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Writing book (or other) reviews can be tough. I've talked with I don't know how many people that insist they know what they feel about a book (or whatever), but don't feel their opinion matters enough, or don't feel their writing skills are up to it.
To that I say: baloney
The whole idea of user reviews (as opposed to professional reviewer reviews) is to share the point of view from a relevant bias (I also don't know how many times I've heard "I don't know if I can be unbiased").
In our case, that bias is basically "how does this book (software, hardware, whatever) work for photo restoration and retouching?" This bias is exactly what makes these reviews useful.
My own approach to reviewing is embarrassingly simple:
I don't speak for a community, I speak for myself, and that's the beauty of user reviews. They're not some abstract theoretical judgement, but real hands-on opinion from people we know, so we can also add to whatever is contained in the review our personal relationship with the reviewer.
As for the writing skills part, we deal in a specific medium here. I'm certainly not going to judge the value of a review based on the mastery (or lack) of an entirely different medium. A messy, inelegant but honest opinion is, to me, far more useful than the most erudite and flowing prose from someone not in the trenches with me.
If worse comes to worse, if asked (and only if asked) I'll dust off my journalism degree and give a hand
To that I say: baloney
The whole idea of user reviews (as opposed to professional reviewer reviews) is to share the point of view from a relevant bias (I also don't know how many times I've heard "I don't know if I can be unbiased").
In our case, that bias is basically "how does this book (software, hardware, whatever) work for photo restoration and retouching?" This bias is exactly what makes these reviews useful.
My own approach to reviewing is embarrassingly simple:
- Did I learn anything?
- Does it have particular relevance to photo restoration and retouching?
- Did I enjoy reading it?
- Is it worth the investment?
I don't speak for a community, I speak for myself, and that's the beauty of user reviews. They're not some abstract theoretical judgement, but real hands-on opinion from people we know, so we can also add to whatever is contained in the review our personal relationship with the reviewer.
As for the writing skills part, we deal in a specific medium here. I'm certainly not going to judge the value of a review based on the mastery (or lack) of an entirely different medium. A messy, inelegant but honest opinion is, to me, far more useful than the most erudite and flowing prose from someone not in the trenches with me.
If worse comes to worse, if asked (and only if asked) I'll dust off my journalism degree and give a hand
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