A book review Part I

I'm throwing myself into the game. Hi. Adam here, and everyday I receive a wonderful piece of email from Powell's bookstore. This is a website I happened upon one day as I searched the web for fascinating tidbits on books, literature, and how to build a library of fine books. As it turns out, our friends the Welborns have not only been there, but Stephanie worked there for a short time. Anyway, this store seems to me to be a good enough reason as any to make a trip up to Oregon. And someday I might just do that; spend hours browsing the shelves and allow my fingers to play amongst the rare books. But until that adventure I must settle for the (usually quite hefty) book review articles that, thanks to technological magic, appear in my inbox everyday!

I am almost always behind in reading the articles and it can take me a good ten or more minutes to get through the entire review if I find the subject interesting. For now I settle on saving the emails of the books that particularly pique my interest but someday, when I have about $20-$40 of discretionary funds sitting around everyday, I will start ordering the books! The joy of reading these reviews is multifaceted. It has been thrilling to hear about books, authors, and genres in this way. By reading these reviews I've been exposed to more forms of literature than I ever have before. (The downside is that I only see how desperately I am falling behind in the world of books. Almost every day I read about a book that I want to add to my reading pile but I just don't consume books that quickly.)

Another part of the joy comes from reading the reviews themselves. There is an art to writing the reviews. These aren't simply summaries of stories, they go into depth about the author, the author's writing past (with comparisons to his or her major works) and expressions and analyses of themes and symbols. There is a historical context that is usually given that helps to place the book in the appropriate situation. The review dance between biography, history, criticism, summary, and then finally a recommendation (or not).

With all of this said, I desire to throw myself into this game. I would like to see if I am up to such a challenge and my intention is to practice and to use this blog as an outlet. What I would like from you is feedback. What do you think of my review? Was I able to convince one way or another? Was I interesting? I am excited to give this a shot, however, I see that this blog post alone has started to get lengthy and therefore I will truncate it for now. But check back soon. Tomorrow I will probably finish this up with my review of Things I've Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi.