to read.

I should add that this didn't mean that I won't ever write bad reviews. This just means that I am unlikely to. The most reason why I would be writing a bad review would be if someone asked me to write a honest review about their book. (That would be a cool day. Not giving someone a bad review but someone asking me to review their book. 😝).