Entry in Lithuanian
Out of the twelve tips this one fascinates me the most:
1-Make sure the review is all about you.
Focus on any connection you might have to the work, no matter how slight. Discuss where you were when you read it, as well as how you felt, what you were wearing, what Arcade Fire song you were listening to at the time, and which particular mutant subset of “coffee” you were drinking as you skipped to the end and read the last chapter. After all, a book review should not be about the book. It should be about the reviewer.
Yesterday in the shower (sic!) I was contemplating how could I write a decent review. I got myself a recipe, started to write, stopped writing, fell asleep, dreamt strange and funny dreams of things long lost, woke up and stopped following a recipe. For who can resist the temptations of Google and the question How to?.. Perhaps I‘m not suitable for reviews, perhaps I‘m better at essays and blogs?
Anyway, it‘s always easiest for me to write if I start with myself. En route towards the final version of the text all the details on myself disappear – starting with the moans of how sleepy I am and how much I want to write, finishing with the thoughts filled with all the borrowed words and the attempts to leave Freud’s psychoanalysis out of text. I always thought that this is common sense – cleaning the text, getting rid of emoticons, incomprehensible allusions, associations leading nowhere, or various off-topics. Isn’t it?
