As you may or may not know, I'm an avid reader. I read near everything that falls into my hands and then I review it over in my book journal
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Here, here! I agree. This is not to say that all of fanfic is made of diamonds. Obviously not. But compare the best of it (and in the fandoms I enjoy that's a nice catalog of fic) to what is being sold in stores right now in the romance, crime, mystery, thriller, horror genres (I'm talking mass market paperbacks--as that seems to be the best parallel to what we read--escapist stuff) and it holds up well
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I, too, was referring to the average mass market paperbacks - and not even all those ''exceptional woman (may or may not be part superhuman creature) has vampire fall in love with her''-books that are popping up all over the place lately. I don't dare go near them ;)
So sure, I agree that not all fanfiction is great - definitely not, I'd be easily able to name a few horrendous examples, but I think it's also a lot better than many people give it credit for. Or, differently put, perhaps mass market books are getting worse? Or I've read too much and have become snobby ;)Thanks for the recs! Funny coincidence is that I was actually thinking of Debbie as an example for great fandom-writers when I wrote the post. Her Big Bang story for instance can easily stand the comparison to many books currently on the market and, truthfully, it surpasses them even. In fact, now that I've become more critical of fanfiction and the structure it uses etc., I notice these sort of things in books, too and I guess that's why it occurred to me that the
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Since I've been into fanfiction and fandom I've found myself very critical of the books I read, very critical of the ones I like even.Exactly! This is precisely what happened to me! I've been reading an installment of a book series I've enjoyed for years and found myself thinking that the story flow could be improved and really, why isn't there anything happening in 100+ pages? And that's basically the moment I woke up so to speak and realized I read the book with the perspective of a fanfiction-reader. - and that's when I realized just how much outstandingly great fanfiction is out there (in the wilderness of the internet) and how spoiled I've become. In the light of recent bashing of fanfiction I simply felt that I couldn't remain quiet any longer
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I am also an avid reader, but I do think that the fanfic I've read isn't as high quality as the books. Mostly because the books cost money and so I choose them very carefully, whereas I skim a lot of fanfic while looking for something good to read. But there are indeed many, many fanfic authors who easily compete with published authors, definitely.
Of course, recently I've been reading mostly nonfiction, which makes it hard to compare to fanfic anyway.
Gen, gen... I assume you've read kroki_refur's stuff? Otherwise, sifting through the past big bangs is always a good bet.
First of all, thanks for the rec and I sure have been sifting through the Big Bangs (though people definitely need to write more gen ;)).
Picking your books carefully, of course does have a great effect, you're definitely right there. Unfortunately, I'm the sort of person who reads so much that I can't afford buying new books too often, so I often get my ''supply'' from the bargain bin at book shops. There, I tend to pick whatever seems to have an interesting summary and, stubborn person that I am, I later on read everything I buy. Perhaps I should get pickier with my books, too.
May I ask what sort of books you like to read? I'm just curious.
Well, lately I've been reading mostly nonfiction, specifically stuff about diseases and epidemics. My major is basically Microbiology, I want to be an epidemiologist or something similar, and that type of stuff fascinates me. The last few books I've read (summer is great for readin!) have been a book about a cholera outbreak in 1850s London, a book about the invention of Sulfa drugs, and a book about bubonic plague in the Byzantine empire. Right now I'm reading a book about the discovery of a toxic dinoflagellate in North Carolina... Not stuff that most people would probably pick up as light reading
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i'm going to do a no-no for me, and recommend my own stuff, over at trys_writer. the first post is an index - my Timeshifter series is all gen, as are most of the fics in the top part of the Supernatural section. the Maya'verse is most definitely het once you get to fic #3.
as for novels and fanfic? since i like just about every thing i read, i'm not really a good one to compare. the novels i read are good... what little fic i DO read, is good. =)
Oh, reccing yourself is fine with me. A little het doesn't go amiss either. In fact, these past years we've been getting a few very strong ladies in the SPN-fandom (i.e. I love the way Jo evolved), so I'm actually even a little surprised to find so little het fiction.
it's just that (a million) years ago (in college) i would have an article come out in the campus paper and go around asking everyone to read it, and all i got were "uh....okay." until i didn't say anything about it one time... and everyone told me they read it. so i don't usually like to toot my own horn.
as for why is there so little het? i've asked myself that since about December 2005, when i really got into the fandom and the fic and asked in a comm somewhere "what's with all the slash?" someone answered me with "don't you want to see two hot guys getting it on?"
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So sure, I agree that not all fanfiction is great - definitely not, I'd be easily able to name a few horrendous examples, but I think it's also a lot better than many people give it credit for. Or, differently put, perhaps mass market books are getting worse? Or I've read too much and have become snobby ;)Thanks for the recs! Funny coincidence is that I was actually thinking of Debbie as an example for great fandom-writers when I wrote the post. Her Big Bang story for instance can easily stand the comparison to many books currently on the market and, truthfully, it surpasses them even. In fact, now that I've become more critical of fanfiction and the structure it uses etc., I notice these sort of things in books, too and I guess that's why it occurred to me that the ( ... )
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Of course, recently I've been reading mostly nonfiction, which makes it hard to compare to fanfic anyway.
Gen, gen... I assume you've read kroki_refur's stuff? Otherwise, sifting through the past big bangs is always a good bet.
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Picking your books carefully, of course does have a great effect, you're definitely right there. Unfortunately, I'm the sort of person who reads so much that I can't afford buying new books too often, so I often get my ''supply'' from the bargain bin at book shops. There, I tend to pick whatever seems to have an interesting summary and, stubborn person that I am, I later on read everything I buy. Perhaps I should get pickier with my books, too.
May I ask what sort of books you like to read? I'm just curious.
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as for novels and fanfic? since i like just about every thing i read, i'm not really a good one to compare. the novels i read are good... what little fic i DO read, is good. =)
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Thanks for the rec! :)
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it's just that (a million) years ago (in college) i would have an article come out in the campus paper and go around asking everyone to read it, and all i got were "uh....okay." until i didn't say anything about it one time... and everyone told me they read it. so i don't usually like to toot my own horn.
as for why is there so little het? i've asked myself that since about December 2005, when i really got into the fandom and the fic and asked in a comm somewhere "what's with all the slash?" someone answered me with "don't you want to see two hot guys getting it on?"
uh... no, no i don't.
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