RARA-AVIS: Re:

From: Rick Robinson ( rkr@pacbell.net)
Date: 25 Jan 2000


Hi all. This email...

> Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 18:57:26 -0000
> From: "cooper" < jane@almaludo.freeserve.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: RARA-AVIS; Whassis like then? and "I Hate That Book"
>> Do you keep on reading an author you hated at first in hope you will
>> eventually love him/her? How many of these books will you read until you
>> decide you really hate the author?
>
> In short, No. I decided long ago that life is too short to waste on books
> that I don't like. If someone whose opinion I respect suggests I give a
> book/author another go I may if I'm in a good mood(or have run out of books)
> but generally first para, then page then chapter, then Good Night Vienna.
> Regards
> Jane

... got me to thinking the situation described is turned around. I can't imagine continuing to read a series (or string of stand-alones) hoping I'll come to like the author. Not likely! I'm a 40-page-and-out guy myself. As someone here said, too many books to fool with something I'm not enjoying reading. There have been times when someone has convinced me that a later book by an author is so good I ought to him that author second chance, but I can count those instances on a hand and have the thumb free.

No, what happens much more often is reading an author and the series starts to go downhill after a number of books. In that case, if I was buying in hardcover I switch to paperback, then if things don't get nay better I stop buying. With me it happened this way with Robert B. Parker, Sue Grafton, Laurance Sanders and others. When a series goes downhill like this (I call it "series fatigue") I don't see any reason to keep reading. I can tell when I'm worn out on an author when, rather than enjoying the book in hand, I'm looking longingly at something in the TBR pile...

--
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 25 Jan 2000 EST