Do I read authors or books?
I read an interesting post on Romancing the Blog today. It was my first real visit to the site and the word spreadsheet in the first sentence caught my interest. (Yes, I’m addicted to spreadsheets.) The post was When do you say when? by Yap Away Jay.
The post poses the question of when do you quit giving new authors the chance to impress you with their books. (Trust me, I’m paraphrasing here. If it sounds intriguing, I suggest you read the post.)
Although I agreed in principle with most of the stuff she said, I’ve found that with new authors I rarely remember their names, unless I just happen to love–and I mean LOVE–their books.
Usually I find myself reading a book because of the cover copy or the reviews I’ve read. Glowing reviews don’t always make me interested, because I’m a little contrary that way, but vehement reviews always catch my attention–good or bad. Anyway, the author name might ring a bell, but even if I’ve read a book by that particular author that I didn’t like before, I won’t give up reading a book that sounds interesting.
You could say I’m an eternal optimist with limits. I’ll always give an interesting sounding book a chance, but if I can’t make it past chapter one without wincing, I can guarantee I won’t finish reading the book.
So, my answer to the question posed by When do you say when? is “whenever I’ve read so many bad books by an author that their name becomes more important to me than the description of their lastest book.”
You see, I might be unusual, but I don’t have an auto-buy list. A book either sounds good or it doesn’t. And that’s the only way a book makes it into or out of my shopping cart.
I remember the names of the authors I like, but when I don’t like a book, it certainly doesn’t hold my attention after the fact, nor does the author who wrote it.
I do have favorite authors, though, and their books are much more likely to make it into my cart even if they sound only somewhat interesting.
