This is one of those "Or is it just me?" discussions ( Read more... )

Pretty much what it says up there.

What are the elements of a good resolution for you? Does it depend on genre, or are there some expectations beyond genre, that you expect of any novel?

Besides talking about books and reading and why people read, I love talking about how people read. Two people can read the same book and not only have widely diverging opinions about it, but will describe it in such a way that you're not sure that they are describing the same book.

rushthatspeaks posted about perceived structure in such a way that I, with my ( Read more... )

Today's riff is about Storytellers vs Writers within the context of popularity ( Read more... )

Are you a weenie-reader, too?

Looking at different kinds of readers, and a little bit at why we read.

This Sunday's BVC blog takes some thoughts I had last year, and carries them on a step.

The vexing dilemma of defining a good book is the topic today over at BVC. I keep those short, so I don't go too much into the interlocking demilitarized zones of conflicting definitions caused by what others expect in a good book, though I hope anyone inclined will respond. I just stick to my own general perception of how a good book works on most ( Read more... )

This came to mind recently when some people were talking about the Percy Jackson books. (I haven't seen the movie.) When the first one came out I read it. I thought, this writer knows junior high. Turned out I was right--the author has been a sixth grade teacher for a long time, what's more, he'd aimed the story to engage his own kid, who has some ( Read more... )

My one brief appearance in Nebula waters was with this story, which went on to be anthologized a few times ( Read more... )

A writer friend over at SFF.NET linked to this crack-up of a bogus book report on a much-assigned book now lauded as a classic.

While I was watching and laughing, I was also thinking about questions like, what makes a book become a "classic"? When I was a kid in the sixties, To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't a classic yet--in fact, the librarian ( Read more... )