“Two questions I can’t really answer about fiction are (1) where it comes from, and (2) why we need it. But that we do create it and also crave it is beyond dispute.” ~Marilynne Robinson

Where it comes from is certainly beyond my ken. Ultimately, the true stories come from God himself, I suppose. But why do you read fiction? Why do you crave stories, if you do? For me, stories clothe and make sense of bare facts. Don’t tell me that five plus four equals nine. Tell me a story about five apples and four oranges, chopped into bite-sized pieces and combined to make a lovely fruit salad. I prefer the story of the salad, even if it doesn’t equate to good arithmetic.

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

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