Beem Weeks's Blog - Posts Tagged "reading"
The Written Word
The only thing good about winter is staying indoors. This gives me more time to read and write. But lately it's been more reading than actual writing.
I'm a slow writer to begin with. It's a deliberate act. Creativity should never be rushed. I am a firm believer in rewrites, rewrites, and more rewrites. Of course there are occasions when the first draft of a story nails it. But even then I comb through the piece just to be sure (and usually find things to change.)
I aim for perfection but have never even come close to achieving it. If I'm not interested in something I've written, I can't expect anybody else to give a damn about it either.
I've got several start-and-stop pieces that will never see publication. They sounded interesting when I conjured up the idea. But once on paper, well, they suck. And that's okay. Writers never bat a thousand--especially this writer. But I aim for it each time out--though never at the risk of becoming bogged down in one story. That's what makes creating something new so exciting--trial and error. The thing to remember is: Just keep writing.
I'm a slow writer to begin with. It's a deliberate act. Creativity should never be rushed. I am a firm believer in rewrites, rewrites, and more rewrites. Of course there are occasions when the first draft of a story nails it. But even then I comb through the piece just to be sure (and usually find things to change.)
I aim for perfection but have never even come close to achieving it. If I'm not interested in something I've written, I can't expect anybody else to give a damn about it either.
I've got several start-and-stop pieces that will never see publication. They sounded interesting when I conjured up the idea. But once on paper, well, they suck. And that's okay. Writers never bat a thousand--especially this writer. But I aim for it each time out--though never at the risk of becoming bogged down in one story. That's what makes creating something new so exciting--trial and error. The thing to remember is: Just keep writing.
Writing Reviews
I'm currently perusing that big box of books I've collected and read over the past twenty years or so, with the intention of reviewing them here on Goodreads.
Some are quite memorable, an easy review to post. Others, well, truth be told, I've forgotten plots, characters, or whether or not they were any good.
The cool thing is rediscovering a great read I'd let lapse from memory. In some cases it's as if I'm reading it again for the first time. I think that would be a phenomenal gift to possess: the ability to read a great novel, erase the mind, and read it again. And it would work for amazing movies as well. I'd use it for the Nicole Kidman film The Others. What a twist at the end--which is only a twist with that first viewing. If you haven't seen that film, I highly recommend it. (Yeah, it's a slow build, but the payoff at the end is worth every second invested.)
Anyway, I've read some really fantastic novels over the years--some awful ones as well. I used to order books by the bulk from a catalog some years back. The main thing I learned from that experience is that a hardcover book that sells for $1.99 is usually worth less. I didn't keep those bad ones around, so I won't be reviewing them. And that's a shame. It would have been quite fun to put the screws to truly horrible examples of writing--like the novel that began chapter one with the word "the" used no less that fifty times within the opening scene. (No joke. This scene only covered a page and a half.)
So as I continue digging out those dusty remains from decades past I'll post my recollections on my Goodreads page. Hopefully these reviews will encourage others to give a read to one or more of my favorites. Keep reading--and writing!
Some are quite memorable, an easy review to post. Others, well, truth be told, I've forgotten plots, characters, or whether or not they were any good.
The cool thing is rediscovering a great read I'd let lapse from memory. In some cases it's as if I'm reading it again for the first time. I think that would be a phenomenal gift to possess: the ability to read a great novel, erase the mind, and read it again. And it would work for amazing movies as well. I'd use it for the Nicole Kidman film The Others. What a twist at the end--which is only a twist with that first viewing. If you haven't seen that film, I highly recommend it. (Yeah, it's a slow build, but the payoff at the end is worth every second invested.)
Anyway, I've read some really fantastic novels over the years--some awful ones as well. I used to order books by the bulk from a catalog some years back. The main thing I learned from that experience is that a hardcover book that sells for $1.99 is usually worth less. I didn't keep those bad ones around, so I won't be reviewing them. And that's a shame. It would have been quite fun to put the screws to truly horrible examples of writing--like the novel that began chapter one with the word "the" used no less that fifty times within the opening scene. (No joke. This scene only covered a page and a half.)
So as I continue digging out those dusty remains from decades past I'll post my recollections on my Goodreads page. Hopefully these reviews will encourage others to give a read to one or more of my favorites. Keep reading--and writing!
Genres
Genre: (noun) a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
That's how The Oxford American College Dictionary defines the word Genre. There are dozens of genres and sub-genres in the marketplace these days. There's mainstream and indie fiction, paranormal romance, science fiction, western, historical fiction, coming-of-age, erotica, chick-lit, dude-lit, dog-lit, monkey-lit, and a hundred others! It seems new genres are coined every other week. But are so many of these labels even necessary?
