books aren’t over just because you’ve finished them

ways i hold on to stories just a little longer after finishing a book

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i don’t think i’d be the person i am today without books. reading is a part of me, no less real than an arm or an ear, i couldn’t, and wouldn’t want to, imagine a life without it. although i have been reading for all of my life, i have only recently started to go a little deeper with my relationship with my books. i don’t want to forget stories, i don’t want to fumble on my words when i try to tell someone about the latest book i’ve read and how wonderful it was, i don’t want to take the hard work of authors around the world for granted. i want to devour literature and lick the plate, i want to feast on every turn of phrase, every literary choice, every metaphor and melodic sentence. it is no longer enough for me to simply read a book and put it down again, even if i just want to be completely swept away by a thriller-filled page-turner or ominous murder plot, i still want to squeeze the lemon for every drop of juice and take my time with every read.

so here are a few things i do to spend just a little longer with the books i read, to overstay my welcome in the author’s world, to go once more around the block, to take mental pictures and run away somewhere to paint endless canvases at my desk over candlelight.

writing answers to a list of questions straight after reading

one of the best things to do after i read a book is to ask myself some simple questions. i work that hippocampus and run through the entire book in my head and wonder what stood out to me, what i really enjoyed, what i didn’t enjoy and how it made me feel. i write about my first impressions of the book and compare how these feelings changed by the time i finished it, i write about whether i’d recommend the book, why and why not. i also make a list of key themes, quotes and takeaways and let my thoughts run wild.

while i’m not really one to do full literary analyses (although that would be a treat, i’m planning on making some sort of literature curriculum i can study), i still like to write about the choices the author made, the style of prose and the book’s pacing. but the questions i ask myself after reading tend to lean more towards how the book made me feel. i discuss the emotions i felt while reading and why this could be a book that stays with me for good or bad reasons.

for example, the utter loneliness and desperation in white nights by fyodor dostoyevsky is something that visits me often, haunts me even, since reading it back in spring. or the image of the main character’s love interest’s calves dotted with wet grass bits, described like little punctuation marks in murakami’s the city and its uncertain walls, something else i think about a lot. it’s just such a pretty description. or the blanket of content that washes over me when i think of to the moon by jang ryuin. thinking about that book makes me smile because i remember having such a good time reading it. i only wish to write stories and sentences that stick with people in a similar way one day.

writing down my thoughts as i’m reading

something i unfortunately realised a little later in life is that i can write about the books i read as i’m reading them. perhaps i thought it would be a waste of time to write extensively about a character and their choices before knowing what future choices they would make, or make assumptions about a story before it had even finished, but i actually think this is a great way to go even deeper with a book.

writing about a book as i’m reading it allows me to travel further into the mind of the characters. i can try to guess which paths they're going to take and whether my predictions are correct, how this could mean there’s something about this character i can relate to or deeply empathise with. i can also guess where the story might go, where i’d like it to go, where i’d prefer it didn’t go, whether all my feelings so far will still be valid by the time i come to the end of the story. it’s like adding an extra personal layer to the book i’m reading. it makes it more of an interactive experience.

i use a dedicated reading journal with lined pages to jot down my thoughts after a reading session. no prompts or questions, just thoughts.

writing character summaries and explorations