3 Reasons I Love Writing Book Reviews

I loveeee writing book reviews! I saw a review the other day where the writer said: “let’s be honest writing reviews is boring,” and my head almost imploded. What?? I think the next best thing to reading a book is writing the review of the book. It’s so fun!

Let’s see why exactly I love writing reviews so much:

• Expression

I don’t know about anyone else, but for me the best books (or films, or music) are those that leave you with so much to talk about. The not-best books are those you finish reading and instantly move on from. Or those you want to write a review on and can’t think of two sentences worth of thoughts to share. I love when I see readers say, “I just finished this book, I have so many thoughts but don’t want to spoil anything, so if you’ve read this please DM me let’s talk!”

I think books are meant to leave you with something to say, so it’s no shocker that one of the reasons I love review-writing is to express my many thoughts about a story! I don’t have many physical readers around me. The one reader I know (my smart little brother) is a big epic fantasy reader which is ah, very different from my romance/mystery/historical fiction preference. There are no bookclubs here for me to join and chat with other readers in (🥺) so the best way for me to express my thoughts after reading is to write and share reviews.

And my reviews can be veryyyyy long because based on my interest level, I write down everything. What I loved, what I didn’t, this particular scene that made me feel this, that thing I thought could(n’t) be done better, etc. Around last year, I started a bullet-point style of reviewing that lets me say everything I think while also keeping the review compact. Or just gives it structure so the longer reviews don’t look scary haha.

• Future Reference

The sad thing about being a reader is how often we forget many books we read. Unfortunately, our brains can’t store the plotline of the hundreds of stories we’ve read, even some that we really enjoyed. I’ve had scenarios where I didn’t review a book on Goodreads except mark it as read, and felt baffled years later because I didn’t even remember the title much more seeing the cover before! But I only mark books as read when I’ve at least read a few pages, so I must’ve read it. It felt like a bummer not to recall a single thing about my experience with the books.

After a few such instances, I decided to always leave a note. Whether it’s a full review or even that I DNF it and why. Leaving reviews reminds future-me of how I felt when reading books. Especially the little details special to my reading experience that retains that small, personal connection with the story. Now, I love when I come across books I read years ago and can see what I thought of it!

One of my Goodreads followers saw me mention that this is one reason I leave reviews, for future me, and took a sheet out of my book. It was definitely flattering hehe.

• The Community

I really love the Goodreads community. It’s just such a unique world to readers. It’s so big amongst us, yet when you look around so many non-readers don’t even know about it. It feels like our magical wardrobe that opens to a world filled with other people like you. All reading, marking how far they’ve read, making reading goals, leaving reviews and commenting on other reviews. I love being part of that community and adding my own bit to it!

Lastly, this isn’t a personal reason I love writing reviews, but authors also love reviews. Albeit the positive ones sure, but still. They love to see what readers specifically connect to in their stories, beyond the more general blurb that fellow authors and librarians give the books. They like to see readers interpret the stories in a way that’s unique to each reader. I’ve had a few authors like my reviews on Goodreads, and I think we can also leave reviews of books we enjoy to put a smile on those authors’ faces!

Do you write book reviews? Do you enjoy doing so?