I have been reading books since childhood. We will binge, thoroughly and with the deepest interest. Having received a new portion of information, I wanted to share it with someone close to me as soon as possible. But given that each time the number of books increased, the subject matter changed, it became more difficult. It was here, in a burst of the strongest impression of the book, that I wrote my first small review. By the way, it was Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged". At that time, I did not know how to write beautifully at all. After receiving positive feedback from readers, I made an important decision. I set myself the goal of learning how to express my thoughts in writing briefly, concisely and fully. And so, I practiced with each new book, my reviews became deeper, more voluminous, and then completely went beyond my limitations. Over two years of practice, I have developed basic principles and rules that help me highlight the important things every time, emphasize the main things and not miss important details. It is with great pleasure that I want to share them with you.
1. Highlight the important
In the process of reading, it is important to highlight all the thoughts and quotes that are interesting to you that occur in the text. You can make notes by hand, leave bookmarks or write out immediately. I prefer to use small bookmarks, which I use to mark the beginning of the part of the text that interests me. In the case of e-books, everything is much simpler – I just select the desired fragment.
2. Record impressions
Thoughts and ideas have a categorical property of disappearing as quickly as they appear. Especially in the process of reading. Therefore, I recommend that you record the most important of them. You can use any materials at hand: notes on your phone, a diary, a notebook, or write at the end of a book (sometimes pages are allocated there "for notes"). It is most convenient for me to write in the notes of the phone, since I read mainly on the run.
3. Analysis
Any book is new information that is transformed into knowledge in the process of analysis. Before writing a review, I advise you to go through all your notes. Quotes will help refresh the plot, and your thoughts will help build a holistic picture of your impression of the work. My notebook helps me a lot with this. For each book, there is a new page in which I write down the title, author, dates of publication and reading, and most importantly, I rewrite the most favorite and wisest quotes from the book, slightly supplementing them with my own thoughts. This serves as a kind of synopsis for me. In addition, at any time, I can refer to my notes and refresh my memories of the book. I will tell you more about how I keep this notebook in one of my next posts. I promise)
4. Timeliness
Don't put off writing a review. The fresher and brighter your impressions of the work, the more sincere and deep you will be able to convey them to the reader. Otherwise, in the course of time, thoughts may fade a little, lose their former vivacity. I usually need one day to comprehend, analyze and write a review. Sometimes it happens that emotions overwhelm me so much that I write a review right away, overwhelmed by feelings. It all depends on the book and mood.
5. Verification
In case you have a voluminous review, I recommend that you reread it after a while before publication. A fresh look from the outside will help you identify small mistakes, omissions, supplement some thoughts or add something new. This will give your review completeness and completeness.
That's all my little tips and recommendations. I hope they will benefit you as much as they did me. Yes, all these manipulations can take a sufficient amount of time. But this will allow you to deeply analyze the book, not miss anything important and get the most out of reading and knowledge, which means that you will give the reader a full-fledged, substantiated and in-depth review.
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