tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post5557461508694152436..comments2023-10-25T05:30:54.507-04:00Comments on Oh Get A Grip!: I'm a Book Snob (or What I'm Not Reading)Ashe Barkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03390519279886657608noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-22053660910132500422016-02-11T20:12:58.531-05:002016-02-11T20:12:58.531-05:00Interesting reading list, Giselle! I've always...Interesting reading list, Giselle! I've always wondered if you read in French too, and if you can compare French originals with English translations, and vice versa. (I'll say more about that in my post.) Re chapter length, I think chapters should be like paragraphs: they should cover one topic (which could be large), not go on too long, and finish at a point that feels natural.Jean Robertahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08805088081675965859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-5824730815855445902016-02-11T06:47:39.166-05:002016-02-11T06:47:39.166-05:00I definitely think people's taste is their tas...I definitely think people's taste is their taste! I find that I seem not to be cursed with that writer's-brain-ruins-reading-thing for the most part. I still just read with pleasure. There are things that irritate me in books, but they're the same things that always have. <br /><br />I do have to vote for the short chapters side here. I tend to grab small pieces of time to read, and I like to know I can complete a chapter while I do. It's also part of why I like short story collections. But I seem to be a very atypical reader that way.Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-31812844830699792672016-02-05T19:46:47.822-05:002016-02-05T19:46:47.822-05:00Yeah, there's a lot of crap out there esp in g...Yeah, there's a lot of crap out there esp in genre fiction. I become very excited when I find a new-to-me author who pays attention to craft. I'll say more about this in my blog :)<br /><br />I am not, in the main, interested in literary fiction. Much of it seems very forced and labored, as if the author is trying to be original and not just telling a story, The form becomes more important than the content.<br />Suz dehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17236960359162948178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-1962151033728517702016-02-04T18:00:16.067-05:002016-02-04T18:00:16.067-05:00Those same two things that made your early editor ...Those same two things that made your early editor curse are the ones at the very top of my own editorial "Oh god, noooo," list (although I've certainly never seen them in your writing, Giselle.) But however much clunky writing bothers me, I can't deny that what readers mostly want is a good story that sweeps them along with it, no matter how it's written. Erotica may be somewhat of an exception, in that the reader definitely wants to be swept along, but "story" per se may not have much to do with it. (Sometimes I suspect that what I write and edit isn't erotica at all, since I do get hung up on the need for story and prose style. But so far I get away with it. More or less.) Sacchi Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801164916418570059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-11888399430253609252016-02-04T17:05:03.616-05:002016-02-04T17:05:03.616-05:00(:v> Aw, thanks! That makes my day, Giselle.(:v> Aw, thanks! That makes my day, Giselle.Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-91207205804623893732016-02-04T16:43:30.339-05:002016-02-04T16:43:30.339-05:00Now I'm trying to remember which novel I read ...Now I'm trying to remember which novel I read recently that had pretty much no chapters. Maybe something like 3 scene breaks? And I didn't even notice until I got to the end, but I remember thinking, "Thank you, author, for not interrupting my reading too much."<br /><br />Jeremy, I knew you'd have a lot to say. heh. You always answer questions in a way that makes me want to burst out in applause.Giselle Renardehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15955755448116234634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-57938265273473904172016-02-04T11:34:19.881-05:002016-02-04T11:34:19.881-05:00If anybody is interested in Donleavy, I'd sugg...If anybody is interested in Donleavy, I'd suggest "Shultz" as your first read. His characters can be reprehensible, but the characters in Schultz are not that bad. Works like "The Ginger" Man and "The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B." follow awful (but somehow sympathetic) MC'sDaddy Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12927663248424944119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-53982156126878436502016-02-04T11:28:52.009-05:002016-02-04T11:28:52.009-05:00Ditto, Gisselle and Sally. I too like to immerse m...Ditto, Gisselle and Sally. I too like to immerse myself in a work. I like long books. On Wednesday I'l be posting about "Harlot's Ghost" by Mailer (@ 1300 pages). Momma X calls me a literary snob. She enjoys the likes of Harlan Coben, Lee Child, James Patterson and Michael Connoly. She read the entire "Sookie Stackhouse" vampire series. I'm more drawn to modern classics and Pulitzer Prize winners like Franzen or Donna Tartt. Momma reads for sheer diversion and I for scope.<br /><br />But not all literary fiction is for me. I don't want to have a "challenging" book. I tried Richard Ford's "Canada" a year or two back, but it didn't do it for me. Too repetitive. It seemed as if he was trying to say the same thing in different ways from different literary angles, not allowing the story to progress. Or progress so slowly as to be sluggish. Like reading Frank Norris' "The Octopus".