Spark Notes / Rama Brothers / Coles Notes - Going beyond reading

 Book haul is the act of showing off books one just bought on the internet. This can be a video.

The science or an anatomy of a book haul is having old books with a specific crowd or an audience and sharing your ideas. This will even lead to paid sponsorships.

I as a lover of books follow 'Book leo', 'Emmie reads', 'Carolyn Marrie reads', 'Benjamin Macovoy' and other Sri Lankan booktubers as entertainment. 

There is a certain following to this dying hobby.

I am trying to control my book buying and my last book haul was from Sarasavi Bookshops - Online store. They were English literature study guides.

They were printed by 'Spark Notes', 'Rama brothers' and 'Coles Notes'.

I was exposed to Rama Brothers books through a 'Bargain Books Sale' in Gampaha Sarasavi Bookshop. 

After that I ordered all the Rama Brothers study guides from the Sarasavi online bookstore. 

Rama brothers are the publishers of the 'Coles Notes' as well.

I got hold of Spark Notes when I searched for 'Brave New World' book duology in Sarasavi online bookstore.

https://www.sarasavi.lk/

I was addicted to book buying since 2017 and this is how it ended with me a large pile of books and nothing to do.

I purchased a lot of Penguin classics as physical copies due to love of book collecting and unawareness caused by knowing that there are now free pdf's available in the internet.

Spark notes web is an interactive web site that contains most of the study guide materials online in the web for free which reflects my incapabilities in investment and my tendency to waste money, because the physical copies I purchased have the same content as the web for free. Though that's the case it supports literature and I'm okay with it.

https://www.sparknotes.com/

To be honest when I read the 1984 Spark Notes web and compare it with the book web provides additional information about movie adaptations etc.

Spark Notes was founded by a set of students at Harvard (1999). They earned an income through the number of visits to the site. From literature study guides to later expanded to other subjects as well.

I also read the 'Brave New World' and '1984' spark notes book which was a good addition to my collection.

The chapter "How to write literary analysis" is repeated in every book which is a bad sign for spark notes since it degrades the value.

And also one of the other aspects I found as misleading is the books having same number of pages despite there actual size in 'Spark Notes'. (Old man and the sea and Les Miserables)

Unlike spark notes Rama brothers is not available in the internet for free. We have to purchase them for money as physical copies. They are the ones who are publishing 'Coles Notes' as well.

https://ramabrothers.in/

They are written by Indian authors and are analysed well. These are tailor made for south asian region.

Rama brothers books, does not contain Russian literature like 'Spark Notes' but the books have more content and cheaper in value. Coles notes like Spark Notes are smaller in size and was founded in 1948. They are currently printed by Rama brothers. But on the negative side Rama brothers have a very bad cover design strategy.

When I searched for other websites related to Internet literature study guides following was able to be found.

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/

Only exposure I have of English literature as a student is doing English Literature for my G.C.E. O/L in 2007 and getting an 'A' for it. 

One of the main things I like about literature is there updated nature in providing religious and philosophical concepts to the contemporary readers.

When I asked 'Chat GPT' about these literature study guides following was the advantages and disadvantages it provided.

Advantages

(01) Accessibility

(02) Study aid

(03) Time-saving

Disadvantages

(01) Oversimplification

(02) Over-reliance

(03) Academic dishonesty

As a final note using English literature study guides expands your horizons in reading experience.