I have a long history of reviewing books on this blog (see the list here, although I’m way overdue to update it). I’ve been on something of a hiatus for a while, partially because of life events. More so, it was because I was bored writing them, and thought it fair to assume others would be bored reading them.
Part of this, I think, was that the business of life kept me from really processing the books well. When I would then write a review, it would by default lack any kind of depth or insight. The solution would have been to read fewer books, and of course write even fewer book reviews. I opted to keep the reading fairly stable, but unfortunately did so in a less active manner. By that I mean reading has been a more passive activity than it should be for the past few years.
I’ve since re-awakened from the dogmatic slumber of day to day existence. And since then, I’ve been thinking about how book reviews could be better. This is course is no easy feat. But, I think I got it done, so let me retrace my steps.
First, writing book reviews on a blog needs to be a separate enterprise from academic book reviews. That should perhaps go without saying. But, if the level of academic rigor in a book review is on par with what you’ve find in a journal, it’s better for your CV to send it to a journal. Or better, to have gotten in touch with a book review editor of a journal first and be explicitly doing the review for the journal from square one.
Upon realizing that, I decided I shouldn’t try to do overly academic reviews on the blog. It doesn’t mean what I post will be less intellectual. Rather, it means I don’t need to follow the conventions or structure of a typical academic review. I can, but it doesn’t need to be a template that I adopt in every review.
With that in mind, second, book reviews on a blog need to fit the medium that they are being published on. Or maybe, reviews just need to get to the point quicker. I’ll confess that when I’m reading reviews in a published academic journal, I’ll often skip to the conclusion, and then work back toward the criticisms or commendations. I almost never read the summary.
Upon realizing that, I’ve decided to more or less not summarize books I’ve read in a chapter by chapter or blow by blow fashion. One, that’s boring for me to do. Two, I doubt that affects many readers’ opinions of the book. Three, you can often do this in a review without reading the book and by merely reading the introduction, conclusion, and table of contents. Since those things are often accessible on Amazon, I’m not doing you any favors by summarizing them.
Instead, I want to borrow a trick I noticed James Clear doing. I found him while listening to a Muscle for Life podcast, and he has a book coming out on habits. When he finishes a book, he challenges himself to summarize it three sentences. I might not stick to that completely, but I’ve been thinking about how I go about telling people about books I’ve read. It almost never proceeds like a book review would. It usually starts with a three sentence summary, and then I elaborate on what I think are the salient insights. Then I’ll get into what my key takeaway is, and recommend the book to the person I’m talking to.
Upon realizing that, I decided that’s basically the way I should do reviews on the blog. They do not have to follow a template, and they should really just be my initial big picture summary, followed by key takeaways. The length of the review would then relate to how helpful I found the book. I would also focus more on explaining who would want to read the book and why, since that’s the context in which I find myself recommending books.
Having ruminated on this for several weeks, I wanted to wait to get into the fall school flow before trying to resume reviews. We’ve reached that point now, so I’m hoping to start pumping some out next week. From here on out, I’m writing in the way that I feel flows best, not in the way that seems to fit a mold. I’m also writing more for me than for you, to be honest. I need to write to process and think. I finally have gotten into a good flow, and so I need to go back and start writing on those books you see pictured above. Not sure where I’ll start, but upon realizing that, I’ve decided it’s best to just start and it doesn’t matter where.