<br /><br />Reading, at its best, should be easy. If the writing is good, reading should be effortless. I don't set boundaries like short chapters. If the writer is good enough, he/she can pull anything off. Just get something by JP Donleavy and your editorial preconceptions just may have to be revised. Hell, some moderns don't use quote marks. Paul Auster and Cormack McCarthy get away with it just fine. When reading Auster's "Book of Illusions", I was half way through before noticing the lack of quotes.<br /><br />But I will say that a Grisham just about makes it for a plane ride back east. First half on the ride out, the rest on the way back.Daddy Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12927663248424944119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-53779829454965841962016-02-04T09:03:12.449-05:002016-02-04T09:03:12.449-05:00See, I hate those short chapters. When I read a no...See, I hate those short chapters. When I read a novel, I want to get immersed in it, lost in the story, and I find short chapters to be extremely jarring. Just when I start to get into the story, they break the flow and pull me out.Sally Bendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01299308673624597518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-14392024182344220292016-02-04T08:32:21.248-05:002016-02-04T08:32:21.248-05:00A funny detail that I just remembered is the manne...A funny detail that I just remembered is the manner in which I was pointed to this "bad" novella that I sort of enjoyed—which wasn't erotica, by the way, though its titillating (but clumsily executed) sexual dynamics was one of the main things that pushed my buttons and kept me reading. I shouldn't say whose public recommendation it was, but I will tell you it's very intriguing to consider in terms of individual tastes and opinions!Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-86474662434529150932016-02-04T07:46:55.956-05:002016-02-04T07:46:55.956-05:00P.S. On the flipside—but much, much rarer for me—t...P.S. On the flipside—but much, much rarer for me—there can be a book that I think is objectively sort of "bad" but that I enjoy nonetheless. (N.B. I'm not talking about the so-called guilty-pleasure book, which—though I don't think that way or use that term—I believe is usually a book that's well executed by the measure of its goals, so not a "bad" book by my definition.) <br /><br />I read one "bad book that I nonetheless enjoyed" last year (and the fact that I finished it says something right there, as I feel no compulsion to finish things that I'm not enjoying and don't expect to turn a corner). This novella wasn't terrible, but the writing was sort of amateurish, the characters and some of the action were unconvincing, and the story didn't really make sense. Nonetheless, there were things about the people and the situations and the writing that happened to be right up my alley, so I got a certain amount of enjoyment out of the book. But, at the objective level, I wouldn't classify this as a book that "transcends" its weaknesses. I think few discriminating readers would find the book compelling or enjoyable; the author just happened to get lucky with this particular reader.Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-27313661115239726862016-02-04T07:35:10.045-05:002016-02-04T07:35:10.045-05:00So are there good books and bad books? Or are ther...<i>So are there good books and bad books? Or are there just books we like and books we don't like?</i><br /><br />That's an easy one for me, because my personal tastes are so narrow that I've long been accustomed to the reality that the vast majority of books, movies, music, etc. that I objectively (to the extent these things are objective at all) recognize the merit (or probably merit) of are things that I, personally, don't care for or wouldn't enjoy. So the world is full of books that are beautifully executed masterpieces which I would hate reading but people with different or broader tastes would love reading (so I'm not talking about "difficult" books that people force themselves through because they feel they're "supposed to").<br /><br />Of course, there is no shortage of bad books. Again, objectivity is far from absolute, but a book whose mechanics or coherence are flawed enough that most attentive readers would feel the author didn't really know what he or she was doing—and that isn't somehow redeemed by some transcendently compelling quality of another kind—is something I'd be comfortable calling a "bad book." There are also various kinds of superficially competent but lazy books—slavishly imitative bandwagon-jumpers, novels that rely cheaply and unconvincingly on preexisting out-of-copyright literary characters or famous people, nonfiction that's smoothly written but weak and sloppy in its narrative of facts and insights—that I might not hesitate to disparage.Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-3155460102181544012016-02-04T06:14:38.945-05:002016-02-04T06:14:38.945-05:00So many books are poorly written... genre fiction ...So many books are poorly written... genre fiction AND so-called literary fiction. Unfortunately, once you're an author, it's tough to ignore that sort of issue. As you note, it can really kill the fun of reading.<br />Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.com