This week The Blue Bookcase asks:
Do you like to supplement your reading with outside sources, like Sparknotes, academic articles, or other bloggers' reviews? Why or why not?
It really depends on what the material is that I am reading, but honestly I am really trying to not supplement my reading with outside sources due to the fact that (a) I just want to read a book for the enjoyment of reading rather than gaining more information and (b) I am not in university any more.
While I do enjoy reading extra things about a particular book, I find that it sometimes takes too much time out of my regular reading. Oh, I will have Sparknotes up while I read a book, if I am at home, but for the most part I just want to read a book for enjoyment of learning something different and being exposed to different ideas, etc.
As for reviews, I do read them, but I have found that they have hindered my enjoyment of the book rather complementing it, at least what I have found with some books. In fact, it sometimes has raises my expectations of a particular book. For example, I had heard so much positive feedback to The Night Circus this past fall that when I finally got myself to reading it, I had much higher expectations through the reviews and buzz I had heard about the book and when I read it, I was disappointed in the book and thought it was mediocre at best and just didn't like it and basically made it out to be something more than I expected it to be.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that it really depends on the situation that I am in and it really depends on the book.
5 comments:
I had mixed feelings about The Night Circus too - but no book could live up to that much hype. With books I read "for fun" I'll read scattered reviews. With more serious - literary - books I'll sometimes go deeper. I'm not in university anymore either. It's been a long time... but sometimes I wish I were!
just hopping by...My first instinct was to say "no", but then I realized that when reading nonfiction or historical fiction I do tend to spend some time on line to follow up on specific things I'm interested in.
*new follower*
@asthecrowefliesandreads I do go online and check out information, but I don't go and read a big book on that topic.
Ah, yes, don't you hate the overhype problem? That has happened to me with several books, and it really complicates the experience. I'm honestly afraid to read The Night Circus (and also Room) because I've read/seen/heard too much already and I don't think I'll be able to judge independently of all the talk.
I try not to read reviews until after I've finished reading a book. However, sometimes with book blogs you see the same titles coming up again and again, and you know that it's probably going to be good. But I still don't succumb....
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