What is a Book Review?
A book review is not a summary of the book. It is a form of literary criticism in which a book is analyzed based on content, view point, style, merit and so on. A book review helps a reader to take a decision whether to read a book or not. The length of a book review may vary from a paragraph to a lengthy essay. It may evaluate the book on the basis of personal taste.
Before Write the Book Review You Should Do the Following Things:
- Read the book and take notes
- Think about the book’s genre.
- Determine the major themes of the book.
- Consider the author’s writing style
- Think about how unique the book is.
Write the Book Review:
First you should give a title for the review. You can start the book review with a catchy phrase that hints something interesting from the book. You should mention the book title, name of the author, place, publisher, publication date, edition, pages and special features in the first paragraph itself. And also include the main theme of the book. It is very important, a reviewer should never retell the entire story, because the reader may lose the interest to read the book. You can give a quick summary of the plot. If the book contains some elements of surprise your review should also keep it.Give the reader a little more information about the book than just the storyline. For example, genre of the book (historical, fictional, romance etc.), whether the characters fictional or realistic, does the author talk about any social issues and so on. You should provide information to reader about author’s writing style. For example, what kind of language does he use, is there heavy use of symbolism, does he follow the language of common people or use difficult vocabulary and so on.
A reviewer can include which portion of the book is favourite for him/her. Include a few relevant quotations from the book. In addition to point out the merits of the book you can also include the mistakes (if there any) you could see in the book. A review often suggests whether or not the audience would read it. And you must avoid grammatical and spelling errors.
