Nothing springs to mind in the sense of me having some minor epiphany about an issue or person from a book I've read. I'd like to think this is because I'm open-minded (so much so that my brain has fallen out of my head) but more than likely it's because I don't read enough books that challenge my status quo.
So I've chosen to reinterpret this meme topic. And the books I've chosen are Enid Blyton books, JRR Tolkien books and Dan Brown books, which all have in common the same opinion-changing element: they all have good plots but are poorly written, yet still sell millions of copies.
I'm just re-reading the Adventure series by Enid Blyton and find her prose utilitarian and oversimplistic, which I suppose is all right when you're seven or eight but actually gets kind of grating when you're an adult. And yet, she is one of the world's most popular authors.
Conversely, Tolkien's prose is convoluted and riddled with unnecessary, overdescriptive elements. And terrible poetry. It took me nine months to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy (I was 20 at the time, so this wasn't a 'reading age' problem) and I don't plan on trying again any time soon. And yet, I found myself wanting to find out what happened next. The plot was so compelling that I was willing to sift through the guff for the nuggets of narrative gold.
I know Tolkien was a linguist but LOTR is seriously a case of him showing off to the detriment of a good story. The books could have been written with a lot more clarity and concision without losing the decoration or the essence. Case in point: The Hobbit had less fancy pants stuff going on and was a better read. I understand Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a children's book, but just because you're an adult doesn't mean you want uninteresting linguistically charged text challenges in a narrative. I should also note that Tolkien has also sold millions of books.
And what can I say about Dan Brown? I've only read one book, The Da Vinci Code, and yes I did finish it. It didn't find it as terrible as some people said it was and I think it's jealous overexaggeration to say "Dan Brown can't write for shit", but I do take the point that Brown does a lot of 'telling' rather than 'showing'. He has also sold millions.
The lesson I take from this is that you don't have to be a good writer for your books to be popular, which changes my opinion about readers. I used to think that any reader would do, now I value discerning readers a lot more. High book sales = good for bank balance; discerning readers = good for writer's ego; high book sales to discerning readers = win-win.
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time
I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.
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