New Book Review Series: The Optimistic Critic

An Eclectic Glass-Half-Full Book Review Series by a Writer and Philosopher

I consider myself a harsh critic. Mostly of myself but also others; I’m a recovering perfectionist. I love to critique.

Despite this, I am, by nature, blithely optimistic about people and their art. Positive book reviews come joyfully and effortlessly. I love books.

So, I’m launching The Optimistic Critic, a glass-half-full review series featuring only the crème de la crème of books with an eclectic range of subjects.

• Accessible philosophy like Consciousness Explained, by Daniel Dennett.

• Accessible theology like Practicing the Way, by John Mark Comer.

• Sci-fi like Flow my Tears, the Policeman said, by Philip K. Dick.

• Fiction you might sleep on, like The Great Georgia Dirt Dragon, by Josh Porter.

Picture by the immaculate John the Taco

A good book review promotes discernment, an invaluable commodity in the modern glut of content (to the order of twenty-thousand books published every week in the US.)

I hope my reviews will:

• move a book up from its perpetual seventh place in your reading list

• bring a new or obscure work to your attention

• help you and me write better

The Optimistic Critic won’t be a “hack your reading list”—nothing so soulless and LinkedIn.¹ I won’t give a star rating or wade through heaps of modern junk to find hidden gems.

I want to help you prioritize, not optimize.

I aim to share what each carefully selected work accomplishes creatively, artistically, and functionally, all optimistically.

That way, you can decide for yourself whether to invest your time in reading a particular book.

Example: Are you a self-interested male writer who wants to build their superior and tasteful cultural bragging rights to assault uninterested party goers with?

No? Then don’t read Infinite Jest.

Well, maybe read a hundred pages for fun (about 1% of the book).

Flexing my Canva Pro subscription

I’m mostly making fun of myself here—don’t hate. David Foster Wallace is a god at writing, etc., etc. Also, I won’t be so harsh in my regular reviews. It’s called The Optimistic Critic, after all.

I’ll try to preselect books to be interesting and noteworthy, with an eclectic mix of the classics, fresh projects, fiction, and non-fiction. I won’t waste your time or mine.

Most of all, I aim to review books that made me think, and hope will make you think.

To be fair, all this pretty well describes book reviews in general—Nothing unique so far. To distinguish The Optimistic Critic, I’ll make sure to stick to a few guiding principles.

1. Bring out the book’s strengths.

Bring out the positive qualities of the book, even if it’s not to my taste or desires.

2. Give a little critical assessment.

I have some experience in the world of writing, but I’m by no means an expert. Critique will be offered humbly, without prejudice, or the implication that I could do better.

3. Answer “who is this book for?”

Try to help you decide whether it should go on your reading list.

And, finally, my most specific value-add:

4. Discuss what it made me think about.

That means engaging with the text philosophically, existentially, and/or theologically.

This series will run bi-monthly, the off weeks of my primary essays. Some of the book reviews will be republished from The Denison Forum, often tweaked.

I know trust is earned, not gained by accolades, but still: Why trust me? Well, I’ve written a couple of dozen book reviews and summaries at The Denison Forum. I also read and write a lot. I was an Associate Editor for two years and hold a master’s in philosophy from the University of Edinburgh.

The first book I’ll review? I’ve landed on Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by the philosopher, historian, and journalist Hannah Arendt.

At all times, I’ll keep the following quote in the mind, from the triumphant, 2007 masterpiece of cinema, Ratatouille:

Pictured: Me in real life

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.”

Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) in Ratatouille

Thanks for reading.

Above all,

Soli Deo Gloria

1. Yep, I’m using LinkedIn as an adjective.