The single most important thing to remember about literature reviews is that NO TWO PEOPLE EVER READ THE SAME BOOK. 

 

How can that be if all the words are the same (or, for that matter, if it is indeed physically the same book)?

What we read is, like just about everything else in life, coloured by our own knowledge, experiences and personalities.  We use the words of the author to build the structure of the story in our minds, but it is us who fill in the gaps from our own experience. 

For example, someone who has never been to Dartmoor, England will not be able to conjure the same mental picture of someone who has, making their experiences of Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' completely different.  Equally, someone who has seen the Lord of the Rings movies will likely have very different mental images whilst reading Tolkien's masterpiece than someone who has never seen the films.

These differences in experience have a butterfly effect across the entire reading experience; leading people to identify with different characters or have different emotional reactions to the same set of circumstances.

 

So, the concept of no two people reading the same book is simply an extension of the immutable truth that no two people live the same lives.

 

 

Perhaps, after all that rambling, you are wondering as to the relevance of all this to the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Book Review.

The relevance is this; the reviews offered here are based entirely on the experience of the reviewer and cannot be considered in any way truly objective.

 

As to my own reviews (the vast majority here), I always try to take into consideration the objective standpoint.  I may well mark down a book because it's not as good as an author's other works, but that does not mean that someone completely new to that author wouldn't enjoy the book immensely.

Also, it should be considered that our personal tastes become increasingly particular the more variety we experience.  For example, if you'd only ever tried the cheapest wine in the world, it would still be the best wine you'd ever tried.  Similarly, if you then went on to try the most expensive wine in the world, to you the cheapest would still be the second best wine you'd ever tried.

What this means is that I, as a reviewer, become more and more picky with each new book I read (and with more than 600 under my belt, that makes me pretty picky!).  This is the same principle that leads movie critics to slam movies which go on to be vastly popular with the general public.

 

So, after all that stream-of-consciousness, what exactly am I getting at?

Simply that, whilst these reviews will hopefully help guide you to the best books to spend your time and money on, nothing compares to reading and judging a piece of literature yourself.  Don't be afraid to take a risk.

 

 

Ian Tapley

(the fragrant wookiee)

January 2009

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