Customer Reviews

A Good Book is the Best of Friends: A Reader's Journal

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The success of a book like this to the individual reader depends on what the reader was looking for. I wanted something to help me break out of what I felt was my reviewer's rut. I've been reviewing books for almost 20 years and find that I tend to look at each much the same way. This little volume has helped me out of that rut and into some useful and original thinking about the books I'm reading.

Although admonitions like, "jot down the book's strengths and weaknesses" and "write down questions that arise" were nothing new to me, thinking of putting myself into the life of a character in fiction or considering what I'd ask the author of a nonfiction book if he or she came by for a visit caught my attention along with several other extremely useful suggestions.

By the time I've read 25 books and noted my reactions to them according to these guidelines I'm sure I'll have broadened my perspectives considerably as far as book reviewing is concerned. As for deepening my pleasure in reading, it's hard to imagine but it is possible!

Natalie Goldberg, who is familiar to most writers as a superb teacher and mentor (WRITING DOWN THE BONES, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING, and LIVING COLOR), says in her introduction, "This journal gives the reader the opportunity to have double pleasure like a double latte: Not only do you get to read the book, but then you get to savor the taste, roll it around in your mouth, and feel its complete flavor."

That has always been the pleasure that reviewers discover as they ply their craft. Now, thanks to Robin Doak, the pleasure is available to everyone.

I'd have to check out other reading journals before I'd buy another of these. Five pages are allotted for reflection of the book; three of those pages have pre-printed guide questions (about characters, the ending, and your prediction of the book's staying power) at the top of the page, which I felt a strange obligation to stick to. I felt weird leaving blank space, though I did with many entries. There were a few books that I clipped in extra pages so I could keep digesting the book on paper.

Perhaps a blank journal would suit me better, but I do like having those guide questions; I sometimes need that little kick to get me to really think about what I've just read.

This is a small journal that provides a lot of information and pleasure. Written by Robin Doak, it has an introduction by Natalie Goldberg, author of several books on journaling. My favorite is Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.

'A Good Book is the Best of Friends: A Reader's Journal' has room for detailed memories/reviews of 23 books. There is a fine introduction on how to use this journal. It includes ways to rate books read, questions to ask yourself about each book, and ways to write good reviews for both fiction and non-fiction books.

For anyone who enjoys keeping detailed book journals, this one might be the best one out there.

The good things about this book are it's size. It's smaller than a standard notebook but large enough that unless you write sort of big, you won't have to change the size of your penmanship. It's overall appearance is fine. Nothing really unique but it's not hideously ugly either. I've bought journal type books where the binding was so tight that it was difficult to hold open and write at the same time. That is somewhat not the case here. Wish they made these with a spiral binding.

Unfortunately for me, there's more not to like about this journal than to like. This book is only good to record 25 books because the author allows 6 pages per book to record your thoughts! That's about 3-4 pages too many for me. I want to read books NOT write a "book" about what I read. In the week since I ordered this journal I've already read 5 good sized books so this won't last me long at all.

I uploaded an image of what page one of each six page grouping looks like. It's got some good information on it that I don't mind recording such as title, author, genre, where purchased, favorite characters and even a space for rating the book with your own rating system.

The other 5 pages have writing prompts such as if the book was fiction how real/true to life/well developed were the characters which I found to be a valid question I suppose, but it would depend on the book genre in my opinion. For example, if you're reading suspense or romance then it's valid, if you love science fiction/paranormal type books then not so much.

I'm trying to be nice here because I appreciate the author's effort but quite frankly I found most of the writing prompts to be like something my junior highschool english teacher would have asked if she knew the class was not particularly "gifted" if you know what I mean. Especially the ones pertaining to nonfiction books, which is at least 75% of what I read. Such as "how important are the time period and setting to the subject matter?" I found the question to be redundant and nonsensical. The time period and setting is what it is and if it's nonfiction it can't be changed. Woodstock didn't happen in the 90's in Central park and the invasion of Normandy didn't happen on the shores of Lake Michigan in the 1950's either. Not a question worth answering about nonfiction. That pertains much more to fiction in my opinion.

To be fair, there were some good prompts that might be worth delving into such as "Do you think the book will be worth reading in a decade?" and for nonfiction "Do you think the author accurately presented the subject matter?". I'm paraphrasing the questions because I don't want to "infringe" on any copyrighted material but you can get the general idea.

Bottom line: I would not recommend this book. There are a few good things about it but I feel that 6 pages devoted to each book is unnecessary (most of the time anyway) and since they chose to give that much space, you only get to record 25 books in total and for me, that's not enough. Also, I felt that although there were a few valid writing prompts, for the most part they were uninspiring and immaterial. Had I paid the full price for this book, I'd be upset but I didn't and I will go ahead and use it but will be looking for something else in the very near future.