Right you are. A synopsis should tell what the book is about, and a review is supposed to tell what a reader thought of the book. I hate synopses that say something that say "the best xxx to come along in years", that tells nothing about what the book is about. A review shold consist of a reader's opinion of the book after he/she has read it.
For the most part, remarks like, "outstand" or "frightening beyond belief" should be left out of synopses, and put in reviews with supporting opinions by the submitter.
Just my opinion. Bob----- Original Message ----- From: "Grandma Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 3:04 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] reviews are not synopses
Again I'm probably preaching to the choir, but if you know anybody who does this, perhaps you could explain to them what a synopsis is. maybe bookshare should change terminology and use the words "plot summary" instead of synopsis.Quite few people lately have been taking quotes from reviews, probably from the back of books or book covers, and putting them as short synopses. Apart from the fact that they are not, such review snippets are always positive. I've come to the conclusion, especially when I see that the reviewer is a writer of the same genre, that of course they're going to write glowing reviews because they want the same to be done for their books. But on at least some occasions, "real" book reviewers, like those who write for newspapers, have a different opinion of the book. Of course even the reviewers can disagree. I've seen PW and LJ reviewers disagree about the merits of a book, and NY Times reviewers among themselves.But the main thing is that a review is *not* a synopsis or summary, which is what I thought bookshare readers want.G.Cindy***WISH LIST (CALLED REQUESTED ADDITIONS TO THE BOOKSHARE COLLECTION)IS AVAILABLE AThttp://people.delphiforums.com/jamiecalton/Book_Requests.htm http://www.friendsofbookshare.org/ http://studentpages.alma.edu/~07jmyate/book_requests.htmA LIST OF BOOKS CURRENTLY BEING SCANNED IS AVAILABLE AT http://people.delphiforums.com/jamiecalton/scanning.htmlJake's site for useful links: http://www.jbrownell.com/bkslinks.html To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.-- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG.Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.24.0/1461 - Release Date: 5/22/2008 4:44 PM
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