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Currently ReadingRecently Read | It was one of those weeks it seems like. When a couple books showed up at the door early in the week, the realization sunk in that there’s a lot of books in my other TBR pile — the “to be reviewed” stack. By my count, I have at least six books to review that [...]            Tim August 1st, 2011 | Tags: Books, reading, reviewing, TBR, technology | Category: A Reading Life | Comments are closed |  Print This Post |  Email This PostEssays about book reviewing, particularly those by authors, intrigue me. Certainly, the views Charles Baxter expresses in Owl Criticism are worthy of note. Lots of people will agree with him that many Amazon reviews, such as those that dismiss Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary simply as boring, “serve no purpose at all.” Yet when he [...] Tim March 2nd, 2011 | Tags: book blogs, book reviewers, criticism, illiterati, reviewing | Category: A Reading Life | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostOnce again I have proof why I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. Just last week I said “less is more” when it came to my reading in 2011 and specifically mentioned cutting down on reading books for review. That sounded great — until those wily publishers came metaphorically knocking upon my door. I got home [...] Tim January 5th, 2011 | Tags: Books, reading, reviewing | Category: A Reading Life | One comment - (Comments are closed) | Print This Post | Email This PostAs the past month or so has indicated, I’ve been somewhat uninspired when it comes to writing original posts. It’s not that there aren’t ideas on paper and in my head but, as Hugh Prather said, “If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire must be not to write.” [...] Tim December 3rd, 2010 | Tags: Books, reading, reviewing | Category: A Reading Life | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostDo you read book reviews? Do you let them change your mind about reading/not reading a particular book? I’ve subscribed to the NYT Book Review for a number of years and, off and on, a variety of other book review (Bookforum) and book-oriented (The Believer) publications. And, of course, I have a number of [...] Tim June 24th, 2010 | Tags: Book Memes, Booking Through Thursday, reviewing | Category: Book Memes | One comment - (Comments are closed) | Print This Post | Email This PostThere’s a bit of a lull in my book review schedule as the ones I am slated to review don’t start hitting bookstores until January and I don’t like reading a book too many weeks before it gets published. As a result, I’ve been pretty much reading whatever strikes my fancy lately and it’s brought [...] Tim December 8th, 2009 | Tags: Books, reviewing | Category: A Reading Life | One comment - (Comments are closed) | Print This Post | Email This PostLike two months ago, the “books to review” stack is piling up again. As a result, this month’s s bibliolust is limited to books I will be reviewing in the coming weeks: A Day in the Life: One Family, the Beautiful People, and the End of the Sixties, Robert Greenfield — Greenfield has long documented [...] Tim May 1st, 2009 | Tags: bibliolust, Books, reviewing | Category: A Reading Life | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostSo, someone’s come up with another list of the most annoying clichés book reviewers use. There’s 20 of them compared to the last list, which contained “seven deadly words” for reviewers. So, how big an offender am I? Here’s what a search of the 158 posts in my “Book Reviews” category shows: Gripping — 0 [...] Tim March 16th, 2009 | Tags: reviewing | Category: A Reading Life | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostYou can find plenty of opinions, both good and bad, on book reviewers. Likewise, there’s lots of ideas out there about what a review should or shouldn’t do. This past week SF author David Louis Edelman gave his thoughts on what authors want from reviewers. Here’s the list with some of his comments: Opinion. “Have [...] Tim August 17th, 2008 | Tags: reviewing, writing | Category: A Reading Life | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostIt’s kind of a puzzle. How does a book reviewer review a how to book on book reviewing? More than other reviews, the reader may judge the book solely by the review itself. After all, since the reviewer just get done reading about writing book reviews doesn’t the quality of the review reflect the value [...] Tim June 23rd, 2008 | Tags: Book Reviews, Books, nonfiction, Review Copy, reviewing | Category: Book Reviews | One comment - (Comments are closed) | Print This Post | Email This Post |         The views expressed here are mine and mine alone. I do not speak for my law partners, our associates, staff and clients or my family and friends. Not only should any opinions here not be attributed to them, chances are they probably don't agree with me.  | ||
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