Howdy all,
So I’ve always considered myself a ‘writer’ more than an artist, or a poet, or a novelist, or any other such distinction. Recently, that writing has taken the shape of a book type thing instead of a poem type thing. This is interesting to me. And also kind of soul consuming; I don’t seem capable of focusing on much else.
Alas, the world, pesky beast that it is, will not sit still as I so tell it to, thus my scattered attention is all I have to offer other pursuits right now.
One such pursuit? Being more active on Goodreads. I’m Wolfy on there (… because I love wolves. Cannot express that often enough, really.) Active readers, I’m hoping, become good writers. Sooo on Stevie’s suggestion, I’m going to start reviewing, in short little blurbs, all the books I read, maybe even going back and writing a little something something for all those books I’ve rated but not reviewed. This may proven a Herculean task…
My stats so far?
Books Read:566
Reviews: 2
Yeah. This is a good idea.
Jessie Gutierrez
“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
Evening Satellite Publishing 
I’m in a similar state. I initially chose to choose a few (3-6) within some specific categories: personal favorite fantasy, personal favorite scifi, generally regarded as some of the best in fantasy, and the same for scifi, young fantasy, and “more popular than I would expect” fantasy, some that I felt were lacking.
I feel this sampling helped me develop a better sense of what I value in a story, what sort of scale I would use, and a few way points, for both myself and others.
If I give an unknown book a 3/5, how does anyone know what that means, but if they also see that I gave the same to a Harry Potter book, and one of the Ice and Fire stories, that gives them a better understanding of how I rank things.
I really enjoy reviewing books. It feels like a stronger way to learn from them, though I often create 1-2 paragraph outlines for each chapter, to help me get a better sense of the big picture.
Hope it goes well, and I look forward to reading your reviews.