books, discussion, personal

Discussion: Reviewing Long After You Read The Book

Sam Bonge
One discussion I’ve seen around recently is one whether book bloggers should review books they read a while back – rather than more recent reads.
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Personally, I’ve read a lot over the years.
A lot.
I also read faster than I can review usually, and I read a lot of books before I started reviewing them.
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So the question is, you can still review books long after you’ve read them, months or even years later? Should you?
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I think it comes down to the person, based on your memory and your personal review writing style, how detailed you are if you think you can review a book upwards of a year later.
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But I don’t see anything wrong with it, though maybe it should a a disclaimer like “I read this over a year ago, some details are a bit foggy”.
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I talking about it, because I want to start backlogged reviews, books I read in the last year or so that I never got around to reviewing, books I read before I started my blog, etc.
What do you think?
 
Is that something we should be able to do, especially when you’re in a reading slump and have no new books to review?
 
Or do you think it’s kind of deceiving to review a book that’s had its flaws dulled by time?

30 thoughts on “Discussion: Reviewing Long After You Read The Book”

  1. Interesting topic! Personally I try to wait at least a week, and sometimes longer because I tend to look at books with rose colored glasses when I finish them, then after thinking about them for a few days I am better able to pick out the pros and cons of the book and really think about what worked and what didn’t. I’ll usually write down my initial thoughts and points that I think really need discussion, but usually I’ll wait a few days before writing the review…at least until my excitement from finishing the book has died down a little. However, I usually won’t review a book if it’s been so long and I can’t even remember major points until after I go back and skim through or re-read a few chapters.

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    1. That makes a lot of sense. I tend to have the opposite problem – when I wait too long to review for some books – I tend to forget only the cons. I prefer reviewing within a day or two (school permitting). Some books I read forever ago I remember clearly and some I can’t so that is really the deciding factor in reviewing them for me. Thanks for the lovely comment!

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  2. Is this just me? But I’ve always assumed that when someone reviews a book read long time, the person at least have tried to do a refresher before writing. I mean, it’s hard to discuss something that you don’t know or you can hardly remember. Okay, maybe except for Goodreads reviews. But seriously, there’s nothing wrong with it. 🙂

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    1. I agree – I think most people refresh their memory with a summary/other reviews before hand before writing, but you’d be surprised how many people are against backlogged reviews (that’s why I wrote this!) because I agree with you, there’s nothing wrong with it.

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  3. I actually love reading reviews of books that have been out for a while. As long as you are able to give a proper review and remember things well enough, then I think it’s great. I prefer to read reviews of books that I have already read, usually because I like to see what others thought of the same book. I also think, even if a book has been out for 20 years, there is going to be someone who hasn’t read the book and therefore the review may spark their interest. Awesome post 🙂

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    1. That’s a great point! I love doing backlogged/old reviews for exactly that reason! The books may not have a lot of hype, but if you have something to say, especially if you loved it, you can introduce people to a great book they otherwise wouldn’t have read.

      I also only read reviews of books I’ve read. I like seeing different opinions and interpretations.

      Thanks for the lovely comment!

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  4. I think that like you mentioned it’s up to the Reviewer to decide if they can remember enough about the story to talk about it. I think it’s a really cool idea to review a lot of your backlogged reads and also if you don’t think you remember enough of it you can always look up a detailed summary online, I think it would be a surprise to many how much you can recall from a simple summary.

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  5. I see no problem in reviewing a book long after you’ve read it, but I could never do it myself! I always write my reviews AS I’m reading the book, never after, so I can add to it as I get through the story. I agree many a disclaimer is needed just incase some of your memories of it are sketchy. Reviewing back logged books sounds like a great idea!

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    1. Glad you think so! I sometimes start my reviews when I’m about halfway through the book to detail my thoughts up to that point because, especially now with testing season, school doesn’t let me finish a book all that quickly.

      Glad you liked the post, thanks for the wonderful comment!

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  6. My memory is wonky so I can’t do that. In fact I have to take notes in a notebook just to get the review done within a week. Also usually the emotion I felt towards the book makes more sense in the moment. But people who can go back and review books from year(s) ago have me impressed. If you can go for it!

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  7. I usually try to review books as soon as I read them because my memory is just not great hahaha
    Thankfully, I always take notes while I read so that if I can’t review it right away for some reason, I always have that kind of memory support.

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  9. Yeah I read faster than I can review too. I tend to find that if I don’t review something after a month, then it’s gonna be really difficult to review it later, but there are always exceptions. Like you, I don’t see anything wrong with reviewing at a later date! Anyway, really interesting discussion to have!

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  10. I don’t see anything wrong with it. I have done this, and noted that it had been a while since I read the book. It is especially okay for people who have great memories, and/or like to take notes while they are reading. In my opinion of course.

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  12. I often write reviews months after I have read the book. I couldn’t have done that without my notes, they help a lot. One of my goals is to not procrastinate writing reviews, and to write them right after I finish the book.

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