We live in an interesting day and age in terms of how we evaluate artistry—or perhaps it’s always been like this, I don’t know. But on more occasions than I can count, I’ve seen comments that say something like, “if you can’t do better than the book/film/show/poem you’re evaluating, then you don’t have any right to talk!”

This is, of course, patently untrue.

There are many critics who cannot create art yet have a keen sense of what builds a strong narrative, or composition, or any other example. Their inability to create a work does not detract from their ability to thoughtfully critique something.

As artists (and here, I only loosely associate myself), we have—in my opinion—a certain responsibility toward criticism, not just for ourselves, but for others.

I’ve always viewed criticism as the whetstone that sharpens skill. It’s invaluable for the betterment of your own ability, but that personal development comes from more than simply evaluating your own work. It also comes from evaluating the work of others.

Evaluating the media you consume is an absolutely vital aspect of learning to be a creator of any type of content. It’s something that anybody who wants to be an artist should immediately start practicing if you don’t already. For me, it was a habit that naturally came about as I got my degree, which was a good thing… though sometimes it’s a horrible curse. There are days you want to just turn your brain off and enjoy mindless entertainment.

As a result, I find myself constantly evaluating whatever I watch or read. And for a while, I was that guy. Not a bad guy, but the person who always had something negative to say about what you were watching/reading. It wasn’t that I was inherently negative about whatever it was, it was my brain processing and evaluating the story, the characters, the structure. I tried to keep it to myself (I really did) but as anybody with this curse knows, sometimes it just boils over and you have to say something. It’s this kind of behavior that leads people to stop asking your opinions on the latest book they’ve read, or ensuring their conversation about the latest blockbuster is held somewhere other than near your desk. So I’ve endeavored to contain, or at least, tone down the way I talk about things in person.

But that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped doing it in my brain. In fact, the other day my beautiful, wonderful wife told me that I’m more “discerning” than others when it comes to media. I don’t think this is necessarily true, my wife has been known to heap praise on me that I don’t think I really deserve, as I don’t think my tastes are so well defined that I could be truly called “discerning.”

I think I’m just picky.

All of this is a longwinded introduction to the fact that I’m going to start doing book reviews here. But I think it’s important to lay the groundwork for it here.

Criticism in terms of reviews is a fascinating concept. There’s always debate on the subject of objective/subjective reviews, but I’m firmly in the camp that there’s no way to give a review objectively. At least not wholly. Any media I consume passes through the filter of my own experiences, prejudice, and taste. That’s true for everyone and, really, we should be grateful it’s that way. It’s because of that writing styles and voices differ so drastically.

What it also means it that I’m going to read and hate things that some people absolutely adore. The opposite is also true, I’m going to come here and praise books that others absolutely loath, that’s just the way things are.

But what I find most important to clarify here in my “little” disclaimer, is that at no point of a review or critique, do I But what I find most important to clarify here in my “little” disclaimer, is that at no point of a review or critique, do I consider myself critiquing the author. Nor at any point am I comparing myself to author. My focus will always be entirely on the book—what worked for me, what didn’t, and why.

And so, I can’t speak for the consistency with which I’ll be able to put up reviews here. People don’t often realize how much work goes into something like that. Before you even get to thinking about a work, forming your opinion, and then writing a review (which can all take quite some time!) you have to actually read the thing! So as I get them ready I’ll post them here, but thank you for humoring me here. I’m sure I’ll add more to this as I consider it more and I’ll likely use chunks of this post as a tagged post on the Book Reviews page.

In the meantime, I’m continuing to submit book one to agents (1-2 at a time, it’s a long tortuous process…) and book two’s progress is actually coming along nicely.

That’s all for today!