For me -- my tolerance for formula books depends on how long it has been since I have read one. I need a break, so I read something light. Works as long as I don't over indulge.
Up until the punching, it was a real nice party.
Kaylee ,'Shindig'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
beth b - Feb 01, 2008 12:01:36 pm PST #4996 of 28343
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!
Jesse - Feb 01, 2008 12:04:39 pm PST #4997 of 28343
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Almost all of the books I read are formulaic, and I like that about them because I know what I'm getting. Ones I really enjoy have something more to them -- exceptional writing, an unusual setting, an actual surprising twist, whatever.
meara - Feb 01, 2008 12:06:47 pm PST #4998 of 28343
Yeah--I've hit that point about a lot of science fiction--or more, about fantasy. Blah blah peasant with funny name, blah blah epic quest, blah blah special power/companion/position, royalty, magic, yadda yadda I'm not even checking it out of the library.
Susan W. - Feb 01, 2008 12:11:47 pm PST #4999 of 28343
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
Jesse is me, basically.
And I think I've figured out my own issue--I should stick with romances that are pretty much just romances, because if the FATE OF THE GALAXY/FREE WORLD/ENGLAND/ETC. is at stake, I want the love story to play second fiddle.
Well, the other issue I had with this book is one that's bugging me with a lot of romances lately--insta-lust. It's fine on occasion, but I miss stories where the attraction sneaks up on the hero and heroine over time.
Toddson - Feb 01, 2008 12:31:48 pm PST #5000 of 28343
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
The book I've been reading - "The Deception of the Emerald Ring" - starts off with a plot device she lifted from Georgette Heyer. The author acknowleges this in her note, but I recognized it right off. But the story takes a different tack after that.
DavidS - Feb 03, 2008 10:10:57 am PST #5001 of 28343
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Once more into the breach: The NYTimes considers the Transcending Genre question.
Susan W. - Feb 03, 2008 2:37:48 pm PST #5002 of 28343
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
I've just discovered that there's a new mystery series starting featuring Charlotte Bronte as a sleuth. There's already a Jane Austen mystery series...so, I'm wondering if what I need to do if I really want to be published is find a dead author and throw a dead body in his/her path.
Hm, whom should I choose? Charles Dickens, maybe? Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie for the "Murder, She Wrote" meta of it all? Get out ahead of the curve and go for the relatively recently deceased Patrick O'Brian?
Polter-Cow - Feb 03, 2008 3:01:25 pm PST #5003 of 28343
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Kurt Vonnegut, Interstellar Detective?
§ ita § - Feb 03, 2008 3:26:41 pm PST #5004 of 28343
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Douglas Adams!
DXMachina - Feb 03, 2008 3:31:58 pm PST #5005 of 28343
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.
He could do it holistically.
I was thinking about Isaac Asimov sending out Harlan Ellison to investigate cases for him, a la Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, but alas, Ellison ain't dead yet.