My book club just read a book that’s classified as historical non-fiction. It was written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. The cover was gorgeous, the book felt good in my hands, and the protagonist was one of the most fascinating characters in history.
And yet, I wasn’t overly eager to jump in. I confess, I’m a fiction junkie. Always have been, and a post-graduate degree (in law) hasn’t changed that one single bit. All the same, this book looked like it had real possibilities. And so I turned the first page.
I kept turning, up to page 70. And as I turned, those pages flipped faster and faster. No, not because I was enthralled, but because I was skimming. At page 70, I did something I rarely do. I closed the book and did not read on.
I wasn’t reading this book for a school or work assignment. It was using up my R&R time – and it wasn’t resting or relaxing me. It was boring me and making me feel resentful for spending my time this way. And you know what? I’m a grown-up. I don’t have to read a book if I don’t want to.
I won’t name the book because I don’t like authors who criticize each other’s work. And I’m definitely not saying it was a badly written book, only that we all have different tastes as readers (thank heavens!) and this book wasn’t my cup of tea.
Here’s why. For me, it’s all about story. If the protagonist’s tale had been told as fiction, or even creative non-fiction, I might well have been enthralled. But in this book, I found that the story got lost amid exhaustive (and, for me, exhausting!) details and a writing style that focused on fact, not on building character, tension, drama. Call me superficial, but I’m not a fact junkie, I’m a story addict.
The characters don’t even have to be larger than life. In fact, many of my favorite books are about the kind of people I meet every day. People like me, with typical human issues like getting along with their family, finding a job that’s fulfilling, surviving breakups and illnesses, maintaining friendships through tough times, and most of all, winning and sustaining a loving relationship.
That’s the kind of book I write myself. I think it’s true of most authors that we write what we love to read. After all, it takes weeks, months, sometimes even years to write a book. That means we’re living with those characters for a very long time – and it’s an intense emotional experience as well as a time-consuming one. If you don’t love your characters, and you’re not totally absorbed in their issues, problems, struggles, and triumphs, then it’s hard to stay motivated to finish the book. That’s true for me as an author, and it’s also true for me as a reader.
So now I’m wondering, what kinds of books do you most enjoy? What draws you in and keeps you turning the pages, maybe long after you really should have turned out the light at night?
I’ll give away a copy of my December Brava, Yours, Unexpectedly, to someone who comments. It’s the fourth in my Wild Ride to Love series about the Fallon sisters. What happens when the runaway bride discovers that her discarded groom has come along for the honeymoon cruise?
“Fluid writing, absolutely unforgettable characters, Yours, Unexpectedly will touch you and provoke you to think about love and life.” (Shana Rea, The Romance Reviews; a Top Pick Review)
What a good question, Susan! I just recently WISHED I’d stopped reading – but I kept on mostly to convince myself that yes, it was THAT bad, it didn’t get any better, & that there is no way the reviewers (who had given it such glowing reviews) had read the book. This was a hardcover, classified as a mystery/thriller by an author from a journalism background. I suspect the synopsis for it would have *rocked*. It was a great idea. The blurb was great. The cover lovely. But the contents were absolute dregs & yes, mostly it was the lack of characterization.
I do think life is short and there are SO many great books out there that if a book is not grabbing me, & it’s not part of a literary canon or strongly recommended by someone whose opinion I trust, then it’s more than OK to put it down & move on & hopefully discover a fabulous new to me author whose books I’ll adore!
In the books I love the most, the people are interesting & surprising & funny, and their circumstances are intriguing. If the circumstances are thrilling enough, I’ll probably overlook some flat characters but you’re absolutely right, it’s caring about the people that makes me want to keep on reading, & also makes me say “oh I wrote this author writes MORE!”
p.s. I have a guess about your DNF book & if I’m right it’s on my TBR pile LOL….
hornblower, I’m so curious if it’s the same book that’s on your TBR pile and, if so, whether you’ll enjoy it.
Yes, something I often find missing in mysteries and thrillers – especially of the “save the world” variety – is character depth. It’s all about the action and maybe some techology details and procedural details, and I find myself skimming all that stuff and wanting to get to the dialogue and character interactions.
But then, I know there are lots of guys and some women who find the character stuff boring.
If you’re watching TV, when do you get up to get a drink or go pee? I leave during the chase scenes. LOL. A lot of guys leave during the chat scenes.
pps.
that should have been “I HOPE this author writes MORE!” 
