Into the Fire

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Are you a Book Thrower?

 

Yesterday we discussed tripping points—those things that trip you up while you’re reading. Those things that result in you reluctantly forcing your way on through the pages or cause you to shut the book forever or incite you to slam the book into the nearest wall.

 

I’m curious. Do we have any book-throwers out there? You might be interested to know a favorite author of mine recently told me of such an episode. Finished a (CBA) book and threw it against a wall. Names and titles weren’t given. The comment was “I don’t read anything that isn’t good [writing].” Hmm. Kind of difficult to qualify. In the professional opinion of this author, apparently this means something very specific. I’m not sure what that is exactly, but obviously the book in question didn’t meet the standard.

 

I’m not a book-thrower. I’m an eye-roller, heavy sigh-er, and a “Geez!” person.

 

I can’t give you specific qualities to satisfy a definition of what I think “good” writing is. It’s far easier to suggest what it isn’t. I lean toward literary expression but am satisfied with multiple kinds of writing when it meets my vague standard. That standard includes a voice I enjoy, characters I love, and a story which exceeds the norm. I can do formulaic stories when the characters shine and offer a lasting relationship with this reader. Pretty words just for the sake of showing off literary skills bore me.

 

Tight, neat, rule-following, formulaic writing drives me to a place I don’t want to visit. It’s like I imagine being in a square white room with one chair. Clean, precise, unimaginative. Hate might not be a strong enough word. And there’s a lot of it out there.

 

I’ve yet to toss a book across a room, but I know people who have. You?

 

 

God, just please make me better: better at losing myself and gaining more of you in every area of my life. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

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9 responses to “Are you a Book Thrower?”

  1. Brenda Jackson Avatar
    Brenda Jackson

    Nope. No book throwing. If I’ve laid down my hard earned money, I’m not going to abuse the book. I might gripe and whine about why it doesn’t work for me, and try to talk a friend into reading it to see how THEY assessed it, but I don’t throw it.
    Throwing to me implies anger. To me, bad reading experiences are full of tremendous disappointment, not anger, as in the case of a title I read earlier this year. And at least for me, disappointment is a far more difficult reaction to deal with than anger.
    As to the reasons for those reading disappointments, they vary but in this particular case, the book ignored the truly interesting story threads to chase yet another romance.
    If I had to put a generic description to it, I’d say that generally when a book is a disappointment to me, it failed to pull the trigger on the story concept. Could be flat characters, or the author just doesn’t use the full potential of their own story–I think that drives me more nuts than anything.

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  2. dayle Avatar
    dayle

    I threw one across the room, seethed a little, calmly walked over and picked it up and threw it again. Before the ending, I thought this novel was excellent and then (archie bunker spit thing).
    What made me mad was that it seems the author tried not to go for what he probably considered was a pat ending. IMO, he went for a more artsy ending which led a character to do something they would not have done given their actions and personality set up by the rest of the book. Big mistake in my opinion. Some stories work even better with the expected ending.
    Btw, Nicole, you disagree with me on this book. You loved it, I loved the first 4/5 of it, hated the ending, and can’t recommend it.

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  3. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Brenda, disappointment comes in levels, I think. Mildly up to immensely. No matter which level, it’s still a bummer because of the time and money potentially wasted.
    Dayle, would the author’s initials happen to be TM? Eail me and explain (remind me) what you thought was out of character.

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  4. Brenda Anderson Avatar
    Brenda Anderson

    I tend to do a lot of eye-rolling and usually it’s over cliched or formulaic storylines or super-Christian characters. I’ve never thrown a book … yet, but I suppose it could happen.
    Now, I’m very curious as to what book Dayle threw. I wonder if I would like it …

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  5. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Brenda A., if it’s the one I’m thinking of, you gave it four stars on Shelfari. I think I gave it five which I rarely do. I’ll let you know. 😉

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  6. Tina F. Avatar
    Tina F.

    I don’t get that upset when I feel a book isn’t “good” because there is always someone who will disagree with me and love to take it off my hands. I wonder if book-throwing is a personality flaw, er, I mean trait.

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  7. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Ha, Tina! When that good ol’ frustration bubbles over, well, I guess book-throwing is safer than actually hitting the wall.

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  8. Jerri L Ledford Avatar
    Jerri L Ledford

    I’ve only thrown one book, ever. I usually push through if the book isn’t terrible (because it’s a good lesson on what NOT to write), or just put the book down if it’s too terrible.
    But there was one book, which wasn’t great, but wasn’t terrible. I pushed through all the way to the end only to find that the author sold the story out to what I considered market-demand. I WAS actually furious when I finished the book.
    What could have been a great story turned out to be just another deeply contrived and poorly pulled together manuscript. It’s been so long ago that I don’t even remember the title of the book, but I will say it was from one of my favorite authors at the time, and I will never read another of his books.
    My lesson from that: Never sell the reader out for what the publisher says is salable. In the end, it will likely be far more costly than being true to the reader’s expectations.

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  9. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Important point, Jerri, for those of us who write not only for an audience but for emptying our souls onto pages. Unfortunately, there were probably many readers who accepted the “market-demand” story which furthers the opinions of publishers that we’re all alike in our reading tastes. Tina’s point makes it apparent.

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