Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

I Can Handle the Truth

I'm working on a short story I wrote a couple months ago, using it as a way to get my creative motivation running at high idle again after the long holiday interruption.  This story drew some of the best critique notes I've ever received, and I'm referencing them as I revise.

My reviewer talked extensively about the characters.  In the opening scene, the MC does a reckless, dispicable thing.  It's something "normal," "well-adjusted" people may secretly be tempted to do, but should never actually do because the potential for numerous, disastrous outcomes is so blatant.  But MC isn't "normal" or "well-adjusted," and one of my tasks was to make him believable and endearing to the reader.  According to my reviewer, I scored a slam-dunk with the MC.  It was the supporting cast that needs work.

Reviewer said, "There didn't seem to be much of Virginia (a secondary character) beyond the typical wino, but I think you mean for there to be. And I think that’s awesome. I love when a rugged character---someone people usually sneer at, like a wino---has a deeper meaning within them. The fact that she did take (MC) in says she has that, maybe, but I’d like to know for sure. I’d like to see it."

And Reviewer is so right!  I'm now excited about digging deeper into Virginia's character.

The critique went on to discuss a sideline character:  "Now, to me, the irate lady in the parking lot was the most real. Ohh, I wanted to slap her upside the head, but man, I know that woman. Thinks she’s doing good, but goes about it in all the wrong way with all the wrong attitude. It’s a kind of person that frustrates me, personally, to freakin’ death. And so I loved that she was in the story, making me feel that, wanting to stand between her and Rocco (the MC) and tell her to shove her cell phone up her---"

And it was this observation that got me thinking:  What kind of reader am I?

Do I embrace a character I'm reading, accepting them for the person the author wrote?  Or do I judge them, doubting someone would act they way the character is behaving or say the things the character does?  The deeper I delved into these questions, the more I realized my answer is....both.

I thought about The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold.  I really enjoyed that book and, with absolute abandon, devoured the characters and plots.  I swallowed them whole, relished their tastes and textures, never wishing for a dash of salt or to cut them up into smaller, more manageable pieces.  For me, Sebold showed in that book her mastery as a character-driven author.

Other people in my book club HATED the book.  The most common complaint was readers couldn't relate to Helen, the main character.  They felt Helen was a wholly unbelievable character, since she acted in ways most readers rejected as cruel and unrealistic.

And then I started thinking about The Shack, by William P. Young. (Please brace yourselves for my minority opinions of this book, and be advised of my upcoming spoilers.)

I was completely frustrated by this book and actually threw it across the room when I finished it.  Why?  Because I couldn't believe that Mack spend an entire weekend holed up with the Blessed Trinity -- an exclusive audience with God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit -- after his five-year-old daughter was brutally raped and murdered -- and he never ever once asked God/Jesus/HolySpirit about the Devil.  Not one question.  Not even, "Did the Devil make the murderer act?"  Mack didn't bring up the Devil's name ONCE.  Sorry, but if I had a whole weekend face-to-face with God, and I was a church-going man who'd wavered in his faith in the wake of such an evil atrocity, I would have wanted to know God's take on the Devil.

So, why do I accept some characters as the authors portrayed them and reject others?  I suppose it depends on the ability of the author to reach me, to unwittingly tap into my past experiences and my brand of reality.

But I also think an author who is successful in winning his character over with the reader is an author who writes that character's truth.  All of it.  I may not like what a character is doing, but if he is acting from the gut of his truth, I'm going to embrace him, and stay engaged in his story, until the bitter end.

Sebold wrote all of Helen's ugly truths, masterfully balancing them out with Helen's compassion and wit. And this is what I have to do with Virginia, in my short story.  Find her truth.  Once I know it, I'll be able to deliver her with more depth and vibrancy than I did in the original draft.  And I think that if Young had been bold enough to explore all of Mack's truths, I would have enjoyed The Shack much more than I did.


So what about you?  What kind of reader are you?  Do you question more often than embrace the characters you read?
                                    

