(no subject)
Dec. 4th, 2012 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficI just finished Overseas by Beatriz Williams, which was, well, balls, and oh there's a rant coming. But it got me thinking about why I prefer to read nonfiction to fiction when I read for myself. It is because the threshold for quality writing in non-fiction is a lot lower. What I mean is, I can read a book, like, say, Moby-Duck, that has enormous structural and pacing problems, which was kind of a bear to read, but still get something out of it. Because it's about real things, even if stuck in a morass of meandering, I come away having learned something. I may not have enjoyed reading the whole thing, but it's not time wasted if I learned something.
If it's a novel, though, and it has enormous structural and pacing problems, I'm not learning anything in the meandering but the inside of the author's head. When I'm reading fiction, it's strictly for my own enjoyment. So if I'm not enjoying the hell out of it, I'm wasting my time.
And there are very, very few authors who are any good and write about something that hits me right. This is part of why I no longer have any desire to be an editor. Because almost every book is some level of flawed, from slight to very, and I don't want to spend my life on flawed books. Which is why the fiction I read is usually from a few authors I know I love. Which makes me feel I've lost something of the vividness of my inner life from when I read a hundred some odd novels in a year. But editing has made it impossible for me to read a book without seeing the book I wish this would be, so most novels I read are just...aggravating.
If it's a novel, though, and it has enormous structural and pacing problems, I'm not learning anything in the meandering but the inside of the author's head. When I'm reading fiction, it's strictly for my own enjoyment. So if I'm not enjoying the hell out of it, I'm wasting my time.
And there are very, very few authors who are any good and write about something that hits me right. This is part of why I no longer have any desire to be an editor. Because almost every book is some level of flawed, from slight to very, and I don't want to spend my life on flawed books. Which is why the fiction I read is usually from a few authors I know I love. Which makes me feel I've lost something of the vividness of my inner life from when I read a hundred some odd novels in a year. But editing has made it impossible for me to read a book without seeing the book I wish this would be, so most novels I read are just...aggravating.