On book reviews and appetizers

Min and I were married in 2001, at a lovely historic house along the beach. After the wedding, my in-laws said, “it was all great, except there weren’t enough appetizers.”

Now, what was the purpose of telling me that there weren’t enough appetizers when I was obviously not going to be hosting another wedding any time soon. Was it a correctable mistake? No.

That sort of sums up my thoughts on book reviews. I believe a review should serve the potential reader. If it’s a horrible book, by all means, let people know. But if you’re going to nitpick at things that the author now has no opportunity to change… what’s the point?

And, I have no idea what got me thinking about this. Maybe I was dreaming about appetizers?

Oh wait… I know. I was thinking how lame and non-elaborating my own book reviews are on this site. Now you know why!

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