Let’s Talk: Writing a book review

I don’t know if I’m weird, but:

1) I HAVE to write the review before starting a new book

If I don’t, I’d forget my thoughts and feelings on the story. Unfortunately, this happened recently

   

I managed to write a couple of sentences for these books, but failed to write a full Discussion post 😦

 

2) It takes a REALLY long time for me to write a decent review

I usually do it in the following procedures:

1. Read and take notes

2. Expand and link the ‘notes’

3. Read others’ review to see if there’s something I agree with them but forgot to mention

4. Check for mistakes

The 2nd step requires the longest time. With the problem mentioned in 1), my ‘reading rate’ decreases significantly (LOL)

 

And that explains why I haven’t been posting Book Discussion posts lately. Currently I’m working on the review for Pivot Point, as well as marathoning the Harry Potter Series. (Errm maybe I shouldn’t do that. Not again.)

Anyway, how do you write your reviews? Do you have the same problem as I have?

 

∞ ϟ 9¾ ♔ ⚯͛ △⃒⃘ ➵ ♆

 

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Let’s talk: Reading books written in your first language

In case you don’t know yet, my first language is Chinese (cantonese). To be honest I wasn’t a big fan of Chinese books when I was small, especially those translated ones. I find it really difficult to read and remember translated names. Plus, a lot of the Chinese books are sort of lyrical and descriptive – I’m just not good enough to understand the writer’s emotion haha.

However, I did read some that I truly enjoyed – the Wuxia (martial arts and chivalry) genre. The most renowned Wuxia writer has got to be Jin Yong. He wrote The Legend of the Condor Heroes (which I love dearly), The Return of the Condor Heroes and many many more. These books are thick (4 volumes per story) and yet I was able to fly through them. I guess the main thing about going into reading is to find a genre that interests you. Otherwise, you’d be living under an illusion of ‘eww I don’t like books’, which was me two years ago.

Now that I’m done talking about modern Chinese literature, let’s talk about ancient ones. They were written in classical Chinese, a language that I struggle with. It’s Chinese, yes, but the use of words and meaning etc are different. They are condensed and much shorter. For all the Chinese tests I had, there were at least one passage written in classical Chinese, and you’d find me staring at it, re-reading it over and over again, attempting to solve the puzzle and understand what’s going on. Once it’s solved, the gateway to ancient wisdom will be opened *shimmery light everywhere*

Chinese literature is beautiful and full of wisdom, but sometimes it’s difficult to ‘grasp its essense’, especially for a literature idiot like me. Nevertheless, I do hope that they’d be treasured – how disheartening it is to ban books and cut both the culture and the history from its descendants.

So what is your favourite book written in your mother tongue? What do you like about it?

[Disclaimer: This is just me babbling about Chinese books. I’m by no means a Chinese literature expert, and it’ll be a pleasure if anyone can enlightened me on this issue.]

 

∞ ϟ 9¾ ♔ ⚯͛ △⃒⃘ ➵ ♆

 

How do you picture the characters when you’re reading?

(I’m still working on my Book Discussion so I decided to do a short ‘Let’s Talk’ post this Sunday)

 

Do you picture him/her with a face? I know I don’t haha. I’ll add the author’s description in (like having blond hair etc), but I usually picture a blurred figure.

 

Once I’ve seen the movie, I can no longer use my own imagination. I’m ‘stuck’ with the casts, and sometimes it sucks if the casts are not that close to what I’ve imagined.

 

So how do you picture them? As a movie star or some sort of cartoon-like figures?

 

∞ ϟ 9¾ ♔ ⚯͛ △⃒⃘ ➵ ♆

Ebooks, Paperbacks or Hardbacks?

Even though ebooks is an option today, most readers still prefer physical books that they can pet and smell (don’t deny it).

But not me.

I know I’m pretty weird as I prefer ebooks to physical books. Inarguably, physical books smell good and look beautiful on your bookshelf. However, ebooks are lighter, cheaper and easier to read, and those are basically the reasons why ebooks sound better to me.

I usually buy books off Amazon.com. With the Kindle app on my phone and the Kindle I owned, I can read everywhere, whenever I want. I don’t need to carry extra books to school along with my heavy textbooks and notes, and that’s obviously a plus. I don’t know about you guys, but I read faster when reading an ebook. Also it prevents me from darting my eyes away and accidentally read a spoiler :P.

Of course, I do own some physical books, including the beautiful Harry Potter Series :D.

Speaking of physical books, I prefer paperbacks to hardbacks. Unlike everybody else, I love how the books are a little bit worn out – it has some vintage ‘feels’ to it. Furthermore, it’s hard to get hardback books here where I live and it costs a lot. So paperbacks all the way 😀

What do you guys prefer? Ebooks, Paperbacks or Hardbacks?