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Reading Goals, Evaluated

Artwork by rogerandmore@deviantart.com

With only nine days left in the year, it's time to make a realistic evaluation of my 2010 reading goal.  I made a valiant effort, but I won't have reached it.  In all fairness, the goal I set -- to read 50 books in 52 weeks -- was arbitrary, because I had no idea how many books I generally average reading in a year, nor did I know how many I could read.  Some bloggers were signing on to the 100 Books in a Year challenge back in January, and I knew that was too lofty a goal for me.  So I set my mark at half that.  The goal definitely kept my reading momentum high all year.  Here's what I did read:

1. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - by Stieg Larsson (2005, Norstedts Forlag [Swedish] -- ISBN 978-1847242532) Read my discussion here.
2. The Almost Moon -- by Alice Sebold (2007, Little, Brown and Company -- ISBN 0316677469)Read my review here.
3. The Hunger Games - by Suzanne Collins (2008, Scholastic Press -- ISBN-13: 978-0-436-02348-1) Read my review here.
4. The Giver - by Lois Lowry (1993, Dell Laurel-Leaf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books -- ISBN: 0-440-23768-8)
5. Among the Hidden - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2000, Aladdin Paperbacks -- ISBN-13: 9780689824753)
6. Hush Hush - by Becca Fitzpatrick (2009, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9781416989417)
7. Animal Farm - by George Orwell (copyright 1945, Current Pub. Date 1996, Penguin Group (USA) -- ISBN-13: 9780451526342)
8. The Shack - by William P. Young (2008, windblown Media -- ISBN-13: 9780964729230)
9. A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, and The Thanksgiving Visitor - by Truman Capote (copyrights in order the short stories are listed here: 1956/1984 by Capote; 1982/1983, by Capote; 1967 by Capote, renewed 1995 by Alan U. Schwartz, Current Pub. Date 1996, Modern Library Edition, Random House, Inc. -- ISBN-0-679-60237-2)
10. Sula - by Toni Morrison (copyright 1973; Reprint Pub. Date 2004, Knopf Doubleday Publishing, ISBN-13: 9781400033430)
11. The Pearl - by John Steinbeck (copyright 1947, Reprint Pub. Date 2002, Penguin Group (USA), ISBN-13: 9780142000694)
12. Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Novel & Three Stories (Modern Library Series) - by Truman Capote (Original copyright 1958; Current Pub. Date January 1994, Random House Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780679600855)
13. Pickles to Pittsburgh - by Judy Barrett (1997; Simon & Schuster Children's --ISBN-13: 9780689801044)
14. Charming Billy - by Alice McDermott (2009; Picador USA -- ISBN-13: 9780312429423)
15. Catching Fire - by Suzanne Collins (2009; Scholastic, Inc. -- ISBN-13: 9780439023498)
16. And Murder for Dessert - by Kathleen Delaney (2009; Poisoned Pen Press -- ISBN-13: 9781615950416)
17. Among the Imposters - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2002; Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780689839085)
18. Among the Betrayed - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2003; Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780689839092)
19. Among the Barons - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2004, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780689839108)
20. Among the Brave - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2005, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780689857959)
21. Among the Enemy - by Margaret Peterson Haddix
22. Among the Brave - by Margaret Peterson Haddix
23. The Town That Forgot How To Breathe - by Kenneth J. Harvey
24. The Mistress - by Philippe Tapon
25. Mockingjay - by Suzanne Collins
26. Paranormalcy - by Kiersten White
27. Devil Bones - by Kathy Reichs
28. Fallen Knight - by DL Hammon
29. Enzo's Mamma - by Wendy Ramer
30. On Writing - by Stephen King
31. Housekeeping - by Marilynne Robinson

And, I'm in the final chapters of book #32, Nightshade City by Hilary Wagner.

Fun stats from my 2010 Reading Challenge:

Novels read in my genre (literary fiction) = 9
Books by debut novelists read = 6
YA novels (I never read this genre before 2010) = 5
MG novels (I never read this genre as an adult) = 9
Novels read that are over thirty years old =  5
Books I read that I would recommend to friends = 23
Books I read that I would have quit reading if I weren't so stubborn = 3

I'm definitely planning to challenge myself with reading goals in 2011.  What those will be, I haven't decided.  I may set a more reasonable number so that I don't feel like I'm rushing through each selection.  Perhaps I'll add reviewing to my goal sheet.

