I recently read Bradley Sands Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy. It now has the dubious distinction of having been the first book I could not read the whole way through. I had to put it down about a quarter of the way through.
Despite not having completed the book I went to Goodreads and posted my review anyway. I felt providing a review for a book I did not complete would be fair if I qualified the review as being based upon a partial reading of the book. Needless to say I gave it a fat one star raspberry of a review. With most books thats where the relationship ends. I move on eagerly to the next book as the previous story becomes a fleeting memory.
Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy struck me as so terrible however that the bad taste lingered. I kept questioning it in my mind. How could anyone possibly find enjoyment out of what I can only comprehend as drivel. To me it was less then stream of consciousness, it was word vomit.
I started verbalizng my distaste for the book to anyone who would listen. I went to message boards. I published my dim review on facebook. Heck, I even yattered on to disinterested co-workers. I was incensed, I was on a mission to save anyone I possible could from the pitfall of reading this waste of time.
Then I realized something. I was talking way more about a book I loathed then I ever had about any book I liked or enjoyed. I was giving Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy a ton of lip service. Not only that but I was doing it passionatly. I left anyone who stood in the wake of my tirade with something important. The name of a book that made someone act emotional.
It may be true that I have prevented some unfortunate souls from reading what in theory may be the worst thing I have ever read. However, I may have also inadvertantly peaked the curiosity of someone to pick up the same book and find out just for themselves why I reacted to it so vehemently.
That is why it’s important to review, discuss, pow-wow, round table, what have you, anything you read. For better or worse. The most important thing is to be honest with your reactions to what you’ve read. Let those around you absorb your reactions for what it’s worth to them. This is why any writer worth his/her salt will embrace a bad review as much as a good one. I hope Bradley Sands enjoys mine should he ever come across it.
(For the record, it appears way more people enjoy the hell out of Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy exponentially more then I did based upon other reviews posted on GoodReads)
The Sinister Mister E 