New Category - Books & Tapes
I've introduced a new category to
track my thoughts as I read books and listen to tape (or CD)
series
I've seen a few blogs lately, some by a few of my
friends, who are using their blogs to chronicle their thoughts as they read
through different books - with some blogs being devoted to nothing but a sort of
diary as the person reads through great books. As I am currently reading a
couple different books - from Pilgrim's Progress to Play Poker like the Pros - this idea of blogging
as I read through them became more and more alluring to
me.
First off, it provides a great way for recording key details on the book. Outlining a particular work and drawing out some of the great quotes from it provides all of us an easy way to see what a book is about and determine if its worth our time. Furthermore, it is a great mechanism for recall - if I want to remember where it was that issue X was brought up in book Y, I can look back through all my posts on it and see where the author was discussing that. In the same vein, if there is a quote I think is particularly good and I want to use it at a later date, I put it in the post for easy retrieval. I really enjoy highlighting my books, and taking notes in the margins and on title pages, so I can really digest the work and remember things quickly if I come back later. Blogging on the books just seems like a natural extension of that.
Another great benefit is the ability to immediately react and think about the book. Good books will often spur thoughts in our mind that we want to discuss with others. Writing a post on a tough point in a particular chapter is a good way to get the thoughts out in a way that verifies your understanding and clarifies your thoughts on it. This ties in with the first post, where its nice to be able to come back and see what you thought about a particular book at a later date - perhaps you had forgotten a key piece of information you had stumbled on while reading that book.
Lastly, its just nice to have things recorded in a place that lasts. I've really already mentioned this in both of the above things, but it is a good reason on its own. Blogs have a virtue of organizing things and storing them for the long term (mine are not only deployed on a server that is backed up, but stored locally in my blogging software, backed up there and on my iPod - geeky overkill, yes, but its all automatic). It's really quite ironic when you think of how intangible software or blog posts are - open up a computer and you won't see them, turn it off and they're gone - and yet they are somehow so much more reliably lasting than, say, a book. A book I can hold in my hand, but if my house burns down I can't have that exact book in countless places throughout the world to be retrieved almost instantly by an effortless press of a button.
My only reservation was a fear that I might clutter up the blog with too many posts on different books. I'm hoping that this won't happen, and I've created a new category to contain all these reviews/commentaries - Books & Tapes. Everything I've said above could just as easily apply to a tape series (or now more common, a CD series) and so I thought I would include my thoughts on these as well. I hope you'll all enjoy this new section and that I can provide you with some edifying reviews of books on many different topics.
First off, it provides a great way for recording key details on the book. Outlining a particular work and drawing out some of the great quotes from it provides all of us an easy way to see what a book is about and determine if its worth our time. Furthermore, it is a great mechanism for recall - if I want to remember where it was that issue X was brought up in book Y, I can look back through all my posts on it and see where the author was discussing that. In the same vein, if there is a quote I think is particularly good and I want to use it at a later date, I put it in the post for easy retrieval. I really enjoy highlighting my books, and taking notes in the margins and on title pages, so I can really digest the work and remember things quickly if I come back later. Blogging on the books just seems like a natural extension of that.
Another great benefit is the ability to immediately react and think about the book. Good books will often spur thoughts in our mind that we want to discuss with others. Writing a post on a tough point in a particular chapter is a good way to get the thoughts out in a way that verifies your understanding and clarifies your thoughts on it. This ties in with the first post, where its nice to be able to come back and see what you thought about a particular book at a later date - perhaps you had forgotten a key piece of information you had stumbled on while reading that book.
Lastly, its just nice to have things recorded in a place that lasts. I've really already mentioned this in both of the above things, but it is a good reason on its own. Blogs have a virtue of organizing things and storing them for the long term (mine are not only deployed on a server that is backed up, but stored locally in my blogging software, backed up there and on my iPod - geeky overkill, yes, but its all automatic). It's really quite ironic when you think of how intangible software or blog posts are - open up a computer and you won't see them, turn it off and they're gone - and yet they are somehow so much more reliably lasting than, say, a book. A book I can hold in my hand, but if my house burns down I can't have that exact book in countless places throughout the world to be retrieved almost instantly by an effortless press of a button.
My only reservation was a fear that I might clutter up the blog with too many posts on different books. I'm hoping that this won't happen, and I've created a new category to contain all these reviews/commentaries - Books & Tapes. Everything I've said above could just as easily apply to a tape series (or now more common, a CD series) and so I thought I would include my thoughts on these as well. I hope you'll all enjoy this new section and that I can provide you with some edifying reviews of books on many different topics.
Posted: Tue - March 29, 2005 at 08:00 PM | | | | | | |
Quick Links
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Highlighted posts
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Mar 30, 2005 08:05 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Mar 30, 2005 08:05 AM
Search
The Tip Jar
Counter provided by
Brought to you by
