Literary Blog Hop: January 7-10

Friday, January 6, 2012

Literary Blog Hop: January 7-10

Posted by IngridLola at 9:45 PM

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.

How do I know if my blog qualifies as "literary"? Literature has many definitions, but for our purposes your blog qualifies as "literary" if it focuses primarily on texts with aesthetic merit. In other words, texts that show quality not only in narrative but also in the effect of their language and structure. YA literature may fit into this category, but if your blog focuses primarily on non-literary YA, fantasy, romance, paranormal romance, or chick lit, you may prefer to join the blog hop at Crazy-for-books that is open to book blogs of all kinds.

Instructions for entering the Literary Blog Hop:

1. Grab the code for the Button.

2. Answer the following prompt on your blog.
(Suggestions for future prompts? Email to them us at thebluebookcase@gmail.com)

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?

Our answer comes from Ingrid:

I have to say, I'm a little conflicted about this issue. When I was still in school I loved reading critical articles about texts I was reading, but I don't nearly read as much supplementary material now as I read on my own. At the very least, I read over some Goodreads reviews or other bloggers' reviews to see how other people reacted to a specific book, and I usually read the Wikipedia article on the book for general criticisms. Sometimes I'm afraid to go deeper than this, though, because in many cases my view of a book has been tainted or changed in a significant way when I read academic criticisms of it. Because I don't have time to read everything ever written by scholars about each book I read, somehow it doesn't seem fair to just read some of it when I know it might change my opinion of the book.

What about you? How do you supplement your reading, if at all?

3. Add your link to the Linky List below.

Happy Hopping!
*PLEASE NOTE: if you do not answer the question and link back to The Blue Bookcase in a post on your blog, you will be removed from the Linky list.

Comments (12)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

0 Vote up Vote down

Scribeswindow · 690 weeks ago

What a great question! I've just finished answering it and it was almost fortuitous as I was thinking of posting something along the same lines.

Report

+1 Vote up Vote down

jaynesbooks 98p · 690 weeks ago

Very good question and really did force me to think about what influences my reading and my reviews.

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

Mel u · 690 weeks ago

Very interesting question-as I live where there are no public libraries I tend to first do a book blog search on a work then read posts by known to me book bloggers, then if I want background my first go to webpage is normally Wikipedia, from there I branch out

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

Susan@ Reading World · 689 weeks ago

It's good to be back hopping again. Great question. Although it makes me feel a bit guilty for not digging deeper with some of the books I've read.

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

Emily · 689 weeks ago

At first I felt guilty because I thought my answer was "no." But on second thought I felt better.

Report

+1 Vote up Vote down

readingthethings 62p · 689 weeks ago

Great question. I find the scholarly articles the least inviting. :) But I do consult outside sources -- often.

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

Nancy · 689 weeks ago

This is a thought-provoking question. For me, I find academic articles quite intimidating and well, sometimes, discouraging. I prefer to know my own thoughts. But it does help to check other sources if it means it will help me understand the culture of the period of the story.

Report

+1 Vote up Vote down

lwspotts 26p · 689 weeks ago

First time parcipating, and I hope to do so regularly. Interesting question!

Report

+1 Vote up Vote down

_Bethany_ 93p · 689 weeks ago

Hmm... I don't know if I'd count reviews as supplementary reading. That's just reading reviews? But that's me. Interesting question, though.

Report

+1 Vote up Vote down

stinavw 80p · 689 weeks ago

Oooh, this is something I've been wondering about! I can't wait to hop around and learn a little about other bloggers' methods.
As for me, I really only do a lot of extra reading (critical and otherwise) if it's a classic. Other people's ideas really influence my own, so I usually try not to read any other reviews until I've written my own. I do like to read up on subplots and contextual elements, though; wikipedia is my friend.

Report

+1 Vote up Vote down

What Red Read 121p · 689 weeks ago

Nice question! I wish I had the time/was less lazy to do more of the critical and academic reading. As it is, I usually don't unless the book is a classic. Then I might skim the sparknotes and see if there are any themes I'm missing.

Report

0 Vote up Vote down

M.J. · 689 weeks ago

Great question! I didn't put it in my answer, but I also like to read other reviews so I can get a sense of how I might format my review, and to make sure I'm not saying the same thing as every other reviewer.

Report