Thursday, January 22, 2009

How Do You Compare A Book to McDonalds?

I read alot of book reviews. They often sway my decision on a purchase by an author I haven't read before. I respect reviewers a great deal, because like this blog, reviewing books is a community service. It's something you enjoy doing, but largely it's of benefit to others. Amen.

I've seen some reviewers (not professionals mind you, like my friends at APOOO and Urban Reviews, DeltaReviewers, etc. etc. I hope I'm not getting myself into trouble leaving folks out) who have been really hard on authors and I think this is largely because they don't like the genre or the author. What I love about professional reviewers is that they have the ability to classify the work, and look at it objectively. Cecelia Dowdy posted a review of one of her books that did exactly that in a very creative way.


Reposted from This and That Other Thing


Sometimes I've wished for a restaurant review that, instead of judging all restaurants by a single standard, judged them according to what the restaurant was trying to do. The "best" restaurant in New Orleans, at least according to the average restaurant critic is Commander's Palace. I've been there a couple of times, and it is wonderful. The chairs are padded and some have arms. It is a white tablecloth place. The food is inventive, and very good. The atmosphere is lovely--it is in an old mansion. It goes without saying that it is very expensive. Given a choice between it and our local McDonalds, my four year old would pick McD in a heartbeat. It its own way though, McD's is a great restaurant. It is clean (well as clean as anyplace that has that many people in and out all day can be). The food is hot, it tastes good, it is the same every time you go, no matter which store you patronize. The staff is generally friendly and some of the restaurants even have playrooms attached. The price is reasonable too. If my little one spills something, it isn't a problem (and if the manager sees her spill it, s/he will probably replace it). Why am I writing a review of two very different restaurants in a post headed by a book link and titled My Review: John's Quest? Well, I was about to right a not-so-flattering review of the book when I realized that what I was doing was basically criticising McD's because it didn't have white tablecloths (or criticising Commanders because they did). Basically, John's Quest is the Christan version of a Harlequin Romance.


Click here for more of this very interesting review.



Learn more about John's Quest at Cecelia's Blog http://ceceliadowdy.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

6 comments:

Cecelia Dowdy said...

Thanks for re-posting the review and sharing it with others!

Wanza Leftwich, The Gospel Writer said...

I absolutely loved the way she took a different approach to her review.

RAnn said...

Thanks for the review of the review. My goal with reviews is to let those who are likely to like the book know it, and to let those who probably aren't going to like it, know that too.

rhonda mcknight said...

Rann,

I look forward to asking you to review my upcoming novel. Thanks for stopping by.

Rhonda

upwords said...

This was definitely a different review. Thanks for sharing it and for highlighting Cecelia. :)

Anonymous said...

How do you get her books?