But trust me, I've gotten better!
Now, that may not sound liked a good thing, but I assure you it is. As bloggers, we have to have a different sort of outlook on a book. You have to focus on all aspects of the novel you're reading - the good, the bad, and the ugly. And trust me, there's a little bit of that in every novel.
In the past, I used to simply gush about books to my friends and other bloggers. All my reviews seemed to be 4 or 5 stars. For me, a 3 star meant the book was pretty much bad. I created a rating system with my new layout, and when I switched computers I didn't even bother transferring my one-star rating icon. Why? Because I've never given a book that I've reviewed a one-star.
Looking back at that, it was a bad idea. I have yet to rate a review book one-star. Usually I mark it down as two-stars or did-not-finish.
Just the other day I was going through my Goodreads and looking through my favorites folder. It was like half of the books in the folder I couldn't even remember important things, like the characters name, their romantic interest's name, or what happened in the book. How on earth can that book be a favorite if I don't remember half of what happened? I started rating most of these 4 stars, and even found myself moving some down to 3 stars.
Then I decided to look through the other 500-some books I have under my read-list. I found myself lowing some of the ratings of books. I still didn't find very many that I changed to a rating of 1 star. Usually that rating is left for books I absolutely hated but was required to read for a book-club or an educational class.
So now I'm getting back on track with my critical reviewing. Actually, I can't really "get back on track" because there was never a track to begin with. I was always a sucky reviewer. So I guess now I'm "paving a new path" of critically reviewing books.
Now when I'm reviewing books, I like to make a list of the good and bad things. That way I have something to counteract each of them. Even if it's a 5-star rated book, I still will try my best to say one thing that could have been improved. After all, nothing's perfect!
There's my journey for you! Do you try your best to critically review books, or do you know that you fail just as much as I did when I reviewed?
