Here’s today’s BTT topic:

I receive a lot of review books, but I have never once told lies about the book just because I got a free copy of it.  However, some authors seem to feel that if they send you a copy of their book for free, you should give it a positive review.

Do you think reviewers are obligated to put up a good review of a book, even if they don’t like it?  Have we come to a point where reviewers *need* to put up disclaimers to (hopefully) save themselves from being harassed by unhappy authors who get negative reviews?

I haven’t participated in BTT much at all lately since I tend to enjoy doing my own thing.  This subject is important, though, because one of my favorite blogging friends experienced some trouble recently when she posted a negative review of a self-published book.  The author was not happy, and slammed her with negative comments and lawsuit threats.  I’m sure nothing will come of this, but it sure did scare a few fellow book bloggers!

When I started this blog, I had no idea it would become as widely read as it is.  I started it as kind of a personal book diary, and my expectations were very low.  Almost right away, though, a couple of other newbie book bloggers discovered (and promoted) me, and as they went on to even bigger fame in our blogging community, I was able to carve out my own little niche here at “Bloody Hell.”  In just a few short weeks after establishing this site, I was contacted by a popular author to review one of his books, and there were also a few e-mails sent to me by other established writers thanking me for the positive things I had to say about their novels.  What a shocker!  Authors and agents read book blogs, and they read them more often than you or I are aware of.  I’m constantly receiving inquiries about reviewing this or that novel, and some of these inquiries are by writers I’m familiar with.  So, this is the point I’m trying to make:  even if your blog is largely unknown, you must ALWAYS be aware of your audience.  I can almost guarantee that at some point in your blogging career an author is going to read YOUR critique of his novel.  I admonish you to be very careful about what you say.

This doesn’t mean that you have to lie.  Knowing that posting negative reviews might present problems for me in the future, I developed my own simple rule about reviewing ARC’s, etc.  Here it is:

If I don’t like the copy I’m supposed to be reviewing, I’ll let the author/agent know.  There have been a couple of times where I’ve been told NOT to post a negative review.  This works out well for everyone because I don’t have to review a book I dislike, and the author’s reputation isn’t tarnished.  It’s as simple as that!  I think books that have already been published are fair game, but keep in mind that undue negativity may lead to negative consequences, even if the novel has been published for a couple of years.

Also keep in mind that you’re dealing with people’s egos, and egos are fragile.  You wouldn’t want someone to tear your work to shreds, especially not in a public forum.  If you absolutely must review a novel that you don’t like, tactfully let your readers know that it didn’t appeal to you.  Tactfully point out some of the reasons why it didn’t appeal to you.  Keep the review short and move on.  Your readers are smart people; they’ll know what you’re trying to say.  You can’t go wrong if you do this, and no disclaimers are necessary.

Here is the question–Have your book tastes changed over the years?  More fiction?  Less?  Books that are darker and more serious?  Lighter and more frivolous?  Challenging?  Easy?  How-to books over novels?  Mysteries over Romance?

And here is my answer–I think our book tastes definitely change to fit our maturity level.  They also change to fit how we perceive ourselves and the world.  We all have preferences that start early on and last throughout our lives, for instance, I’d much rather read horror than mystery, and I greatly prefer science fiction/fantasy over romance.  The thing about genre fiction is that I rarely read science fiction or horror anymore.  I read so much of it when I was younger that I think I’m pretty much burned out on it.  As it stands now, a newly published horror or s/f novel has to seem really extraordinary before I will pick it up and read it.

I’m going to approach this task chronologically, starting with adolescence, since kids books are difficult to categorize.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I started getting into coming-of-age fiction when I was in the 5^th grade, and I still enjoy a good coming-of-age tale, almost more than anything else.  I think I like these novels for several reasons:

1. I haven’t grown up yet and am still trying to “find myself” (ugh).
2. I need the emotional release that tearjerker coming-of-age novels provide.
3. They fit into my personal philosophy of life—you may have to scrabble and fight for fulfillment and freedom, but eventually your persistence will pay off.

My favorites are A Separate Peace, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and The Catcher in the Rye.  Out of these three, I’ve reread A Separate Peace the most, and the ending makes me cry every time.  There is a particular paragraph at the end of A Separate Peace that I think is one of the best paragraphs ever written in any novel.  I’m not going to say what it is, though, because I may want to post about it later!

In middle school, I got into horror in a big way, and the gorier, the better.  This makes perfect sense because puberty and all that it entails is one big horrorfest anyway.  Is there anything more terrifying than being 13 or 14 and feeling like you just slithered out of a sideshow tent?  When I was in the 8^th grade, my science teacher confiscated my copy of The Exorcist during class and wouldn’t return it. 

