The more normal thing to do would be to point you at all the reviews for one book, but we’re heading off in a different direction today. Good authors are also readers. I’m personally very suspicious of anyone who says they are so busy writing that they have no time to read! (And I have heard people claim that.)

Most authors love books, and love books as readers for years before they take up the pen, or the keyboard. We write because reading is important to us, and because we love good stories.

Where I’ve worked as an editor looking at submissions, I’ve found it’s often painfully obvious who hasn’t read the genre they are writing in. An author who doesn’t read doesn’t know the habits, trends, or clichés of their form. By contrast, someone immersed in stories and ideas they are passionate about, will always be the stronger author, and that’s as true in non-fiction as it is in fiction.

I grant you that authors writing reviews about other authors who have written books can all start to get a bit self-referential – and here I am blogging about it as though we didn’t have enough layers already... But the author as reviewer is an interesting thing to explore. I was once blown away by Virginia Woolf’s review of a cookery book... seeing an author as a review is a great opportunity to eye them up and decide if you want to spend more time with them. If you already know you enjoy what they do, it’s also a great way to get further into their heads by reading the books they have enjoyed. (Or is it just me who stalks favourite authors that enthusiastically?)

Carolyn Mathews is the author of Transforming Pandora  published by Roundfire. She’s also an enthusiastic reviewer of books...

Saxon: Book 1 of the Saxon Chronicles by Stuart Davies

Time Sphere: A Timepathway Book by Murray Morison

The 49^th Day by Helen Noble

 Unusually Hot by John McGinn

 

 

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