On my practice of writing a review of every book I read. 2002 August 28

For several years I have had a policy of writing a book review about every book I read. This is not supposed to be literary criticism, it is meant to be my summary of what I picked up, “tying the ribbons on it” as it were. Lately, several “review such and such” items have been on my to-do list for a long time and I’ve wondered if it was really worth the trouble.

At the moment I think it is.

Writing things down is the way that I learn.

I spend tens of hours reading a book, why not tens of minutes capturing what has been for me, its essence?

The reviews constitute a reference trail. If somebody wants to know what I thought, the review would probably be better ten years later than off the top of my head.

I have intended to brush up some or all of them and post them to my website. To what end? This activity is still pending so I don’t know yet. If it’s “make work”, and it might be, I shouldn’t be doing it, but if it is valuable to me or somebody else, now or in the future, I should.

So, for now I will continue to write personal reviews of all the books that I finish, printing and computer filing them as I go.