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Authors whose books are made into movies whose subsequent books read like screenplays: few characters, short chapters, stripped down plots. James Patterson comes to mind. Robert Parker's Jesse Stone series does it to a certain degree, but he could capture a character in a few words anyway.
Any mistreatment of a book. My father was a printer. My parents did not have a lot of extra money and books were a luxury in my home. We were taught not to write in them, a new book was carefully cracked open, a few pages at a time tenderly pressed down to loosen them at the binding, and a page never dog eared. I still never write in books.
"Fan fiction." Trying to piggyback on the work of a successful author is distasteful to me.
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I used to buy all my books, but now I buy only a few authors that I do reread. The local library is great and I do get most of my novels there. The house is still full of books, but the expense got to be a bit much.
Anyhow, books written in the present tense drive me bonkers. I have no idea why though, and have yet to finish one.
Me, too. I think it is the intellectual disconnect between the author's insistence that the story is happening as you read it and your knowledge that the events have already ended because you hold the book in your hand and can always read the last chapter any time. (I do not do that!)
A previous poster said present tense is a sign of a lazy author. I do not think so, since it appears it is more difficult to do. That does not make me want to read it, though.
...interesting theory regarding the intellectual disconnect, suzy_q2010! Oh, and I read the earlier post pertaining to present tense / lazy author. I did not quite get it, but certainly appreciated the insight.
As a long-time author, I find the following critique... intriguing. No author is going to take seriously remarks, such as those below, where the sentence construct, grammar, and punctuation are dreadful. (No disrespect intended; I simply find it ironic.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark S.
There's (should be 'There are') a lot of those, unfortunately. I picked up a book at the library the other day. The guy is a best-selling author with a dozen titles on the shelf, and two of his books have been made into movies. The first chapter was so badly written, (you need to employ either a semicolon here or lose the comma and use 'that' instead.) I couldn't finish it. I think I made it to page 11 (We write out numbers that are less than one hundred) before I gave up in disgust. The prose wasn't just awkward. (You need a semicolon here too, to connect the two sentence fragments.) It was painfully bad.
I just finished the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Even though it's a great story, there are sentences now and then so bad that they make me giggle. The whole thing isn't that bad. (You need a connector here, either a comma (and a lower case 'B') or forget the comma altogether and join the two sentences without it.) But now and then ... oo boy. It's generally in the sappy teen romance scenes. (Again, you need a comma here and to join the two 'sentences.' ) But maybe I just have a low tolerance for that.
It's difficult to believe that people who choose to write incorrectly can rightly divine errors in a novel.
As a long-time author, I find the following critique... intriguing. No author is going to take seriously remarks, such as those below, where the sentence construct, grammar, and punctuation are dreadful. (No disrespect intended; I simply find it ironic.)
It's difficult to believe that people who choose to write incorrectly can rightly divine errors in a novel.
Just saying.
I am a life-long reader and appreciate a well-conceived and well-written book. I also appreciate perfect grammar though it does not come naturally to me. I enjoy having a forum where I can share my thoughts about books I have read and learned from other readers as they share their experiences with books that might not be familiar to me. I would like to do all of these things without having to worry about constructing a perfect sentence that someone might be reading with their cyber red pen in hand.
Maybe this comment should go under a thread titled "Forum Related Things that Bug You"
Last edited by pinetreelover; 02-07-2013 at 05:49 AM..
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,018,915 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinetreelover
I am a life-long reader and appreciate a well-conceived and well-written book. I also appreciate perfect grammar though it does not come naturally to me. I enjoy having a forum where I can share my thoughts about books I have read and learn from other readers as they share their experiences with books that might not be familiar to me. I would like to do all of these things without having to worry about constructing a perfect sentence that someone might be reading with their cyber red pen in hand.
Maybe this comment should go under a thread titled "Forum Related Things that Bug You"
Bravo! Bravo! I completely agree.
I write and I edit -- that's what I do for a living. When I post on a forum or send off a non-business-related email, I'm not as careful as I am when I'm working. I value the social interaction more than the perfect construct -- whether I'm reading the post or writing it.
And we ALL make mistakes, anyway. When I sent my initial manuscript to Ketabcha for her to read, she found a couple of typos. It's VERY difficult to edit your own work and catch your own errors. All that aside, this is a social forum -- let's mingle instead of jangle each other's nerves.
I write and I edit -- that's what I do for a living. When I post on a forum or send off a non-business-related email, I'm not as careful as I am when I'm working. I value the social interaction more than the perfect construct -- whether I'm reading the post or writing it.
And we ALL make mistakes, anyway. When I sent my initial manuscript to Ketabcha for her to read, she found a couple of typos. It's VERY difficult to edit your own work and catch your own errors. All that aside, this is a social forum -- let's mingle instead of jangle each other's nerves.
Agree with the above EXCEPT when people type "your" when "you're" is appropriate, and when they mix up "there," "their," and "they're." I'm not a stickler about grammar and spelling in an informal setting such as this, but those particular errors say a lot more about the poster's intelligence and education, and affect my acceptance of the content of their post.
A poster might say "your wrong, the sky is blue" and I'm not gonna buy it unless I look out the window for myself.
I write and I edit -- that's what I do for a living. When I post on a forum or send off a non-business-related email, I'm not as careful as I am when I'm working. I value the social interaction more than the perfect construct -- whether I'm reading the post or writing it.
And we ALL make mistakes, anyway. When I sent my initial manuscript to Ketabcha for her to read, she found a couple of typos. It's VERY difficult to edit your own work and catch your own errors. All that aside, this is a social forum -- let's mingle instead of jangle each other's nerves.
I agree as my career involves typing and editing. I wonder if the red pen individual above corrects everyone's grammar and sentence structure in every day conversations - with friends, at the store, etc.
Quote:
Maybe this comment should go under a thread titled "Forum Related Things that Bug You"
As someone who loves reading, and who sells "paper e-books", i.e. "books", I find myself frequently grousing about the aliteracy of the general public. I try to inject a dose of levity into my snarky inner dialogue, but sometimes I'm so disappointed when I witness anybody under 30 looking at the 30,000 plus books in our store with the expression (as Bill Hicks described it) of "a dog that's just been shown a card trick."
I feel that for most people, reading (especially of classics or more challenging literature) has become a weird hobby, like collecting stamps or train-spotting. Particularly with titles that aren't faddish bestsellers (Harry Potter to 50 Shades of Grey), reading has taken a big hit. I know people read online, have e-books, etc., but I guess I'm just selfish in my wish that others would be engaged with great books. I come from a working class background, and resent it somewhat that life-changing literature and a sense of history seems to have become the exclusive domain of the NYT Literary Supplement crowd.
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