Genre labels exist to point readers toward preferred story content. A person who loves being swept away by romance novels won't likely be interested in reading a work of science fiction--unless, of course, this science fiction story follows the budding love affair between a cyborg warrior princess and KITT, the car from Knight Rider. Then a new genre pops up: Mechanical Romance Fiction.
The truth of the matter is, a good story is just a good story, no matter the genre. I enjoy coming-of-age novels. I find historical fiction that's been well-researched to be quite entertaining. A Clive Barker short horror story is always a treat.
Genre tags and sub-genre labels often turn potential readers away from what just might be an amazing reading experience. Case in point: I'm not a fan of the science fiction genre. It's just not what interests me. So when I'm approached by authors asking me to read and review their work of science fiction, I usually try to find an excuse as to why I won't be able to read said book. But then I came across a copy of a novel entitled Idlewild by Nick Sagan, the son of the late Carl Sagan. I fell headlong into one of the better stories I've read in the last ten years. Now, I won't say it's in my top ten, but it certainly fits somewhere within my top thirty.
My point in this is: Forget the labels. Take a chance on something you might not normally bother reading. And for the record, I've read other science fiction novels that did little to draw me in as a fan of the genre--so don't start inundating me with requests to review this Sci-Fi story or that one.
I'm not a fan of the erotica genre, either. I don't mind sex in a well-told story, mind you; I'm just not interested in reading about it from start to finish. A story based on sex alone exposes the characters as one dimensional, the plot as weak, and the author as limited in creativity. So imagine my surprise when I was asked to read and review a story set in that particular genre, and upon finishing the book, found it to be quite entertaining, well-written, and full of imagination. The same thing happened when I decided to read and review a chick-lit book.
The moral here is: Never judge a book by its genre. How many great stories have you missed just because of a label like paranormal romance, sci-fi, or lesbian-vampire-racecar-drivers-fiction? Don't put so much stock into the ever-growing field of genre labels that you cheat yourself out of great and entertaining reads. Approach with an open mind.
That's how The Oxford American College Dictionary defines the word Genre. There are dozens of genres and sub-genres in the marketplace these days. There's mainstream and indie fiction, paranormal romance, science fiction, western, historical fiction, coming-of-age, erotica, chick-lit, dude-lit, dog-lit, monkey-lit, and a hundred others! It seems new genres are coined every other week. But are so many of these labels even necessary?
Genre labels exist to point readers toward preferred story content. A person who loves being swept away by romance novels won't likely be interested in reading a work of science fiction--unless, of course, this science fiction story follows the budding love affair between a cyborg warrior princess and KITT, the car from Knight Rider. Then a new genre pops up: Mechanical Romance Fiction.
The truth of the matter is, a good story is just a good story, no matter the genre. I enjoy coming-of-age novels. I find historical fiction that's been well-researched to be quite entertaining. A Clive Barker short horror story is always a treat.
Genre tags and sub-genre labels often turn potential readers away from what just might be an amazing reading experience. Case in point: I'm not a fan of the science fiction genre. It's just not what interests me. So when I'm approached by authors asking me to read and review their work of science fiction, I usually try to find an excuse as to why I won't be able to read said book. But then I came across a copy of a novel entitled Idlewild by Nick Sagan, the son of the late Carl Sagan. I fell headlong into one of the better stories I've read in the last ten years. Now, I won't say it's in my top ten, but it certainly fits somewhere within my top thirty.
My point in this is: Forget the labels. Take a chance on something you might not normally bother reading. And for the record, I've read other science fiction novels that did little to draw me in as a fan of the genre--so don't start inundating me with requests to review this Sci-Fi story or that one.
I'm not a fan of the erotica genre, either. I don't mind sex in a well-told story, mind you; I'm just not interested in reading about it from start to finish. A story based on sex alone exposes the characters as one dimensional, the plot as weak, and the author as limited in creativity. So imagine my surprise when I was asked to read and review a story set in that particular genre, and upon finishing the book, found it to be quite entertaining, well-written, and full of imagination. The same thing happened when I decided to read and review a chick-lit book.
The moral here is: Never judge a book by its genre. How many great stories have you missed just because of a label like paranormal romance, sci-fi, or lesbian-vampire-racecar-drivers-fiction? Don't put so much stock into the ever-growing field of genre labels that you cheat yourself out of great and entertaining reads. Approach with an open mind.
