{"quotes":[{"text":"We sometimes reveal how ignorant or bored we were when we read a book by giving it 5-stars.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["amwriting","aphorism","aphorisms","book-club","book-review","book-reviews","books","bored","boredom","ignorance","ignorant","literature","reading","review","reviews","subjective","subjectivity","writers","writing"],"id":3237,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"Every article and review and book that I have ever published has constituted an appeal to the person or persons to whom I should have talked before I dared to write it. I never launch any little essay without the hope—and the fear, because the encounter may also be embarrassing—that I shall draw a letter that begins, 'Dear Mr. Hitchens, it seems that you are unaware that…' It is in this sense that authorship is collaborative with 'the reader.' And there's no help for it: you only find out what you ought to have known by pretending to know at least some of it already.It doesn't matter how obscure or arcane or esoteric your place of publication may be: some sweet law ensures that the person who should be scrutinizing your work eventually does do so.","author":"Christopher Hitchens","tags":["articles","hip","book-reviews","books","collaboration","essays","readers","writers","writing"],"id":72055,"author_id":"Christopher+Hitchens"},{"text":"? Reviews are for readers AND authors. It’s a good way of learning from what people think about the work. Being it good or bad. A book might as well be hurt by a bad, poorly written review. That’s such a pity. Some people don’t know how to express themselves, and maybe that’s why they are just readers and not writers, others read a book like chewing a cupcake. That’s too bad. If that was not your cup of tea, leave it there, untouched. Don’t go bash the author for that. But if you really hate the book, why bother telling others. It’s your problem after all. You can give constructive opinions but don’t blame the author for your different tastes and views. Also authors shouldn’t comment on reviews, it sounds unprofessional, even silly. Some busy writers don’t even have time to read what other people say about their work. If someone enjoyed your book, or not, that is irrelevant. If you will continue or not to write something else it doesn´t add to the plate.. Besides, why bother commenting on a review, just read it and shut up. Being it good or bad. So my opinions about authors commenting on reviews is just my opinions after all!","author":"Ana Claudia Antunes","tags":["approval-of-others","bad-reviews","book-reviews","books","disappointment","evaluating","evaluation","failure-and-success","fiction-writing","nreading","opinions","rates","readers-and-writers","reading-books","reviewed","reviewers","reviews","writers","writing","writing-books","writing-process"],"id":113479,"author_id":"Ana+Claudia+Antunes"},{"text":"I will only start taking book reviews seriously from the day that books are able to review readers.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["book-reviews","books","criticism","reading","subjectivity"],"id":258292,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"At the evident risk of seeming ridiculous, I want to begin by saying that I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously. I hope this isn't too melodramatic or self-centred a way of saying that I attempt to write as if I did not care what reviewers said, what peers thought, or what prevailing opinions may be.","author":"Christopher Hitchens","tags":["book-reviews","death","independence","nadine-gordimer","writing"],"id":405022,"author_id":"Christopher+Hitchens"},{"text":"You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.","author":"E.A. Bucchianeri","tags":["bad-book-review","bad-book-reviews","book","book-review","book-reviews","books","criticism","how-to-kill-a-book","kill","kill-a-book","literary-criticism","publicity","review","reviewing","reviews","sad-but-true","silence","silence-kills","truth"],"id":465202,"author_id":"E.A.+Bucchianeri"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":6,"pages":1}}