Writing book reviews, for me, is a way to record my thoughts and feelings about the books that I read. At the same time, they offer a good way for me to look back on those books without needing to re-read them because, let’s face it, I am not a big re-reader. I don’t have any books that I have read a hundred times and I don’t plan on adding any of such books to my repertoire either. That is where my book reviews come in handy. I get to relive books I have already read without needing to invest time again to read them. Still, sometimes I want to do more than merely write book reviews. One of the reasons that I love to read so much (in particular Contemporary) is that books show me that I am not alone. No matter how alone I feel, there is somebody who understands. In other cases, I learn that there are people out there who share my thoughts and my belief systems. Then there is this part of me that simply enjoys commenting on issues. It’s no wonder then that I felt right at home when I majored in Sociology.
I’ve been different for as long as I remember. Not in a self-entitled “I am unique!” manner. I don’t mean it like that. Just that I’ve very often stood out because of who I am, the choices I make, and also due to my surrounding circumstances, thanks to which I inevitably stand out. Language is one thing. My mother tongue does not belong to the local languages spoken where I live. Then there’s race. Every time I fill out a form that requires me to indicate my race, I have to pick “Other”.
When it came to choosing my subject combination for A Levels, not only did I pick the humanities over the sciences, I chose subjects that the absolute minority did in the whole country. For example, I picked Theatre. Most people I come across didn’t even know it could be taken as a subject. When I speak English, I would sound local enough to a foreigner but any local who listens extra closely can tell that I’m either not local, or they think I attended an international school. When it came to university, most of my friends chose to study business, accountancy or engineering. They saw the humanities and social sciences as too much of a risk. They preferred to study something that leads them to a secure job. Maybe they were on to something. I’m still cracking my head over which companies I want to apply to.
As a result, many things have felt more complicated than they needed to be in my life. That’s why I’ve always found it heartening when I came across books with characters that experienced at least part of what I’ve gone through and still go through. They make me feel less alone.
So anyway, book reviews are obviously meant to feature the books. I will still continue to do book reviews because I find they help me be a more critical reader and an equally critical writer but I will also write reflections, if you will, on issues that I feel more strongly about in the books that I read. These ramblings don’t belong in book reviews but those thoughts of mine need a home, so I’m going to start with Reflect. Somehow I hesitate to refer to this as a feature because these posts will probably not be necessarily orderly. I will very likely ramble. A lot. Feel free to stick around though, if you want. Maybe you’ll agree with some of my thoughts. Maybe you’ll disagree. Either way, you will learn more about what makes me tick, while I try to figure out who I am, one book at a time. I must warn you though, these posts will contain spoilers for the books that I decide to refer to.
I can’t wait to see what you do! I have always wanted to do the same thing a lot because it’s a great thing to do with a book, but then I end up elaborating those thoughts really poorly.
Well, I figured that one of the reasons I love reading so much is because it’s such a personal experience, so I do want to talk about books on a slightly more personal level than book reviews. I was more worried I’d ramble so much, I’d quickly go off-topic.