Critiquing the critique …

Hampton Village Book Club (HVBC) members are currently immersed in reading “Mercy Me” by Margaret Graham. HVBC is sponsored by Lovett Memorial Library, 111 N. Houston, in Pampa, Texas, and is hosted by Hampton Village of Pampa. From this space, this blogster attempts, on a semi-regular basis, to rate and to review select titles, typically those generated through participation in HVBC.

Alack and alas, this blogster must confess to sometimes feeling woefully unprepared and just as inadequate for the job of reviewer-slash-blogger. Some folks out there in Cyberland — including Aaron Armstrong of “Blogging Theologically” — advise the novice reviewer to approach and to conduct the exercise of review using a somewhat structured approach.

Armstrong recommends the discriminating, conscientious book reviewer read the book to be reviewed with the thought of the subsequent review central in mind. Armstrong offers five pointers to assist the amateur book reviewer along with several “Guiding Questions” in a special blog piece titled “The Dos and Don’ts of Book Reviews (or at least how I do them).” To, er, review the article visit the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ovmw4pw.

Ralph G. Brockett (http://www-distance.syr.edu/bookreview.html) also offers some handy book review advice if, however, from a more educational, scholarly angle. Among Brockett’s more innovative suggestions? Book reviewers should maintain a “reading log.” Brockett insists upon “balance between … description and analysis.”

Purdue University’s OWL Online Writing Lab (http://tinyurl.com/l7u26rd) carefully differentiates between the book review versus the book report and offers some helpful “Before You Read” and “As You Read” advice.

I am going to go out on limb here by supposing that rating is vastly different from reviewing since rating in and of itself requires no comment and therefore no formal voicing or elucidation of opinion. Remember, Lovett Memorial’s and HLC’s selection of e-books provides users with a five-star rating system, so if you want to help out the next reader give those books some stars!

HVBC meets once a month at Hampton Village. For more information on joining HVBC or on specific titles or series, contact Lovett Memorial Library at 806.669.5780 or e-mail sbryant@cityofpampa.org.