Flights of Fantasy discussion

Here's the scenario:

You're drawn to a book by it's cover/title, and you read the blurb. It sounds interesting, and you're ready to hop on board...

But then you see the author name, and your interest grinds to a halt.

You've read something by them before, and you were less than impressed.

But, hey, they could've gotten better, right?

So - what do you do?

LOL I have this problem all the time. It's SUPER frustrating. There are so many authors that I really want to love, and just don't. *sigh*

I have no advice for you. I don't know what I do in those situations myself. It depends on so many different things. But I feel like usually I'm inclined to give a second chance... I just never quite get around to it. LOL

It probably depends on how less than impressed I was. There are middling reads that were reasonably written that just didn't strike me at the time. Something like that would be a definite maybe if there wasn't anything else on my immediate radar. If it was just atrocious then I'd probably ignore it until someone I trust tells me its better than previous reads.

Perhaps try a sample if available, although I never do that. I'm more of a jump in and hopefully swim individual.

I'd probably give the book a chance, but would borrow it from the library instead of buying it.

I've got so much to read that I don't have time for, so it's a stretch for me to try an author I didn't like the first time around. Not saying I wouldn't, but I'd hesitate.

I even have that problem with authors I like, if I read a ho-hum book by them. As I commented in the Ysabel thread, a bad experience has made me gun shy with Kay, even though some of his other books were some of my favorites. Same with Sanderson and Erikson, though in their cases it was more of being buried under excessive pages than anything bad.

Chris - of interest, the author in question is Cherie Priest...

I like Homeinmyshoes's idea of weighing the amount of hate...

Boneshaker was pretty dreadful... but this is a totally different kind of story. :-/


I think I'll mark it as may-read, but keep an eye on reviews before making a decision.

Thanks!

That's funny. I actually thought about her when I read your question.

I immediately thought of GGK, since he's one of our group reads this month, and I didn't love the one book of his that I've read. I didn't dislike it, but I expected to like it more, so now I'm like... "Ehh?"

On the flip side, there are authors that I've never read but love the idea of so much that I have to stop myself from buying all of their books just in the hopes that I love them as much as I think I will. LOL

One of those is Nick Cutter (who, admittedly only has 1 book out right now, but his next book is already getting amazing advance reviews and so it will be on the BUYMENOW!) list. Ben Aaronovitch's Soho series is another one that I had to resist temptation on yesterday. And Hugh Howie's Silo series.

I haven't read any of them, but I'm just SURE I'll love them. Right? (Reality, don't fail me now!)

I don't tend to do that, even back when I did buy books more regularly. (Speaking of, Nan - I agree. I always get my questionable books from the library.)

I always sort of take it book by book.

The very few times I've gotten a whole trilogy, for example, is 'cause there was a sale or something (like when Borders was going out of business), and that bit me in the ass 'cause I didn't like the first book and ditched the other two.

There are some authors I will probably always at least give a chance to their new books (like Gaiman, though I still haven't read his little kids' books) - but I won't buy whole series or anything.

If you haven't, you need to pick up Fortunately, the Milk. It's fun with great illustrations. Even my four-year old has made it through a reading in one sitting.

I think I have only ever purchased more than one book by an author twice. Once was Stephen King back in high school and it happens every now and then with Terry Pratchett with me. Although I am making a conscious decision to not buy any more books for a while.

I am a selfdestructive reader ;) I know an author is bad, but then I want to see for myself if he is still bad, even if there are only bad reviews for the book. And then I end up being frustrated and swearing to myself I will never read the authors books again. But of course, his next book, I will read it just the same ;)

I don't usually buy books by authors I have been burned by. Like Chris, my TBR is way too long.

My problem is that I'll like some books by an author but not all...but I end up buying them all and get disappointed.

And I thought I was a masochist because I force myself through books more often than not...

colleen the contrarian ± (... never stop fighting) ± wrote: "And I thought I was a masochist because I force myself through books more often than not..."

YOu are...

MrsJoseph wrote: "colleen the contrarian ± (... never stop fighting) ± wrote: "And I thought I was a masochist because I force myself through books more often than not..."

YOu are..."


I think it's really just misplaced optimism.

LOL!!

I don't know what to call my actions. I have the entire Dark Company series except books 2 & 3. Then I realized I wasn't a fan when reading book 1...

And I'm tempted to buy the rest of the series just to complete it at this point.

MrsJoseph wrote: "LOL!!

I don't know what to call my actions. I have the entire Dark Company series except books 2 & 3. Then I realized I wasn't a fan when reading book 1...

And I'm tempted to buy the rest of th..."


Ditch the series and sell the books.

Buy the rest and make book art out of them so no-one can ever read them. Mwhahahahahahaha...

There's that, too.


Be careful, though, Homeinmyshoes. Some of these people might get a bit perturbed at the idea of desecrating a book...


ETA: You should build some armour out of paper. ;)

I am usually in the perturbed by desecration camp.

Maybe take all the individual words and re-order them into something tolerable? It's like editing that way. :)

LOL HIMS.

LOL

I've always wanted to make book art.
Problem isn't desecration....
it's....I would only want to make it with something I liked, and I wouldn't want to mess up.
Of course, that defeats the purpose, altogether.
:/

Read a sample, or the first few pages if I'm actually in one of those 'bookshop' things I've heard so much about.

One of the best things about e-books is the free sample.

I often forget about the samples. Guess I'm just not used to this new fangled technology yet. :>

Who needs samples when I see pretty covers??!

^Haha. While I won't buy a book solely based on a cover, I will certainly pick it up and read the enticement summary and it might even colour my perception of the quality of said summary.

Pretty covers have betrayed me so many times...

colleen the contrarian ± (... never stop fighting) ± wrote: "Pretty covers have betrayed me so many times..."



*sings*

"Them covers ain't loyal!"

colleen the contrarian ± (... never stop fighting) ± wrote: "Boneshaker was pretty dreadful... but this is a tota..."

I get that. I was less than impressed by Boneshaker, but those Clockwork Century covers are fantastic and tempting...even though I didn't like Boneshaker I find myself thinking I should pick them up.

That said, I really liked Bloodshot

Personally, I'm a huge Cherie Priest fan. If you're an e-reader, my advice would be to try the free preview chapters of the second book in the series or some of the novellas (which are more like standalones). I think that they are much more palatable to people than Boneshaker was, and an incredibly rich universe.

Her new book, Maplecroft, has been garnering every positive review possible. I read it in a day and found it incredibly well written. But, like I said, I'm a huge fan of what she does. So, grain of salt.

Depends. if it's more than one book that hugely failed in my eyes, then i'd put the book down. but if it was just one book that failed, I tend to give the benefit of the doubt hoping that perhaps they've grown in the writing.
or if one book was bad another was okay, and so forth, and i'm looking for a read to pass the time, i'll pick it up.
so many variables lol

colleen the contrarian ± (... never stop fighting) ± wrote: "Here's the scenario:

You're drawn to a book by it's cover/title, and you read the blurb. It sounds interesting, and you're ready to hop on board...

But then you see the author name, and your in..."

I have a similar issue when I dislike an author (or anyone in the arts & entertainment sector) for non-authorship reasons - mainly politics and/or social issues.
It drives me crazy.

There are two songs I really like by Chris Brown that I have not been able to listen to since the whole Rihanna + domestic violence situation.
While it makes sense to me that I would never buy anything with his name on it again, it seems ridiculous that it also ruined the two songs I had already purchased before hand, yet somehow it did.