Susan
I love your line, “I’m a story addict.”
I can relate. My reading tastes are eclectic, but what I enjoy most comes down to a character driven, well developed story. It can be the biography of an idea, like E=MCsquared, or a classic piece of literature like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (who can forget The Wife of Bath!), or a romance like Julia Quinn’s Just Like Heaven. It’s all about character, emotion and story for me.
Thanks for the thought provoking post.
Jo-Ann
Thanks, Jo-Ann. You’re a reader like me. And you’re the kind of reader I write for. I think that’s true of most authors: we have our ideal reader in mind, and usualy she/he is someone with the same reading taste as our own.
You said the word “emotion” and that’s so true. I want to care, to be drawn in, to laugh and cry, and when I get emotional about a book, that’s the book I’ll remember and the characters who will live on for me.
Hi Susan,
I am a history geek. I love a good historical with a compelling romance, but one of the pleasures of reading a historical is to learn more about the background of an era and the daily lives of the people from that period. I am well-versed enough to know when someone hasn’t done her homework. But I agree with you on this: even if an author accurately captures the feel of a time and place, the most important element of a book is characters we can care about. Finding the balance is tricky.
One of my favorite historical novels is The Heaven Tree by Edith Pargeter (another pen name for Ellis Peters). I’m sure that many readers would find it too full of historical detail, but the characters are so compelling, the story so powerful, and I love learning about another time and place.
Naomi, I have a friend who likes exactly the same kind of books as you do, and is fascinated by learning about people and their lives in different times and places. I’ll have to mention The Heaven Tree to her, in case she hasn’t discovered it herself.
I’m reading one now that I’ve decided to put down. It’s a romance but it’s one of those that if the main characters would talk for like 3 minutes, the conflict between them would be over. AND the external conflict has been beaten into my head over and over and I’m tired of the hero whining about his past. Utterly sick of it, truth be known.
So, I guess my answer is have enough conflict in the story to make it interesting without pounding the table with one issue.
Super question!
A great answer, Jillian. Yes, it’s hard to be sympathetic with characters who don’t have the sense to spend a couple of minutes talking and clearing up a misunderstanding.
And whining is a drag! I quite like “tortured” angsty heros, the lost soul kind of guy who is still affected by a dark past, but he shouldn’t whine about it.
For me, the main character needs to be engaging, have depth of character and possess some qualities that I find likeable. Then I’ll follow him or her through thick and thin!
Those are great qualities, Rain City Girl.
Great blog, Susan!
I too refuse to spend my time reading something that doesn’t hit me on a visceral level. I’m reading a book right now similar to the one you put down. It’s a narrative of real-life events that took place over several years. The story is compelling, and the author is doing a good job of painting the real people who lived out this tale, but the narrative is heavy on facts and descriptions of things that aren’t germaine to the core story. I’m half-way through and skimming over most chapters to get back to that core story that really hooked me in the first place.
So in answer to your question, what keeps me reading: it’s a solid hook that grabs me, followed up with a story that I HAVE TO read and characters that I relate to so well that I HAVE TO know what happens to them.
Celeste, I so agree. It reminds me of being a kid and saying, “Get to the good parts!” It’s frustrating when you skim, skim, skim to get to the stuff that really interests you. On the other hand, of course some other reader is thoroughly enjoying all those bits that you and I are skimming!
Susan
I, too, am a story addict. I think at heart most of us are. That’s why Dickens endures these many years – at heart he was a great story-teller.
Even textbooks generally work better if they’re not a barely disguised list of dry facts.
Hi Pat. Yes, that was my problem with school. It all seemed so dry – and yet the events were in fact so exciting. That excitement didn’t come across. But then there was a book like The Diary of Ann Frank. Now that made it all personal and emotional.
I recently bought a book on impulse based on the cover art and the setting. I love to read stories set in far away places as my travel wings have been severely clipped lately. I had several of my children with me so didn’t have the time to open the book and have a brief read first.
The story opened with a sand storm, interesting enough, but by page nine the description of the tempest was still raging and I felt like I had sand in my eyes and couldn’t bear to read further. I skipped to later in the book and discovered that the conflict was something I didn’t want to read about (incest) so never picked the book up again. I’m afraid its destined to wing its way to the charity bin at the grocery story.
So, I guess for me it’s when the setting takes over the story rather than enhance it. And that says a lot because I am constantly pouring over travel books or travel writing. However in those books the story rises from the location rather than being absorbed by it.
