The Basics of Book Reviewing!

[@justjuanreader]

I am literally taking notes. We all needed this video!

[@anotherbookreview9903]

I'm a BookTuber but I found this breakdown very helpful. I usually do not start out with the genre of the novel, so that may be a good thing to do moving forward. Thanks for the video.

[@hollyb118]

Thanks, Steve! Wish I had this video in grad school when they assigned a book review without teaching us what a book review should sound like. Would love more of these instructional type videos. :)

[@bad-girlbex3791]

To be fair, they probably didn't really care that much about whether or not you did the review in any classically correct format. They wanted you to read a book and then prove that you read and understood the book by writing a 'review' of it that will show that you did exactly that. The most they will have been looking for is spelling/punctuation/grammar and enough evidence that the piece was written by you yourself; not copied from someone else./online.

[@jemgem9593]

It must take a very well balanced mind, emotionally intelligent, non biased, to book review and especially leave yourself out of the equation. Enviable, inspiring skill.

[@carolynmorgan6033]

I just started a channel, and I broke rule number 1 right away! This was super helpful, Steve. Thank you.

[@thebookishknitter]

Steve, this was fantastic. I wrote all these down, and I think I shall try my hand using these while I do my reviews on NetGalley (if nothing else, it will be great practice). Thank you for doing this!

[@gandergelf4982]

What serendipitous timing for this video. This weekend I started thinking about resurrecting/regenerating a personal book blog that has set idle for 10 years.

[@saintdonoghue]

Why blog when you can REVIEW? For MEEEEEEE?

[@gandergelf4982]

@@saintdonoghue Let me practice in anonymity for a month or two before I show you my party piece. :)

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

To quote myself: This video definitely worked!

[@JayShayy]

Thank you, Steve! I knew that I would need to sit down with my notepad and pen before watching this. Now with a page full of points, I come down to the comment section and find I am surrounded by my fellow students all furiously scribbling away as well! Wonderful.

[@espressomyeggo1844]

Your video showed up in my suggestions just a few days after I finished Red Dragon, how funny. Your video was very educational and entertaining, thank you!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you for this video. I suppose my style is more of book essayist. I struggle to suggest that things are worthy or unworthy of someone’s time because I feel this is so subjective. If I make a video about a book it’s because I found it interesting enough to talk about and so I suppose that means I think it is worthy of someone’s time. I don’t talk about every book I read because I don’t want to sit and write about something that is not worthwhile. That definitely skews things. You’ve given me a lot to think about. Thank you for that.

[@mikefrost5129]

I've now watched this video three times to squeeze every drop of wisdom from it I can. There's more to be gleaned, I know, but my brain is inadequate to the task of absorbing all. I'm a long-time reader; but, before booktube, I've never tried to put my thoughts about a book in anything more coherent than conversation. I am daunted by the task. Thanks so much for this video!

[@NathanSMKnapp]

This is brilliant! I made a video last week titled "How to Review a Book" in which I bifurcate the approach into a subjective review (which are commonly seen on BookTube) and objective reviews (or, at least attempts towards objectivity). Your video does a much better job in outlining how to "write" a book review for publication, which is SO helpful! Thanks!

[@Deep_in_the_Reads]

Thanks for all the tips, Steve! I've only just started posting reviews on KZbin and I'll definitely take some of this to heart as I round off the rough edges. I definitely need to condense the excerpts that I read from books, haha.

[@TheRoomNote]

Awesome! I'll be listening to this a few times.

[@jessaboutbooks7799]

Loved this video, had me hanging on every word and taking notes throughout! I hope I can take some of this advice in my videos to guide my discussion and add more focus to my content

[@ajourneythroughbooks2311]

I am so pleased that you have made this video! I found the previous one missed this step, as you said. I'm disappointed that once again the requirements at school level are different (it even includes a rating of some kind). I don't know who puts the requirements together, but now I am going to feel like I am teaching the "wrong" information again, to get kids to pass.

[@nathanfoung2347]

And this is why we need book reviewers.

[@jakerockznoodles]

Brilliant and accessible video, thank you!

[@MalikAlrajab]

A master class! Thank you.

[@pgfinna]

Okay. I'm going to step my game up. Big thanks.

[@andrewcole4811]

This is a real good video, I have been wanting to start writing review. After this I have less of a reason not to start. However the last few books that I read I had every intention on taking notes and look for quotable passages, but I got caught up enjoying the book that I forget to do either of them. I suppose it like a muscle that I need to train.

[@saintdonoghue]

It is indeed simply a muscle to be trained, like learning how to play the drums!

[@CamWolfeAuthor]

What a great idea for a video Steve!

[@baldbookgeek]

Fantastic video very good points, I think many on booktube need to watch this

[@mindysbookjourney]

Yes, this is the video I have been needing in my life. I have a lot of work to do. Someday I hope to be able to write a great book review. I will let you know if I succeed after 100 practice reviews. :D

[@whatpageareyouon]

So informative, and so inspiring! I've been sure to take some notes

[@donnakowalski8185]

Thanks Steve, that was a great video, and will be a big help in my learning curve. On goodreads I just give star reviews, but I may try my hand a writing a review.

[@saintdonoghue]

Give it a try! The next time you're listing a finished book on Goodreads and readying your star rating, try just writing four lines about the book!

[@HelenUtzinge]

Thank you for this video. Tho I don’t intend to review , it was great to hear of the sign posts i will look for when reading book reviews. With 800 words you really are dancing on the head of a pin.

[@TimeTravelReads]

Thank you! I'm a new booktuber so this is helpful.

[@booksandyarniness]

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for.

[@BookInvasion]

This is great. Would you have a suggested length for a book review video? I've been trying to tackle book reviews on my booktube channel. I do take some notes prior to recording, however i've been trying to keep it under 10 min. I do often relate the books I read to movies rather than other books (mostly due to my lack of books read in general). I also try to keep it objective yet adding a subjective brief conclusion at the end.

[@saintdonoghue]

Well, keep in mind I wasn't referring in this video to BookTube reviews - this is all about written reviews!

[@asmallplacecalledhom]

But Goodreads is my personal way of expressing my feelings about the book. I disagree with not telling people what you think of the book on GR. if I hate the damn thing and it made me chuck it across the room in disgust, I’m telling you. If I loved it so much, that I couldn’t stop smiling, I’m telling you.

[@saintdonoghue]

Then we're in complete agreement! In this video I explicitly say that I love reading personal-feelings reactions to books on Goodreads. What I'm describing here is a different thing!

[@MattWall]

That was awesome!

[@Kim_Traveling_in_Books]

I'd like to take you up on the reviewing offer, but I don't know how to get in touch with you other than through your comments section!

[@saintdonoghue]

Simply email me: st.donoghue[at]gmail

[@suemoro]

"TURNING DOWN THE PAGES"?! As in........ "dog earring" the pages?!!!! What kind of monster are you? 😱😵

[@gaildoughty6799]

You don’t have a teaching gig or lecture circuit? Are you sure? Just take a look at the comments field here.

[@saintdonoghue]

Hah! Well, that's very kind of you, but I was thinking more about an actual teaching POSITION, with salary and benefits and whatnot! I can't even get you wonderful people to cough up Patreon money, much less Blue Cross!

[@gaildoughty6799]

Surely there are a few...