|
As a reader I'm much more interested in reviews that tell me about great books that I really ought to read. For me that's a list of books about ten miles long, and the reality is that I'll never get around to most of them. Warnings about books I shouldn't read? Not really that useful, since I'm already not getting around to books with rave reviews from trusted sources.
Bashing books can be temporarily satisfying for the reviewer. You feel like your time has been wasted and you want to get even. It's sort of satisfying for the reader, in a watch-the-lions-tear-them-apart-in-the-Coliseum sense. And there's some greater purpose if it's a carefully-though-out, critical review of a book that has otherwise been praised. A dissenting view on The Corrections would fall into this category. But to maul some poor soul with a self-published book that no one would otherwise know about — I really don't see the point. It would be more useful to offer your editing services for a fee to such writers, and then see if anyone bites.
|