Hi everyone, After some positive feedback on the socials, I've decided to introduce a new content series on my platforms: Book reviews! I do a ton of reading and always find myself asking or being asked for recommendations, so, I thought it would be constructive to share my thoughts on the books I read. I hope that in reviewing books I can help introduce you to worthwhile and inspiring literary works. However, I don't believe in an objective book review. We all read for different reasons and as such our unique purposes and preferences lead each of us to perceive the quality and effectiveness of work differently. I find numerical reviews on Google and Goodreads to be poor indicators of a book's potential value. Online reviews, even those with explanations, often exclude the elements needed to understand the framework of their review. I believe the best way to establish a rating baseline is to orient ourselves to the reviewer. When we clearly understand a reviewer's interests and motivations, it better allows us to gauge how we would value the book. Someone who reads intending to learn values a book differently from someone who reads for escape. Many of my best recommendations come from friends or public figures whose value judgments I am familiar with. So, before I publish any reviews I want to introduce myself as a reader and share my motivations for reading so that you can better understand what I value in a book and how I evaluate those elements.
If you read to escape into fantasy or for gripping drama, you may not find my book recommendations alluring. The books which I enjoy often do the opposite by diving deeper into reality and mindfulness. My favorite genres revolve around the social sciences with a particular interest in psychology and sociology. Typically, I prefer books focused on social and criminal justice, self-help, history, and business. I read to learn and most appreciate books that challenge my preconceptions of the world around me. My favorite books aren't the ones I fly through, but the ones that make me slow down and think as I read. I enjoy books that force me to connect the dots between my schema and the new information I am taking in. As a result, I often find myself reading backward and revisiting previous pages to better understand the author's arguments and to produce my own counter-arguments. Subsequently, I judge books based primarily on their utility. The more I learn and the more I am challenged, the better the book. I love finishing a book and feeling that it made me look at the world differently or that I was empowered to make a change in my life. However, I also give a lot of credit to books that are intriguing and readable. It's easy for books in my preferred genres to be dull and filled with jargon that makes for an unpleasantly frustrating read. I spent enough years reading through textbooks and prefer to stay away from works that resemble them. Therefore, I give a lot of credit to books that flow and teach through the telling of a compelling and understandable story.
Before I introduce my criteria, I would like to remind everyone that I was not an English major. I could care less about the intricacies and mechanisms of writing so long it doesn't affect my ability to read the book. If you're looking for book reviews that resemble college assignments that judge the mechanics of writing and the interpretation of themes, you won't find them here.
Below are the 6 criteria that I consider when reviewing a book. All criteria are ranked on a scale of 1-5. Allow these descriptions to serve as a guide for my future book reviews and recommendations:
Utility: The volume of useful information and challenging arguments.
Readability: How easy it is for a non-expert to understand the arguments and information presented.
Storytelling: How captivating the stories and examples are. Good storytelling makes a book hard to put down.
Literary Quality: How well the author's arguments are presented and supported.
Pace: How well the book moves through ideas. Does the author spend too much or too little time on explanations and arguments, or is it the perfect mix of effectiveness and efficiency?
Impact: The ability of the book to have a lasting effect on how the reader thinks and acts.
Finally, I base my recommendations on a composite of the above factors, 5 being this book is life-changing and a 1 being I wouldn't wish this book upon my worst enemy. Rarely will my ratings or recommendations be a 1 or a 5, so give some extra weight to those 2's and 4's when considering my recommendations.
As you can assume, my thoughts and opinions of the books I review often extend beyond that which I put to paper (or post). If you ever feel like discussing a book or seek clarity in my reviews, feel free to send me a message. I love discussing the books I read and would love to share that enthusiasm with you. Also, feel free to send me your recommendations! I'm always looking for new books to dive into and add to my shelf.
Happy reading!