When the Reviewer Has Become Overwhelmed
It’s been a long time that I’ve written a review for my own site. Shame on me for not being the dutiful book reviewer, but truth be told I’ve been overwhelmed by my reading piles. In previous posts I wrote that I would no longer request books until I’ve completed the ones I have in my numerous to-be-read stacks, and I’m happy to report that I’ve been good on my word. However, there is the library and I’ve found several books that I had to read.
So what’s the problem you might want to know. As much as I love to read, it sometimes becomes a chore, especially writing the review. Writing is not an easy task for me. It takes me time to clearly articulate what I want to say. I ruminate about what I’ve read and sometimes it takes me a long time to say whether I liked a certain book or film. The problem,in this case, was once I finished one book, I started another one and that went on for a while, which left me with little time to contemplate the previous book and write a review. After a half dozen books read–all that needed their reviews–I realized that I managed to unintentionally overwhelm myself by doing too much (let’s not forget that I also write for a living too, have deadlines to meet, and I’m working on a novel).
After this long period of silence, I will get back to my regular reviewing schedule this week. Upcoming is Frank Bruni’s Born Round. For Steig Larsson fans, I will review the final book of the Millennium trilogy The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.
Stay tuned….
Rebeca Schiller is the editor of Alvah's Books. She reviews literary fiction and non-fiction.
Rebecca,
1I know exactly how you feel; I have read at least 12 books and enjoyed most of them very much but for the life of me, I can not think of a thing to say about them without being trite. It has been over a month, maybe tomorrow………..
Kindest Regards,
alan
That’s spot on, Alan. I feel like I’m getting very repetitive with my reviews. I’ve actually been reading several of Michiko Kakutani’s reviews to see how she makes each of her reviews different and interesting.
2I know just how you feel, too. Too much, too soon, too fast.
3Exactly, but then you feel guilty that you slacked off.
4