Book Reviews - A New Format

I have a pile of books that I need to post reviews for. I have been halted by one thought: "How shall I review them?" You may think that is a ridiculous question, but once you start writing for yourself, you see stories in a whole new light. You enjoy stories as a reader and learn from them as a writer. Therefore, when I think about the reviews I want to share about a book, quite I often, I find I have two different things I want to say about the books, that may not flow nicely as one review. It is for this reason I have decided on a new format for my book reviews.

From now on, when I write a book review, I am going to offer two perspectives in one post, the reader's review and the writer's review. Here's how I am thinking about these two perspectives:

• The Reader's Review - This review is what I would consider my "typical book review." In other words, I'll discuss what I enjoyed about the story, the characters, theme and who I would recommend it to.
• The Writer's Review - This review will include aspects of the book I learned from, or that I think writers may find useful. In other words, a nonfiction book may be useful to some writers as a reference if they were going to write on a certain topic, whereas a fiction book may be an exemplar in character building.

We'll see how it goes. Let me know what you think of this idea and, as we go along, if you think it is not useful or not adding anything to your experience as a reader, then let me know that, too.

Thanks for reading!

Image (source) adapted using Fotoflexer.