An academic critique

Sometimes life winks at you. Today, I got one of those very rare emails from my publisher, as my thesis, which has been published as a book, was reviewed. I got a copy of it and read it eagerly. It is the second time (as far as I know) that it has been reviewed.

I was not excited when the book got finally published. It took about two years to finalise the darn thing and I never felt that it was quite as good as it could have been. The formatting in itself was a terribly painful and frustrating procedure. Of course, like most academic books, it sold badly (although fairly well for an academic book, or so I was told). But this review cheered me up, for many reason. The first one I read was mixed, but this one is mainly positive. Yes, there are reservations and some criticism, but some of them I already had myself (as it was published a while ago) and the rest I think I could defend in a congress without much difficulty. But on the whole, it is very positive, sometimes even laudatory: clear style, methodological, treating a worthy subject only sporadically by others, stimulating work, etc.

I have to confess, I had butterflies reading it, first because of anxiety. I always read/listen to critiques of my work (as an amateur singer, as an amateur actor and moreso as a genuine academic) with anxiety as I am a naturally vain person who does not like being criticised. It is nice to know that a book I don't read anymore, which was central to my life not so long ago, is now appreciated among this academic world that was once mine.

Oh, and the review was also published by one of the major journals in the field. Do I need to say that it made my day?