At the start of this year, I resolved to write about every book that I read. Partly, I motivated by a desire to stimulate more discussion about books among my friends, selfishly looking for more reading material. For the rest, I wanted to motivate myself to read more often and to retain more. I’ve been blocked from reading and writing as much as I might have wanted to by lack of money, lack of access to a decent library and miscellaneous incapacitation.
I have some of those licked, and the library problem should be fixed by autumn.
I don’t reference any book reviews for this reason – that and to avoid mental pollution, ensuring that my opinions are my own. It also makes it more challenging. Particularly in the case of older books, it ensures that I can generate a fresh perspective.
I usually mark up the books that I read, but I fell out of the habit recently. I underline passages that picque my interest and then flip to the cover and write a word or phrase that conveys what is worth flipping back to. The system works for me – and I annotate similarly with my new Kindle.
