Love Letter To My Library is a sort of one-man book club where I will diary and review good non-fiction books that I come across. The majority of the books will be in science or history (or a respective sub-genre), or philosophy/religious studies (where I have an academic background). My goal is to share and discuss these great books with other people so they can appreciate them as much as I have. This is not a critical review site where I lob scathing words at books I hated; one will not find any unilaterally “bad” reviews here. Most of what I write will be varying degrees of positive, because this is my attempt to keep record of all the wonderful and interesting books that pass through my hands.
I try to put up at least one new entry every month.
I started this blog in part because I was frustrated with the lack of attention to good non-fiction. The few places I’ve crossed in my searches are usually highly specialized for a limited audience, but even those are scarce. Most people prefer fiction, including my friends, and so most book recommendations I see are for such. Likewise, most book review blogs, clubs, best seller lists and other book-themed aggregates are largely fiction-based. Even if there’s some non-fiction on popular book lists, it’s often just some crank peddling his Oprah-endorsed homeopathy book or the latest drivel from a politician or a bland self-help book. Where are folks supposed to go to hear about that great new history book, or read about that fascinating science publication? So, why couldn’t I make such a site?Lastly, I want to give special thanks to my buddy Darryl for being my non-fic book buddy. Many of the history books I’ve read and written about here have been at his suggestion.
Categories & Tagging
The categories, available from the drop-down menu on the right sidebar, are for exploring the genres and sub-genres of the books I’ve investigated. These are very general themes, such as “chemistry” rather than specific topics.Tags, on the other hand, are for very particular things of note and may be very specific such as “Sudan” or a writer’s name but may also duplicate the general categories. I try to use tags very aggressively to note themes, authors, places, topics, people and events so that readers who are looking for something very specific can use these tags to find books that may be relevant.The ‘search’ bar on the sidebar should allow one to browse through either of these things.
Boring Technical Stuff
I’m using WordPress blogging software. My web hosting is courtesy of NDCHost.I use Amazon.com for linking because that’s where I buy most of my own books.