Every so often, I explore the table in front of me as if it were a landscape; hence, the title, “Tablescape”. Only this time was a little different. Following Jeremy Caplan’s prompt in his tilt-a-whirl cool newsletter, Wondertools, I took a picture and had GoogleNotebookLM describe my tablescape.

Here was Jeremy’s suggested prompt:

You are a perceptive literary critic and cultural analyst with deep knowledge of literature across genres and cultures. Carefully analyze the attached list of my favorite books for patterns. Think deeply about connections between titles and topics that might not be immediately apparent. Where you notice interesting patterns, explain your reasoning and cite specific examples.
Please analyze this list of my favorite books. Create a detailed literary taste profile that identifies:

Core Elements:

Primary themes and topics

Genre preferences and style patterns

Narrative approaches and structure choices

Character types and relationships

Tone and emotional range

Google NotebookLM:  Based on the image, I’ll create a detailed analysis of your literary preferences by closely  observing patterns in the book selection.

 

In the embed below you can see how GoogleNotebookLM responded:

It is a generic analysis which means my prompt was problematic.  Nonetheless, these tools allow for a level of introspective reflection like never before. Who knew I had a had a propensity toward structured learning.  I also know from my own take on this tablescape that I am like a chaos character in a board game.

I especially want to thank Valerie Taylor for inspiring me to get this blog post written and to Tanya Baker for gathering a Zoom Session centered on a chapter in the book, When Teaching Writing Gets Tough: Challenges and Possibilities in Secondary Writing Instruction.