Why I Don't Give a Top Ten List of My Favorite Books of the Year
December 14, 2012
It’s that time of the year when bloggers are faithfully posting their top ten reading lists for the year. Some of my readers have asked me to do the same. I didn’t come through last year and I won’t this year either. I don’t do it for the same reason that I hate giving a star rating on my Amazon reviews (of which I would post more if they didn’t make me do this!): it is entirely subjective.
You wouldn’t expect me to give you a list of my ten favorite friends this year, would you? How could I do that to my friends? Where would I even begin? They are all so beautiful in their own ways. Sure, they have flaws, but I don’t want to start rating them against each other. Each relationship points me to Christ in its own, special way.
And the stars…each time I do this I feel like some creep sizing up a guy and giving him a 7.5. It seems so cheap. And yet authors are at the mercy of the coveted Amazon review like the poor Harvard girls posted on the infamous “Hot or Not” that started Facebook. With the way that the market is changing for books, readers are looking online for their clues on who to date. And bloggers are becoming the online dating services for readers and their books. Authors ask me to post my reviews on Amazon because that rating beefs up their sell. And we know that any Tom, Dick, or Harry could plummet their score by giving their subjective one or two stars. Combat that with the authors who stack the deck with plastic, positive reviews, and you see the need for honest and careful reviews on Amazon.
Which leads me back to my list of favorite books for the year. Who the heck am I? I’m just a housewife living in West Virginia who happens to get a good bit of reading in on the side. People always ask me how I find the time to read so many books, but it really isn’t that many. Think of how many books were published this year. Let me help you. It’s estimated that this year is putting out fifteen million books (with self-publishing now in the picture). I mainly read the narrow genre of reformed theology. Occasionally, I spice things up with some fiction here and there. But even with my modest stack of reads for the year, I can’t bring myself to give you my ten favorites. By what standard do I even pick from? The ones that were the most doctrinally sound? Or the most entertaining, compelling, original? And for some reason, what I would gather for a list of “don’t bothers” seem to be some of the “hottest” on Amazon.
But I do love recommending books. And I try to share what I read by giving reviews, or maybe offering a reflection that an author led me to think about. You can browse my “Categories” to the right of this page and see a heading for “Book Reviews” and “Reading Reflections”. I try to be fair, respectful, and discerning. Take a gander.
You wouldn’t expect me to give you a list of my ten favorite friends this year, would you? How could I do that to my friends? Where would I even begin? They are all so beautiful in their own ways. Sure, they have flaws, but I don’t want to start rating them against each other. Each relationship points me to Christ in its own, special way.
And the stars…each time I do this I feel like some creep sizing up a guy and giving him a 7.5. It seems so cheap. And yet authors are at the mercy of the coveted Amazon review like the poor Harvard girls posted on the infamous “Hot or Not” that started Facebook. With the way that the market is changing for books, readers are looking online for their clues on who to date. And bloggers are becoming the online dating services for readers and their books. Authors ask me to post my reviews on Amazon because that rating beefs up their sell. And we know that any Tom, Dick, or Harry could plummet their score by giving their subjective one or two stars. Combat that with the authors who stack the deck with plastic, positive reviews, and you see the need for honest and careful reviews on Amazon.
Which leads me back to my list of favorite books for the year. Who the heck am I? I’m just a housewife living in West Virginia who happens to get a good bit of reading in on the side. People always ask me how I find the time to read so many books, but it really isn’t that many. Think of how many books were published this year. Let me help you. It’s estimated that this year is putting out fifteen million books (with self-publishing now in the picture). I mainly read the narrow genre of reformed theology. Occasionally, I spice things up with some fiction here and there. But even with my modest stack of reads for the year, I can’t bring myself to give you my ten favorites. By what standard do I even pick from? The ones that were the most doctrinally sound? Or the most entertaining, compelling, original? And for some reason, what I would gather for a list of “don’t bothers” seem to be some of the “hottest” on Amazon.
But I do love recommending books. And I try to share what I read by giving reviews, or maybe offering a reflection that an author led me to think about. You can browse my “Categories” to the right of this page and see a heading for “Book Reviews” and “Reading Reflections”. I try to be fair, respectful, and discerning. Take a gander.
