Thursday, December 14, 2017

Dork dork dork

By Sam Belacqua

Life, friends, is boring. So says the poem.

Also, crime fiction is getting boring. Check out what Neliza Drew says  ->

Most crime fiction books outside the “noir” stuff offered up by small and indie presses bores me these days. I keep being told I need to read or thing or hearing hype and getting around to a thing, only to feel like I’m being bludgeoned by the thing. There are exceptions to this, yes. Will I tell you about them? Maybe in person. Because the books with the buzz or the recommendations are often really good books that just aren’t for me or aren’t finding me at the right time.

With Holly West posting great content on "meh" books, what about those "great" books that you don't connect with?

I'd say the ratio of books that are hyped to hyped books that I dug is something like 20:1. I do know that the odds of my liking an "award-winning" book from a big press are something like the odds of a dude what fought agains the KKK winning a senate race in Alabama. I mean, it could happen. Stranger things have happened. (Last week I made it through a night without getting up to piss blood, so you never know.)

Is it the characters? The story? Is it a matter of raising expectations so high that no book could match? Fuck if I know. Maybe it's because the people what hand out book awards have to read 500 books at a time and look for something that aims high, even if it doesn't deliver. Or maybe the books that appeal to mostpeople (one word, as cummings intended) don't appeal to me.

Anyhoo, while I spend the rest of the week chugging NyQuil and gummy vitamins, go check out the DORK post over at Medium, and be sure to make with the claps and the follows.

Mostpeople have less in common with ourselves than the squarerootofminusone. You and I are human beings:mostpeople are snobs. -- e e cummings

3 comments:

Holly West said...

I've been having a hard time finishing books lately. They start out great and then for whatever reason, I lose interest. I thought I was going through a phase (and maybe I am) but I see here I'm not alone.

Steve Weddle said...

I often get what I need out of a book before I get to the final page.

Holly West said...

That's a good way to put it. But often it feels like it "doesn't count" when I put it down at that point. Not sure what (or why) I'm counting, though.