Tag: essays

Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-Reum, Translated by Shanna Tan

I came across this book in a newsletter that my library sends out each Saturday morning. It outlines the latest books in all formats available there. This one interested me largely due to its subtitle. Books about books and reader really appeal to me.

This one is a series of essays originally written in Korean. They are fairly short and cover a variety of topics from Read on a Train to Use a Timer to Visiting the Library. I found some of the translation choices clunky. A few of these may be because the book is in British English.

Overall, I appreciated what the author is doing here. And it is wonderful to see the reading life from the context of another culture. However, I found the translation a little off putting. It was good enough, but I would love to see a native English speaker write a similar book.

My rating: 3/5

I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel

A painting of a blue upholstered reading chair sitting in front of a wall of bookshelves with ladder on the edge of the cover.

Anne Bogel is the host of the podcast called What Should I Read Next? On the show, she interviews guests and gives them suggestions as to what they might want to read next. I highly recommend it. She has a gentle, friendly way of connecting with people that never comes off as pushy or demanding. I get that same feeling from her book I’d Rather Be Reading.

The book is collection of essays about the reading life. In them, we learn that Anne bought a house next door to a library (jealous!), that you can tell a lot about someone by their favorite book, and that sometimes the book finds you. The essays tend to be short and easy to read. They are very well-composed, packing a lot into such a small place. In short, it is lot of fun for nerds like me that love to read. Nothing really new here, just comforting words from a fellow book lover.

My rating: 3.5/5