This made me so angry (I felt like I was possessed) that I threw a microscope into one of the lighting fixtures, shattering it.  Luckily, the microscope survived.  I think my Dad was more annoyed about the book confiscation than he was about having to pay for the fixture.  He was cool that way.  Some of my other favorite middle-school horror novels were:

In high school, I started getting into adult science fiction and fantasy big time.  I’m pretty sure this is a developmental thing.  Our brains are finally ready to assimilate some of the scientific and imaginative speculation of sci fi and fantasy.  In addition to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I had been reading off and on for years, I also got into this series:

And this series:

I think I read practically everything Orson Scott Card published, and Ender’s Game remains one of my favorite science fiction novels of all time.  Also, I was saddened to hear of Arthur C. Clarke’s death a couple of months ago, because this novel is pretty amazing, and very, very moving:

I read it in my senior year, and I still remember how it made me feel.

While I’ve kind of wandered away from genre fiction, there are some sub-genres that I continue to keep up with.  One is post-apocalyptic fiction.  Some of the best novels I’ve read in this area are:

This newer end-of-the-world series is terrific as well:

I also continue to enjoy dystopic fiction.  In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale and Never Let Me Go, this novel is quite well-written and thoughtful:

At the moment, I tend to prefer contemporary fiction, and I like the sad stuff.  It doesn’t really matter if the novel is easy or hard, as long as the prose sings to me in some way.  There are three things I look for in a novel—plot development, character development and the writing skill of the author.  If one of these elements is below par, then the novel just doesn’t cut it for me.  I’ll read anything fictional as long as it doesn’t include cruelty to animals.  I can find value in a novel filled with the most graphic sex and violence if these elements are written well and fit into the plot.  I don’t do self-help and I rarely do non-fiction.  I have decalred a moratorium on memoirs because I’m tired of trying to figure out what is real and what is “memorex.”

Well, I’ve rambled on long enough.  Leave me a comment if you so desire.  I’d love to hear what you have to say about your tastes.  I think one of the most fascinating things about blogging is learning about my fellow bloggers’ reading experiences.

• Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Hooray, an easy one!  I use zero, zip, zilch which is why my grammar is often so atrocious.  But I DON’T CARE, because it’s mine.  I own it and I’m proud of it.  I have no grammar books in my library, although I did purchase a Harbrace hybrid in college to refer to when needed.  It disappeared a long time ago.

As an undergrad Lit major, my alma mater required that we take “advanced grammar.”  It was the most difficult course I’ve ever had in college — EVER!  It was a hundred times worse than any math/science class I’ve ever taken.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if the instructor hadn’t been such a mean old biddy.  She was about a thousand years old and had a nasty temper.  She had a conniption fit one day over some pop quiz that we’d all failed and got so worked up that she started to choke and turned bright red and had to leave the room.  I think we were all secretly hoping that she’d die. 

We got a study group together because a bunch of us were all freaked out about the course.  Luckily for us, one of the members of our study group was a total genius, and she showed us how to correctly diagram sentences, and how to use her mnemonics to remember all the rules (thanks, Suzanne)!  It was our saving grace.  Doesn’t it seem funny that none of us, except Suzanne, knew how to diagram sentences?  I was never taught diagramming in school.  Were you?

I have one more admission to make before I go.  I cheated on the final.  Suze had helped me make it through the mid-term, but I had a “D” in the course, and I knew that a comprehensive final would be too much for me to handle.  I feigned illness and took the final a few days after everyone else.  I made a bunch of crib notes and took the exam seated at a desk around the corner from my grammar class.  Nobody was around, so I ended up getting a “B” on the final and a “C” in the course.

I’m not proud of this, but I kind of feel like I did the right thing.  If I had failed the course (and at my school, “D” was failing), I would’ve had to take it over again.  The same instructor would be screwing with my head because she was the only “advanced grammar” teacher on campus.  Hell, I’d probably still be there today, listening to the old biddy squawk and trying to figure out why I can’t use certain past participles in declarative sentences.

It was the only time I ever cheated in college, unless you count the times that I lied to my “man of the moment” in order to sneak around and go out with someone else.  That doesn’t count, does it? 

Here is this week’s BTT question and my response:

And then SPRING!  Hooray!  I have more energy for everything.  I read more, sleep more, eat more, and am generally a better person.  I’m very eclectic in my book choices (except for romances, eww), so I’ll read anything that catches my eye.  I have a couple of gardening books that are collecting dust because I don’t use them.  I’m not really much of a gardener.  It’s too much like work, and I don’t want to work in my spare time.

