I’ve been organizing my books recently, and I realized something.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, my life kind of fell apart. I was terrified. Then, after I had my tumor removed, I went to the hospital to start my treatment and learned I was pregnant (no, I had no idea because the doctors told me that feeling sick was “normal” for cancer patients. It would go away with time, etc.). Suddenly, my already terrified self was spun on my head. Then, at 3 months pregnant I became basically paralyzed, which would last until I delivered my daughter, and is a condition I’m still struggling with. When I was 20 weeks pregnant, I learned that my daughter had an elevated risk for a terminal chromosomal disorder (she was born healthy, which seemed to defy all odds).
I tried very hard to be normal and find solace in books, but I think my extreme stress came out a bit in my reviews during this period of time. I’m finally getting my life back on track, and while I still deal with some cancer issues, and some chronic pain from the pregnancy (back surgery is in my near future), I’m feeling mentally better than I ever have before. I’m cancer free (which I hope will continue after my next scan in late September). I’m working part time. I’ve lost 32 pounds (and I lose 1-2.5 more each week. I hope to lose at least 50 by Christmas), and my blog is really taking off. However, there are quite a few reviews from that very dark, very emotional period of time that I really wasn’t fair with and I don’t like that. I don’t like being overly harsh or overly bleak and nit-picky when I don’t really need to be. That’s not right, or fair behavior for me as a critic.
So, I’m going to start my project of re-reviews.
I am going to re-read a chunk of books that I read and reviewed during that period of time, and I am going to re-review them. My re-reviews will be labeled as such in the title of each post, and will link back to the original review. If you also follow me on goodreads, I am not going to list which books I am re-reading over there because, honestly, I kind of suck at the Goodreads these days.
My first re-review will be posted sometime next week. I just wanted everyone to know, when you see “Re-Review | (book title – author name)” as a post heading, what exactly is going on.
Thank you!
6 Responses
I don’t have the time to re-read. Too much new to allure me…
I usually re-read most everything at least once. I find it rather fascinating how my opinions can change over time. I was incredibly unfair to some of the books I read when I was crazy. I think seeing how different things can be now that my life is under control again might be interesting – for me if for no one else. 🙂
I think this is a great idea! And not because I wasn’t a fan of your earlier reviews, because I was. I love seeing how interpretations change from different readings, and how different people may feel about the same book. I only ask that you don’t think of those reviews as wasted reviews, because they weren’t. I’ve picked up several books from your recommendations, harsh or not.
@Paul: I sometimes have to force myself to re-read books. There are so many new, awesome things coming out there isn’t time to breathe! But I think half the fun of being a reader is settling in with an old favorite and just enjoying the ride again. I highly recommend it.
Gina, you just flattered the hell out of me with your comment.
It is nearly impossible to ignore personal attitudes and other internal/external factors from affecting one’s opinions. I’ve changed my mind slightly on a couple of reviews, but it would be tough to reread a book that didn’t grab me.
Now that you are expecting the books to be better than you thought, I wonder if that will influence your opinion 🙂
Peter, I totally agree with you, and I can guarantee my expectations will effect my overall attitudes. I just know I was crazy with some of them. I was incredibly angry and absolutely terrified and I tended to take that out anywhere I could. However, I am going to try to be very honest with my re-reviews and I’m attempting to read these books with the mindset that I’ve never read them before. Who knows if that will actually work or not…