Alexia, you made me LOL about the sand in your eyes. I love books where setting (especially a setting I love) plays an important part, but in my opinion, it should always, always be secondary to the characters. I really don’t want sand in my eyes!
And yeah, we all have themes that will make us put a book down. And those are different for all of us. Some people will reject a book because it’s got too much religion, or too much violence, or too much sex, or the wrong kind of sex, or the wrong kind of religion, or …. I could go on and on and on.
I really appreciate it when publishers give books front covers and back cover blurbs that convey the general idea of the story clearly enough that I can decide if it’s going to be the kind of thing I identify with or the kind of thing that turns me off.
I LOVE to put down a book that isn’t working for me – indeed, why would one continue? And almost always, it’s because one or both of the characters aren’t “likeable”, somehow they’re toooo toooo complicated past what is needed to make them compelling. If I don’t care what happens to the character(s), then I can’t be bothered. I’ll read for 60-80 pages, hoping for the hook that got me to pick the book up in the first place, but if it continues with a character who’s out of integrity, I’m gone!
What keeps me reading is learning about an era, a culture, a challenge, so that I’m wide-eyed with wonder and hope that everything will turn out after all! So I love mysteries/stories set in Italy, or France, or Japan, or Estonia, or set in the Middle Ages or the future, or ones involving someone facing their major fear!
What a very interesting question, Susan! And I love the answers above, too.
You bold soul, Celia, relishing putting down a bad book. But you’re so right. Why keep reading a book tha tisn’t working for you? You’ve already spent the money, so why add insult to injury by wasting your time as well?
And I agree completely about integrity. That’s so important.
great blog susan,
i used to feel obliged to finish every book i started until i read a hemmingway one where halfway through he killed off the characters i liked and left it with just one boring old drunk guy. relatable characters and humour seem to be the main things for me. i don’t mind repugnant characters –confederacy of dunces– as long as they’re fascinating, but really you get enough boring people in real life, i want to read about people with some depth. which is also why i dislike perfect heroes and heroines. show me the scars or the defensive wit.
ps pls don’t put me in to win the book as i already bought it, read it and loved it.
thanks.
LOL Nora re getting enough boring people in real life. Isn’t that so true? As for perfect, well that’s just downright boring. And there’s no room for character growth and really nothing to relate to or sympathize with.
Thanks for buying Yours, Unexpectedly. I’m so glad you loved it.
As I get older I find that I have less patience with books that don’t live up to their hype, and so find that I can allow myself to stop reading them.
There are a couple of reasons I might put down a book:
1) Characters that don’t connect – either too cliché’ or too emotionally skewed. I recently put down a book with a hero who was abusive to the women he worked with, a man written with no redeeming features in the first five chapters. I assume he changed by the end of the book but I no longer cared if he did or didn’t. He wasn’t interesting just sadistic. I believe I actually threw the book down, something I had never done before.
2) Slow or missing motivation for the storyline, or a poorly told story Whether it is fiction or non-fiction, there needs to be some compelling reason for the reader to continue and the author’s love of the subject matter should show.
3) Poor language skills. I expect the author to care enough to know “then” from “than”, “they’re” from “their” from “there”, “hear” from “here”, “heal” from “heel”.
You get the idea.
Craft is important and good structure counts, but if you tell me a great story I can forgive a whole lot, and I will probably buy another by the same author (I do expect the writing to improve).
If I like/love a book I recommend it to my friends. If I find a well written book that doesn’t excite me I pass it on to someone who may love it.
LN, you’ve listed some great reasons. And yes, I’ve rejected books (or movies or TV shows) when the hero is nasty. I have nothing against a good Alpha male, but the moment he verges on being obnoxious about it, he’s toast as far as I’m concerned. A man who abuses or even bosses around or tries to dominate women just isn’t appealing to me. He’s obviously very insecure about his own masculinity, and that’s the opposite of Alpha! I love those quiet guys who never need to dominate – but when there’s a crisis, they’re the ones who step in and fix things, and never give a damn about taking credit for it.
Yes, motivation and great story-telling are very important. As for basic language skills, I just hate it when those are missing. If you’re writing a Facebook or blog post, I’m less concerned because you’re doing a stream-of-consciousness thing and not proofreading carefully. But in a published book, that stuff should be right. Publishers who skimp on that do their authors and their readers a huge disservice. And if authors are self-publishing, they ought to have enough respect for themselves and their readers to pay a copy-editor to check those things. Just because a book is self-published, that doesn’t mean it should be of lower quality.
