“There’s no accounting for taste.”
My favorite milkshake is the old-fashioned, 1990s-style McDonald’s chocolate milkshake. Those of you who are old enough know what I’m talking about. No whipped cream, no cherry, and so thick that you might burst some capillaries and end up with eyestrain just trying to drink it out of the straw. I’ve had many people tell me that my love for the McD’s shake is proof that I have terrible taste. I think that my love for the shake is proof that taste is subjective. And that is why I don’t do negative reviews.
How can you be an expert at books if you don’t do negative reviews?
Because my opinion about the books I like has almost nothing to do with what books other people will like. If a book has problems with grammar or other fundamentals, I’ll point that out. But, there are some books with questionable grammar that will still tell a great story.
Ultimately, what people like and don’t like really comes down to what they were taught to value and what they prefer. Millions of people loved “Fifty Shades of Grey.” That particular series….wasn’t for me. And that’s fine. Anyone who has been following our favorite books lists will notice that there’s rarely a book about farts that I don’t like.
My job is to let people know about books they might like. Unless the reader shares my exact taste in books, what I like or don’t like doesn’t really have much to do with what they might enjoy.
So, if you don’t do negative reviews, how do you do your recommendation lists?
If I didn’t like it, I don’t put it on my list of recommended reads. But, I try to at least skim books that I hate.
Why don’t you quit on books that you hate?
For my personal reading, I won’t hesitate to quit on a book. Professionally? To match people up with books that they like, I need to know what’s out there. To help someone find a new read, I’ll ask what specific books they liked. If someone says that they liked a book that I didn’t care for, and I know of a new book I hated that’s similar to it, I’ll let them know about that new book.
What approach do you take to reviewing, then?
What I try to do is describe what a book is about and what it’s similar to. I think that helps more than me talking about whether or not I liked the book.