I prefer heavy hardback books year round because I like to show off what I’m reading, and that’s the best way to do it.  I’m probably the only person in the world who thinks that reading raises my coolness factor.  Big books are an ego thing for me, kind of like big trucks are penis extensions for men ( :

I go for long walks in the spring.  Right now, I’m up to about 2 miles a day and I’m going to start walking to work in May (4 miles a day), like I always do.  One thing I do start reading more of are books about local fauna, like birds and butterflies.  So far, I’ve seen the following butterflies on my walks:

 There will be more varieties as it gets warmer.  I love spring!

• 
•  When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?)
• Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?

I don’t like these questions because they make me think too much.  Thinking is bad! 

When someone mentions the word ”literature,” the first thing that pops into my head is that he/she is one of those “lit snobs” that I try to avoid whenever possible.  I mean, come on, who says “literature” anymore unless they’re middle-aged spinster high school English teachers who are so outdated that they believe in courtly romance and wear girdles to bed? 

Yes, I do think of Dickens, Tolstoy and Shakespeare when I hear the word, and I also occasionally read Dickens, Tolstoy and Shakespeare for fun, so literature doesn’t intimidate me.  It’s the classification of literature as being superior to other written works and the implications of this attitude that gets to me.

In its original form the word literature simply means a body of written work that defines a culture or a period in time.  Somewhere in our not-so-distant past, someone decided to change it a bit and throw “artistic value” into the definition.  This is quite irksome, because that’s when the judging started, and where there is judgement, there is inequality.  So we now have a bunch of novels that are considered to be “great literature” based on the opinions of a group of so-called experts.  A lot of absolutely brilliant novels are not considered to be “literate fiction,” in fact, they are either lambasted or totally overlooked and not considered at all!  Labels suck!

My favorite novels of all time are in the fantasy genre (and no, they aren’t the Lord of the Rings trilogy).  In my opinion, these novels are great literature because they beautifully illustrate everything that makes us human: our quirks and cruelty as well as our humanity and heroism.  If you’d like to find out more about them, go to this website.

I guess I’ve ranted long enough.  Down with the totalitarian hegemony!   

This one should be great fun.  Here’s the question:

“While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?”

Wow, this is kind of strange because last night while reading A Fistful of Fig Newtons (the author, Jean Shepherd, added some crude illustrations), I was wishing that more adult fiction were illustrated, especially science fiction, fantasies or humorous works. I’d love to get my mitts on a beautifully illustrated copy of The Lord of the Rings that doesn’t cost around $50.00. Neil Gaiman should’ve illustrated American Gods, even if the drawings were simple pen and ink sketches. Special illustrated copies of George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series should be offered for less than $250.00 per book. I’m not made of money, you know! I think illustrations add to the impact of these types of fiction.  

Maybe more non-fiction books should be illuminated like this:

 or this: although the religious ones can sometimes be pretty creepy.

Cover art doesn’t affect me that much unless it’s atrocious, like this:

I deplore romances, so these types of covers make me want to run away

SCREAMING:

It would make me very happy if all book covers for every novel I read were to feature the following photographs, perhaps on a rotating basis:

Since reading is the last thing I do before turning out the lights every night, it would be nice to admire one of these covers while placing the book on my nightstand. It would also be a great thing to wake up to in the morning!

As for the rest, I prefer hardcover or trade paperback, and I don’t pay attention to fonts.

Okay, I’m going to start participating.  Here’s today’s Booking Through Thursday question:

Question:  “You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

(Obviously, there can be more than one answer, here–a book with a cliff-hanger is going to engender different reactions than a serene stand-alone, but you get the idea!)”

Answer:  Usually, I’ll toss the book aside and almost immediately start another.  Of course, this all depends upon how good it was.  If it was excellent, like Angle of Repose, I’ll find myself rereading entire sections or the ending, at least.  After finishing How Green Was My Valley for the first time, I reread the last few lines over and over again, weeping copiously into my pillow.  I was mourning both the extremely sad fictional ending and the ending of my real-life relationship with the characters and the story.

I read The Exorcist when I was about 14 or 15, and reread many of the grosser and more titillating parts when I finished it.  It wasn’t just a cheap thrill for me, though.  I was so enthralled by the novel that I went on to study Satanism and demonic possession on my own and learned quite a bit.  (Don’t worry, I’m not a Devil worshipper).  So, some stories keep pulling you in long after you’ve finished them.  I must say that my relationship with The Exorcist has never really ended, because I still find myself perusing books on the darker side of religion every once in awhile.

I forget the majority of books I read, though, which is why I started this blog.  Forgettable novels are either thrown away or given away.  And, that’s the end of this post! 

Hey, if you decide to participate, leave me a comment about it so I can go to your blog and check out what you have to say.