Interlude and questions..

Ghostcrawler

Expert Driver
Mei Lan said something in a recent post along the lines of being "tired of badly written (fiction)". It is something that has come to irk me recently with all these new authors, and I use that term loosely in some respects, who've appeared and use tiny publishing groups to promote their works on Amazon (and Goodreads), and mainly deal in ebooks. Their main tell is the latching onto current story themes and running them into the ground. The insistence that everything needs to be broken up into series. And the final straw being that these folks, who are barely capable of stringing enough sentences together to form a paragraph and repeating the feat, cannot actually tell a decent story to save their lives.

And my real main gripes are from the results of this phenomenon. I believe that it has really pushed the entire "reading" market to down to lows and feels like a implementation of "no book left behind". The bigger publishers have been grabbing up the most competent of these folks and promoting their work, and while it may be better than most, it's still atrocious to read, and has diluted the market to such that it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. And the secondary effect from that is that other readers lash out at the reviews that fail to praise these abominations, upon which the IMDB effect occurs, which is fans of the fiction will highly rate everything they like, then make it a mission to engage in trying to bury and discredit other reviewers for not feeling the same, so the entire review system leans heavily towards over praise of all that is bad.

So here's my question portion:

1. If you love to read have you become to feel that looking for something "new" has become a chore?

2. Do you feel that more often that you've been disappointed in your "new" choices more often than in the past?

3. When you look for a new book do you filter down to all the lower reviews and look for a common theme, and tend to just skip the higher reviews that sing too much praise?

4. Have you stepped out of your reading comfort zone to try new things that you're unsure if you might like or do you try to persevere in finding something decent in what fits your tastes?

5. IF you find something that fits what you like, is a new author (or one you've overlooked), and it's actually decent does it feel like a victory? But then you find yourself looking for everything that author has done and binge on it?
 
So many questions, so little time ... lol

I feel the same way. I think I mentioned something similar some time ago. Since I read science fiction and fantasy primarily, I thought it might because I'm reading free or "cheap" books. I have about given up on finding an author that can write a decent story, without it turning into a 10 book series.

1. It has almost become a chore.
2. Yes, I'd say I'm disappointed about 75%+ of the time.
3. To be honest, I don't go by the reviews very often. Primarily I check out the book preview, and see if the writing style is interesting.
4. Not yet. There are so many new sci-fi/fantasy books it would be difficult to run out. And I genuinely like reading them (the good ones).
5. YES! And no. I try to keep track of the new authors that I like, and will purchase more books. But if I find the first book has been a cost teaser, and the next one is high $$, I avoid them.
 
I feel the same way! I am blown away at things like "50 Shades of Grey" and now some girl has been paid millions for her fanfic
Based on some boy band. Honestly, I think it's because society has been dumbed down so much, and we live in an age of reality TV and celebrity obsession.
 
MrsB said:
I feel the same way! I am blown away at things like "50 Shades of Grey" and now some girl has been paid millions for her fanfic
Based on some boy band. Honestly, I think it's because society has been dumbed down so much, and we live in an age of reality TV and celebrity obsession.

? ? ? I thought Fifty Shades was fanfic for that Twilight series. That is what I was told. (I would not read that crap if you paid me. :girlsaysno )
Rereading your comment I do think you are speaking of in addition to 50 Shades, sorry it was little on my phone, and I missed the words and now. :))
 
Don't even get me started. In addition to the writing that seems like it's done by 12yo silly screaming girls, I've also noticed a HORRIBLE tendency towards inconsistency...one minute a character knows about money matters at a young age, the next she doesn't; one minute a character drops off a present at a guy's apartment, the next she is surprised when he takes her to his building because she didn't know he lived in such a nice place...etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.
 
ShoeDiva said:
MrsB said:
I feel the same way! I am blown away at things like "50 Shades of Grey" and now some girl has been paid millions for her fanfic
Based on some boy band. Honestly, I think it's because society has been dumbed down so much, and we live in an age of reality TV and celebrity obsession.

? ? ? I thought Fifty Shades was fanfic for that Twilight series. That is what I was told. (I would not read that crap if you paid me. :girlsaysno )
Rereading your comment I do think you are speaking of in addition to 50 Shades, sorry it was little on my phone, and I missed the words and now. :))
Yes, that is what I meant. Lol I was distracted while typing. Haha!
 
When "50 Shades.." Came out, my kindle recommended it to me. I didn't realize what it was, but I was looking for something to read, so I tried a sample. It is so horrifically written I couldn't even get through the sample. It is actually the most terribly written thing I've ever attempted to read. Trash.
 
MrsB said:
When "50 Shades.." Came out, my kindle recommended it to me. I didn't realize what it was, but I was looking for something to read, so I tried a sample. It is so horrifically written I couldn't even get through the sample. It is actually the most terribly written thing I've ever attempted to read. Trash.

