Bookkeeping - book reports, book reviews, and book notes

When I first began writing regularly about the books I read, it occurred to me to use the old book reports model from school. I went all over the internet trying to find a form and I couldn't. I remember certain facets from when I was in elementary school like characters, plot, and locale but not exactly how to put them together into a book report. So instead, I decided to just write what I thought about the books I read. I loved the way I could find links and pictures online which related to my reading experience. These book reports are very personal. I'm not trying to be objective. I try to say what I think, and offer enough information so readers of my letters may decide for themselves if a book appeals to them or not.

And now I come to an idea which I've been mulling over for some time - occasionally offering shorter versions of my book reports and calling them book notes. I don't always want to do a long book report. Sometimes I want to state 'just the facts,' with a only a brief explanation of the book and how I felt about it. Once in a while there just isn't that much to say, but yet I want to write something because I use my blog as a book journal. So from now on you will see book reports sometimes, and book notes other times. I may have some posts where I write about a couple books at a time, or even some monthly roundups of books.

I'm also going to change the way I organize my book reports/book notes. For years now I've kept both 'Book Lists' and 'Book Reports' (see tabs under blog header photo). I began the two categories back when I wasn't writing about each book I read, and I jotted down the ones I had read under Book Reports. Now that I write about all the books I read, I am going to discontinue the 'Book Reports' listing. All the books I write about are highlighted under Book Lists, and if clicked will lead you to the book report. I don't need to have duplicate records.

This year I added an 'Authors' tab, which is the place to go if you are looking for a certain author whose book has been mentioned here. The titles by those authors are also clickable to find the particular book reports. Because of this addition, I no longer need to keep my Agatha Christie lists, since everything I've read by her may be found there or under short stories. I may add the list of Christmas books, formerly under book reports to book lists or perhaps make a separate tab just for those seasonal readings. I'm not going to keep the Book Reports as a tab, but the category will always be there under Letter Topics.

All these little changes will make my blogging a bit easier with less busywork, and more fun, methinks. Probably a lot more fun than it was for you to read this long explanation!