jordanlund comments on Do you write up your books once you've finished reading?

Do you write up your books once you've finished reading? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by Capitanmaroon@lemmy.world to c/books@lemmy.world

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So I have 'just started reading'. After a lifetime of being dyslexic and thinking I disliked books, I've realised that if I find something in my wheel house and with a little perseverance of getting over the inital hump, I'm really enjoying it. However a few months after reading a book, I've kind of forgotten the finer points and details I enjoyed. Does anyone write up books they've read and what tips have you got/do you have any templates?

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago (7 children)

After hearing all these year end "I read xxx books this year", I realized I never kept track. At my peak I could read a book a day, but I have no idea where I stand now.

So I picked up a couple of book apps that you can use to track your reading and write reviews.

Fable, Goodreads, Hardcover, and Storygraph.

So far, I've read 9 books this year, but I got slowed down by cancer surgery, just coming out the other side of it now.

Of the four apps, I think I like Fable the least, it's a challenge every time to just go in and add a new book.

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[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

It's a weird metric because a "book" is such a variable thing. Last year I read 27, but the last 3 that I have read this year total 6500 pages alone. You can read a romance novel in an afternoon, but my last Joe Abercrombie book took like 32 hours, and 14 books of wheel of time took me 3 years.

All that to say, I feel like there should be another metric, but non-space characters seems the most fair and also a bridge too far :).

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Definitely depends on the book and the writer. I blew through Stephen King's Insomnia in one sitting, 800+ pages or so. But Wheel of Time is a tougher pull.

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[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It wouldn't have been so bad but my friend who read WoT first said there was foreshadowing everywhere that was super evident the second read, so I was trying to predict the series the whole time. I couldn't.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

Yeah, that's rough. Most of it only becomes apparent in retrospect. The problem with WoT is that it was so long between books, it was hard to keep it all in your head when the next one came out.

I stopped reading them around book 6 or 7 figuring "You know what? Let's just wait for it to finish and read the whole thing..."

Edit Book 6 - Lord of Chaos, that's where I stopped. 1994. Scored an autographed copy though!

Series would finish 19 years later(!)

Then he died, and Sanderson finished it, and I never went back. Maybe some day!

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[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

It's worth finishing IMO. I didn't start until they were all released. The ending is pretty legit, only a handful of minor strings not tied up it felt like.

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[–] Capitanmaroon@lemmy.world [S] 3 points 7 months ago (1 child)

Aa book a year seems completely insane to me! I won't get to that level but in also 'worried' about the intentionally of reading. I don't want it to just become another source of consumption for the sake of it. While I agree some books will be and that it's better social media, I want to ve intentional with it.

Glad you're coming out the other side of it!

Do any of these app have questions or things you like about them more or is it more of the design of the app? I was thinking of more analog ways of recording to help with my memory

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Each app does some things similarly and differently. You can leave notes about how a particular book made you feel, you can add tags and things. Track how long it took you to finish, that sort of thing.