Welcome to the Literary Blog Hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase!
This monthly blog hop is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion.
Here's our question this week:
Do you like to supplement your reading with outside sources, like Sparknotes, academic articles, or other bloggers' reviews? Why or why not?
I supplement my reading by our Melbourne newspaper The Age, by reading any relevant articles to any novels I may be reading. I also get a monthly newsletter from a bookshop that could be described as more literary. So this is a good way to gain reviews through that.
I also check out websites like Book and Reader, Library Thing and Good Reads. I certainly check out a bloggers review on a book I'm interested if I come across it.
I don't seek out academic articles unless I'm researching an essay for a novel. I've never used sparknotes before.
This question is really interesting to me as I've been thinking of posting something along these lines. I believe that what's been described here is a more metafictional way of reading. Or I call that the how of reading. What I mean by this, is that we all make our own meaning by what we read and with so many more online tools or other references around we get to supplment this all the more. It encourages more reflexivity and we bring to the table what we already know as well.
As an aspiring secondary school teacher, I'm noticing more and more, that the younger generations are doing this. The author's bio, other works, related works or suggested books similar to what they're reading are literally at their fingertips.
Anyway, after writing all this I'm inspired all the more to go away and write the post I was sounding out in my head. :)
6 comments:
I also check blog posts and goodreads. I do not have ny real access to academic articles or books as there are no public libaries where I live
There is more info available about what we're reading these days - so much so that it can take time away from book reading time! A couple years ago I would have said I never read a book because of a blog post, but that has truly changed now.
I love that idea of making our own meaning from the way we read a text and how we supplement it. Thanks so much for joining your hop! If you end up writing more on this topic I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Just hopping by...I use secondary sources more often for nonfiction than I do for fiction.
I'd forgotten about Goodreads. I use that as well, to skim through a variety of reactions to books. :-)
(I love your background at this blog!)
I read Goodreads as well; it has a lot of honest good quality reviews. I only check out academic articles if I have to, but that's a very rare occurrence now that I quit my postgraduate studies :)
New follower.
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