Friday, May 23, 2014

A Love Letter to Book and Movie Blog Reviewers



Dear book and movie review bloggers,


As previously mentioned, I hate book reviews. But I love books. And movies. I find myself searching out movie reviews after watching each random film Netflix or Amazon Prime or my parents' borrowed Comcast Xfinity sucks me into, an observer of conversations that took place long ago.  Some people seem to feel like there's a glut of opinions online, like Rotten Tomatoes' offering of "regular folks" opinions via blog is an unnecessary addition to the professional reviews which precede them. But. If you're watching a random movie from fifteen years ago, the regular media has dumped those links that promise reviews. It's nothing but 404 messages ad infinitum.  

Bloggers aren't constrained by the concerns of the regular media. Their reviews shine brightly years and years after they first appeared. So, by extension, I would like to extend my hand to book reviewers. Although not as subject to turnover as film, the splashing out of opinion about books is a gift to one who wants to listen to a conversation about a book she just finished at 2 a.m. 


What did I do before all this? As a child of the '90s, this constant access to information is something that has bricked over the past. I swim easily in the sea, forgetting how I used to do things. So what was different? I saw more movies with other people. Watching VHS or DVD releases was a thing. It's still a thing, and a much more accessible one, with Redboxes outside every WalMart.