Who Reads Your Books and Why? Or, Maybe the Question Should Be, Does Anyone Keep Them?

Events this past weekend sent me thinking about books and who reads them and why. Then my skippy little mind jumped to children's lit and then about books in general. There are men's books and woman's books and, occasionally, people books that everyone reads. Alexander McCall Smith comes to mind here, but there are others, especially in the mystery genre. I'm sure you could add ten or a hundred to a growing list but would anyone keep them?

This whole train of thought came about when I started sorting through my crammed bookshelves on Saturday and gave up. One reason was I discovered Alan Garner's fantasy, The Moon of Comrath, book two in the Alderley Trilogy, shoved in back of the "S"s. 

Second reason, I sat down and re-read the book. [It's only around 150 pages. My copy of the book is an Ace dated 1963.] 

Third reason, the web caught me with amazing tid-bits of author information, like there was such a thing as an Alderley Trilogy when I went to search if Garner was still alive. Someone's even posted pictures of the location where the story happens. I told myself I wasn't wasting my time since I was gathering background material for my blog.

You can *snigger* if you wish.

Then I looked in a book store yesterday, it seemed like children's lit is getting short shrift. Oh, there's loads of YA sitting around, but new books for 10-12 year-olds seem to be scarce on the bookshelves, especially an assortment of stand alones. Many of the titles even were in existence when my kids were of the age or, worse, when I was a kid. [Yeah, it nice that classics remain in print, but new writers need distribution among the general public, too, besides Scholastic and the library.]

My other impression was the preponderance of runs of single series, mostly appealing to either boys or girls and few that appealed to both, like Harry Potter. Seems to me that there used to be a lot more books that sported a team of boy and girls caught in an adventure. Often this came as a brother and sister or a group of siblings teaming together to solve a problem, each adding their own insights and strengths. Alan Garner's The Moon of Comrath is one of the classic examples of this kind of kid's book, even though it's the middle of a trilogy now.

In my opinion, The Moon of Conrath -- when the Wild Hunt takes to the skies because two kids light a fire in the wrong place at the wrong time -- is one of the better diggings into British folklore to create an absorbing children's story. Yeah I have Cooper and Alexander and others. What's significant: I still have them. Not many authors can be so lucky to have fans who keep their books for years. I give the book 5*****.

I'm stopping here even though I can think of more than a few qualifications and exceptions to my generalizations. But I'm going to keep thinking about the issue. Why? Because I'm thinking of turning the three middle grade novels fermenting in my computer into young adult ... provided I can get the backlog of new stuff written up. The frightening part is I'm not even thinking about the Far Isles Half-Elven stuff which I'm currently revising.

~~#~~

So what did I accomplish last week. Precious little.

An Indie Writer's Pain: Gettting Book Reviews

Kay's Book Reviews:

Indie writers can envy writers, like Kevin Hearne, who are published by the corporate big boys. For example, here he's getting a review of his book Hammered, the third novel in his Iron Druid series, and he didn't ask me for a review. -- We won't talk about the almost a hundred reviewers I queried with little results, and no this isn't sour grapes. Just an observation. 

Actually Hearne dismayed me when I first started reading. The opening didn't sparkle like his previous books ... until I hit his ode to salad spinners. This bit after he'd finished turning Asgard, the plane of the Norse gods, on its ear. More important, he doesn't dwell on his genius bit of humor but jumps right back into the plot of avoiding god-generated disasters and making Thor pay for his centuries of cruelty and entitled attitude.

Yeah, I admit my envy of humorous writers since I'm incapable of writing funny. Oh, I understand the basic structure of juxtaposing two incompatibilities. Like the forgetful rabbi making the "sign of the cross" with the punch line: spectacles, testicles, watch and cigars. I'm condemned to spending my life being an appreciative audience for others. Books that do humor well while keeping the plot moving ... fast, should be cherished.

Yeah, this book isn't as funny as the others, but more important, it's more than competently written. The lives of the main characters and major secondary characters continue to develop and the loose ends are tied just enough to leave some dangling hooks to pull you into the next set of books. Let's hope Atticus  O'Sullivan continues his Brer Rabbit conniving for many books to come. 

Bonus Review:

The NYC son has a fascination for old for old cover art. I benefited by rereading Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen in the 0.25 Ace edition, yellow pages and all. I had forgotten what a great chase it was. 

Just as Tolkein marked fantasy tropes, I think Alan Garner set off a bunch of his own. Of course, he used tropes himself -- wise old wizard and kids landing in an adventure when they are removed from their normal lives.  It's what you do with the trope that matter. I found Garner's mine escapes more exciting than Tolkein's.

Grumbling About My Writing Lessons:

Time.  Where does it go. Of course, I had my critique meeting last week ... and my old man's second eye surgery. Even though I was told, not too gently, I need to add more back story to my new Half-Elven novella, I've been spending enormous amounts of time looking for book reviews.  

Yes, it is a long, involved process.  I blame the book reviewers for being too interesting.  First, I have to go to their websites to see what they do.  Then, most of them suck me into reading a couple reviews, sometimes more. There are some really good books out there ... even those written by indie writers.

Want to try reading some new writers without breaking your wallet? You might visit: The 99-cent-Book Network run by the Indie Book Collective. Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need a reader to download an e-book ... even on Amazon.

Before I go any further, I must share a link on Why Books Don't Sell from MuseInks. Since I'm one of the thousands who have an abysmal Amazon ranking, I thought I'd share this before I proceed.

Getting ready to draft a new novel? I used to do it every fall, and I bet many of you with children do the same as soon as the school bell rings. C. A. Marshall revealed a simplified way to check on your plot development: The Nine Grid Plan. I printed it off since I could even understand it ... unlike the snowflake method so many people swear at. 

Trivia:

Gotta crow ... even if you aren't interested.
Richard Hayes who reviewed Taking Vengeance at What I Wrote said:
Theodoratus' Half-elven "...is a new approach to the Elven legend which is really refreshing."