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My First Book Review
by Shelf Monkey on April 15, 2007
My novel Shelf Monkey has it’s first official printed review, and, well, it’s not great. Not bad, but not great.
Am I right to be concerned? I think I will lose sleep over this.
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This is a great review. This first line (“If you’ve ever despaired over the dominance of The Da Vinci Code and the power of Pottermania, first-time Manitoba novelist Corey Redekop has written a book for you.”) essentially recommends the book for the entire thinking world.
He also quotes a striking passage. The ultimate compliment.
And when he tries to get snarky, he does it so heavy handedly that he basically dismisses himself. The Hemingway jibe is just silly. Hemingway, ‘the bearded guy’ demonstrates an 8th-grade and clichéd understanding of Hemingway. Hemingway, when he was at his best, was a delicate and loving writer.
So often with amateur reviewers, the review is about them, not the book. They feel the need to demonstrate that ‘they, the reviewer’ have some sort of insight the writer didn’t, that they are worthy of reviewing books. It’s just posturing.
And to be fair, they’re generally working with limited word count and the money they’re getting is a joke.
This is a great review. Way better than silence.
Congratulations.
– Michael (04/16 at 16-Apr 11:10 -05:00)
Michael, thanks a lot for the great pick-me-up. As a reviewer as well, I too have fallen prey to the ‘look at me’ mentality, although I do strive to present the book, not myself.
The Hemingway thing? I had in mind The Sun Also Rises, to my mind the most in the 20th century. I could have been clearer in the novel, but if you think I wasn’t aware of the possible ironic perils on writing a book about bad writing, well, sir, you give me too little credit.
Your novel Radiant Days looks wonderful,and I’ve already asked my staff to order a copy for the library.
Much thanks, Michael.
– Corey Redekop (04/16 at 16-Apr 11:27 -05:00)
You know Melville got a lot of bad reviews for that book about the whale. Of course, he died broke, but the reviews didn’t mean it was a bad book. Hmmm. Maybe I’m not helping matters here…
– BudParr | MetaxuCafe (04/16 at 16-Apr 11:32 -05:00)
First congrats on getting reviewed, and second, I agree with John, don’t read the reviews! Books are so subjective. I sit in book club sometimes and listen to the other members as they list all the things they loved about the book we just finished, the one that I thought was a complete waste of time and eye strain, and I wonder, did we just read the same book? You wrote the book, put it (and yourself out there), it’s done, now get to work on the next one!
– bookbabie (04/18 at 18-Apr 08:25 -05:00)
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Two things:
1. Don’t read the reviews.
2. There’s no such thing as a bad review.
– johnbakeronline (04/15 at 15-Apr 13:45 -05:00)