Writing Book Reviews

Introduction to Book Reports

Most people write book reports for school purposes, however, there are some fortunate humans who get paid to do it. These new set of lessons on this site will be exploring the nature and composition of book reviews/reports. Let's start at what do we know basically about them.

What are book reports/reviews?

In the most basic sense, they are the emotional and intellectual responses of a reader to something someone has written, whether poetry or prose, or even academic writing. People always react to everything they encounter, which is the reason ratings exist. If we like something, we share it, the same is true for what we don't like, however, we communicate our disgust in the same manner.

The difference with book reviews is that they are more formal or structured means of evaluating

something you have read, and they range from a simple emotional response to what you've read, to a complex analytical assessment, involving more detailed research.

Note, however, that all writing require some amount of effort on your part, if you want to do it well. As Kevin Anderson, one of the contributing writers of the book, "Write Good or Die" says, there is no shortcut to writing. It requires preparation and practice on your part, just like every other skill that people take seriously.

So buckle up, and let's get going. We will first examine book reviews on an emotional level, and then we will move on to the formalities involved - the various structures involved in constructing book reviews, and then we will move on to the writing process involved in composing a book review.

See you soon, and I hope you found something helpful. Cheers!