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Reviews

This is my page with all the reviews I have done for various people.  The reason I'm doing this?  Well, there are several.

  1. I want to make sure that all of you have the information you need to make informed decisions as to the worth and value of many of the books on the market.
  2. SOMEONE needs to go through all these books and say what is good and what is not.  Some of the books out there are complete crap.
  3. There are books that I have decided to try and see if they are appropriate for textbooks for various classes I have been giving.
  4. Two words; FREE BOOKS
  5. Selfishly, I get publicity when I put my reviews in various places on the Web.

So, I contact Llewellyn publishing, ask for books that I think are interesting or in my area of expertise, read them and then tell you what I think.  For this, Llewellyn gives me the book.  Pretty good deal if you ask me.  However, they are not the only ones to do this.  I have reviewed several books by other publishers and told you what I think here.

I wanted to take a moment to explain my rating system.  I use the stars system, from 1/2 to 5 stars.  The actual break down is below:

Stars Meaning
Pitiful.  This book should never have been published. A waste of trees.
Poor.  To be bought only if you have a lot of money to waste
Bad.  There may be some useful info here, but I wouldn't voluntarily buy it
Below Average.  Get it if there is nothing else you can buy or borrow
Average.  Good and bad elements cancel each other out
Above Average, there is some good things here
Good.  There should be more books like this 
Very good.  Most libraries should consider getting this one
Excellent  If you see this book get it
Superior  Run run run to purchase this book, you will thank me.

Hopefully, now that my wife is also reviewing books and Tarot decks, this will grow to a rather large section.  So far, here is what I have for you: 

I hope you find some use in these reviews.

Theresa's Reviews

My wife Mary has started reviewing certain of Llewellyn's products, as she is more of an expert in certain things than I am.  So, I'll let her reviews of these books speak for themselves.

Review Guidelines:

These are the standard guidelines I have for any book for review.  If you have a specific question about these, please contact me.

  1. My specialty is Wicca (specifically Seax-Wica), Druidism, magick and ritual. This is the focus of my website, so if you send me books, please try to send them in those areas of specialty. I probably won't be able to accurately critique a book on Gypsies, as I have no background in that area (for example).
  2. I post my reviews to multiple forums. Generally they go to the update list for my website (davensjournal@yahoogroups.com), Alt.Religion.Wicca.Moderated, WitchesThree@yahoogroups.com, and any of up to 7 specialty lists for my various interests. I also permanently post a copy to my website, and generally I get asked to share the review with about 3 to 5 other lists that I'm not a member of. The review gets decent market saturation fairly quickly, but if it's a bad review, it could drop sales significantly. That I know of, I have had an average of 3 people per review base their buying decisions on my review. My website gets an average of 25 NEW visitors every day, with approximately 50 return visitors per day. Keep those traffic stats in mind.
  3. I WILL NOT review any book by Mark Ventimiglia. Don't send them because I will not review it, and that's just wasting trees.
  4. I will send copies of the review to you, the publisher, as long as I have an email address, and to the author if I can find an email address on them (or if you give it to me) along with the URL and a list of where the reviews were posted.
  5. All copies of a review are posted simultaneously.  No advanced copies will be available.
  6. Any book for review should be sent to:
    Daven
    c/o Daven's Journal
    (email me for address)
    Please include contact information for the editor or publicist who is handling this book, as well as any promotional materials you feel to be relevant.
  7. I may occasionally come up with a list of questions for the author. This is not an interview, it is a chance for the author to clarify points of concern before the review is written. However, in the time I have written reviews, this has only happened twice.
  8. I must say this, even though it should be obvious. I call a spade a spade in a review. I will take into consideration the age of the author and how many books they have published and I may lighten a bad review a little, to try to encourage them to continue with their writing, but if a book is bad or I have a problem with a section of the book, I will say so. My readers count on my honesty and integrity. I will say what I like and what I didn't like about the books in the review.
  9. At any one time I have at least four books waiting for review, and I have had up to 20. As such I generally skim the books in the order I receive them in. If you wish me to review a book in advance of it's publication, please say so and give me a date for release. As part of that, if this is a review in advance of publication, I can and will send extra copies of the review to others of your choice. Simply include their email addresses in the publicity materials. I can't do this very often, so use this sparingly if you wish me to do this. ;-)

Any comments you may have on these reviews, I would like to hear at daven@davensjournal.com 

Daven

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