PAGE TURNER: Sails of Fortune and The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2005

I'm a regular contributor to the BookADay website, which discusses all things related to the printed word. My latest contributions are now on view in the "Current Reviews" section, so I invite you to stop by. It's a delightful little site, and not merely because it hosts my reviews.

I have been writing book reviews for Bookaday since late last year, and it has been interesting to see how I've become more critical as a reader. Not critical as in adversarial, but critical as in more demanding. It's been fun to read authors with huge reputations in the field and see how they stack up now that I'm actually trying to set the bar. For example, Asimov still does pretty well with me. Philip K. Dick, not quite so good.

I remember the first time I really felt like a movie demanded a review from me. It was Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Now, this was not the first bad movie I ever saw. It was not the worst movie I had ever seen up to the point. And I certainly did not go in to the movie with high expectations. I mean, it looked bad, and looks were not deceiving. But it's the first time I remember turning a truly critical eye to a movie in an effort to fogure out precisely where it went so wrong. I had always gone with the flow as a moviegoer. But walking out of this particular piece of celluloid effluent, I really felt the need to analyze it in my mind. It wasn't enough that Superman IV was bad. It was the kind of bad that required further study.

This has kind of come to a head with the latest review I have up, because I really didn't care for the book at all. Since I have literary aspirations myself, I thought long and hard about just how inflammatory it was necessary for me to be. I mean, I've never thought a critic should be cruel just to get a chuckle. But a critic has to be honest, and if the book is bad, you have to say it.

So I slammed the book. I didn't find the story very well told, didn't think it did what the author wanted it to do. It's an unquestionable pan, and I didn't enjoy writing it at all. It was much more pleasant to prepare my other new review, a travel guide that I used for my spring vacation. (And the vacation was more pleasant than both of them, but that's another story.) So the intent is not to sound mean. It's just the disappointment of a reader who wishes they'd spent their time with a better book.

And please don't judge me for going to see Superman IV. It was a more innocent time.

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