I love books and have for as long as I can remember.  So, it is no surprise that I might review books that I read.  Below are the main three types of books I've been reading and reviewing of late.  Honestly, because I've spent so much time writing my own works, reviewing things and trying to make money, most of my new reviews in books will be in the graphic novels section of this blog.  However, I still have a slew of classic novel reviews, as well as a few nonfiction book reviews posted.

        Before you check out the reviews, I heartily recommend understanding how I review books.  While all of these reviews are in my blog, W.L. Swarts Reviews The Universe, as is my overall standard  - My Reviewing Philosophy - I figured I'd take a moment to run through my criteria for how I review books, specifically.

        All books I read are evaluated on a ten point scale where 0 (zero) is absolutely abominable through 10 (perfection, everyone should read it!).  I start at zero and books work their way up to ten.  What are the criteria I grade on?  Here are the standards:

Fiction - 3 points for plot, 3 points for character, 4 points for style.  If the story is fresh, if the characters are interesting and if the writing is engaging, it's something I want to read and recommend!

I recently got sick of how the Star Trek books were cluttering up the Fiction section, so I now have a specialized fiction section just for the Star Trek series of books!

Nonfiction - 3 points for subject matter, 3 points for veracity (how well-argued and/or researched the subject seems to be), 4 points for style.  Nonfiction should be just as engaging, clear and compelling as fiction (it seldom is, though).  When I read nonfiction, I want to learn something and have my mind expanded.  I'm not big into dry textbooks or very basic nonfiction.

Graphic Novels - 2 points for plot, 3 points for character, 5 points for style.  Graphic novels (truly a misnomer of a genre name if ever there were one!) are something I have gotten into in the last year for two good reasons: 1. So many movies I was excited about were being made from them, and 2. It's a legitimate form of literature which is actually far more interesting than people give it credit for.  When you read a lot (A LOT!) and you write novels and scripts, it eventually becomes tiresome to read endless pages of description.  Setting can and should have a part in stories, but spending thirty to fifty pages ignoring characters to establish a place and time is just gut-wrenching.  Graphic novels establish that quicker and while the plots may tap into far more steady, obvious mythological tales, the best graphic novels do what the best novels do - they tell fascinating character stories.  They just do it with artwork in addition to dialogue.