Why Do We Toss Books Unread? - CrimeSpace2024-03-29T11:26:17Zhttps://crimespace.ning.com/forum/topics/why-do-we-toss-books-unread?commentId=537324%3AComment%3A363236&feed=yes&xn_auth=no1. Characters that do REALLY …tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-02-28:537324:Comment:3682332013-02-28T15:29:01.757ZLawrence Lundiganhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/LawrenceLundigan
<p>1. Characters that do REALLY stupid things. Dan Brown is infamous for this</p>
<p>2. Blatant lack of research. If you are going to write a historical mystery, get your facts right. yes, Hennessy was founded by an Irish solder of fortune, but in 1765, not during the Hundred Years War. </p>
<p>3. Hook your reader. Make him or her want to know what happens next. If you have not got my attention in the first 20 pages, I am gone</p>
<p>4. Do not break your story for six paragraphs of explanation.…</p>
<p>1. Characters that do REALLY stupid things. Dan Brown is infamous for this</p>
<p>2. Blatant lack of research. If you are going to write a historical mystery, get your facts right. yes, Hennessy was founded by an Irish solder of fortune, but in 1765, not during the Hundred Years War. </p>
<p>3. Hook your reader. Make him or her want to know what happens next. If you have not got my attention in the first 20 pages, I am gone</p>
<p>4. Do not break your story for six paragraphs of explanation. (Guilty secret - I love the footnotes in the Philo Vance books)</p>
<p>5. I want to care about the characters. I watch Midsomer Murders for Tom Barnaby's family as much as the mystery. I do not care about cut-outs in a paper landscape</p> Well the bad writing doesn't…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-02-12:537324:Comment:3674332013-02-12T18:10:24.849ZStacyhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/StacyDeanne
<p>Well the bad writing doesn't affect me because I don't buy books until I read the sample anyway these days. So I already know if the writing is decent. A book has to hook me in the first few pages AT least. If the sample doesn't hook me, I don't get the book. I am an impatient reader. I have ADD when it comes to entertainment so I need to be grabbed and held FAST. I am not one who wants to read a story that has to build up. I have to have something HAPPEN in the first few pages. The story…</p>
<p>Well the bad writing doesn't affect me because I don't buy books until I read the sample anyway these days. So I already know if the writing is decent. A book has to hook me in the first few pages AT least. If the sample doesn't hook me, I don't get the book. I am an impatient reader. I have ADD when it comes to entertainment so I need to be grabbed and held FAST. I am not one who wants to read a story that has to build up. I have to have something HAPPEN in the first few pages. The story has to actually start when I begin reading or I will put it down.</p>
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<p>Now if I get the book, what makes me stop reading is bad concept, convoluted plot, boring, one-dimensional characters, wooden characters, bad dialogue, cliches and stereotypes, weak and stupid women, weak and stupid men, too many deuce ex machina twists, no-character development, bad pacing, book goes into a middle-of-the-book slump and doesn't recover, etc.</p>
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<p>Also I am not one who has to relate to a character, no. Just give me a three-dimensional character with some bite and some spunk. I can't stand boring characters and they make the work boring.</p>
<p>I think I covered it. LOL!</p>
<p></p> That's called "a challenge."…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-02-10:537324:Comment:3672392013-02-10T11:48:08.455ZDave Workmanhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/DaveWorkman
<p><em>T</em><em>hat's</em> called "a challenge." :)</p>
<p><em>T</em><em>hat's</em> called "a challenge." :)</p> I think a book has to have tw…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-02-09:537324:Comment:3674642013-02-09T21:54:28.004ZDavid DeLeehttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/DavidDeLee
<p>I think a book has to have two things, to keep me from tossing it.</p>
<p>First, an interesting plot. By that I mean the things that happen must intrigue me, must hold my interest. The need to know what happens next must keep me reading. What makes me toss a book (and I toss very few--always giving the author the benefit of the doubt--sometimes they redeem themselves, most time they don't) is plots and character actions that make no common sense. I read fantasy and science fiction as well,…</p>
<p>I think a book has to have two things, to keep me from tossing it.</p>
<p>First, an interesting plot. By that I mean the things that happen must intrigue me, must hold my interest. The need to know what happens next must keep me reading. What makes me toss a book (and I toss very few--always giving the author the benefit of the doubt--sometimes they redeem themselves, most time they don't) is plots and character actions that make no common sense. I read fantasy and science fiction as well, so implausible I'm good with, but its got to make sense.</p>
<p>Secondly, I need interesting, engaging characters. Characters that I can relate to or characters that I think are just way cool. I have to care about them getting out of the jams they've gotten themselves into.</p>
<p>To keep me reading its that simple...and that damn hard.</p> Boy, are you a dream market f…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-02-09:537324:Comment:3673172013-02-09T19:55:24.079ZCammy May Hunnicutthttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/CammyMayHunnicutt
