I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf Review
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Before we jump into this review, can we just take a moment to appreciate the nominative determinism happening here? A person named Grant SNIDEr has written a book called “I will JUDGE YOU for your bookshelf review”. Don’t you love it when the universe conspires to make a man live up to his name?
But the thing is ‘I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf’ has a clickbait sort of title meant to lure in book snobs and doesn’t live up to its name. That’s not to say I got the book because am a book snob; I downloaded the e-book version of this collection of cartoons because it happened to show up in my ‘graphic novels’ search on the Kindle Unlimited subscription. It’s not the kind of comic book I would pay money for. Also, I swear I do not judge people by their bookshelves because I grew up requesting my parents to get/build me a bookshelf at home for the shit-tonne of novels I had, and they finally built one at our home after I had moved out, was in my twenties, and could afford one by myself. So, the first feeling at seeing anybody’s bookshelf, no matter how small or chaotic, is envy. I will admire you for the mere fact that you have a bookshelf, even though 60% of my reading happens on e-books now.
Okay, fine, let me get back to why I said ‘I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf’ is a clickbait-y name for the comic book. A lot of it is simply Grant Snider drawing about how he feels about different books, genres, writing fiction, reading poetry, and a whole lot of feelings associated with the literary world, especially through the lens of either an aspiring author or an established author. And while ‘I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf’ does start off on a fun note, after about 40 percent, it gets repetitive and quite boring. A book like this could ideally be read in under two hours, but it took me three days. Besides, the simple doodle-style artwork didn’t really pop out and wasn’t very engaging—not for the kind of material the comic book explores.
‘I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf’ makes some of us (me) think this would be a collection of hilarious personal anecdotes, where Grant Snider would maybe reveal some book snob opinions. But there is really none of that. It consists of some general witticisms about literary stuff; some of them are funny, others just ‘eh’. For instance, a panel where Snider talks about the kind of books he owns will hit a chord with almost everybody. These books include: ‘the book I couldn’t put down’ / ‘the book I couldn’t pick up’ / ‘The Book You Gave Me (Sorry I haven’t read it yet!)’.
Basically, the enjoyability of this book thus boils down to how much of the material a reader will find relatable.
Rating: 3 on 5.
Read Next: What If We Were 2 Review – Nat, Marie, and Madness
Read Next: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Review (Short Audio Version Below)
