In my "About" page, I say that I blog "about books and reading to glorify God by encouraging others to read that which is abundant in truth and quality in a way that is edifying and delightful." One of the ways I intend to reach that aim is by writing reviews of books.

I don’t review every book I read, and I don’t finish reading, much less review, most books that don’t seem "abundant in truth and quality". However, there are times that I post reviews of books that I wouldn’t want to encourage others to read. With most of these reviews, I have some obligation to post the review, generally through one of the book for review programs, but there are a few other circumstances in which I might choose to post a negative review.

Writing a negative review is much harder than a positive one. When I write a review of a book I loved, I want you (or at least some subset of "you") to consider whether this book might be worth reading; I have some enthusiasm for the book to share with you that makes me enjoy writing about it. In contrast, when I write a negative review, I don’t have that excitement, and I’m trying to tell you about why you probably shouldn’t read a book that I read. I also want to be fair to both the author and my readers by treating the book’s quality accurately, but it can be difficult to pinpoint specific problems. Despite the difficulties, I think negative reviews are worthwhile, for more than just being the potential cost of "free" books.

Most obviously, a negative review may save a reader from reading a less than worthy book. I don’t presume that my opinion will be the final say for whether or not you choose to read a book, but perhaps my reviews can encourage you to seek better books when they’re available.

I think a negative review can also encourage discernment, which I think is part of "reading in a way that is edifying and delightful". Perhaps my attempts at explaining what I think is wrong with a work can encourage you to evaluate what you are reading, rather than just absorbing it. Writing a negative review forces me to work harder at understanding and evaluating a book than writing a review for a book that seems good to me, and I think this harder work makes me better at the more enjoyable work of reading a good book, which I hope benefits you with better posts.

I think I’m probably less successful at this, but perhaps a negative review can be useful in showing that a mediocre (or worse) book can be read in a way that glorifies God. I don’t always want to finish reading a book that I have agreed to review, but I’ve also read books that I wasn’t particularly fond of for school, small group, or because I wasn’t aware of better books on a particular topic. Even in books that aren’t stellar, I hope I can glean the good that is present.

Finally, I think negative reviews may show what is good through contrast. Bad writing can serve as a foil for a beautiful sentence, and claims that something isn’t right can point the reader’s attention to what is true.

In short, I hope that God is glorified and you are helped with my less than positive book reviews, even the ones that I procrastinate on writing by writing about writing negative reviews.

Related:

If you’re interested in reviewing, you might look at Aaron Armstrong’s The Dos and Don’ts of Book Reviews (or at least how I do them) or How to Review a Book by Tim Challies.