My Ramblings: Irrational Fears #2

Irrational Fears #2

I've done some self reflecting in the last few months to understand why I've been DNF-ing so many books. The only plausible conclusion that came to mind was that I've somehow developed an irrational fear of writing negative reviews.

I'm one of those people who write a review after every finished novel. Regardless if the novel was good or bad I feel compelled to write a review. The problem is that the number of DNF's have sky rocketed from 2 years ago and most of the novels are books that were so-so to bad that I could have finished in another hour or so but chose not to.

I enjoy writing negative reviews as much as the author enjoys reading one. I despise it. It's helpful to other readers because, when considering a book to read, I often find myself reading the negative reviews to get a sense of what went wrong and if it's a problem to me. Other than that, I don't like anything about them.

Writing a bad review is difficult enough. I always try to find a balance between what I disliked and what could have been better. I won't say that I always get it right, but my intentions have never been to hurt or hate on any author. At the end of the day, that author (even though I may not like his/her book) accomplished something that I will probably never partake in: actually writing a full length novel.

Are negative reviews useful to you in any way?

Do you write negative reviews or do you keep to yourself?

Let me know in the comments below!