Okay.
Reviewing a movie or a game or a novel (so I don’t do the latter, but still) has the advantage of, well, you’re reviewing ONE thing. Reviewing a number of books a week is, frankly, murder. Three thousand words per post, it’s incredibly hard to keep it polished and readable, avoid it falling into a reviewing formula or just sheer repetition. While I stand by my opinions (and I insist to all of you who complain about “that’s not an impartial review!”, reviews are fucking opinions of whoever wrote them because nobody owns the goddamn truth you absolute moron. Just my opinion, though.) I’ve wrote a number of bad reviews, not as in “negative”, as in “badly-fucking-written”, where I failed to expose my thoughts well. In order to avoid doing that, I need free time I honestly do not have at the moment.
I remember the “Back To Brooklyn #3″ review, which I thought to be mediocre (both the book and the review) and it felt, to me, like most of the mistakes had more to do with Jimmy Palmiotti than Garth Ennis, the co-writers. And while I can’t deny I did feel that way, I failed to recognize, in the review, that I was ASSUMING this, that I didn’t bloody know it. Jimmy Palmiotti took offense, very understandably, something we later sorted out (and he was very sweet). This was quite ironic because “Back To Brooklyn #5″, I felt was equally problematic, but this time — and this is, as you must know, VERY rare for me — because of Garth Ennis, not Jimmy Palmiotti. I should explain that better in another, future post about the subject.
It’s vital, if you’re going to expose your opinion, that you expose it well. I believe, with a little effort and more training, I can do that (and I’m much better at reviewing than I used to be, which doesn’t actually mean much but it’s a personal victory). But I don’t have the free time, and I am not going to rush my reviews — it’s unfair to the writers and artists of whatever I’m reviewing. I noticed a pattern in my weekly posts — when I’m reviewing the first book of the week, I do relatively fine. When I reach the last, I’m out of patience.
Sorry, this will not do.
All the other reviews will remain, and I should publish some weekly capsule reviews of whatever I’m reading (I SHOULD — it’s no longer a regular feature, dunno if it will be again).
Understand: I review not as a job, but as a way of dissecating what I like and learning to write MYSELF (also, pointing what I like to people is always nice). It’s a very healthy exercise for an aspiring writer.
Busy as I am right now, it’s an exercise I can’t afford.
Hah, like anyone’s going to actually miss this. But anyway!
The stuff I’m busy with is mainly for this blog. So, three people who read this, stay tuned.
Please.
