I can't read that!
By patgalca
@patgalca (18366)
Orangeville, Ontario
June 18, 2012 2:53pm CST
I am a member of goodreads.com where they have a lot of book giveaways. I go through the new entries every day and submit my name for those books I think I will like. In some cases the author will send you the book even if you didn't win it. This has happened to me a couple of times. I received a book a couple of weeks ago and started to read it last night. I was appalled. The publisher is an independent publisher in India who claim to have published hundreds of books in English. The author was born in India but raised in Thailand. She teaches ESL (English as a Second Language). I don't know if this book was written in a different language and translated to English by the publisher, or whether English is the original language the book was written in, but it is terribly written. The English is definitely broken. I checked the publisher online and though the website exists, when I tried to send them a comment or look further into the website I got no where. The site says they have a Twitter page and a Facebook page, but I couldn't find it.
The author is expecting me to review this book. That's the deal with Goodreads: You get the book, you post a review. I'm not sure I can even READ this book, let alone post a review. I don't even want to mention the title, author or even publisher for fear of offending the author.
So what would you do? Would you read the book, struggling all the way through, and write an honest review? Or just put it aside and forget about it?
6 people like this
18 responses
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
18 Jun 12
I'd read trudge through the whole thing and post my honest opinion. Often times, that's what an author is looking for and they've got to be ready to face some tough criticism. If they want to publish books in English, then I'm sure they'd want to know that their translations are horrendous. If you can't finish the entire thing, then I recommend you review with your honest opinion about what you were able to read.
2 people like this
@patgalca (18366)
• Orangeville, Ontario
21 Jun 12
I'm getting used to the broken English, it's the words that are used inappropriately that are bothering me. That is, she chose a word that doesn't mean what she is trying to say. Not to mention the different words used instead of "said". The term "stated curiously" is so off the mark it's not funny. Powering through...
2 people like this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
18 Jun 12
Your welcome. I hope it doesn't turn out to be too painful to finish the book.
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
18 Jun 12
I would at least put in a strong effort to read it. I've read books that are very hard to get into at the beginning and by 3rd, 4th or 5th chapter, they start to get better and actually turn out to be pretty good books. When I share them, I always tell the person I give the book to, to stick with it and they won't be disappointed. In the case of very broken English, I don't know. If I got into the 5th chapter and was still struggling,I think I'd just opt for honesty.Clearly, you are an avid reader. If by a few chapters in, you are still struggling then you know that someone will really struggle. You really can't worry about offending the author. The whole point in these reviews is for your HONEST opinion. The author will learn from the reviews. And besides, its just your opinion. Another person might have a completely different take on the same book. As a reader, I would read the reviews and draw my own conclusion. As a writer, I would take the critisism seriously....I'd want it so that I could improve.
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18366)
• Orangeville, Ontario
18 Jun 12
I know, I know. It is the right thing to do. I just hate to hurt people's feelings. I pointed out something to a fellow writer once and it wasn't until many, many months later I learned that she had been very offended. I felt terrible. But she was a friend. I don't know this person at all.
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
18 Jun 12
I know it's hard. I'm the same way. I hate to hurt feelings and especially in this line of work....writing, art or anything. I was on SliceThePie for a while where we had to give our opinions on the music. I just am not good at that. If I liked the song, then I was great on the praising but if I didn't, I really struggled to write an honest review of it. It's all creativity and art and our reviews are just opinion.
1 person likes this
@kareng (59050)
• United States
18 Jun 12
I would comment that the English was so bad you couldn't read the book and comprehend it. Be honest. It really seems odd that the book was published like that but who knows, you have it and it is real! Good luck to you.
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
18 Jun 12
well, i am guessing that this publisher is paying you to review the book honestly, so that is what i think you should do. publishers are pretty harsh anyways, so if the author doesn't hear it from you, they will certainly hear it somewhere else.
1 person likes this
@Tina30219 (81899)
• Onaway, Michigan
19 Jun 12
I agree with everyone else give your honest opinion. I am also a member of goodreads and I have to say I like the site never won any books to give my opinion on though.
@Suebee (2013)
• Canada
18 Jun 12
I am on goodreads as well and have seen these offers but have never taken advantage of them. I love goodreads as I like reading reviews before deciding on a book to purchase.
If I were you I would try to struggle through as much of it as I could, then write an honest review on it. Many people, such as myself, rely on reviews when searching for a good book to read.
1 person likes this
@Suebee (2013)
• Canada
18 Jun 12
Although book reviews may influence my decision as to whether or not to buy a book, in the end the decision is mine. Sometimes, after reading bad reviews on books I buy them anyway just because I have it in my head that I want to read them and make my own decision about them. People like different things and most books have mixed reviews (right now I am trying to decide whether or not to spend money on the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy as I've read bad reviews on it). So go ahead and write the review if you want to. You don't have to feel guilty about giving it a bad review.
1 person likes this
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
19 Jun 12
I am a member of Goodreads, have been for a long time but didn't know they had giveaways, how can I find that? I would love to win books and even if I didn't like it, I can always donate to the library.
This book, I wonder if it was self-published because the only two self-published books I read, (and these author's are both American) are really not written well.
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
19 Jun 12
WOW!!!!
