The Picky Reader

[Peg Herring]

I admit it; I've become a picky reader. Becoming more aware of writing as I practice the craft, I am increasingly intolerant of writers who are sloppy and formulaic. In the last two days I've started no less than five books only to drop them in the give-away pile an hour or so later. It's something I never would have done in the past, but I've decided that there's too much good writing out there to waste my time on junk.

I've ranted here before about secondary characters who have no justification for being as wacky or as ornery as they are. Today I'm down on formula: the story you've read dozens of times with only minor changes. I'm tired of dead bodies with hands removed to slow identification. I'm tired of plots to control the world's food supply, gold supply, or plutonium supply by stealing the only copy of secret documents. And most of all I'm tired of the seemingly endless search for a "new" type of detective: pregnant, old, alcoholic, manic-depressive, ethnic, shopoholic, etc. We seem to have forgotten that character isn't pasted on with a label. It's intrinsic.

Sadly, my rebellion may be as much my fault as the writers'. It stands to reason that if you chew up books at the rate many of us do for thirty, forty years, you'll have run into every sort of scenario. Still, there are authors who can make it fresh, make you want to read on. How do they do it? There's the rub. It might be language, a turn of phrase that reveals depth of character not found in run-of-the-mill work. It might be plot, taking old actions and giving them new twists. It may be character, a protagonist who appeals in ways that are different from others you've "met" in books. What it is exactly is hard to say, but I know it when I read it.

[Peg Herring]

I know what you mean. I think I'm not a fantasy fan and then someone does it REALLY well. I have to space them out, though, because I can't suspend that much disbelief very often. I'll take a look at MALEDICTE, thanks.

[Peg Herring]

I'm trying to widen my circle of authors so when I meet them I know a bit about their work. That alone makes me less likely to finish a book that doesn't appeal to me, since there's always someone else's book to try. It's amazing, though, that about the time I put a book down, I'll read online that somebody somewhere thinks it's the best book ever. Different strokes!