Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Thoughts On Reading Novels



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Recently, a member of my writers group posed the following: "The question, of course, is what kind of book -- genre, characters, plot, theme -- do you genuinely like?

What do you want to read?

I responded with, "This is a question I've often asked myself but have never come up with a satisfactory answer. I'd like to think about it for a while before I post a reply."

Well... I've thought about it for a number of days and my final response, in one sentence is:

All of the books that I read and like well enough to save for re-reading contains at least two compelling characters in conflict with one another, each of them remaining consistently himself (or herself) and whose actions (always stimulated by his or her deeply held beliefs) create interesting and unexpected events written in an engaging and suspenseful manner.

And it seems that all of the novels on by bookshelf conform to that single sentence. For example: The Silence of the Lambs features FBI agent Clarice Starling (the good) and Hannibal Lecter (the questionable) in suspenseful psychological conflict along with serial killer Buffalo Bill (the bad) whose insanity provides compelling action.scenes.

Yes, I believe that my single sentence response says what I wanted it to say.

But, on second thought, who am I to judge?

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