For a lot of years, I couldn’t bring myself to quit a book I’d
started until I’d read the words “The End”. My inability to set an
unfinished book aside worked out just fine for the most part, resulting in many hours of satisfying entertainment. There were, of course, those times when the
genre wasn’t my favorite, or the story was okay, just not my style. On other
occasions, however, I’d find myself gritting my teeth and asking, “How the hell
did this book ever get published?”
Trust me when I say I’ve read some really BAD books from
cover to cover. I’m talking major stinkers that left me groaning and thinking,
surely, I could come up with a more believable plot line and dialog that wouldn’t
make readers cringe in embarrassment for the author. The excruciating hours I
spent working my way through those books are partially responsible for my
decision to finally do something with my writing compulsion.
But, I digress…
The birth of my boys changed me from a finisher to a
flinger and I became very selective when choosing my next escape. With my personal entertainment window shrunk to stolen minutes and nap schedules, I no longer had the time to put up with stories that didn’t hold my
rapt attention. I knew firsthand that judging a book by its cover is
fraught with peril, which left the blurb. The trouble with that selection process is, an interesting
blurb doesn’t always translate into a well-written story, nor does it always
give an accurate representation of an author’s voice. But hey, I can’t come
down hard on an author for a murky blurb. As someone who’s had to produce a
number of them, I can honestly say that whittling a 100k story down to 500
words is a real bitch.
But that’s a whole other story…
Bottom line, the only sure-fire way to know if a story is any
good is to dive in and read. Then, if the story isn’t for you, go ahead and
fling. Life is short, after all. On the other hand, don’t be too quick to break up with that book. You
never know when you’ll stumble onto a little gem that starts out iffy only to
end up an all-time favorite.
This book introduced me to one of my favorite authors. If
you haven’t sampled Johanna, I highly recommend her. Years later, many of her
titles, including the entire Ly-San-Ter series, hold a treasured place on my
re-read shelf.
So, what about you? Are you one of those people who can
fling a book to the side midway through the reading because it just isn’t
working for you? Or are you the type who must always finish what you’ve
started?
When Mac isn’t bashing
her head against her keyboard as she struggles to write the blurb for her latest
release, she’s busy weaving happily-ever-afters for her characters, like the
heroes and heroines of her PLAYERS series available at Kensington Publishing
and wherever e-books are sold.
