For me, every book (read ‘non-fiction book’ :)) is an ocean. And I am the fish that dives into that ocean. And every dive into such an ocean prompts me with two questions (before and after diving):
- How much fun will/did I have diving this time?
- How deep will/could I dive?
Since I’ve been reading a hell lot of books, especially non-fiction, off late, I will publish seaviews of these books as and when I am done with my diving. Find the fish and you'll know how deep could I dive and how much fun I had :).
If the seaview makes you feel like having a dive, you can check more details by clicking on the link right below.
If you are curious what led to the origin of ‘seaview’ and want to understand ‘seaview’ from my perspective, read on…
- When I say ‘book’, I mean ‘non-fiction book’. So read it as such.
- When I buy books online, I invariably go through a lot of reviews. A substantial amount of reviews (more than any other site) are found on amazon.com. So it becomes my obvious place to check reviews. So either I’ve to rely on the over-all star-rating or the heavily worded reviews of some readers of the book.
- The star-rating, though a quick indicator, on many occasions feels inadequate to base my decision on.
- On the other hand, those heavily worded reviews, though they explain a good deal about the book, consume a hell lot of time and often leave me in confusion as to whether to read it or not. As such, buying decision gets deferred (because of reading reviews, resultant confusion and hesitation) many a time or I don’t just buy the book at the right time. Over-all, the action time (reading, thinking and applying that thinking in practical life) gets delayed and I hate that. It has happened with so many books; I decided not to buy (because of the elaborate reviews) but went on to buy (and read) later and regretted why I didn’t read them earlier.
- All in all, I needed a review system which explains it a little better than the stars but is not as time-consuming and confusing as 100-200-word reviews.
- And I realized that for a non-fiction book all I am interested in, before buying a book, is:
- Does it seem like it’ll take me deep into a subject?
- Does it seem like it would not bore me? In other words, does it seem fun/easy to read?
- If I can estimate the book to be high on these two aspects, most likely I’m gonna buy it.
If you've stayed with me till this point, then I would love to have your views on this concept of seaview. :)
Picture courtesy: http://asrc.pjohnsen.com/imgs/files/underwater.jpg
Fish courtesy: http://www.strangelittlefish.com/Home.html
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