Booknote: I'd Rather Be Reading

Anne Bogel, I'd Rather Be Reading: the Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life. Grand Rapids, MI: BakerBooks, 2018.  ISBN: 978-0-8010-7292-5.

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: books and reading, blog-based books
Format: hardback
Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

This book is another entry in the "books about books and reading" genre. As much as I wanted to like it, the book is just not that good. The book is also an entry in the "blogger got a book deal for their blog content" genre, a genre that is rarely good. Many bloggers might be good bloggers, but that does not always translate into a good book. Overall, this book felt more like a series of blog posts than an actual book.

The book starts off well, but it loses steam about a third of the way. Rest of the journey is mostly repetitive with nothing really new to add. In other words, there is not much in this book that has not been said or written by better writers. While I did read it cover to cover, I did do some skimming as it just got tiresome after a while. In addition, for a bibliophile, the author can be a bit too pretentious at times. Also, though she has a podcast entitled What Should I Read Next?, there is very little of that in the book. There is a mention of questions a reader's advisor might ask to help a reader in the introduction of the book but not much else. The biographical note in the back of the book states: "Her book lists and reading guides have established Bogel as a tastemaker among readers, authors, and publishers." If they say so. . . . You just do not see any of that in this book, and when she does mention books, they do not seem that great. I'll find my own books thank you very much.

In the end, given the claim of being what we librarians call a reader's advisor, this book fails to capitalize on that. In the bottom line, it's just a series of blog posts or essays that should have been and stayed blog posts. There are a few nice pieces but not enough to make a full book. This was just OK. Yes, I'd rather be reading, but I'd rather be reading something else.

2 out of 5 stars