A couple days ago I was watching Teen Titans Go with my kids. In this particular episode Raven (one of the characters who is usually portrayed as intelligent and dark) introduces the rest of the Titans to reading. They fall in love with reading and want more. So they ask her what they should do next. She says they should start a book club and discuss their books. So they start a club and discuss their books and how much they loved their books.
A couple minutes into the meeting Raven says it’s not enough to share how much they like their books. They need to go deeper. How? they ask. She starts with her own book by saying the premise of the book was unbelievable and goes on for a minute breaking her book down into tiny increments, dissecting each scene and word.
The Titans stare at her in horror. “You just took the fun out of reading!” they shout.
And that’s what I found interesting. I don’t think books were meant to be taken apart and each little section scrutinized and reviewed. Books are meant to be read as a whole. Enjoyed. Read and understood in their full context.
Sometimes I can’t articulate why I liked or didn’t like a book. I just know I liked it and it made me think. Or I didn’t like it because it left a bad feeling behind. Perhaps that is one reason I don’t like writing reviews (for the most part). Because I feel like I need to take the book apart and say why I did or didn’t like the book. Bleh.
I’ve seen reviews where the book is scrutinized down to its very words. I’ve even known people who read with a pad and pen next to them so they can take notes. I don’t think fiction was meant to be read like this. How do you get into the story when you’re constantly taking notes? Perhaps that’s just me.
The episode ends when the Titans read a mystical book that lets loose evil magic that feeds off their imagination. In order to stop the book, they start reviewing the book, talking about its premise and using big words. In essence, they are shutting off their imagination so they can trap the magic back inside the book.
Ironic, isn’t it?
For those who are curious, the episode is called Books.
Morgan L. Busse 
Interesting post, Morgan. The thing is, for me, half the fun is analyzing a story once I’m done. Yep, fun! I love taking stories apart and seeing how they work. Think car mechanics–you know, the hobbyists. That’s me with stories. 😀
Becky
Haha! I knew someone enjoyed that stuff 🙂 I like the car mechanics analogy. Now that I think about it, I don’t like taking things apart to figure out how they work. I like building from ground zero and learning along the way.
I had a friend who COULD NOT STAND how I wanted to analyze every movie we watched. Drove her crazy. Hahah. Whereas I have other friends who get right in there and dig with me. 😉
I’ve written a couple of reviews but stopped. I agree with Morgan. I know when I have liked a book or not. If something makes me think beyond myself then that’s a great read. Sometimes it’s hard for us (me) to work on growing, especially when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. If a book makes me stop and think about where I am at spiritually and where the Lord may be leading me, then that’s a huge bonus. For example, when Lord was in that tavern and was asking the Word what he was supposed to do next to find Rowan, he was discouraged that he didn’t receive an answer. It reminded me that sometimes the Lord will not respond when the answer is already at hand. In the book, in walked Caleb and Nierne. I also stopped writing reviews because they weren’t really reviews. I found that I was just processing the book out loud rather than reviewing it. Having said that, I did really like the two books in this series. Very much looking forward to the next one.