A friend of mine - who I respect a lot for his intellect - recently published a book. The description of the book on Amazon indicated that the subject is quite close to my interest - and I therefore decided to buy it through my Kindle.
Unfortunately the book turned out to be a total let-down. The only interesting part of this book was the preface that was extremely lucidly written, and had some original thoughts and view-points from the author. However, the rest of the book appeared to read like a text book - very dry and without a point of view (much of it is available on Wikipedia anyway). The expectations aroused on reading the preface was let down by the rest of the book. After a brief struggle attempting to make sense of the first few chapters I gave up the battle.
The fact is, I had wanted this friend's book to succeed (and I still hope it will succeed - as it is quite possible that my tastes and intellect simply do not match). I was even planning to write a review about this book on Amazon - as reviews usually help. But after reading the book I decided not to : if I am being honest, it will not help either the book or our friendship.
Which brings me to the toughest question. What should I do next? This is the first book in the series - there are more to follow. It is quite possible that without feedback, he will repeat the same approach for the rest of the books in the series. Should I honestly give my feedback to my friend on his book?The reason why I hesitate is that I know for a fact that few artistes (and authors) can take criticism.
Right now, I would like to believe I may be an exception - that other readers will in fact love the approach he has taken in his book, and that the series will end up as a mega-hit. If that does happen, I will be the happiest person.
Unfortunately the book turned out to be a total let-down. The only interesting part of this book was the preface that was extremely lucidly written, and had some original thoughts and view-points from the author. However, the rest of the book appeared to read like a text book - very dry and without a point of view (much of it is available on Wikipedia anyway). The expectations aroused on reading the preface was let down by the rest of the book. After a brief struggle attempting to make sense of the first few chapters I gave up the battle.
The fact is, I had wanted this friend's book to succeed (and I still hope it will succeed - as it is quite possible that my tastes and intellect simply do not match). I was even planning to write a review about this book on Amazon - as reviews usually help. But after reading the book I decided not to : if I am being honest, it will not help either the book or our friendship.
Which brings me to the toughest question. What should I do next? This is the first book in the series - there are more to follow. It is quite possible that without feedback, he will repeat the same approach for the rest of the books in the series. Should I honestly give my feedback to my friend on his book?The reason why I hesitate is that I know for a fact that few artistes (and authors) can take criticism.
Right now, I would like to believe I may be an exception - that other readers will in fact love the approach he has taken in his book, and that the series will end up as a mega-hit. If that does happen, I will be the happiest person.
