Introducing: A Most Particular Compendium

I’m in a bit of a reading slump at the moment, brought on by fibro brain no doubt, and thus don’t actually have any newly finished books to blog about today (I could tell you about how I gave up on Death Comes to Pemberley after a hundred stilted pages, but that would just depress both of us). :o On the plus side, this leaves me with room to mention a new feature I’m planning. It’s inspired by a bit in The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, in which Jacobs explains that he never likes to answer e-mails asking for a list ‘must read’ or ‘classic’ books. Instead, he enjoys it when someone tells him some of their favourite books and asks for more recommendations. Cue lightbulb lighting up over my head.

Doesn’t that sound like fun?! A little bit like a themed reading list, only the theme is another person’s taste. Of course, the only way I could do this feature is if I had participants interested in sharing some of their favourite reads and getting said recommendations. I should add in disclaimer that, unlike Jacobs, I’m not a lit professor and have no academic background in either literature or library science. I’m a total amateur, and this would just be for fun. But I have read oodles of books over the years, most of them good ones! ;)

Consider this a feeler post, then. If I did start the feature, which I would call A Most Particular Compendium, I’d probably do it once a month. Maybe twice if I was ‘overwhelmed’ by participants (unlikely, let’s admit). Here’s how it would work: you would e-mail me five to ten of your top books of all time, preferably with a brief annotation (think twitter-like brevity) for each title, as well as a short little description of yourself. I would then do a post in which I’d include your mini-biography and annotated favourites, then share my five to ten recommendations (also annotated; everything’s better with annotations). If that sounds like fun, please let me know in either a comment or e-mail! And if you already know you’re interested, feel free to e-mail me your bio/list (astripedarmchairATgmailDOTcom).

P.S.: I recently wrote up a little copyright policy page. Pretty much the sole purpose of said page is to tell anyone interested that

if you feel inspired by any of my blog features/post formats/review directories/etc. (so basically, an idea or blogging approach), definitely reproduce it on your own blog however you like! A credit link the first time you do it is nice, but you certainly don’t need to credit me every time. I take a ‘more the merrier’ approach to blogging stuff like that, so don’t feel you need to e-mail me/leave a comment seeking permission. I would enjoy seeing your interpretation, so feel free to leave me a link to your post. :) The one caveat is that if you want to do a similar series to one on my blog, please choose a different name (i.e., not Assembling My Athenaeum) so that they don’t turn into memes.

So, if you’re a fellow book blogger and you love the idea of doing this on your own blog, go for it! And be warned…if you do start a feature like this, I’ll probably be e-mailing you for recommendations. :D