A while ago I blogged about finding books. This is an off shoot of that discussion. I'm traveling again and I thought I'd look for a book set in Portugal. I still don't have a great way of finding books, but I started trolling through a Good Reads list.
The title of this blog was a phrase in a review, a glowing review I might add. For me, this phrase tells me it's probably not what I'm looking for at the moment. I don't want to explore anyone's consciousness -- I've got plenty of work with my own, thanks.
I generally avoid overly popular books unless someone I know I share reading interests tells me it's worth the journey.
It doesn't seem quite fair that I complain about not finding books I enjoy and yet don't want to read the "experiemental and unique" or highly literary. Those are phrases that make feel the ponderous emotional baggage of the book before I open the cover.
I totally get that this is a category of highly acclaimed books that many, many people enjoy. It's just generally not for me.
In a similar way, the phrase love triangle, undying, unbounding, forsaken, forbidden, or any other adjective followed by the word love, isn't in my scope right now either. I had a phase of that and for the moment and as far as I can tell I've left it behind.
So do you have certain catch phrases or descriptors that as soon as you see them you know a book is or is not for you? Am I guilty of stereotyping?
I think that sort of stereotyping is fair. Specific words are codes for what specific needs or desires the story will address, and if those needs do not match what you are looking for in a book, why waste the time?
ReplyDeleteIn any form of narrative entertainment the word "cerebral" is a red flag to me. It's supposed to indicate how intelligent the work is, but in my opinion it usually means that the work is not entertaining but has other redeeming qualities that I do not care about.