So … you’ve just finished reading a book. For the sake of the discussion, we’ll say it was everything a book should be—engaging, entertaining, interesting, thought-provoking. The kind you want to gush over. The question is—do you immediately move on to your next book? Or do you take time to contemplate this writerly masterpiece and all its associated thoughts/emotions/ideas for a while first?
After I read an amazing, perfect book, I decisively close the back cover and then sit back in my chair for a few moments, savoring it.
And then I immediately move onto my next book. With the kind of schedule I have, I don’t really have time to let a book percolate on its own for a few days. However, because of my genre rule (I can’t read the same genre twice in a row), my reads are usually so different that my last read is percolating on the old subconscious back-burner even as I’m digging into something new. On the Nerdist, Chris Hardwick recently interviewed musician Paul Williams, who discussed how sometimes the best way to remember something is to think about something else; your subconscious is still pattern-forming, even as you’re doing something else. And that’s how I feel about it; even if I’m reading something else, I’m still contemplating what came before.
Of course, this is in the case of the kind of book that blows your hair back, which has been few and far between for me this year…
I move onto the next book quickly, too, but I find that the best reads stick with me and memories of certain scenes or lines pop up at the strangest times, like in the middle of a meeting or during dinner.
Oh, of course. Stories, good ones, stick with you.
I’ll take time and think about the entire book if I’ve really been taken in by it. This is what I’ve been doing for a few days, since I’ve just read THE EMPEROR’S SOUL.
Ah! I’ve not read it; in fact, I’ve made precious little progress on the Sanderson front recently…
I usually move on quickly.
http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/12/booking-through-thursday_13.html
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I finish a book and if it resonates with me, I keep thinking about it, but I pretty much move on to the next one.
2 Kids and Tired Books BTT
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