Book Review vs Book Report – Complete Guide

Reading a book is a hobby that can turn into a profession by reviewing and reporting about it!

It is indeed a fact that a huge chunk of the population is now involved in book reading that they are now turning it into an opportunity to earn. Before the invention of televisions and the World Wide Web, the only source of entertainment for people has been books. Still, to date, it is safe to say that no technology has replaced the reading habit of people. It may have revolutionized it up with a touch of technology where people are reading E-books now.

But the habit of reading among the population of the world still prevails!

What is a Book Review?

A book review is sharing your thoughts on the theme, story, plot, and characters of the book. A book review includes the summary of a respective book. The objective is to enlighten the reader about the whereabouts of the book without having them read the whole book.

A book review should explain three things about the book;

Importance of a Book Review:

Book reviews have significant importance for the mentioned parties; the author of the book, the reviewer of the book, and the reader of the book.

A good way to promote the book;

Book reviews help the author in spreading the word about the book. It is a known fact, the more people review the book, and the more people will look forward to reading it. Reviewing a book is one way to explain the quality of the book, and to increase its popularity of the book.

It saves time for the readers;

If you think broadly, by reviewing a book, you do charity, because you save precious time of the people. Oftentimes, people like to read what others have preferred to them, so they would not up wasting their time. Through a book review, a reader can always judge if it going to be worth reading it or not. Or if the genre is up to their interest.

The author gets enlightened with the feedback;

It is right to consider a book review as feedback, when a review of the book is given, the author reads and analyzes critically. It allows the author to know the expectations of the reader, to mold the stories in the books accordingly. Also, it helps in understanding all the gray areas about a book.

How To Write A Book Review?

Take the words of wisdom from someone who has written the reviews quite hundred times – it is an amusing task. Writing a book review tends to work up your brain cells a little differently, and that is because it requires you to think analytically. Well, it is quite easy to learn how to write a book review.

Keep in mind that reviewing a book will require you to include so much of the content from the book so there are chances of plagiarism. Therefore, make a plagiarism tool your best friend before writing a book review.

There are six main steps in writing a book review;

1. Introduce the book:

Before you even start giving your own opinions or reviews about the book, you should introduce the book. Here, it would be justified if you give some proficient details about the author. In the introduction, you can explain the niche of the author, or what genre the author has expertise in. Once, you are done with this part, proceed to define the storyline of the book.

2. Summarize:

For this step, you may require to polish up your summarizing skills. The objective here is to briefly discuss the story of the book and not to reiterate the introduction. You are expected to concise the storyline, the role of the characters, and how well each character portrays their role.

3. Mention the favorite points:

Whenever you read or experience something and then you start preferring it to someone, the first thing you would mention is your favorite points from that particular thing. The same strategy is applicable for reviewing a book as well. While writing your review, make sure to mention your favorite bits and pieces from the book, so the reader can judge the quality of the book from those points.

4. Mention the weaknesses:

Nothing is perfect in this world, so not the books as well. There will always be some lacking in every book. The ultimate objective here is to mention those weaknesses. The rest of the job is for the reader and that is to analyze if those weaknesses are worthy of ignorance or not. You will never be considered a good book review if you ever tried to hide the weak points of the book.

5. Explain the message of the book:

For this step, your reader might start to hate you as you will giving a sneak peek of the endings in it. AND NO BOOKWORM EVER APPRECIATES SPOILERS! But that is the thing about reading a book review that it tells about the whole story of the book, even the endings!

So, in a book review, you will be expected to make few comments on the ending or if the message of the book has been portrayed well or not.

6. Rate it!

If you are an avid book reader, then books would be your favorite goods to consume. Therefore, after you are done reading the whole book, rating the book would add value to your review

You can give ratings to the book out of five stars or so.

What Is A Book Report?

A book report is a form of an academic task, which requires you to give the information about the book in the most formal way.

A book report does not necessarily have to include a personal opinion as you are not reviewing it but reporting it. The main objective of a book report is to impart all the basic information and knowledge in the book. A typical book reporting includes three steps;

Upon looking at these points, it is rather clear that how to write a book report does not match at all with that of book reviewing. To clear our minds further on this, let’s understand the basic difference between a book review and a book report.

Book Review VS Book Report

Differentiating between a book review and a book report is like trying to find the differences between bananas and plantains. Well, few points intensify the war of book review vs book report.

Differences in meaning;

A book report is written to inform the reader about the book, while a book review is to persuade a person to read or not read the book.

Differences in writing styles;

A book report gives all the bibliographic information in the proper referencing styles, while a review can be written in freestyle.

Different in requirements;

A book report is often a requirement from kindergarten to twelfth grade, while a book review is often a requirement for college-level students. Since it is not an easy task to write a book review so students often take help from a college essay writing service because such services offer writing book reviews as well.

Changes in perspective;

A book report can never follow a personal approach, a book report is pure from personal opinions and biasness. It just gives information about the book and the author. A book review follows a different perspective which requires you to share your thoughts and ideas about the book and the story.

These differences clearly state why how to write a book report and a book review can never follow the same steps.

Final verdict!

Book reviewing and reporting has now been getting so much common which explains the reason behind services like college essay writing service giving options like book reporting and reviewing writing facilities.

Lastly, either you are reporting a book or reviewing a book, make sure to pick the book which interests you the most because you will have to read the whole thing to do either of the act. There is no substitute for reading.