How I review.

My reviews are meant to be concise and to the point. I'm not going to give you a book report on the plot, I'm not going to give you a plot summary following the whole movie, and I'm not going to tell you that it's "good" or "bad". No thumbs up or down here.

Books

My book reviews will start out with my general impression of the book. Namely, did I enjoy reading it? This is an ambiguous trait, but it makes a big difference in reading. I don't bother giving star ratings here because if something was less than say a 3 out of 5 stars I probably would not finish reading it. So if it's here.. it must be at least decent.

Spoilers

I do not include spoilers in my reviews. However, if I feel the need to include one it will be clearly marked. 

Page-Turner Moniker

At the beginning of my reviews I will designate whether or not a book was a page-turner for me. A page-turner is a book that I destroy. (Don't burn it!). This means that I read more of the book per sitting than I usually would. This doesn't necessary mean that a book is good, but certainly means that a book is written in a manner that I can traverse it with relative alacrity.

Dictionary Needed Moniker

This is another moniker I will use at the beginning of some reviews. Dictionary needed means that the author has used a rather expansive vocabulary. If I review a China Miéville book, for example, it will likely have one of these designations (I think he is a human thesaurus?).

Music

I will do a track by track review of any album on here. It is impossible to review albums "as a whole" since most of the time there will be certain tracks that are much better than others.

Relistenability Moniker

If I use this moniker it probably means that I've been listening to the album over and over again. This is generally a good sign as the tracks have a solid relistenability to them.

Again, much like books, I won't do star ratings as they aren't justifiable. I will review each track and say whether I liked the track or not.

(What about concept albums?)

Yes I like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and I realize that concept albums are meant to explore an overall theme. If the album is a concept album (like Dark Side of the Moon), especially one like Dark Side of the Moon where the tracks actually crossfade seamlessly from one to the other, than I will still review the album track by track and as a whole.

Movies

Again I try to avoid just giving plot summaries. I prefer giving impressions. What did I like about the movie. Like books I do not give spoilers, but if I feel the necessity for a spoiler, then it will be clearly marked.

Watch Checking Moniker

This is an unconscious rating system I realized I used during movies. During a really good movie, I will be so engrossed that the movie is over before I know it. In a really bad movie, I'll often keep checking the time and calculating how much longer it is until the movie is over

TV

My TV reviews will be very similar to my movie reviews. Once again my reviews will not include spoilers, but if they do the spoilers will be clearly marked. I will not be reviewing TV shows on an episode by episode basis.

Characters, Plots, Settings?

With either book, movie, or TV reviews I often focus on character development, followed by plot development, and finally setting. Characters will usually make or break a book or movie for me. I'd rather have a book with solid characters but a lacking plot line, to one with a good plot line but hollow characters.