A question I have frequently been asked since starting this blog is "how do you read so many books?" or "do you really read all of those books you write about?". I have often answered that I read fairly quickly and that it’s not always necessary to read the entire book before writing a useful and engaging blog post about it.
But a sad truth that I am learning, as I become more committed to improving and professionalizing this blog is that with all the hours I spend online these days, I have much less time for reading. And I find myself wondering how you, my blog readers, feel about this. Do you think it’s OK for me to blog about books that I have not finished reading? Please take the poll or leave a comment and let me know. I’m genuinely interested in what people think about this.
My maternal grandfather was a well-traveled man. Behind the wheel of his car he visited many of the places worth visiting and as a country boy, he gravitated to more rural and less citified attractions than might have been my wont. But I always enjoyed hearing granddaddy talk about places that he had been to, and one of the most intriguing of these to me as a child was Hershey, Pennsylvania. Micheal D’Antonio’s Hershey, a biography of candy magnate Milton S. Hershey is as much a history of the town he created as of the man whose name to this day graces zillions of candy bar wrappers. Whether Hershey was a flagrant socialist, brilliant capitalist or major league humanitarian, or all three at once you will have to decide for yourself after reading D’Antonio’s engaging and accessible book. But whichever you decide, it may change the way you feel about chocolate bars forever. Recommended.
I was never a Huge fan of the Partridge Family, but I did watch the show back when I was growing up in the ancient days of three broadcast channels meaning you lived in a good sized city and cable was something the longshoreman used to strap crates down at the waterfront. And I always liked the spunky, trash-mouthed, red-headed little boy who inevitably seemed to get the best of the family’s professional manager. Years later, my late partner Joel saw Danny Bonaduce on a talk show and remarked to me that he was ‘Really cute. Kind of a creep, actually, but Really cute.’ And it was with that remark in mind that I picked Random Acts of Badness out of a stack of books I’d just checked in and brought it home. Having read some of it, I would add to my late partner’s observation only ‘but he writes well and the book is quite funny’. Recommended.
I love Paula Deen. She is so warm and funny and she makes the most delicious food and never ever looks down her nose at you. And in It ‘Aint All About The Cookin’ Paula dishes herself from soup to nuts, sharing all kinds of things most celebrities would find way too intimate or threatening to reveal. The book has the same warm and inviting tone as Paula’s television show. If you like Deen at all, do yourself a big favor and check out this book from the library, make yourself a Mississippi Mud Cake or a big ‘ol pan of brownies, brew a pot of good coffee and settle in to spend a few hours visiting with a great Southern lady. Very Highly Recommended.
Tags: Biography, Danny Bonaduce, Hershey, Hershey Pennsylvania, It 'Aint All About The Cookin', Micahel D'Antonio, Milton Hershey, Paula Deen, Random Acts of Badness
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October 18th, 2007 at 8:05 am
I read quite quickly too, people never seem to believe me when they hear how much I get through. Online time has really impinged on my reading time too unfortunately. I don’t think you need to read a book in it’s entirety to share it with others and have an opinion about it. You don’t tell people how it ends after all. I’m sure some people review books by reading the back cover so don’t feel like you’re doing a bad job!!
October 18th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Agreed. I don’t read nearly as much as I used to, but I also have three small children. These days I scan.
I said it depends on your survey. If you got a feel for the book and can tell me the beginning, middle and end you qualify to write a review.
If you scanned 20 pages out of 250 to get the plot line down, no, don’t write a review.
p.s. How do you set up a survey like that (the coding, etc.?) That’s cool!
October 18th, 2007 at 9:30 am
cardiogirl,
If you are on Blogger, go to your template and add a new page element. Poll is the very first choice at the top of the New Page Element screen. Type in your question and the answers you will accept and click done. You can then drag it to change it’s location like any other page element.
Thanks for your vote.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I love the library! And no, I don’t think it necessary to read an entire book to get a proper feel for it. Especially if it’s one you don’t seem to care for. Why waste your time? However, I don’t believe reading only one or two chapters is enough to judge. I once read two chapters of “The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency” and didn’t like it. At a friend’s behest, I gave it another try, and it’s since become one of my favs.
Thanks for the reviews - I’m forever on the lookout for good reads!
October 18th, 2007 at 11:47 am
I know what you mean….the internet eats up too much time! I think its acceptable to blog about books you haven’t finished as long as you are sharing your original thoughts and opinions based on what you have already read.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I always read before i go to sleep, so thats when i catch up on my reading. Although when blogging i find it hard to actually get into bed.
I also voted ‘it depends’. When i am reading a book, i decide whether i like it or not fairly quickly, whether its well written, love one of the characters or some other reason. If i don’t like a book, i still tend to finish it, to confirm my suspicions that i was right and it was rubbish. So if you have a good ‘feel’ of the book then you can review it. Does that make sense?
October 18th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
It makes perfect sense, Claire. And the thing is what I do here is less “review” books (which to me means detailed plot summary and in depth critiques of style, plotting, etc, etc, etc) as “Present” a few books each day that hopefully will be new and interesting to some of my readers.
(sometimes I feel like a cheating faux critic when I post about a book I only skimmed and other times I feel I am doing it just right…shrugs profoundly)