Thank you for sharing that with me..I noticed many are not my genre, but I did find one, a romance, though I primarily prefer love/suspense, I do know the publisher and most of their books are great, in fact it was their books where I took for a guideline in writing my own...Thanks again, I am going to find more to enter..
Thank you for sharing that with me..I noticed many are not my genre, but I did find one, a romance, though I primarily prefer love/suspense, I do know the publisher and most of their books are great, in fact it was their books where I took for a guideline in writing my own...Thanks again, I am going to find more to enter..@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
19 Jun 12
Oh I forgot, you do know the reason these books are on giveaways? Though it isn't required, the authors do this for reviews, so maybe you should share what you shared here, let others know that you felt it was not written well..
@maezee (41988)
• United States
21 Jun 12
If you are struggling all the way through, I would just skip it. No one can make you read anything! It's your choice. If you can't handle telling the truth to the author in question, just say you are too busy or make some kind of excuse. I am sure she can find someone else!
@patgalca (18366)
• Orangeville, Ontario
21 Jun 12
I'm not one for lying, and it certainly wouldn't do me any good in this case if this author sees me review other books - then she knows I'm reading. I'm getting used to the broken English so I will finish the book, maybe not as quickly as I normally would, but I'll get there eventually.
@nonersays (3335)
• United States
18 Jun 12
I would read as much as I could, then put it aside and write the a review. I would state at the very beginning that I didn't finish the book, then go on to say why.
@patgalca (18366)
• Orangeville, Ontario
18 Jun 12
I hate starting a book and not finishing it so I will probably plough through this. I am so hesitant to review. The story might be good so if I can say a lot of good stuff about the story itself, then a little about the writing, maybe I can get away with it without feeling bad.
1 person likes this
@bjc66bjc (6730)
• United States
19 Jun 12
Hi patgala, I am not an avid reader but every now and then because
my daughter belong to a book club, I may start reading a book here
and there...But there was one book I started reading and i had to
read sentences over and over to try to conprehend and I knew the
book was not for me...
But I really think you should read it and be very honest with
your review...thats the reason for being in the book club,,
I think she would rather know the truth so hopefully she will not
repeat the same mistakes...I am sure you are not the only one who
feels this way,,,
@ForSouls1234 (720)
• United States
20 Jun 12
I really would not care if it was her first book or not. Like I said, if you or I submitted something like that it would be immediately sent back. What makes her so special?
And thank you for referring me to the company. It looks interesting and I guess they cannot be held responsible for the bad manuscript. They are not the editors after all so I signed up for it. I hope I get lucky enough to get a book sent to me that I like. Nice post.
@PhillyDreamer (3039)
• United States
18 Jun 12
I would contact the author, and let him know discretely rather than to publish a bad critique. Maybe he can sill fix it before too much money is wasted. Could you inbox me a link to good reads. I would love to participate in a site like that.
1 person likes this
@ForSouls1234 (720)
• United States
19 Jun 12
I would absolutely read the book, struggle through it to try to make sense of it. Then post some valid honest points about it. That way they know you really read it when you submit the review.
Why should someone get paid for writing garbage? I am sure if you or I submitted something like that to a United States publisher it wouldn't get past the initial query.
@patgalca (18366)
• Orangeville, Ontario
21 Jun 12
Last night I flipped to the back to see the acknowledgements. I was surprised to see that she actually had an EDITOR. What did she pay this editor? And she must have paid the people whose quotes are printed on the inside flap praising the book and the author.
@ForSouls1234 (720)
• United States
24 Jun 12
What a hoot that is. Ya never know maybe she did pay them or else they are family. Or maybe she self published, wonder if they accept books like that.
@Lmfisher666 (820)
• United States
19 Jun 12
If I have to struggle at all I would put it aside and move on. Reading is suppose to give you pleasure, if not what is the point? Why waste your time on something you don't enjoy?
@Stiletto (4579)
•
19 Jun 12
I probably wouldn't struggle all the way through the entire book I'm afraid. I would write an honest review saying that I had to give up reading the book because of the reasons you have given above. I wouldn't worry too much about offending the author. As long as your opinion is given honestly and politely that seems reasonable to me. Unfortunately there are an awful lot of people around who think they can write but can't. Someone has to tell them!
@BarBaraPrz (47274)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
19 Jun 12
This isn't a proof, is it? They can have some horrendous errors in them.
Anyway, I'm with the consensus here... read as much as you can and then state in your review that you couldn't get through it, and why.
@patgalca (18366)
• Orangeville, Ontario
19 Jun 12
No, it isn't a proof. I have read ARCs before and they are always stickered with a notice that it is not the final proof. I'm going to keep on plugging and see how it goes. I'm interested in the story itself so I'll try and get through the rotten grammar.
1 person likes this
@wilsongoddard (7291)
• United States
18 Jun 12
I wouldn't bother struggling through it. I would write an honest review stating that the English was so horrible as to make the book unreadable.
There are a lot of people out there who fancy themselves writers. There are also a lot of websites and fly by night "publishers" who help them delude themselves.
@joevanosa (303)
• Philippines
19 Jun 12
I would read the book though it is hard to understand. Definitely, I would really try harder to understand it. Of course, i will do it for respect because he gave me the book. Perhaps, he is just a new writer and really wanted to be a great writer someday. Let's give him the chance.
