Acronyms for Book Reviewers
Where there are readers, there are reviewers.
Some reviewers rave about every book they review — begging the question of what’s in it for them. Do they have a relationship — or want one — with the author? Is there a quid pro quo deal going: I give you a great review and you do one for me?
It’s okay, I want to tell these super gentle, always positive types. Writers are people, too. They can handle criticism as long as it’s specific, clear, and objective. Harsh words conjure pain, but only to the extent the author participates.
Other reviewers despised the books they read. Their comments were raging diatribes that raced from book to writer to a bad experience with the seller. Plots were contrived, never mind derivative. Characters were flatter than two dimensional. Aliens would never do those things. The swords were wrong for the time period. And the writer is ugly and their mother dresses them funny.
It’s okay, I want to tell these nasty lunatics. Your words are not useful when they are intended to harm, to belittle, to demean the work of a fellow human being. You do know that reader and writer are both human, right? From Shakespeare: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?” Yup, writers are people, too.
I meandered along, read books and reviewed them in my own idiosyncratic way. If you are interested in a book, you aren’t going to rely upon my astute summary and judgment to determine what you do, are you? I wouldn’t — and I don’t. So, I write a different kind of review — thoughts and feelings that the book encouraged in me in the time that we spent together.
Before I started actively reviewing books for NetGalley and Goodreads, I didn’t review books that I didn’t read. It felt dishonest to pass judgment on something that I wouldn’t force myself to undergo.
Now I review books actively and my approach has changed. I start every single book and give it a fair shot — all of us reader reviewer types WANT to like what we read, would like nothing better than to be shocked, stunned, and amazed by story. Keep us enthralled, hold our interest late into the night and we’ll blear through the next day still smiling for the experience.
I know within a paragraph or two — often the very first line — if a book is going to work for me, but I’ve learned to give stories more time than that. Sometimes it takes a few pages before we get into synch, before the fit is easy and I’m leaning into the story.
Sometimes it’s immediately great — sometimes it takes awhile. I finish these stories.
Other times, it never works, would never work. Life is too short for me to read books that I don’t enjoy.
Guess what?
I review these books anyway, by way of the nifty approach I learned from other reviewers. Read until you know you can’t do it any longer. Respond with a respectful “Not for me” or “DNF.”
It took me awhile to figure out what DNF was, but once I knew, there was no stopping me. I use it confidently, competently — with every new book, hoping against hope that I won’t have to wield DNF, but not holding back when it’s necessary.
I think I can do better than one measly common acronym. Here is an array of proposed acronyms for book reviewer use:
F — Finished the book. I’m me and I’m busy so I don’t have time to write more words. Trust me. I finished it, so it’s worth reading.
HTF — Happy To Finish. To be used sparingly and with thorough explanation.
1S — One Sit. Read the book in a single sitting.
FNR — Friday Night Read. Read this book on a Friday night after a tough week when you can’t bear to go out.
CSR — Couldn’t Stop Reading. Highest praise. Simply stellar, magnificent story. I want this one for the stories I write.
DWTF — Didn’t Want to Finish. Another highest praise acronym. The reader enjoyed the story world so much that they cannot bear to return to their own life.
RTE — Rushed to End. Reader got so entwined with the story that they were panting to see how everything turned out.
CML — Changed My Life. Reader a forever enlightened, expanded, better person. Happier, too.
I’m reading a terrific book right now: The Last Time We Met by Carol Mason. I got to read a huge swath of it last night because there was a big thunderstorm and my panting old dog was raging through the house, whomping into doors and furniture in his frenzy. I got out of bed, cuddled up on my armchair and read deep into the night as the dog slowed and fell asleep. If your person is up and reading, it can’t be that bad, right?
I’d give it several of the new acronyms right off the bat: F because I know I’m going to read it clear to the end; CSR because that’s what’s happening right now. I’m in the hands of a skillful writer and her wonderful story — and there is no better place for this reviewer to be in story world.