<p>Boy, are you a dream market for writers, Jonathan. :-)</p>
<p>You win the candor award, though.</p>
<p>Boy, are you a dream market for writers, Jonathan. :-)</p>
<p>You win the candor award, though.</p> Books in general tend to bore…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-02-09:537324:Comment:3672242013-02-09T17:19:59.402ZJonathan Francescohttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JonathanFrancesco
<p>Books in general tend to bore me. If I like a book enough to wade into it for leisure reading, I tend to give it a long time to hook me. Which is good because a lot of books got better as they progressed, although most readers wouldn't give such books a chance. Like "Chasing The Night" by Iris Johansen. It looked good so I picked it up from the college library. Read it in a week. Loved the last third or so like I love a good episode of CM. It wasn't brilliant though. And the first half was…</p>
<p>Books in general tend to bore me. If I like a book enough to wade into it for leisure reading, I tend to give it a long time to hook me. Which is good because a lot of books got better as they progressed, although most readers wouldn't give such books a chance. Like "Chasing The Night" by Iris Johansen. It looked good so I picked it up from the college library. Read it in a week. Loved the last third or so like I love a good episode of CM. It wasn't brilliant though. And the first half was pretty darn slow. Yet she's a bestselling author. I could never get away with that and yet I am supposed to take cues from these authors for "how to pull it off." </p>
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<p>Honestly, there is nothing specific that turns me off other than that it bores me. I have yet to find a book with a first page so good that I couldn't put it down. Just has not happened for me yet. At all. So really, it sort of makes the "you have to hook readers with the first page" speech feel a bit trite since I cannot recall 1 time a book has hooked me like that. </p>
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<p>A story just has to have "it." As a reader, it has to make me want to read more. IDK what or how that happens. I just know when it's not there, and 99.5% of the time, it isn't. The remaining 0.5% usually don't "hook" me from page 1 either but rather have either interesting reviews, covers, and/or synopses that make me willing to give it more time. Sometimes these books have good, if not extraordinary, starts that make giving it a chance easy. Others it's a little dull for a few chapters. </p>
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<p></p> Yes, I've done this also.tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-01-31:537324:Comment:3668852013-01-31T14:00:58.841ZI. J. Parkerhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Ingpark
<p>Yes, I've done this also.</p>
<p>Yes, I've done this also.</p> I think some books just don't…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-01-31:537324:Comment:3667782013-01-31T04:43:28.818ZStacyhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/StacyDeanne
<p>I think some books just don't live up to the hype or our expectations. I've stopped reading some authors I used to consider favorites because their last five books disappointed me. I stopped buying their books altogether.</p>
<p>I think some books just don't live up to the hype or our expectations. I've stopped reading some authors I used to consider favorites because their last five books disappointed me. I stopped buying their books altogether.</p> We toss them because time, li…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-01-18:537324:Comment:3660652013-01-18T23:12:08.046ZSusanhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Susan
<p>We toss them because time, like money, is valuable, and as we grow older, we become more and more conscious that life is finite. So why waste it on a lousy book. I toss books when I can't relate to characters, or when the writing is so predictably boring, or when the author takes 20 pages to get into the book. Also, I now mostly read only novelists from whom I can learn something. </p>
<p>Life is short. Spend your time wisely. No bad books. No bad movies. No bad TV shows.</p>
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<p>We toss them because time, like money, is valuable, and as we grow older, we become more and more conscious that life is finite. So why waste it on a lousy book. I toss books when I can't relate to characters, or when the writing is so predictably boring, or when the author takes 20 pages to get into the book. Also, I now mostly read only novelists from whom I can learn something. </p>
<p>Life is short. Spend your time wisely. No bad books. No bad movies. No bad TV shows.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p> Stories like that drive me cr…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2013-01-09:537324:Comment:3636232013-01-09T21:19:47.613ZDana Kinghttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/DanaKing
<p>Stories like that drive me crazy.</p>
<p>A. Using women to build suspense like that is lazy.</p>
<p>B. Ordinary people who refuse to call the authorities and still triumph over professional criminals? I'd call it fantasy, but I know fantasy writers work hard so their books make sense.</p>
<p>Stories like that drive me crazy.</p>
<p>A. Using women to build suspense like that is lazy.</p>
<p>B. Ordinary people who refuse to call the authorities and still triumph over professional criminals? I'd call it fantasy, but I know fantasy writers work hard so their books make sense.</p>