I Don't Like Free Books

I've decided that I don't like free books.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  When someone I know gives me a gift of a book, I love that.  Friends and family members usually know what kind of books one likes to read, so the gift of a book is one to cherish.  The free books I'm talking about are the ones that are given with a hook - that you'll offer a review in return for the free book. 

My first experience with getting a free book with the obligation attached that I must write a review was a few years ago.  I was a part of a writing group and one of my online friends sought me out to do a review on her book.  The book idea was great - jobs for retired persons.

The book arrived and I settled down to read and was almost immediately....well, surprised, chagrined, and...completely turned off.  I knew that this writer had not done any research into the kinds of things that retired persons can and cannot do.  She was obviously not anywhere near retirement age herself and had not talked with any retired persons.  She had not talked with any geriatric experts.  All she had done was to collect information about jobs and put them in a book saying that they would be good jobs for retired persons.

One such job was one that my (then) teen son had researched.  His findings about the job of massage therapist was that one could have a great career in massage therapy until one reached the age of 40 or 45, but that as one aged, as one's own physical abilities decreased, and as one was inclined towards one's own pains and perhaps even arthritis, massaging other people became something less than desirable.  And yet this writer had the job of massage therapist as one of the first jobs in the book, and one that she most highly recommended for the elderly, since the cost of becoming a massage therapist was less than $2000 and took about 18 months of schooling.

My next experience in reading a "free" book was better.  It was a great book.  But my own physical problems kept me from doing the book review in a timely manner. 

I probably should have quit then because my most recently experience was...quite disappointing.

The free book I recently finished wasn't a bad book.  But the entire thing was written in present tense, which, for me anyway, was very difficult to read.  Writing 200+ pages in the present tense is not an easy task.  Reading a book written this way is also not easy.  The book I read did not completely accomplish the task of being written entirely in the present tense, something about which I'm not surprised.  Almost each chapter had one or two sentences that lapsed into the past tense.  Additionally, there were quite a few things that the proofreaders and editors missed.

So, no more free books for me.  If I don't have the money to buy a book, I'll run over to the library and borrow something.

I'm too honest, I guess.  I suppose I could write a review about some of things I like about a book.  But I want to be able to write about the things I don't like as well.  And, sadly, one cannot really do that when one gets a free book.

That first book I got - the one with jobs that most retired persons could never do...  I returned that one so that I didn't have to lie to the public.

I suppose I might do the same thing with the book I just finished.