Woot?! Nominated for Best Review Post @ Ping.sg? (And a Touch onto My Review Philosophy)

I got shocked out of my socks when Sylv dropped me a comment that one of my reviews has been nominated for the Best Review Post.  Wow, how did that happen?  OK, please vote for me only if you think that I am worthy of the title and it’s not too much of a hassle for you.  I don’t wish this to be a popularity contest and I know some of you value privacy, not wanting to leave digital footprints in the Internet.  In this gigantic blogosphere of Singapore, I am certainly very humbled even by getting nominated especially by this lovely community called Ping.sg.  And here is the post that you may have come across back in June.

• So This is Sex and the City (A Guy’s Perspective)

I have been procrastinating for years when it comes down to writing a few paragraphs on “About Me”.  “About Me” is very commonly found in almost all the blogging sites.  I can write posts that consist thousands of words but yet when it comes down to “About Me”, I don’t know what to write.  Ever since I have created the “About Me” page temporarily with my email address and my mugshot, statistics tell me that more and more readers click onto that page.  It has become so significant that I have decided to write something about me over the weekend in under 250 words, which is kind of impossible if you know my style.  The final version has a 330 word count.  Quite an achievement for a start.

I reckon in recent years, one third of my posts are reviews of some sort, be it as books, or music, or movies.  And hence, I have been pondering if I shall include my review philosophy into “About Me”.  Right now, probably not as I wish to keep that low word count.

If you notice, I don’t give rating for all my recent reviews.  My philosophy is very simple: just because I give a perfect ten to a book or a movie or a music album doesn’t mean that you would love it.  Because I am me and you are you and you are not me.  What I can do though is to highlight the good and the not-too-good and you then decide if it is a zero or a ten, if the good works for you, and if the not-too-good is the deal breaker.  You rate it, not I rate it for you.  The most I can do is to categorize the reviews because I am aware that there are genres that some people may not be interested in.

And as careful as I can be, I try not to publish any spoilers for the movies.  Non-fictional book reviews are OK, I think, to read like book summaries because for those who may not have the time to read, it is good for them to learn something.  And if the readers have decided to read the non-fictional books I reviewed, I hope that my reviews act as a reinforcement to what they are going to read, a challenge for them to think ahead.  I personally am torn when it comes to fictional books.  On one hand, I shall not give out any spoilers.  On the other hand, some do visit my site to, as an illustration, research on how best to position a certain book to the students (such as “The Fifth Child By Doris Lessing – Horror Or Tragedy? You Decide”).  Hence, the for fictional books, my style is in as much as possible, highlight the themes and not too much on the storyline.

Writing music reviews is both easy and tough.  Easy in a sense that I have no holding back on what I can write.  Spoiler restriction does not apply to music albums.  Tough because it is hard to describe sound.  And more often than not, I have to hunt for music videos to complete my reviews and they are not easy to maintain either.

I learn that some reviews have hit rates far beyond my own domain’s hit rate.  Some topics are time sensitive, some are not.  Some are popular, some ain’t.  Till today, I am still learning on how to write a good review.

And I am so glad to have you readers to be with me on this journey of mine.  This nomination of mine is for you!