I prefer reading fiction, but will read non-fiction if the story sounds interesting.
Thanks for dropping by and sharing, bn100.
You’ve asked the million dollar question, Susan. I will put down a novel when my head can’t force my heart to continue reading. My head may want to know who dies, who was the killer, how the heroine will manage to wind up in bed with the exotic hero, but if my heart doesn’t care, I stop. If I can’t identify with the main character, if they are artificial, if they have no soul, I stop. This afternoon, I was reading “Love, Unexpectedly,” and I only had twenty minutes before I was to leave to hear your talk downtown at VPL. In my mind, I noted technical aspects of your writing like your pov shifts in each chapter, and the unusual opening setting of a laundry room. My heart, despite this analysis, started to get involved. Even as I was critiquing your lines, you drew me in. I felt what it was like to be bearded Nav, in old jeans. Heck, I was wearing old jeans when I was reading the book, and resenting the fact that I’d have to get “dressed up” in a few minutes to go out. I didn’t break away from the book for forty minutes (funny how one’s heart can take over the timekeeping part of one’s brain while reading romance) and when I selected a shirt, I thought about what Nav had chosen to wear on the train… You hooked me. I cared about Nav and about Kat. I think this is because you as the author genuinely care about them. When an author’s intense concern for the well-being of her characters comes through, I will continue to read. Who wouldn’t? You are expressing your love not only for your characters, but for me as your reader. What an excellent gift to give, and it’s a gift the author of your discarded novel could not give. It’s a pity when an author cares more about history than about people, either her character or readers, or even herself. It can’t help but show.
Thank you for the lovely compliment, Susan! I agree that caring about the characters is key, for the reader and for the writer.
You know, there have been times where I had a great idea for a book and was all enthused and wrote a proposal and sold it. But because of timing, I didn’t get to start on that book for quite a while – I was wrapped up in writing a different one. When the time rolled around to write the proposal book, I’d go, “Who the heck are these characters and why did I think this would make an interesting story?” But then I’d dig in, remember why I’d been so excited about those characters, and start getting to know them in all their complexities, frailties, strengths, passions – and yeah, I’d fall in love with them. And then I could write their story!
After all, if you don’t really care about someone and aren’t deeply interested in them, why would you spend time with them – in real life, as a reader, or as a writer? There are better ways to spend your time.
And, BTW, thanks for coming to the library presentation! I hope you found it interesting and fun.
Great question! This is one of the reasons I like my Kindle–so that I can try a sample. If I can’t get excited after the first few pages, I will not read on.
I do like facts, but I don’t want the entire story or book to be based entirely around facts. Give me some excitement, romance and humor. If we wanted facts, we’d open our dusty encyclopedias.
Hi Suzan. LOL re dusty encyclopedias. Honestly, that’s kind of how I felt when I was reading that historical non-fiction book.
And yes, it’s great to read a sample – whether it’s via an online site like Amazon, an author’s website (many authors, like me, post excerpts), or picking up a book in a store and diving in. I sure won’t judge a book from the first line or page – I think that’s short-changing the author, the characters, and mostly, myself as a reader – but I do need to be drawn in by the time I’m somewhere around page 5-10. I don’t have to be in love yet, but I have to be intrigued. Like a first date.
Is there enough potential that I want to invest more time and emotion?
In fiction, when the beginning pages unfold with a story so ridiculously improbable, I will not finish. I don’t care if there’s any redeeming bit to the story. I have to be hooked by something I can relate to, even in historical fiction. The protagonist’s challenge to succeed and the emotional connection to the characters is essential. I know this sounds harsh, but I have too many books to read to waste time on something that’s just going to make me mad.
Makes perfect sense to me, Monica. It doesn’t sound harsh at all. Reading should be about positive energy, not negative stuff like being mad at a story that’s riduculous, a hero who’s an a**hole (can I say that here?
), or a book that’s so poorly written or formatted that it’s virtually impossible to wade through.
Great question.
I hate it. I hate to put a book down. But often its when the author doesn’t deliver to “my” expectations. If the book I’m writing draws more interest and I’m thinking what can I do with my heroine or hero, I haven’t become invested in this authors work. I begin to skim. I feel lost.
