Old Books, New Readers discussion

My daughter and I were discussing books the other day, well, like any other day,lol. It came out that while I like sci-fi, I especially like first contact themes and time travel. She said that she really liked a book with lots of irony and wordplay. Both of us felt that good humor was essential in some way shape or form, and that we didn't like books that avoided it because it was considered 'low brow'.
What are some of the themes or aspects you especially like within genres? What do you think about humor and its place in writing?

I love witty people in books personally. In any gerner of books. In the "Game of Thrones" series there is a man called Tyrion who is so funny. Everything that comes out of his mouth makes me laugh so hard, he is so clever. I wish more people could write clever charters but it is hard I understand. I never could.

I really like dragons. But my type of dragon is clever, cold blooded, frineds with only one person and blue. A lot like Saphira in Eragon. I don't like it when they are all so meak that can't kill anything or when that are mute.

(By the by is you like sci-fi and humor you might want to try "Night Train to Rigel" by Timothy Zahn. I love that book!)

not really sure. I haven't really read any books with stand-out humor in it. Occaisionally I'll come across a funny quote but overall it's not a priority in my reading.

I like it when the main character is open-minded, objective, and strong-willed; especially in female characters. Which is why I love Jane Eyre and the Host. Two completely different stories but they both have strong heroines.
I prefer fantasy and historical fiction. I don't like realistic novels that take place in modern times. When I read I want to escape reality.
The only realistic novels I've read and like were Into the Wild and A Child Called 'It'.

Don't know if I have anything of real value to contribute. I adore the earthy humour of Tom Sharpe ('Porterhouse Blue' etc.) mainly because of his very quirky take on life. The skill to exploit a contrived situation is a great one - I wish I had it. Most books need a little light relief, I think, which is my big gripe with Thomas Hardy - he's so determinedly dismal.

Genre? Any, if the characters within it come through to me. I can't stand novels where the writer spends all his/her time describing the world inside his/her head and then populates it with cardboard cut-outs.

I always include some humor in my work. It is not possible, I think, to write a work that is solidly Grimth from beginning to end. Somebody is sure to joke around or see the ridiculous side of whatever is going on; this role is traditionally allotted to Hobbits (in Tolkien) or peasantry (in Sahkespeare). I don't like heroes who take themselves too seriously.

Jada wrote: "not really sure. I haven't really read any books with stand-out humor in it. Occaisionally I'll come across a funny quote but overall it's not a priority in my reading.

I like it when the main cha..."

I have to disagree with you. There are few things more irritating in my reading than a female as the main charter. Some I really do like, such as Jane Eyre and the Jane Austen novels, but anything written after 1950's with a female main charter annoys me beyond words. When reading the back of th ebook if it is about a girl I immediately put it back down.

I agree with you though Frederick, I cannot stand it when a charter is not "3D" so to speak.

Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Jada wrote: "not really sure. I haven't really read any books with stand-out humor in it. Occaisionally I'll come across a funny quote but overall it's not a priority in my reading.

I like it when..."

that's why I want them to have those attributes: open-minded, objective, and strong-willed. Besides it's harder for me to connect to the male's perspective sometimes. When the female is the main character it's almost like I'm in the story.

I have a really hard time seeing it from the womans point of view actually. They are always so sure they are right and really don't care what they are doing to other people as long as they get what they want. Not to say men charters are not like that either, just it seems more pronouced in the women charters.

This is wierd! I didn't think I'd have much to contribute to this thread, but I find I am. I greatly prefer writing women to men; even, unashamedly, in the first person. Women are so much more complex and interesting than men and, this is the point, so much stronger! Cara is one of my most intriguing characters and I would write her into every plot I had, if I could.

Whether a woman is leading the story or not, for most of the time she is influencing it. Hard to get away from whether you want to or not, I find.

That is funny! My muse defaults to writing from the POV of men, always. I have to make a conscious decision to write a female protagonist.
I theorize that, being female, I understand women. Whereas men are the alien. So fascinatingly weird -- you can never get to the bottom of their peculiar thought processes. (Think NASCAR. Or their fascination with boobs.) And SF writers just adore writing about aliens.

