Re: RARA-AVIS: SMALL CRIMES AND DRAGON TATTOO

From: Sean Shapiro (ssshapir@yahoo.com)
Date: 20 Nov 2008

  • Next message: Allan Guthrie: "Re: RARA-AVIS: SMALL CRIMES AND DRAGON TATTOO"

    Out of interest -- What are the points on the 'reluctant reader' checklist? You don't have to list them all, just a general idea will do. If you don't mind that is.

    Could be a useful tool even with eager readers, no?

    Thanks in advance.

    Sean Shapiro

    ________________________________ From: Allan Guthrie <allan@allanguthrie.co.uk> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:15:12 AM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: SMALL CRIMES AND DRAGON TATTOO

    There are thousands of people who find that shoddy prose gets in the way of a good story -- me being one of them -- but there are clearly millions for whom it's of no consequence. What's also interesting about Patterson's style
    (shoddiness aside) is that it looks to me as if he writes (or perhaps it's more accurate to say that he edits) for struggling readers without explicitly saying so. In other words, if you have a reading age of only a ten-year-old, you'll most likely get through a Patterson novel pretty easily. And given the extraordinary number of adults who have very poor literacy skills these days, that gives him a potential readership that most crime writers don't have. That's just an observation, though. I've no evidence to back that up. Although he does tick most of the boxes on the
    'reluctant reader' checklist I was given by a publisher when I was commissioned to write a novella for adults with a reading age of eight or above.

    Al

    ----- Original Message ----- From: "jacquesdebierue" <jacquesdebierue@ yahoo.com>
    > Thanks, this is an eye-opener for me... for some reason unrelated to
    > his bestsellerdom, I've never felt tempted to pick up one of his
    > books, which are everywhere (though I had no idea that he sold so much).
    >
    > Best,
    >
    > mrt

        

          

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