A look back at how I read and review

Well with 2014 finished up I thought I would actually do a big look back. As I have commented in other blogs I have been reviewing what books I read as I can. See as a writer I know how important it is to have honest reviews of your work out there. I don't trash talk in my reviews and I certainly don't just give pollyanna high level reviews.I rank things from two stars to five stars on a scale that can be confusing to a lot of people but makes total sense to me.

I look at the overall story, the flow from scene to scene, if the dialog seems real to the characters, if the characters have some little bit in them that makes them relatelbe and most importantly was it a good story.

Now I looked back to my first reviews back in 2006 till now. 756 titles that I have either reviewed or ranked since 2006 in many different genres. I have read mysteries, fantasy, science fiction, westerns and romances, just to name a few.

Of the reviews only twenty of the books ended up with two star reviews. I have done 87 three stars, 157 four stars, 16 with 4.5 stars and 472 five stars....looks like I have been a very very lucky reader in that most of the books I have had to pleasure of reading have been worth five stars.

So why did I spend two whole days going back over all the reviews and rankings I did over four different sites? Let me tell you, to reaffirm what I know as a reader and a writer, that there is all kinds of amazing stories out there. That you need but pick up a book, an ereader, turn on your computer and read. There is a world of good fiction out there. Not just Traditionally published books or indie published, hard copy or ebooks, it is fiction, fiction of all kinds that makes it worth reading.

See I saw an news blurb about Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook putting together his own page for books and a reading challenge of one book every two weeks and what does he pick for people to read? A nonfiction book about how to be a rich man? Really...with the power he has he could be opening people up to realms of imagination and he does a book about how you can be a successful enterpener...that is so typical and expected. I had hoped a young man who founded something pretty much like science fiction all those years ago would have more imagination.  Sadly nope.

So if you read my blog, do this. Pick up a fiction tale. I don't care what genre, don't care what length, what format but do it. Read something that is out of the imagination of a writer. Wrap yourself in the story, stretch the muscles that you let atrophy from your childhood and imagine. Then review that book, that short story and let the world know just how amazing that story was and how it made you feel.