Well, kids, I did it again. I cheated. Normally I’d write a whole blog post just to amuse you, or enlighten you, or… navel-gaze alone. Whatever blog posts are for, really. But this week I’m just announcing a new section of my site!
Introducing book reviews.
I used to be a student of literature—wait, that’s wrong, let me start again. I used to be formally enrolled in classes where people discussed prose and poetry. These days, I’m still a student of literature, but there’s no syllabus instructing me to write critical analyses of the books I read.
This means that I’m free to finish a book and then just… put it down and walk away, which feels terribly unsettling to me. There’s no closure. It’s as if I’m parting ways with a friend and not even giving a hug goodbye.
So a while ago I started writing little commentaries when I finished a book. A while after that it occurred to me that I may as well share some with the world, and here we are.
There’s no particular rhyme or reason to which books will appear here, and I don’t plan to post with regularity. I suppose rhyme, reason, and regularity should apply to my writing, given that it’s my work, but my reading and therefore my reviewing are something else.
Unless I review books professionally someday, of course. Then I promise to be incredibly professional about it.
Until then, enjoy.
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
Joseph Brodsky
Russian-American poet and critic