Accepting an invitation to review a new book is a very risky business.  Unless one knows the author's work well, one has little to indicate whether the experience is going to be enjoyable or painful.  Over the years I have written book reviews where the book has been so interesting and provocative that I have pored over every word and spent three times as long on the task as I should - but I have equally taken on some volumes that really ought not have been published at all.

Writing a negative review often takes longer than a positive one.  No author offered a positive review is going to complain if they have been slightly mis-represented.  But an author whose work is savaged by a reviewer is likely to try to impugn the level of understanding of the reviewer, or to try to demonstrate that they have not read the book properly.  I have (via publishers) received complaints about my comments: but I've never received the ultimate put down from an author that is recorded against the composer Reger who is reputed to have written to a critic "I am sitting in the smallest room of my house.  I have your review before me.  In a moment it will be behind me."

I spent the journey back from Newcastle this evening considering a book review I have agreed to produce for the Times Higher on a book that has very little purpose.  It has been translated (somewhat literally) from another language, and has no argument whatsoever to it - consisting almost entirely of disjointed paragraphs that are all stuffed full of dates, names of people, and street addresses where they lived or worked.  The only saving grace in the book is that it is exceptionally well illustrated with stunning plates that are very well produced.

If only the book had been interesting, challenging and worthwhile. In that case I'd have polished off a favourbale review by now - conpleted my allotted 600 words and moved on.  But now I face doing some background research on the authors; seeking to see if the book has actually been published in its original language and perhaps abridged from that; and fact checking to make sure that where I am about to be negative I am on sure ground. Book reviewing is rather like dealing with students - the best books and students take very little time; but the worst require a great deal of care and attention.  But a poor student may be redeemable; with a poor book it is already too late.