Book reviews
Rather than set a goal like “this year I want to read 40 books”, instead I want to review every book I read.
You should be able to see every book I read and review here.
There’s a few reasons for this.
I read some old reviews from a few years ago and really enjoyed the window into how I was thinking back then. I want to be able to do the same in a few years time.
These are public reviews and I have a bit of pride, so I hope that whoever reads them learns something about the book.
To review a book, you need to be able to summarize your thoughts and feelings about a book. To do so, you need to actually read the damn thing and digest it properly, rather than quickly moving on to wherever your attention takes you to next.
So it forces me to read more thoughtfully, and perhaps even choose what I read more thoughtfully. Life is too short to get through a 2 star book that would output a review like “not worth it.”
Here’s my processs. While I’m reading, I take lots of highlights of sentences I like, quotes, and write the occasional note, which could be a question or a statement. When I finish the book, I usually think about it for a while, maybe write a few lines about what it was trying to do or say, and then read a few other reviews on Goodreads. Reading other reviews is sort of like a digital bookclub, you get a wide range of opinions but there’s always a few good perspectives that I hadn’t considered. I write a review, usually trying to include a few quotes that back up my thoughts. That’s it. Total time is probably 10-15 min per review.
So, I’m pro-review now, since before I felt like it was a waste of time.