Why I Want Every Reader To Write Reviews No Matter What

TL;DR: We’re all blind men feeling an elephant and the more we discuss what we think of a thing, the better picture we all obtain of the real truth of it.

OK, so there is *that* ancient parable. But I actually have a direct experience from college when I was first learning to code a new language (Java, for those curious).

It was a technique to approximate Pi, actually (and thus still relevant in these waning minutes of Pi Day).

You take a circle of radius 1 transcribed inside a square where each side is 1, and you generate random coordinates - “throw darts”. If the coordinate is within the circle, you color it green, a “hit”. If it is not, you color it red, a “miss”.

The ratio of hits to misses will approximate Pi.

If you only have one dart, good luck. Even at 10 darts, you can be *wildly* off. As you go up in order of magnitude (or even pure volume), you get an ever closer approximation - and a more complete visual.

Thus, a singular review of a book - no matter who wrote said review - actually tells us as a community *nothing* about that book.

But the more perspectives we get on it from more readers with more individual backgrounds and experiences with the book, the better picture we as a community actually get of what that book actually truly is.

We will all disagree in particulars, even when agreeing on the whole.

But that is the exact relationship of subjective views and objective reality.

But I Don’t Know What To Write / I’m Not Good At Writing
Don’t let my own review style scare you. Reviews don’t have to be long or complicated. A simple “I liked this book because ____” works and insert literally any reason you have, no matter what you think others will think of it. 26 words will be accepted anywhere I am aware of, and as an example, this sentence has used 20 words.

Your perspective is valuable and valued, even when anyone disagrees with it and no matter what you think of your own writing abilities. You will discover your “voice” as you write more reviews and you will get more comfortable the more you do it.

Read the books that interest you.

And then review them and let us know what you thought of them.