I was thinking about doing a book review as a blog post.
Then I started thinking, cause you know that's something I do, isn't a book
review really just a grown up version of a book report? If that is true why am
I okay with doing a book review but despised book reports.
I decided to head to good old Google. (I'm hoping if I
mention them enough they will start throwing money at me all willy-nilly) I
Googled book review and I got this:
book review
Web
definitions
a critical
review of a book (usually a recently published book).
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
I Googled book report, it gave me the same information. I
went to Wikipedia and typed in book report...it took me to book review. I typed
it into Urban dictionary and it took me to Book. Not report or review, just
book. I'm really not sure what to think about that Urban dictionary deal.
I thought about it a little more. I suppose the argument
could be made that a book review are the true feelings of the writer rather
than written in a way that someone else would want. I don't think that's true
though because the majority of critics seem to base their feelings off of
public opinion and what they think they SHOULD say versus what they WANT to
say. I mean when was the last time you read a review that said,
"Shakespeare bores me but I really dig those trashy romance novels."
Personally I do that. I once wrote a book report about The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway. The first line in the report said, 'This is the most
boring book I've ever read, And since I've read well over a thousand books at
this point I believe I am an expert." What can I say I was a mouthy kid
and things haven't changed much since.
Speaking of which...I think it has become obvious that I can
do 300 or more words on just about anything.
What have we learned in this very important debate? There is
no difference!!! People are out there getting paid to write book reports.
Legally! We aren't talking about shady deals where a T-Bird is buying reports
from the nerdy guy who is selling them to buy a motorcycle to impress Michelle
Pfeiffer. (That's Grease 2 in case you didn't know.) These people are writing
them for legitimate publications like The New York Times and Entertainment
Weekly. Shout out to Stephen King!
Oh what a world we live in...
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