How to Review a Book ?

When I review a book I take care of a lot of things. In the beginning, when I started reviewing books, the only thing which I considered was whether I liked it or not. but over the time I understood that reviewing a book is a multi-faceted activity where I need to look many aspects of a book . following are some of them which I give importance to while reviewing/rating a book -

1.) How the book looks ?

The physical appearance of a newly released book matters a lot. is the font of the book good for me ? how many lines per page the book has ? depending on the genre of the book I may or may not buy it. A poor paper quality can put me off unless the price of the book has been drastically cut and the book is relatively small under 100 pages.

if the book is an old classic then the cover doesn't matter. The cover page tells me a lot of things about it. If I have not heard about a particular book and I see it in a book store for first time then the only thing attracts me towards a book is, first, it's cover, second, it's title. the cover of a book can be simple or complicated but it should be soothing to eyes. and, it should match the genre of the book.

2.) Introduction Part of the book

I always try to scan through the introduction part of a book and try to understand the process the author has gone through while writing the book. I also go through all the recommendations that some people might have given about the book and check if I have ever read any book recommended by them. if I have not liked the book recommended by them in the past I become more careful and I think more about purchasing that book and try to look for some more information about the content of the book.

3.) Table of Contents section of the book

This part of the book gives me ample idea about the structure of a book. I have seen many books, where I get the feeling that the book's main theme, as per the title of the book, would have ended in 3 parts but one more part was added just for the sake of it. I have seen this mainly in self - help books.

4.) Actual Content of the book

If I have gone through the first three steps and the book looks promising to me, I purchase it and start reading at some point of time. I try to see how the read is - is it pacy ? slow ? or both ? if the book is non fiction, does it have enough info graphics to explain the topics ? how is the language of the author ? Is the author repeating the same thought multiple times ? I try to get into the mind of the author and try to see the content from his perspective. I make note of anything important that I find in the book, it can be any nice quote or a very good sentence which I have never heard. anything good that I can find in the book I try to note it down somewhere and use it while I am writing the review the book.

5.) Writing the review of a book

Now the most important part of the book. I start with giving credit to anyone who facilitated the book review and with a thanks note. Then, I try to give summary of the book in two sentences and then I elaborate it with my own understanding of the book.

The important task in reviewing the book is, how much of it you can keep remembered after you finish it ? This is mostly required for non-fiction books. To keep this under control, I generally try to summarize each chapter after I finish. remember, it's not verbatim . it's my own word that show my own understanding of the chapter. but be careful, it should not be too big, if you find this overwhelming, then start to summarize each page or paragraph and then build this habit from there step by step. this way a time will come when you can easily summarize a chapter or multiple chapters. but generally I restrict myself summarize each chapter that I finish. then A time will come where you can hold the summary of chapter in your mind. all you have to do it repeat all the chapters, every time you move to a new chapter of the book. It's not easy , but you will get it over the time.

Not About Review, Some times, I would give a brief summary of the book and most of the time I talk about some part of it , author's style of writing, how the book ended or started ? was the book slow in the middle ? was the author able to explain the concepts well ? is the author using simple words or using heavy words like Salman Rushdie ? I never completed any book of Salman Rushdie because of difficult words that he uses. Do the characters in the book fit in well ? and so on .. after I while the review becomes my own and I can write anything that I feel about the book and no body can stop me from doing that :) ..

Above all , Develop your own style of reviewing a book ... . and most important - read your review twice, may be once, before you publish.

I hope I made sense to you, please do leave a comment below. it matters to every blogger :)