Over the next several weeks, I’m going to be posting occasional thoughts on the art of reading and reviewing. Lately, I’ve been using the Drafts app on my iPhone to capture short ideas that I have for blog posts. As I’m looking through them, I see that many cluster around how I approach reading and reviewing books (something we both know I do a lot of). I’ve been toying with the idea of putting together and eBook, but I want to test the waters and if I can, get some feedback from you the readers as to whether it’s something I should seriously pursue.
Part of me thinks it is, since a) there is really not a eBook I know of written by a semi-prominent blogger (not that I fit that description) on how to read and review well and b) it’s something I think I’m good at, have a reputation for, and am currently using a platform to spread my ideas on the subject. I’m no expert, but I did go from casually blogging to aggressively blogging and from no book reviews to weekly book reviews on free books I’ve gotten from a variety of big name Christian publishers. I imagine other bloggers might like to do the same, but there’s not really a go-to resource on the topic.
I’d like to provide that source.
As a way of kind of limbering up for such an endeavor, I’m going to start blogging through the various thoughts I have about reading in general, and reading for reviewing purposes in particular. The posts won’t follow a logical progression, but it’s just a way for me to get my thoughts out in the open and start organizing them. I’m also going to streamline my archives and gradually bring it up to date over the next several months so that back reviews are more accessible.
That makes this the introduction of a new series, so here’s a preview of ideas I’ve had for upcoming posts, as well as the few posts I’ve made that already kind of fit into the series:
- How I Do Book Reviews
- How to Read a Book Triperspectivally
- The 12 Books I Planned to Read In 2012 and The Lesson Learned
- Why (I Think) People Like Awful Christian Books
- How Seminary (Almost) Ruined My Reading Habits
- Why I Don’t Give Many 5-star Reviews
- Why Goodreads Messes Up My Reading
- 3 Types of Reviews
- How I Organize My Reading
- My Proposal for Book Rating System
- Curiosity Kills More Than Just Cats
- ??????
I’m also open to reader suggestions for things you’d like me to write about on these kinds of topics. What would be helpful? What do you want to know but just haven’t asked yet? Do you think there’s interest in a full-blown (albeit short) eBook on the topic?
Comments
7 responses to “On The Reading and Reviewing of Books (There is No End)”
Yes there is interest! Every one of those topics looks interesting whether or not said reader wants to be a prominent blogger. I would read this book regardless, even though I’m not an aspiring blogger. 🙂
Yes! Write it! There is a great need for such a resource.
Sounds good to me!
I could use the help.
Jeff
Looking forward to it
Nate,
I love the idea. I’d probably read the eBook.
One topic that I’ve thought about exploring is what to do when a book really stinks but the guy who wrote it is really solid. (Or even someone that is a “friend” even it’s an online friend).
I’m interested to read this series!
That’s definitely a subject I’ll need to address. You can see how I handle it with my review of Michael Horton’s The Christian Faith. He’s a solid guy, but he wasn’t ready to write a full scale systematic IMO. It has many structural issues and accuracy issues in footnotes and he just seems out of his depth in many of the chapters.
As far as the friend, that’s probably trickier, but definitely something to think through!