Some questions I have decided need to be answered when reading a book. I have found that reviewing is serious business. Recently it has been ask upon me to read some eBooks for Literary Escapism. Of course I would do it. Reading is a favorite pastime of mine. I also realized that I would come across books that I don’t necessarily like or would ever read. I had have charged myself to read and review all the books with a definite opinion. I may be harsh or over the top but its truth. And it’s also my opinion. Sometimes bad reviews can give an author her fifteen minutes of fame she or he would otherwise not get.
Let’s take the author that used a reviewer to take out her anger on by killing her in a very gruesome way in one of her books. Then it got as bad that this person even saying nasty things about the reviewer’s family. Now to me Family is off limits. This is business not personal. You strike a low blow when you bring family into it. And then the gloves come off and the lawsuits start flying or we can just find every review of your book and make some back tracks about the author, since we now find them very unethical.
But alas, I won’t do that. I don’t think it would come to that. I can’t in honesty say that about any book I have ever read because if you have a published book then you have done something I have not and that alone grants some amount of respect. But it doesn’t grant the right to treat others like crap.
Okay I am off my box now.
So I have search far and wide on the internet to determine what other have come to discover the questions you should ask yourself when reviewing a book. This is a mix of the questions that I have come across and some I have added or changed to suit myself. Feel free to use these in your reviews and tailor them to suit your style.
1. What is the book about? What is the scope?
2. Is the title accurate? This is usually worth noting only if the title is for some reason not a good match for the text -- for instance, if it seriously under- or overstates the book's content.
3. What level of experience is needed to well use the information in the book? Who will find it most useful?
4. Is the book readable?
5. Is the book illustrated or give a family tree or a map of the land they are telling the story about?
6. What's missing from the book?
7. Did you like previous works from the same author, publisher, or series?
8. Did someone recommend the book to you?
9. closure?
10. or is it a cliffhanger?
11. Where and when does the story take place? Does it cover an alternate universe, the present day, a span of thousands of years, a single day?
12. Is this book part of a series or otherwise tied to an existing fictional universe?
13. Is there an identifiable central conflict, or a complex of conflicts?
14. What is the tone and style of the narrative? Is it frightening? Clinical? Amusing? Scattered?
15. Do you like the characters? What about them makes them believable or phony, dynamic or static?
16. From whose viewpoint is the story told, and how does that affect the narrative?
17. Is the pace satisfying? Did you have to slog through any portion of the story?
18. Does the book remind you (or remind you too much) of others by the same author, or in the same genre?
19. Do any twists particularly inspire? Are there major gaps in the plot or storyline? How satisfying is the ending? (Don't give away too much, of course.)
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