Developing a Process for Good Reviews

03/16/15

I recently finished Hire With Your Head, and now the rest of this month's reading time will be reserved for reviewing the books I've read so far this year. And now, as I started to write my review for Hire With Your Head, I realized... I haven't documented how I want to write a "proper" review.

I mean, I've thought about it, but I realize now it was that abstract thinking that I do, where I didn't really have well-thought-out thing in my head, but I felt like I did. My brain was taking shortcuts without telling me, Stephan. She likes to do that a lot.

And yes, I have now established my brain is female, somehow. Screw it, I'm going with it.

Anyways, I want to write good reviews. Like, I mean, reviews that I shout over my public feeds that I've written. And so I probably need to think about what a good review is to me.

The Beginning

The beginning needs to give my general opinion and recommendations very quickly. If someone is going to be trying to get a general idea of what people, not just me, thought of the book, I'd like to give a short one-or-two paragraphs to give that person a gist to add to their considerations and then let them move on. In fact, I will make a "The Gist" section and do just that.

Description of the Book and Its Purpose

The gist would be for people finding the post by perhaps googling for reviews (though, do people go much farther than Amazon reviews? Or the place where they buy the book? I honestly don't know). People who read my blog might want some context. So, I'll describe the book, its purpose, and maybe dig into its history (when it was published, about the person who published it, etc.).

This might be unnecessary stuff for the people who found my post specifically looking for an opinion on the book, but if they go farther than the gist, they are probably okay with a little bloat of content. They might also see the section for what it is and skim past it.

Other People's Opinions

By this point, I've shared the gist of my opinion, and I've given context for what the book is. Personally, I enjoy reading a diverse range of finely crafted opinions on content I'm considering, and even content I've already consumed (see my review of the Visual Display of Quantitative Infomration).

Finding these opinions can be work, however, so providing them to readers could be a real treat. I don't have to worry about the inferred context-expectations of the author of these reviews, either, because I would have already provided proper context for what the book is.

The Personal Experience Essay

After my gist, some context, and the gists of other people, it'll come down to me reliving and reflecting on my personal experience with the book via my idea index entries.

I'm still iterating and thinking on how I'm implementing my idea index, but right now it's like this: I make an entry for standalone ideas I really like, quotes I like in and out of context, and ideas from the text's content interacting with my personal experience and generating something that excites me. I'm still working out how to mark each entry as its specific idea-type in the index itself, but I think that's something that might reveal itself to me in the writing of these reviews.

Note that when I say essay, I mean essay. My idea index for Hire With Your Head, which to be fair is the largest index so far by far, is about 80 entries long, and I believe I want to give each item careful consideration or cross them off the index as faulty first impressions.

And "careful consideration" means "writing about the idea in-depth" in my review. If I can't find an idea worth writing about, crossed off; if I don't like the content that comes from writing about the idea, crossed off. There's probably other things that will lead me to cross off the items as I actually execute this plan.

This, I think, will lead to really interesting reviews. If I reviewed entertainment-based content, it would probably be full of spoilers, but the structure would still work because the setup would properly save the spoilers for last.

So, maybe I'm considering reviewing other content, Stephan.

Should There Be a Conclusion

I don't know how I feel about conclusions. I mean, if there were a central point driving what I was talking about, the conclusion would solidify that point and wrap everything up nicely. If, however, I'm going on an adventure, how should I come to a conclusion?

I suppose I could review the landscape of reading material, both consumed and plan to be consumed, and how it fits with the ideas developed by reading the book. This could help build my future reading, and solidify my personal context that defines the book in my eyes. It may also influence other people's reading decisions.

Because the best way to end an adventure is to hint at future adventures.