Without reading the book, one way to tell whether the book is well written or not is to read a review of the book. This is why a book review has an influence on the sale of the book. This is also why so many authors request reviews of their books. A book review also has an influence on the career of an author if the author is writing for a living. Needless to say, a lot of time and effort is spent on writing a book. All this time and effort could come to nothing if the reviews of the book are low ratings. A reviewer ought to be sensitive to these influences when he decides to write a review of a book.

Prior to writing a review, a reviewer may read a book to his liking. For this case, it is quite straightforward. The reviewer may simply recommend the book by writing a review with a high rating. On the other hand, a reviewer may read a book not to his liking. For this case, it is less straightforward, and he has two choices. He may write a review of the book with a low rating, which is his prerogative. Or he may choose not to write a review. On book reviewing platforms which have the policy of only publicizing books with reviews of high ratings, if a reviewer writes a review with a low rating, it actually condemns the book to a life of zero publicity on that platform. This is unfortunate because even though the reviewer doesn’t like the book, it is only one person’s opinion, and another reviewer may like the book. If the book is passed on to another reviewer, the book may actually receive a review with a high rating and get the publicity to boost the sale of the book and enhance the career of the author.

I’ve read many books that I liked and have written honest reviews of these books with high ratings. On the other hand, I’ve also read books that I didn’t like. It would be difficult for me to write reviews of these books with high ratings, and it wouldn’t be honest. Then, I also don’t want to write reviews of these books with low ratings because I take the attitude that although I don’t like the books, it doesn’t mean everybody doesn’t like them. Hence, for these books, I usually return them to a common pool so that they get a second chance. Other reviewers may select these books from a common pool and write their own reviews. Many times, after I returned books, I see reviews of these books with high ratings written by other reviewers. It is so invigorating to see these reviews as I’m relieved that I didn’t condemn these books to a life of zero publicity due to just one person’s opinion, even though it is my own. And the reason why these books can get publicity eventually is that I didn’t write reviews of these books with low ratings. As reviewers, we must be sensitive to the consequences of our reviews and choose wisely whether to review or not to review a book.