![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaI read bad books so that you don't have to. Seriously. That has to be the explanation for why I finish some of the books I do, books that are bad enough to make me roll my eyes or close midway through or read sections (like the one I quoted in that review) aloud to people, twice. I'm getting a bit better in putting down books that I just can't stand to read, but it feels like if a book interests me enough to pick it up and then I can, reasonably, finish it, I should, if only so that I can warn others not to bother.
Conversely, I do sometimes read great books, and after falling in love with Sharp Teeth, I wanted to put some of them out there more publicly. I've never written a list of my favorite books because I don't know where I'd start: I read across a number of genres, and it feels weird to put urban fantasy alongside Faulkner on a great books list. But like Sharp Teeth, there are some great books that I champion because they appear to be undiscovered, and that is a list I can make no matter how disparate the books themselves may be. Hidden Gems: great books from across a number of genres that have fallen out of print or deserve wider recognition. It's my first Amazon list and quite small right now, but I'll add to it as a read more.
On that topic, do you have any favorite books that no one else seems to know about? I'm always in search of good books to read, and I'm fond of hidden favorites. If nothing else, I like for my reviews to mean something, and adding the first or eighteenth review is a bit more meaningful than the hundredth. I can influence someone to read something they might not have heard of, then even better. Anyway, I'd love suggestions.
I've probably mentioned in "random fact" memes before, but it was as clear as ever in reading The Passion: My biggest pet peeve in any story is miscommunication. In The Passion, one character learns something important and fights through hell and high water to reach another character so that she can communicate this fact to him—only to turn away at the last moment (due to an arbitrary plot device), warning unspoken, and flee. Her failure to communicate this information more than changes, it determines the rest of the plot entire. Characters go on oblivious, fall to ruin, break each other's hearts, form new relationships, and come to ends all because of one tiny piece of information that is almost spoken and then intentionally silenced.
I have no issue with a lack of communication. It is base zero, natural and uncontrived, the basis for real stories and fictional ones. But miscommunication, where the audience knows the truth, at least one character knows the truth, but by various contrivances other characters remain uninformed—not much else is so likely to make me put down a book or turn off a movie in exasperation. I believe too strongly in open, clear communication in real life. I understand that miscommunication still happens, but seeing it exaggerated and intentional just drives me up the wall. The complaint seems a bit nitpicky except that it comes up everywhere: like cliffhangers or twist endings, it's an artless but acceptable cheap trick to create conflict or demand audience interest. But because it is a cheap trick, like cliffhangers or twist endings, miscommunication is often not just a minor annoyance but also indicative or a sub-par book. In part it's a case of mutual causation (I hate miscommunication, so I dislike books that contain it), but I think it's still true: when a plot is formed by such a silly and contrived device, the story is bad; furthermore, in the case of miscommunication, the resulting dramatic irony makes for stupid characters and an impatient audience. It's just plain bad technique, and I'm sick of it.
Books aside, I am not dead by a long ways but I've only been half around LiveJournal. My attention has been spread thin... I've been playing Second Life again, after a library and bookstore(!) run have a veritable library to work through, watching hours of GTA4, going through some strange moods and another spike in back pain, surviving a heatwave, and took a trip to Ashland with my parents to see two plays. I've been reading LJ in chunks and not commenting (much). If I've missed anything important, let me know! I'm trying to cut SL back to more reasonable hours—not easy, as it does suck you in—and I have a few book and now play reviews to catch up on, so I hope I shall be around more. In short, I am moody and distracted but tolerably well, things with the boy are good, and life continues apace.
Conversely, I do sometimes read great books, and after falling in love with Sharp Teeth, I wanted to put some of them out there more publicly. I've never written a list of my favorite books because I don't know where I'd start: I read across a number of genres, and it feels weird to put urban fantasy alongside Faulkner on a great books list. But like Sharp Teeth, there are some great books that I champion because they appear to be undiscovered, and that is a list I can make no matter how disparate the books themselves may be. Hidden Gems: great books from across a number of genres that have fallen out of print or deserve wider recognition. It's my first Amazon list and quite small right now, but I'll add to it as a read more.
On that topic, do you have any favorite books that no one else seems to know about? I'm always in search of good books to read, and I'm fond of hidden favorites. If nothing else, I like for my reviews to mean something, and adding the first or eighteenth review is a bit more meaningful than the hundredth. I can influence someone to read something they might not have heard of, then even better. Anyway, I'd love suggestions.
I've probably mentioned in "random fact" memes before, but it was as clear as ever in reading The Passion: My biggest pet peeve in any story is miscommunication. In The Passion, one character learns something important and fights through hell and high water to reach another character so that she can communicate this fact to him—only to turn away at the last moment (due to an arbitrary plot device), warning unspoken, and flee. Her failure to communicate this information more than changes, it determines the rest of the plot entire. Characters go on oblivious, fall to ruin, break each other's hearts, form new relationships, and come to ends all because of one tiny piece of information that is almost spoken and then intentionally silenced.
I have no issue with a lack of communication. It is base zero, natural and uncontrived, the basis for real stories and fictional ones. But miscommunication, where the audience knows the truth, at least one character knows the truth, but by various contrivances other characters remain uninformed—not much else is so likely to make me put down a book or turn off a movie in exasperation. I believe too strongly in open, clear communication in real life. I understand that miscommunication still happens, but seeing it exaggerated and intentional just drives me up the wall. The complaint seems a bit nitpicky except that it comes up everywhere: like cliffhangers or twist endings, it's an artless but acceptable cheap trick to create conflict or demand audience interest. But because it is a cheap trick, like cliffhangers or twist endings, miscommunication is often not just a minor annoyance but also indicative or a sub-par book. In part it's a case of mutual causation (I hate miscommunication, so I dislike books that contain it), but I think it's still true: when a plot is formed by such a silly and contrived device, the story is bad; furthermore, in the case of miscommunication, the resulting dramatic irony makes for stupid characters and an impatient audience. It's just plain bad technique, and I'm sick of it.
Books aside, I am not dead by a long ways but I've only been half around LiveJournal. My attention has been spread thin... I've been playing Second Life again, after a library and bookstore(!) run have a veritable library to work through, watching hours of GTA4, going through some strange moods and another spike in back pain, surviving a heatwave, and took a trip to Ashland with my parents to see two plays. I've been reading LJ in chunks and not commenting (much). If I've missed anything important, let me know! I'm trying to cut SL back to more reasonable hours—not easy, as it does suck you in—and I have a few book and now play reviews to catch up on, so I hope I shall be around more. In short, I am moody and distracted but tolerably well, things with the boy are good, and life continues apace.