Hay Nascar is awesome! (Sorry southern side coming out there :D)

I write from both POV's but I always have more fun with Mmen. Maybe Brenda is right and it is the fact I amnot one. But I have always thought I understand men better than women and so I feel like I know my charter's better if they are men.

Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "I have a really hard time seeing it from the womans point of view actually. They are always so sure they are right and really don't care what they are doing to other people as long as they get what..."

I think it really depends on the author. I get what you're saying. I haven't really read enough books in the male's perspective to know which one I prefer.

Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Hay Nascar is awesome! (Sorry southern side coming out there :D)

I write from both POV's but I always have more fun with Mmen. Maybe Brenda is right and it is the fact I amnot one. But I have alwa..."

I don't think I understand either genders lol. I can only hope to understand myself.

Jada wrote: "Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Hay Nascar is awesome! (Sorry southern side coming out there :D)

I write from both POV's but I always have more fun with Mmen. Maybe Brenda is right and it is the f..."

Hahaha that is always a good start :D I have yet to do the same.

Men are dreamers, women are schemers?

Hee hee! And what would get done around here without some essential scheming?? ;)
The woman character idea really struck me- I avoid modern writing with strong female characters as well. I find they are so aggressive rather than strong. I write as well, and I went for the female main character, but she's nothing like the standard modern strong female who obviously knows her own mind at all times and has to get everyone else lined up.
Gee, that sounds like a sheepdog. Maybe that's why I don't like many female characters.
Come to think of it, a male character who always knows what he wants and pushes through the story with a one track mind- that seems one faceted to me as well. I don't mean the focus of a character who knows that something needs done and stays determined, but some lesser version of that.

When you come to think of it, most people, regardless of gender, go through life being pinched and punched, pushed hither and thither. I warm to resilience and genuine eccentricity, the superficial confidence wrapped around a trembling heart, together with the essential thread of steel which keeps it beating. Inner strength is why I like writing women, I think.

Gee, that was beautiful. And inspiring to this writer, as well.

I always make my male characters struggle with their women. They -want- to understand, and I load them with difficulties.

Brenda wrote: "I always make my male characters struggle with their women. They -want- to understand, and I load them with difficulties."

haha that's funny. sounds like reality. :)

It is fun since (as a female) I know exactly where they're running off the rails, poor things. A recent favorite moment was when the British time traveler meets his (female) MD and blurts, "But women can't be doctors, they don't have the intellect!"

HAHAHA!!! Did you write that?

That is a fun line! It gave me pause for thought- in time travel, different cultures are running into each other. This may be just a variation of the theme of first contact. Or, could first contact be boiled down even more?

But of course. It is in REVISE THE WORLD, an ebook. Titus Oates, famous Antarctic explorer, is zapped from 1912 to, oh, somewhere on about 2050. Hijinks ensue. A lot of fun having the poor man see women in jogging shorts for the first time.

Brenda wrote: "But of course. It is in REVISE THE WORLD, an ebook. Titus Oates, famous Antarctic explorer, is zapped from 1912 to, oh, somewhere on about 2050. Hijinks ensue. A lot of fun having the poor man ..."

wow I want to read that. Sounds really cool.

Well, here are the first couple chapters, for free:
http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/sam...

I like writing female main characters more than males, though my reading is not affected by the gender of the main character. If it's a good book and a good cast of main characters, than it just is. I don't think gender should be a huge factor. But my main character in the series I'm writing is a teenage girl, and I completely enjoy writing her. I like having her be strong and clever and stepping right up there with the men she's with. And I like proving to readers and to the other characters that she is just as capable as all of the men who might feel like they could take her place.

As for humor in writing, I almost always think it's necessary. i understand that it may not have much of a place in some books, but I like my reading to be broken up by humor, even if it's only a little bit. For example, I just read the Fault in Our Stars (which will now forever be one of my favorites) and despite the fact that the plot and the situation of the characters couldn't be more serious, they were still witty and wonderful and I laughed as much as I teared up. I think if the humor had been removed it would have been completely detrimental to the novel.