I kind of agree…

Posted by trav in Book Talk      No comments

Jan
19

I read some thoughts over at Reading Matters. Basically the guy goes off on Updike’s new book Terrorist. I have not read Updike’s latest, but I do have to nod in agreement to his general view of the books big houses are cranking out these days.

I am in no way a “serious lit” reader. I wish I could get into a lot of the classics and put forth  thoughts on liteary theory. But all that takes the fun out of books, for me. I like a good read. Period. That means good writing too.

I give every novel 100 pages before I give up…

Right now I’m 1/3 of the way through The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. I had wanted to read this since Penguin offered the serials “over the pond”. I wasn’t able to get in on that, but it was a great marketing gimmick, because it whet my appetite. I mean, I wanted these BAD! It’s such a big book, it would have been ideal to read it in this manner. Oh well.
But now I have the book and have met all of the characters and it just seems ho-hum. I mean it’s just straight-forward, overly detailed and long. Too long to be this transparent. But the plot has some opportunities for some cool twists. So I’m hoping for one. But if nothing happens soon I may have to give up.

It just seems as if all of these books are written with a “lowest common denominator”  idea. It’s too widespread to be an accident too.I can just see some editors huddled together trying to make a book “more accessible”.

So maybe it’s not all the authors’ fault.

And this concludes my first rant of 2007.