When I started this blog I was constantly worried about my review length. The questions I kept asking myself was is it too short? Have I said everything? What happens if I missed something vital?
I never seemed to panic if the review was long, instead, in those situations I had a feeling of smug satisfaction, of achievement. I probably bored everyone half to death…
Sometimes every I could say was said in 200 words, at University 200 words could be banged out within an hour, easily – unless I was procrastinating… But for a review it could (and still can) take an hour or two to figure out actually what I want to say. To keep it relevant rather than going off on a long ramble.
These rambles are never very coherent. Most of the time it is me going “Oh my day! This book is sooooo good! You have to read it, promise? It’s just amazing. Trust me you will understand when you read it.” Or if I don’t particularly like the book moaning about how rubbish it was. But at least here I keep it short and sweet: “It’s just rubbish, you know?”
Over time, although it is perhaps quite obvious, I have come to realise that it is not the length of the review that matters but rather my words and what I have to say, including the bad grammar and terrible spelling. It is these thought and opinions (good and bad) that matter, so long as I being honest, after all that is what it says in my review policy…. But does that really mean that review length is not important?
I have trouble writing reviews for books I really like. Those ones tend to be shorter because I can’t figure out what to say without spoiling all the wonderful surprises that people would get if they read the book for themselves. For books I hated, though… those are the reviews that are long and rambling. I feel like it’s my responsibility to warn people away from awful books (maybe because I wish people would do the same for me)!
It is definitely so much easier to rant than it is to rave about a book, which can be frustrating…
Nice discussion!
I’ve found that it depends on the book when it comes to whether I like writing reviews or not. But lately, I’ve been keeping my thoughts on the book short & sweet. Because, for me, I don’t like reading a person’s ‘book’ about a book, ha ha! I want the basics, and I don’t want to spend more than 5 minutes reading about why they liked it or not 😉
So it’s been easier to write reviews because I keep it pretty short and just stick it to you straight – I either liked it or I didn’t, and if I took off a star or two, I tell you why. But yeah, the length really doesn’t matter – it’s the quality! 😀
Thank you!
Yep quality really matters, and it so does depends on the book. I guess over time I have realised that what matters is what I have to say rather than the length. Quality over quantity 😉
I don’t really care what length a review is as different reviewers have different styles. Some people can say it all in a few short, succint paragraphs and others have more of a discussion kind of a review that makes me think of angles in the book in a different way. I think like you said the main thing is to be honest and then just spill your feels in whatever way feels right for you.
And thanks for joining in my spreading feel-good feels feature! I haven’t visited here before but your black and white and red colours are really striking. And of course a header full of books is really eye-catching and I love that I can see a few favourites of mine in there 🙂 Plus I landed on a discussion post, yay! There are never enough discussion posts!
I think my review style is a big mess. I just hope that I say everything that I really hope to say and pray that people understand my ramble.
And thank you for commenting on my header, it could me ages to do – I had to stack them all up on a wall and they kept falling over!
I’m trying to do more discussion posts and things – spread my wings a little bit.
My blogging software never tracked the number of words – so I never paid attention to review length. But I’ve read more books recommended by other bloggers who said You have to read this now!!! Than by other bloggers and critics who wrote long, wordy reviews.
Thanks for the advice! I guess when I started writing reviews I panicked that there might be a secret formula on how to write reviews that I didn’t know about!
I find most of my reviews hover around 500 of my own words. I think I have trained myself to write that length, however, since so many of the articles I write for work aim to hit that number. 🙂 I have changed how I write reviews several times over the years- at first I just did short reviews, then I did really long ones, and now, I state what I liked, what I didn’t like, and who I think would like the book.
Ooh that’s a good idea! I’ve never thought to include who I would think would like the book 🙂