One thing's for sure:  I still have a stack of To-Read books on my nightstand, to kick off the new year!

Do you set reading goals for yourself?  And Must-Read recommendations for me?


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Above Average, baby!


The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. 


What about you?


[This post is actually a tag I received on FaceBook.  If you'd like to play along and share your own list, you'll find full instructions here:

My FaceBook Note  (<-- I have this set for "everyone" to view, but if you aren't yet my Facebook friend, I'd love to connect over there.  Just send me a request and I'll happily add you!)


Here's the BBC's list.  All titles in boldface are ones I HAVE READ, and all titles in italics are ones I HAVE READ PART OF BUT NEVER FINISHED or READ AN EXCERPT:

1.  Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
 2.  The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
 3.  Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
 4.  Harry Potter series - JK Rowling   
 5.  To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
 6.  The Bible  
 7.  Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
 8.  Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
 9.  His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare 
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
 30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma -Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville 
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Inferno - Dante 
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguri
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


So I've read 36 out of the 100 books, and read some of 4 more.  Chew on that, BBC! LOL.


I'm packing today for our flight tonight to The Big Apple.  Thanksgiving in NYC, baby!  I hope those of  you who celebrate it have a blessed holiday and that everyone has a fantastic week!





Friday, May 14, 2010

Why did you like THAT horrible book?

I've been reading book reviews on Amazon.com this morning.  Websites that encourage feedback from its client readers provide, in theory, a wonderful service to consumers.  After all, there are millions of titles out there to choose from, so hearing what others who have experienced a story first hand have to say may help you narrow your selection of potential buys.  But the sites offer more insight than that, especially to other writers.

We all know writers know the importance of genre in marketing their work and identifying with a their target audience.  But readers don't.

Before I was a writer, I read what my friends recommended were "awesome" books.  I had friends who were active in their churches and friends who were Goth.  Tattooed, pierced friends and friends who competed in beauty pageants.  Athletes and Dead Heads...and althletes who followed the Dead.  Clearly, their taste in books was as diverse as the people I hung out with.  I wound up reading across genres and sat in with various target audiences.  Reading the reviews on Amazon, it's clear to me others do the same.

Consider these stats:

New Moon, Stephanie Meyer's second book of the Twilight saga sensation, received 2,232 Amazon reviews that break down like  this:

 (1,394)
 (388)
 (191)
 (123)
 (136)





If 3 stars represents "average," then 450 people, or roughly 20% thought the book was average or below average.


One of my all-time favorite books, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte has received 888 Amazon reviews

 (613)
 (147)
 (44)
 (28)
 (56)





56 people thought Jane Eyre deserved a 1-star rating!


The Stand, by Stephen King.  Its complete, uncut version received 1,018 customer reviews on Amazon:

 (779)
 (98)
 (63)
 (37)
 (41)





141 readers out of 779 thought The Stand was just "eh."


Just for fun, I checked out The Holy Bible.  I won't post those results here, since many of the comments  argued over religious tenets or over translation of certain versions, but I still found it hilarious that The Bible received negative customer reviews.

It does make my point, though.  Not everyone will fit into one writer's target audience.  As writers, we need to keep this in mind along every step of our journeys.  Negative feedback in our careers is a statistical certainty.  We'll draw it when we share our work on our blogs, with crit groups, and with agents.  We'll hear it from editors and publishers.  And once our books are in print, we'll read it on Amazon, Goodreads, and anywhere else where the general public is welcome to share their opinions.


When your book is published, do you think you'll want to read the negative reviews?
Why or why not?

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

My 2010 Reading Challenge

I'm not sure which I began doing first, reading or writing. My love for both extends beyond my earliest memories. Especially during my tween and teen years -- when life was hard enough for an average girl without the extra burden of abuse thrown into the cruel mix -- I retreated to the safe and magical worlds of books. Some were universes crafted by others, and some were existences of my own making, penned into journals and kept safe from oppressors' eyes. Both provided escape. Both were my salvation.