I heard of it then a few of my gf's read it. :faint When they told me what it was about and I heard how badly it was written it made me lose some hope in society when it was number one and the movie is coming out next month. Speaking of that, I saw the preview for it when I went to see Gone Girl (fantastic movie BTW, have you seen it?) and I could not believe they would make the movie or show it in a theater! :sick
 
ShoeDiva said:
MrsB said:
When "50 Shades.." Came out, my kindle recommended it to me. I didn't realize what it was, but I was looking for something to read, so I tried a sample. It is so horrifically written I couldn't even get through the sample. It is actually the most terribly written thing I've ever attempted to read. Trash.

I heard of it then a few of my gf's read it. :faint When they told me what it was about and I heard how badly it was written it made me lose some hope in society when it was number one and the movie is coming out next month. Speaking of that, I saw the preview for it when I went to see Gone Girl (fantastic movie BTW, have you seen it?) and I could not believe they would make the movie or show it in a theater! :sick
I have not seen Gone Girl yet! I really want to, though.
I haven't even seen the latest in the Hunger Games! I did take BabyB to see Big Hero 6 and it was really good! Lol

I didn't know what "50 Shades" was actually about until it started getting a lot of press. I never got far enough to even find out. And seriously I can't believe its coming out either! Trash!
 
MrsB said:
When "50 Shades.." Came out, my kindle recommended it to me. I didn't realize what it was, but I was looking for something to read, so I tried a sample. It is so horrifically written I couldn't even get through the sample. It is actually the most terribly written thing I've ever attempted to read. Trash.

Never even thought about reading it. Even if everyone said it was well written, the subject does not interest me. It's nice to know there are some bad writers out there who end up making loads of money off their work, but it's just the same as finding a job. Knowing the right people and being in the right place at the right time. OR, the entire success is fabricated from the start :dunno
 
ShoeDiva said:
MrsB said:
When "50 Shades.." Came out, my kindle recommended it to me. I didn't realize what it was, but I was looking for something to read, so I tried a sample. It is so horrifically written I couldn't even get through the sample. It is actually the most terribly written thing I've ever attempted to read. Trash.

I heard of it then a few of my gf's read it. :faint When they told me what it was about and I heard how badly it was written it made me lose some hope in society when it was number one and the movie is coming out next month. Speaking of that, I saw the preview for it when I went to see Gone Girl (fantastic movie BTW, have you seen it?) and I could not believe they would make the movie or show it in a theater! :sick

Agree with you both. Geez Louise...
 
1. If you love to read have you become to feel that looking for something "new" has become a chore?

Not really, I always seem to find something interesting.

2. Do you feel that more often that you've been disappointed in your "new" choices more often than in the past?

I mostly read non fiction... with fiction my favorite authors have sway... but I always try to look for tried and true newcomers.

3. When you look for a new book do you filter down to all the lower reviews and look for a common theme, and tend to just skip the higher reviews that sing too much praise?

Some reviews are convincing and some are not.

4. Have you stepped out of your reading comfort zone to try new things that you're unsure if you might like or do you try to persevere in finding something decent in what fits your tastes?

I've been reading a lot more fiction this past year and have discovered a few new authors I like... Stephen King has been putting out his best stuff ever these past few years.

5. IF you find something that fits what you like, is a new author (or one you've overlooked), and it's actually decent does it feel like a victory? But then you find yourself looking for everything that author has done and binge on it?

I LOVE a good book... I tend to savor every word and never want the story to end.


:thumbsup
 
Grey Colson said:
MrsB said:
When "50 Shades.." Came out, my kindle recommended it to me. I didn't realize what it was, but I was looking for something to read, so I tried a sample. It is so horrifically written I couldn't even get through the sample. It is actually the most terribly written thing I've ever attempted to read. Trash.

Never even thought about reading it. Even if everyone said it was well written, the subject does not interest me. It's nice to know there are some bad writers out there who end up making loads of money off their work, but it's just the same as finding a job. Knowing the right people and being in the right place at the right time. OR, the entire success is fabricated from the start :dunno
Lol Trust me, if I'd realized what it was about I wouldn't have even tried to read it. It was when it first came out and I had
Never heard of it or its material. It was just so poorly written I couldn't even finish the sample. LOL

There is one author I like who started out self publishing through AMAZON. She's not the greatest with writing, word wise, but I enjoy her stories. She has gotten rather popular and I think she may have been picked up by an actual publishing house. Her name is T.R. Ragan.

Grey, when is your book coming out in print? I am waiting for it so I can buy it and have it signed!
 
I used to read quite a bit, but now I get most of my books in audiobook form. I can do many other things while listening to a book, such as yard work, drive, woodworking, etc.

I imagine not much poorly written things make it to audiobook, but I did start 50 Shades before I knew what it was about. I don't quit listening to many books, but that one was so bad I quit before I got to what I found out later was considered the 'good' parts.

I've always had a hard time reading books that used a lot of made up words and names. The Hobbit being one example. I find these to be rather enjoyable to listen to.
 
Back
Top