Books I Read and Why I Don’t Like To Review Books Anymore

Some of you will be surprised (and others not) about my reading preferences.  Over the summer, I read a lot of Young Adult thrillers and a couple of marketing books by Seth Godin.  I often mix some business with pleasure when I read, and most of the time, I read nonfiction.  That’s why it’s hard to recommend romance books I haven’t already mentioned, and I do get some emails asking for recommendations.

Anyway, most of the time, I read nonfiction.  I enjoy researching publishing and marketing trends to share on the Self-Published Author’s Lounge (which is where I make posts that I hope will help other authors).  I also enjoy reading Christian nonfiction books, especially with topics involving aliens (which I believe are demons), the study of the end-times, and exploring the days of Noah (because I think there was more to the flood than the Sethite view I grew up being taught in private school).  For those of you who read my book Return of the Aliens, then you understand what I mean.

I’ve been thinking of writing another sci-fi Christian thriller that leads up to the flood in Noah’s day, so you could call what I’m reading research.  I don’t know if I’ll write it, but the story has already begun forming in my mind.  (I have a lot of stories in my head, and only 25% of them get written.)  I do read romances and other genres, but proportionally I’d say for every 5 nonfiction books I read, I read one fiction.  Also, I’m a slow reader.  I always have been.  Like it takes me one week to finish a book while the majority of people I talk to finish a book in 1 or 2 days.  So I’m not a super reader.

As for reviews, I don’t like writing them anymore.  I did rate a book I enjoyed on Goodreads the other day, but I didn’t say why I liked the book.  And I only did this with a nonfiction book.  The reason I don’t like to write reviews is because the whole review process has become one of those no-win scenarios for authors.  This means that as an author, it’s too “political” (don’t know a better word for it) for me to review books.  I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have even rated the nonfiction book I read but just marked that I had read it on Goodreads.

So for those of you wondering why I’m at the point where I hate to review books anymore, I’ll explain.  If authors only want to leave good reviews, then they’re told they are shilling.  But some authors only want to leave good reviews so they only review books they enjoyed, which means they don’t review books they didn’t like.  Some people say that authors who do that can’t be trusted since there’s no balance in their reviews.  ”Oh, they will give a glowing review to anything,” they argue, which isn’t true.  It’s just that they would rather support other authors (and if you can’t say anything nice, why say anything at all?).  Plus, they realize there are vindictive authors out there who will create sock puppet accounts to attack someone who leaves a bad review on their book.  If you’re not an author, you have a lot more freedom to state whether or not you like a book.  If you’re an author, it’s too easy to be a target.

So instead of reviewing books, I’d rather pass along a book I’ve enjoyed in a giveaway.   I figure that is probably better than putting up a review anyway because at least this way, the winners of the giveaway get a chance to check out a new books (if they wish).

So what about you guys?  What kind of books do you like to read?  Are there any that you think others you know wouldn’t expect?