Today, I write the kinds of stories I'd enjoy reading, and when I read, I'm inspired to be a better writer. They are two sides of the same coin, really. And since I love a good challenge, I've decided to act on the inspiration drawn from other writers' blogs and give myself a reading challenge for 2010. Yes, I realize it's already February...but it's early February, and I've already completed two novels this year. So, here's what I propose:

The 100 Books in a Year challenge makes my head spin. That's two books a week! (*slowly shakes her head*) No, I don't think I should set the bar that high, not with my writing schedule and family to consider. The housework is neglected bad enough as it is! Instead, I'll shoot for half of that. 50 Books in 2010. Like the 100 Book Challenge, I'll include all genres as long as it's a book, including fiction, nonfiction, YA, how-to's, poetry collections, short story anthologies, and all the rest.

Below, I'll keep an updated list of my progress. Each time I finish a book, I'll write a review in a blog entry and link it here. And I love discussing books! I encourage any of you to let me know if you've read one of the books I did, and include in your comment whether you enjoyed it, would recommend it, and link a review, if you did one.



My List of Books Read in 2010

1. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - by Stieg Larsson (2005, Norstedts Forlag [Swedish] -- ISBN 978-1847242532) Read my discussion here.
2. The Almost Moon -- by Alice Sebold (2007, Little, Brown and Company -- ISBN 0316677469)Read my review here.
3. The Hunger Games - by Suzanne Collins (2008, Scholastic Press -- ISBN-13: 978-0-436-02348-1) Read my review here.
4. The Giver - by Lois Lowry (1993, Dell Laurel-Leaf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books -- ISBN: 0-440-23768-8)
5. Among the Hidden - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2000, Aladdin Paperbacks -- ISBN-13: 9780689824753)
6. Hush Hush - by Becca Fitzpatrick (2009, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9781416989417)
7. Animal Farm - by George Orwell (copyright 1945, Current Pub. Date 1996, Penguin Group (USA) -- ISBN-13: 9780451526342)
8. The Shack - by William P. Young (2008, windblown Media -- ISBN-13: 9780964729230)
9. A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, and The Thanksgiving Visitor - by Truman Capote (copyrights in order the short stories are listed here: 1956/1984 by Capote; 1982/1983, by Capote; 1967 by Capote, renewed 1995 by Alan U. Schwartz, Current Pub. Date 1996, Modern Library Edition, Random House, Inc. -- ISBN-0-679-60237-2)
10. Sula - by Toni Morrison (copyright 1973; Reprint Pub. Date 2004, Knopf Doubleday Publishing, ISBN-13: 9781400033430)
11. The Pearl - by John Steinbeck (copyright 1947, Reprint Pub. Date 2002, Penguin Group (USA), ISBN-13: 9780142000694)
12. Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Novel & Three Stories (Modern Library Series) - by Truman Capote (Original copyright 1958; Current Pub. Date January 1994, Random House Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780679600855)
13. Pickles to Pittsburgh - by Judy Barrett (1997; Simon & Schuster Children's --ISBN-13: 9780689801044)
14. Charming Billy - by Alice McDermott (2009; Picador USA -- ISBN-13: 9780312429423)
15. Catching Fire - by Suzanne Collins (2009; Scholastic, Inc. -- ISBN-13: 9780439023498)
16. And Murder for Dessert - by Kathleen Delaney (2009; Poisoned Pen Press -- ISBN-13: 9781615950416)
17. Among the Imposters - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2002; Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780689839085)
18. Among the Betrayed - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2003; Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780689839092)
19. Among the Barons - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2004, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780689839108)
20. Among the Brave - by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2005, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing -- ISBN-13: 9780689857959)
21. Among the Enemy - by Margaret Peterson Haddix
22. Among the Brave - by Margaret Peterson Haddix
23. The Town That Forgot How To Breathe - by Kenneth J. Harvey
24. The Mistress - by Philippe Tapon
25. Mockingjay - by Suzanne Collins
26. Paranormalcy - by Kiersten White
27. Devil Bones - by Kathy Reichs
28. Fallen Knight - by DL Hammon
29. Enzo's Mamma - by Wendy Ramer
30. On Writing - by Stephen King
31. Housekeeping - by Marilynne Robinson
32. Nightshade City - by Hilary Wagner