Book Report - A New Monthly Segment
I’ve been looking for a new monthly segment to complement Thirsty Thursday Eve, and I feel like a “book report” or sorts would be the perfect idea for it.
Making a monthly obligation to write about a book or short story that I’ve read accomplishes a number of goals. First and foremost, it gives me more incentive to read. I love reading, I just don’t have much free time to do it lately. Committing to at least one piece per month is a fairly low investment, I’d say. Plus, with my recent discovery of how awesome audiobooks are, I can listen to the book while I work. Setting aside 15 hours or so of uninterrupted time during a month for reading is difficult. Listening to 15 hours of audio while I work is something I already do in less than a week with music.
I enjoyed writing the originally one-off book report on John Updike’s “A&P” a while back, but if this is going to become a regular thing, I want to give it a little more structure. Most importantly, I want to have posts that can both encourage people to read the work if they haven’t, as well as incite discussion with those who have read the work. To accomplish this, I think I’ll lead in with details that do not spoil plot points, and discuss the work as a whole after a spoiler disclaimer. If anyone wants to read the piece without spoilers, they can read my post with assurance that they will have ample warning before I ruin an important part of the story.
At first, I’ll just go with a general overview and analysis of the books I read or listen to. What I thought of the plot itself, any sort of themes I pick up on, and the quality of the reader in the case of audiobooks. If it compares to other books, games, movies, or other media that I’m familiar with, I may bring those in to discuss similarities and differences. I feel like this will be less driven, and more of an exploratory endeavor.
Conveniently, a lot of older works (over 57,000) have their full text available to download from Project Gutenberg. When coupled with audiobooks, I can search for phrases that I may have misheard from the audio, and really take my time to pour over more dense portions of a work. If I want to pull in an applicable quote, I can just copy it from the txt file.
To build up a backlog of books, I’ve created an audiobook list at my local public library and added books that I’m interested in. When I finish one book, I put a hold in for the next and pick it up when it arrives at my local branch. Over time, I’ll build up this list with books I was already interested in, as well as recommendations from others. I would love if this became a sort of blog-based book club, where I can converse with several people in the comments of one post, and plan to collectively read a book to discuss the next month.
The Book Report post for October will be Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” since that’s been pending for several years now. I’ve also recently finished Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” After that, who knows? A few years ago, I read a decent chunk into Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.” I really enjoyed it, I just didn’t have the time to finish it. Fortunately, it is in circulation at the Spartanburg County Public Libraries.
As for when this monthly post will be scheduled, I’m thinking it should be the second Wednesday of the month. Since Thirsty Thursday Eve is the last Wednesday of the month, I don’t want another monthly topic to be immediately adjacent to it. Scheduling Book Report for the second Wednesday, it roughly bisects the month, and allows weeks between recurring topics for whatever random topic I may want to post on.
If this initiative works well, I’ll hopefully build a group of dedicated fellow readers and foster interesting discussion about a variety of works of literature. If not, I’ve at least encouraged myself to read more and consume good books.
Making a monthly obligation to write about a book or short story that I’ve read accomplishes a number of goals. First and foremost, it gives me more incentive to read. I love reading, I just don’t have much free time to do it lately. Committing to at least one piece per month is a fairly low investment, I’d say. Plus, with my recent discovery of how awesome audiobooks are, I can listen to the book while I work. Setting aside 15 hours or so of uninterrupted time during a month for reading is difficult. Listening to 15 hours of audio while I work is something I already do in less than a week with music.
I enjoyed writing the originally one-off book report on John Updike’s “A&P” a while back, but if this is going to become a regular thing, I want to give it a little more structure. Most importantly, I want to have posts that can both encourage people to read the work if they haven’t, as well as incite discussion with those who have read the work. To accomplish this, I think I’ll lead in with details that do not spoil plot points, and discuss the work as a whole after a spoiler disclaimer. If anyone wants to read the piece without spoilers, they can read my post with assurance that they will have ample warning before I ruin an important part of the story.
At first, I’ll just go with a general overview and analysis of the books I read or listen to. What I thought of the plot itself, any sort of themes I pick up on, and the quality of the reader in the case of audiobooks. If it compares to other books, games, movies, or other media that I’m familiar with, I may bring those in to discuss similarities and differences. I feel like this will be less driven, and more of an exploratory endeavor.
Conveniently, a lot of older works (over 57,000) have their full text available to download from Project Gutenberg. When coupled with audiobooks, I can search for phrases that I may have misheard from the audio, and really take my time to pour over more dense portions of a work. If I want to pull in an applicable quote, I can just copy it from the txt file.
To build up a backlog of books, I’ve created an audiobook list at my local public library and added books that I’m interested in. When I finish one book, I put a hold in for the next and pick it up when it arrives at my local branch. Over time, I’ll build up this list with books I was already interested in, as well as recommendations from others. I would love if this became a sort of blog-based book club, where I can converse with several people in the comments of one post, and plan to collectively read a book to discuss the next month.
The Book Report post for October will be Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” since that’s been pending for several years now. I’ve also recently finished Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” After that, who knows? A few years ago, I read a decent chunk into Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.” I really enjoyed it, I just didn’t have the time to finish it. Fortunately, it is in circulation at the Spartanburg County Public Libraries.
As for when this monthly post will be scheduled, I’m thinking it should be the second Wednesday of the month. Since Thirsty Thursday Eve is the last Wednesday of the month, I don’t want another monthly topic to be immediately adjacent to it. Scheduling Book Report for the second Wednesday, it roughly bisects the month, and allows weeks between recurring topics for whatever random topic I may want to post on.
If this initiative works well, I’ll hopefully build a group of dedicated fellow readers and foster interesting discussion about a variety of works of literature. If not, I’ve at least encouraged myself to read more and consume good books.
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