A little while ago I received a request from Corinne, an inspirational blogger from Mumbai in India, who shares her thoughts on keeping life simple, authentic and holistic at Everyday Gyann.
She recently started another blog called Write Tribe – Motivation and Support for Writers and Bloggers. Write Tribe sometimes offers books for review to its followers and as Corinne is a loyal follower of Word by Word, she asked if I could write a post on How to Write a Book Review.
I’m not a rule follower myself, but I decided to share my thoughts on this habit I have been practising for the last two years, as when something becomes a regular habit, there develop patterns. So I wrote 10 tips on writing a book review and then added number 11 which is to ignore the rules!
The Review Notebooks!
If you would like to read my thoughts on writing a book review, you can read them in Corinne’s three-part series over at Write Tribe, just follow the links below.
How To Write A Book Review – Part 1
How To Write A Book Review – Part 2
How To Write A Book Review – Part 3
Thanks again Corinne for the invitation and I hope this might encourage readers of this blog who might have been considering it, to go ahead and write a review too.
Claire
Word by Word 
Great advice, Claire. And it applies to all kinds of writing, not just reviews.
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It does indeed Fransi, thanks for reading my off-piste post. 🙂
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I just finished reading all 3 posts, Claire and Bravo! I especially agree with “finding your own voice”… You have certainly found yours!
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Thank You Book Peeps, I do believe there is an audience for every voice and one of the joys of the blogsphere is that this community allows their diversity and uniqueness to be shared.
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How useful, Claire! Thanks for this.
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Beautiful post series, Claire, and wonderful advice! I loved your advice about highlighting favourite passages – “Highlight, mark, turn over the corners, whatever is your habit. Books that fill up with post-it notes or highlights inspire us more.” I highlight favourite passages all the time and I love doing it. I also loved you advice about keeping a notebook – it is so nice to put down our thoughts at the time they come – sometimes a perfect sentence just springs out of our mind that if we don’t grasp it at that time, it might get lost. I also liked this observation very much – “a book is rarely significant to a reader’s life, but it can be everything to the person who wrote it.” It is very true and sometimes as readers we might forget that.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic, Claire. It was a pleasure to read them.
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Excellent advice, Claire. I’ve just shared on FB ~ everyone should read it!
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Thanks Patricia ,it was fun to put it together having been asked, something I wouldn’t have thought of doing otherwise, happy to share the thoughts and encourage anyone considering it to have ago. 🙂
Thanks for sharing on facebook 🙂
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These are great, Claire. You last rule made me smile!
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Yes, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t add rule number 11! But even though I am not a rule follower, I recognise my own patterns, and I think there is an audience for every level of reviewer.
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Good advice, I particularly enjoyed your last rule…free styling within a subset of rules. It’s the best way to be maverick.
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It’s the only rule really. Be Yourself. 🙂
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I enjoyed the 1-2-3 links for a book review! It took me time to find a strucutre for writing a review that I felt comfortable with. Once that was in place than the note taking and writing became much easier. I just compared my first review “Little Dorrit” dd 26/03/12 with my recent reviews and I can see such a huge difference. I am only negative with 1 star books and yet I try to find something good in it!
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I think the 1 and 2 star reviews are important, I just try to make myself be constructive and go beyond the dislike to really express what it makes me feel and why.
They often end up teaching us more about ourselves than they do about the book, but it is important to understand so we know what to avoid in future.
It is great to look back and see our own improvement, proof that practising anything leads to getting better at it!
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Thank you so much for these posts, Claire. Now I just have to get my act together!
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You just have to have your notebook ready Rosemary 🙂 and wait for the moment to feel inspired to share something. Bonne chance!
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What wonderfully instructive posts! Some items I’ve been doing already and others that I need to apply.
I’ve been wondering lately how much of one’s own feelings should go into a review. It really is a balance, I guess. On one hand, I don’t want my negative feelings about a book to influence another reader; I’d rather let them discover the book themselves. On the other, I understand that the reviewer’s response to the book can help a possible reader decide whether it is a book that they will enjoy. How do you get that balance between the two?
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Thank you for reaching out to me, and liking my blog on Essential Oils. I’d like to stay in touch, so I am following you on twitter, as well. I am also working on my own blog. Have a wonderful weekend. Marilyn
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