Another Resource for Helping ID “Worth It” Books
I’m going to be incredibly boring and discuss something again from Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. I really wish I had liked the book more because the ideas in it were very good (maybe I will like a sequel!). The owner of the aforesaid bookshop starts putting notes in the books in the shop as she reads them, as a way to reflect on what she’s read.
This got me thinking: what if I wrote down just a once sentence “moral” of every book I read? Something about what each book is trying to say? I’ve been reading a lot on how to better remember what I read, and reflecting on it is one of the tips. I think trying to condense each book this way would be a good way to do this.
Of course, I then had a realization: There are some books I don’t want to do this for – some books just do not feel worth taking the time to do that. Which led to the “aha” moment that maybe the books where it doesn’t feel worth the time to reflect on the book are the books I should have DNFd. So now here’s another tool in the toolbox to refine what I’m spending time reading, and what I’m putting aside.
Week 10 Update
Last week I read two Amazon First Reads and three physical books for a total of five books read. I decided to change up how I show my weekly totals. Instead of breaking them up between eBooks and Physical books, I’m just going to show how many I have DNFd and read so far (and how many of those were added books from the library), plus the total number of books I have left to read (with how many total books I have taken off my TBR list).
These are the books I read last week:
The Golden Age of Magic by Luanne G. Smith – Historical Fantasy: Not Worth It
Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars
Final rating: 2 stars
(I would have DNFd this if I hadn’t been reading it for a book club.)
The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart – Suspense: Worth It
Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars
Final rating: 4 stars
Bedknob and Broomstick by Mary Norton – Children’s Fantasy: Worth It
Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars
Final rating: 4 stars
Abscond by Abraham Verhese – Short Story: Worth It
Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars
Final rating: 4 stars
We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida – Literary Fiction: Worth It
Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars
Final rating: 4 stars
And until next week, happy reading!