This will be a quick post.  I had one of those thoughts that was going round and round in my mind concerning negative reviews and so I decided to simply ‘air’ it.

I do very few negative reviews on my blog.  Basically, I find the negative reviews more difficult to write and I also find that I have a tendency to become a little bit sarcastic when I’m reviewing something that I haven’t enjoyed.  Frankly, I don’t really want to go down that route but sometimes if I’m reviewing a book I haven’t really enjoyed I can’t help it (and I can just hear my dad saying ‘it’s not big and clever young lady’!)   On top of that it’s unusual for me to finish a book if I’m not enjoying it.  Put simply, there are too many books to read and too little time so the negative reviews are cut down to a minimum because I very rarely force myself to complete a book if I’m not enjoying it.  I do worry though about whether or not this gives the impression that I’m just downright easy to please.

Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy reading other negative reviews because sometimes I do – I’m not sure if that’s odd or not but sometimes negative reviews can be interesting, thought provoking or downright funny – not always, but definitely sometimes.

Interestingly enough I find that the negative reviews seem to be the ones that generate the most interest – particularly if they’re about a book that has been really loved by the rest of the book community.  I guess this just shows that we love to discuss books, even when our opinions differ.

At the end of the day, I’m not going to change the way I write my reviews.  I do tend to try and find something positive to say about the books I read but I am curious to know how the rest of you out there handle this aspect.  Do you find the negative reviews the worst to write?  Do you finish the book even if you’re not enjoying it??  Do you write reviews for books you haven’t finished??? And, do you find your more contentious reviews to be the most popular or the ones that generate the most discussion????

Enquiring minds, etc, etc, Let’s talk.