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.


Date
February 10, 2022