Sometimes with ebooks its a mistake in formatting that drives me wild. I can’t forget it. I’m like okay, concentrate, but the moment is lost. I want to be able to see this work in my mind. Feel the pain. Taste the grit. Hear the screech of tires. I want that movie in my brain.
I will read several books a month. Don’t be the one I put down. I ask that of myself, I require it of others. But when you do, suck me in. I’m usually your reader for life.
Nan
Hi Nancy. Yes, isn’t it lovely when you just get totally drawn into a book? And so frustrating when something throws you out of it! I read a lot of e-books too, and I have a Sony Reader. I don’t know if it’s just an issue with my Sony, but a number of books from e-publishers, and books that are self-pubbed, can’t be moved from small to medium print without the formatting totally screwing up. Sentences break in the middle. Paragraphs don’t break where they’re supposed to. I can’t figure out who’s speaking or what’s going on, and it becomes a frustrating puzzle rather than an experience that I’m sitting back and enjoying.
I know it’s impossible to test e-books on all possible devices and sizes, but a Sony Reader isn’t exactly a rare beast, and lots of us have vision issues so that small print doesn’t work for us. I’m especially disappointed when an e-publisher doesn’t produce decent formatting. Seems to me, that’s supposed to be an area of expertise for them.
And in my experience, virtually all the traditional print publishers seem to manage to get their e-books into professional format.
i like funy hot contemp and a little naufhy erotic books
thanks for the giveaway
;ove your books
Thanks, kimh! “A little naughty” can be a very nice thing.
i tend to go more for paranormals but that doesnt mean i dont love a good ole romance!! i have to have good dynamics between the main characters.. a good story too!
Thanks for commenting, Alaina. Yes, whatever the genre or subgenre, there are some things each reader looks for, that make or break the book.
I loved this topic so much, I had to reply. I have been a voracious reader from a young age. There haven’t been many books I didn’t get through over the many years and thousands of titles. On the rare occasion I don’t finish, it all has to do with one thing. Unlikeable characters. I run into enough challenging people on a daily basis, and of course we are constantly bombarded with people who make it hard to like them. When I pick up a book I want to like at least one person, and prefer to like most of them. I don’t mind flaws or irritating traits, but there needs to be some redeeming qualities or loveable quirks. There have been a handful of books where every character is intensely unlikeable. Those are the books I put down.
That being said, I have also been known to put books aside for a while, or read them incredibly slowly while reading other books. Non-fiction or fiction, my favorite kind of books are those with a happy or well-resolved ending. I want at least a small hint that things will be okay.
Thanks for a fun topic! I have enjoyed reading other responses as well.
Anne, thanks for your thoughtful comments.
Your comment about unlikeable characters makes me think of Blake Snyder’s book, “Save the Cat.” It’s a classic on writing screenplays and basically any kind of fiction.
Not quoting him here, but to the best of my recollection, he says that or course sometimes you have protagonists who are flawed and in many ways unlikeable, but the audience needs to identify with them. They can’t hate them, or they won’t want to keep watching/reading. So in the very beginning, you need to show exactly the kind of thing you mentioned – such as demonstrating a redeeming quality. The bad guy who’s on his way to do a bad thing and stops to help a kid rescue his cat from a tree shows a redeeming quality. Loveable quirks are great too, or showing that the character has friends or family who really like him/her – so even if you’re not seeing it at the moment, you’re willing to believe there might be something likable about them. (Of course that latter one only works for awhile – you’ll get impatient if you don’t see the likable stuff soon yourself.)
Well, this is frustrating! This blog doesn’t let all messages through, for whatever reason, and we’re supposed to moderate them and say they’re okay. And we’re supposed to get email messages notifying us there’s a post to moderate. Well, one reader just emailed me to say she’d written a comment and it had never appeared. So I went to check, and there were half a dozen comments sitting there awaiting moderation – and some had been there for a day and a half. And I was never notified they were there. Argh!!
So, my apologies to those who commented, whose messages didn’t come through. I think they’re all here now. Sure hope so!
I’m extending the give-away cutoff until the end of the day Friday, then I’ll do the random selection thing and pick a winner, and announce it here.
Thanks for your patience!
And the winner of a copy of Yours, Unexpectedly is Anne! Congratulations. You can contact me at susan (at) susanlyons (dot) ca with your snail mail and I’ll send you your prize.
Thanks so much to everyone who commented.