Not to be conflated with “our favorite books,” where only the best float to the top, “Book Club” will be a section on our Medium for us to talk about our reads. Here the voracious reader might find lilliputian essays on books we have read. The secondary goal will be to write a beautiful critique and use complex unambiguous vocabulary where possible, as an exercise for the writer — or should you not attempt to develop your prose and vast lexicon by playing around with words and attempting to express yourself in the most difficult of ways?! It is possible, and more often than not it will be the case, that Cristiano and Elizabeth will assess different books. Nevertheless, the reviews will not be written jointly, lest both the book and the time period it was read in overlap.
As for our reading backlog, the literature will not follow a common theme and will pertain exclusively to our interests, though YOU are welcome to make suggestions. Posting schedule will be irregular and on a need basis (speed reading is for plebs). The link to the series, along with the list of examined books will be posted here, at the bottom of the page, in the form of interminable updates to the article
Contrary to popular belief, reading is on the rise. Once an activity enjoyed almost exclusively by the upper echelons of society, rising literacy levels made it marginally more accessible for a brief period of time. The advent of nutritionally deficient diets and the internet, with its short attention span and need of instant gratification, presented a slight setback, as people are slowly adapting to the new medium.
Reading is a passageway to an alternate universe — a continuous peek into the creative mind of the writer during a specific epoch. Through brazen self-insertion one can experience the narrator’s role and gain access to heretofore unknown perspectives. In this boundless space where everything is given shape by one’s mind’s eye, the only constraint is one’s own imagination. Consequently, every story will assume a different form based on the reader’s psyche: inferences from reading between the lines will be disparate. Exchanging ideas with one’s peers shall become more exciting, while simultaneously increasing the likelihood of capturing a wider breadth of topics that stemmed from the subconscious of the writer himself.
Those who read are vastly more likely to have developed advanced critical thinking skills than their plebeian counterparts — which is not to say that those who read are without dogma. Quite the contrary, for in some cases, impressionable minds fail to discern fact from fiction, so a balance must be stricken.
Beautiful prose is scarce and onerous, but until Orwell’s implementation of NewSpeak comes about, it will never truly disappear into oblivion.
More often than not, beautiful prose is not written for monetary gain. Unlike accomplished Hollywood directors who routinely create uninspired pictures for the uncultured masses, most great writers are aware that misery and frugality await, but still do they persist.
Writing is a vice, an itch in an inaccessible place, a mild intellectual endeavor that doesn’t fully drain one of motivation. Much like reading, even more so than reading, writing is exercise for the brain and ultimately, they are two sides of the same coin. Doing one but not the other is akin to knowing how to read a music scale, but never having played an instrument. It creates an appreciation for the art, as well as allowing one to work the knots out of a line of thought, and develop a deeper understanding of the self. When one writes, they are pouring out a fleeting fragment of their ever-changing consciousness and freezing it in time so that all can see.
If you read, write!
Now without further ado…
