One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about my various review sections on this site is how they evolve. The films started out as a weekly thing, just me and have rolled through watching loads of movies with Mr C, to a reduced load now supplemented by black and white films I watch by myself. I’ve added a Games section that didn’t exist before. I’m constantly debating what albums count for the Music section.

Now my attention has turned to books. Since I started posting reviews, I’ve ignored any books that I haven’t finished. It felt like the fair thing to do - an author spends an absolute age on writing a book, I don’t get to the end, who am I to judge the whole thing? I’ve written books, I know the effort involved.

So when a book lost me at page 80, or 150, or three chapters from the end, I just let it disappear into the ether. Apart from a few reviews for books that needed comment (because I’d referred to them elsewhere, or when I was working through that Big Read list), there are many books I’ve started that end up falling into a black hole between ‘read’ and ’not read’.

It makes no sense now I’ve given it some thought. It’s not offensive to an author if I don’t enjoy their book. There are many books out there and they can’t all be to my tastes. I’ve listened to albums and given them negative reviews but it’s not a reflection on the effort going in, I know they’re just not my cup of tea. And there are plenty of films I’ve not got to the end of - that twenty minute rule is there for a reason, life’s too short.

Life is also too short to pick up the same books 18 months later, when I’ve forgotten that I’ve already tried and discarded it. The review sections here are an extension of my brain and my memory, not just random content but an incredibly handy way to keep track of what I’ve consumed and what is still to be done. Not finishing a book still counts as a review, and I wasn’t being fair to myself to just ignore them.

It also gives me the opportunity to revisit books specifically. A DNF for film or album or book isn’t definitive. I have a Revisited tag for that exact reason. In fact, I was recently looking back at books I’ve discarded in the past and found one that I’ve gotten into and probably will get to the end of this time. But it would have been good to know that I’d already tried it and what I’d thought at the time. Why did I stop reading this one before? Past Christine knows and she’s not telling.

And thus, this is simply a post to say that I am going to start publishing reviews of books that don’t get finished, but remain entirely respectful of all books. Not every work is going to get a review of many paragraphs, but from now on all books are going to get acknowledged and I’m looking forward to seeing the results.