book Reports

Do you ever find yourself desperately trying to remember something from a book you read a while back? 

Maybe you can’t even remember the author or the title, but you just KNOW that this one particular factoid or character or lesson you learned is super relevant to the conversation you’re currently having at that cool party, and now you’re having a hard time recalling where you got that idea from. Or even worse, you are certain you’ve read about something before, but when you need to remember the details or explain it to somebody else, you draw a blank. Dang it!

Back in December of 2017, I was alone in my tiny apartment in the sleepy town of Huntingdon, PA. I had just finished my first semester teaching physics at Juniata College, and my mind was swimming with the possibilities of what would come next after this short-term teaching appointment would run out. For a while, I considered getting a PhD. I’m glad that my journey ended up taking me elsewhere, but one notion that stuck with me during my search for academic inspiration was this: folks who get advanced degrees do a TON of reading, and they need to be able to remember what they read so they can reference it in their papers later. It’s a thing you do when you want to become an expert at something -- read everything you can on the subject, and take copious notes along the way to make it stick in your brain.

I realized that regardless of whether or not I planned to go back to school, this whole “documenting what you read so you can competently remember it later” thing was something I could do. Something I SHOULD do. Hell, why hadn’t I already been doing it? So yeah, I resolved right then to start keeping a journal where I’d write summaries of what I’d read and maybe even record my own ideas that were inspired by it. I thought of all the great books I’d read up to that point in my life, and I was heartbroken at all the good ideas I’d never remember from them. I immediately wished I could hop in a time machine and go back to my elementary school self. I’d grab little Alison by the shoulders and make a passionate plea to NEVER EVER STOP WRITING BOOK REPORTS! I mean, I’d probably also tell her a few other things, like to invest in Google when the Internet becomes a thing, but that’s all beside the point. 

So yeah, I’ve made a point of trying to keep a “book diary” since then. It’s been hit and miss, and I really regret the books I didn’t write up. I keep telling myself I’ll go back and skim them again to record the general ideas, but dude, life is short and there’s a lot to do around here. I’m sharing them here on my website for a couple of reasons. For one, typing up my handwritten notes will allow me to revisit these ideas again and consider them with a fresh perspective. For another, these books I read are FULL of great ideas (at least, I think so) and I really want to share them with other folks. I’m that person who is always telling my friends “Oh man, you just HAVE to read this book!” and let’s be honest -- most folks don’t follow through on book recommendations. Hell, I don’t even follow through on my friends’ Netflix recs, and reading actually takes a little more effort than binge watching the Queen’s Gambit.

So maybe if I write up these book reports, it’ll do more than just help me remember what the heck I read. I hope it’ll be entertaining and inspiring for other folks too, and maybe it’ll encourage you to go read it yourself. Alright, it’s time to channel my inner LeVar Burton here...