The primary purpose of media has always been for entertainment and most people don’t bother tracking the movies they watch or the books they watch. Though there is fun in this, I believe that reviewing the media you consume is a good way to critically engage with art and will make you a more analytical consumer.
Though I grew up reading books, I only started tracking and reviewing the books I read in 2021. It wasn’t natural to start reviewing books, but as I read more, I started thinking about the differences between the books I was reading and why I enjoyed certain stories more than others. I preferred third person narratives and stories that followed themes of coming-of-age, while I was less inclined to read more plot-heavy novels that had little focus on introspection. I only learned about these preferences because I started keeping track of my favorite books and wrote notes about each one.Â
Eventually, this turned into fully-fledged reviews and articles that I started posting on the Internet. This allowed me to have more in-depth conversations with people about the books I was loving and seek out more books with similar themes. Essentially, the process of reviewing books enriched my experience and I understood them on a much deeper level. Recently, I’ve started doing the same for movies, recording my favorites on Letterboxd. I’m rediscovering how to write reviews and what I like and don’t like in a whole new medium.Â
As a casual music listener, I also have started reading reviews from music critics; I’ve learned about thematic cohesion and musical progression in albums. I’ve learned how music is often in conversation with other forms of media. Who knows? Maybe with time I’ll become educated enough to start writing music reviews myself.
For this reason, I encourage anyone who is enthusiastic about art to write about it and be loud about their interests. I think there is something beautiful in sharing art with the world, whether it be your own art or your thoughts on the art which already exists.Â