Writing About Writing Book Reviews
i've been thinking about how i write book reviews over the past few days, as i've wrestled with the restlessness of a week where, for some reason, i cannot seem to read (these are not novel circumstances, i suffer through this at least once a month). Thing is, my livelihood rests on reading and writing, as do my principle hobbies. Unsurprisingly, this leaves no separation between work and leisure, which an extremely confusing way to live. But that doesn't really bother me, what is bothering me at this very moment, is how i write book reviews, as a hobby, which bleeds into my work, however marginally...
My problem begins thus: as a consequence of an education which ascribed great importance to memory — to memorising texts and facts and regurgitating them in the event of an examination, over and above any other facet of cognition — i've cultivated a peculiar habit of summarising, in great detail, the principle content of a work of fiction. Now, i understand very well that the summary is part of the process, it's where i recapitulate what i grasped from the book, and within it, lie the fragments i intend to focus on. Here, i stumble upon a difficulty, my summary gives rise to a hundred thousand questions whose answers are to be found elsewhere, in the world and in tomes of history and theory. Thus, i set off to find answers, digging myself into the ground, following the hyphae filaments that would lead me to at least a few, partial answers. The trouble is, the answers i find bring new questions, and there is the little matter of the questions that arise from reading the reference works themselves, and little by little, i am submerged and the surface is so far above me, i couldn't possibly dig myself out.
To return to the matter at hand, i think my trouble is delimitation, or rather, i find myself fatigued, and in the middle of it all (for there is no end to this, clearly) i find myself sitting with a paltry little summary which doesn't even come close to anything resembling a review. Which is kind of sad really, all i meant to do was engage with my readings more closely, rather than leave them in the abstract abeyance of my mind. Do i have a solution? not really, no concrete ones anyway, just that old chestnut: learn and learn and learn.