I don't get paid for my opinion, and I rarely develop my reviews as much as I would if I did get compensated. Even though I'm no professional (or perhaps because I'm not), it's incredibly difficult to decide exactly how to produce an insightful, intellectual, accurate book review.
When I first began reviewing, I would be brutally honest. I did not attempt, as John Updike suggests, to submit to whatever spell is being cast. I was upfront about my bias (hate poetry, addicted to travel writing) and destructive in my critiques.
And then I realized: belittling literature wasn't helping literature. My reviews were discouraging, condescending, and most of the time, downright wrong.
In my reviews of The Journey Prize 25 and The Best Canadian Poetry 2013 contained in this blog, I didn't try to cover every piece. I searched for stories and poems that inspired me, that made me feel, that I could sense the writer's style and see the value in. I didn't have to adore the stories. I didn't have to praise the poems, I didn't have to lie about them, but I also didn't have to tear them to shreds.
I'm sure many of my interpretations are way off of the author's intentions. I'm positive I've analyzed some aspects wrong. But I'm human, and I'm still biased. I'm not trying to be the final judge. I'm just one voice, in a sea of many, trying to love literature and invite the world to love it, too.