One of my “resolutions” for 2010 (not sure I really like that word, but I’ll go with it for now!) is to write a review of every book that I read. I love having my books reviewed, and I figured this is a great way to repay the favor. Not that I think every author I read is likely to pick up one of my books and write a review or anything (though if Karen Kingsbury were to do that it would be totally awesome!!). But I figure any book could benefit from a little extra publicity.
The problem that I am having right now is that I don’t have anything new to read. Nothing in hard copy, anyway. I do have two PDFs that are sitting on my hard drive, waiting for me to read and review them. Funny, I don’t even know why I haven’t started reading either of them yet. I know I must have a reason…. Anyway, not having anything new to read has pushed me to pick some “old” books off of my shelf. Good thing I only keep copies of books that I really enjoy there!
I did ask my mother to recommend some books for me. She is almost as voracious a reader as I am. And she is much better at purchasing books than I am. She has some that she bought last spring that she has yet to read! On New Year’s Day, she gave me two books to read. One is by an author I’ve heard a lot about but never read. The other is by a Christian author I’d never heard of before. The first book I got through, though I complained a lot about it along the way. It seemed to be a good story, but there was too much going on. All of the characters confused me, and I found myself flipping back a chapter or two to be sure of which character was related to what other character. It was like reading a soap opera, though not nearly as smutty. With the second, I am struggling to get through chapter two. This author writes in a very formal fashion. One of my favorite authors, Linore Rose Burkard, writes that way. However, she writes about life in Regency England, about 200 years ago. That was a much more formal time. The book I am trying to read now, though, is a more contemporary story. The dialog and the narration are very stiff. Reading is supposed to be a fun activity, and this book does not make things fun at all.
This got me to thinking—am I really too picky about what I read? Until now, I would have said that I am willing to read anything. I’ve read Dickens and Austen, and enjoyed them both. In 8th grade, I read Gone With the Wind for the first time (I’ve read it twice more since then!). In high school, I even read Michener. Talk about long novels! There was a time when I had read every Sweet Valley High book that had been written. In recent years, I’ve read a lot of Meg Cabot books and most of Karen Kingsbury’s. I’ve read young adult novels, romance novels, Christian fiction, mainstream fiction, and science fiction. As long as the book is well-written, I am willing to give it a chance.
Maybe that is the problem—I love a well-written book, and these two don’t fit my definition of well-written. Not that I think I am any sort of an expert on the subject. And since these books made it into print, I assume that means everyone has a different idea of what a well-written book is. To me, a well-written book is one where there are enough characters to tell the story, but not so many that the reader is confused. It is one where the characters speak and act as if they belong in the time period when their story takes place.
Well, I guess that is it for tonight. Oh, and don’t go looking for the names of the books I was reading or any clue who the authors are. I am not telling!!! J
