I’ve noticed I navigate my entertainment largely by things to avoid. I hate coming of age tales in general and anything involving a school in particular. I despise children-of-destiny stories, which is weird because I’ve always liked prophecies. I avoid books when people talk about the worldbuilding.
This strikes me as strange considering how much of my reading when I was young consisted of a child of destiny who comes of age amid crappy worldbuilding. Maybe it is an acquired sensitivity or something.
Lately short stories, action, and good prose. Short stories are an excellent antidote to the glut of long book series; they don’t allow enough space for fluff, so I find they are consistently better reads. Also lower investment, which is nice. And good prose is good prose, like always.
A year or so ago I read some of Ursula K. Le Guin’s short stories, and that was when I really noticed that there were levels to the whole business. I don’t recall the story, but the scene which struck me was walking down a road in the autumn. I now suspect that depicting banal events well is a mark of craft in the same way as drawing a circle or squaring an edge.
I’ve noticed I navigate my entertainment largely by things to avoid. I hate coming of age tales in general and anything involving a school in particular. I despise children-of-destiny stories, which is weird because I’ve always liked prophecies. I avoid books when people talk about the worldbuilding.
This strikes me as strange considering how much of my reading when I was young consisted of a child of destiny who comes of age amid crappy worldbuilding. Maybe it is an acquired sensitivity or something.
What do you like?
Lately short stories, action, and good prose. Short stories are an excellent antidote to the glut of long book series; they don’t allow enough space for fluff, so I find they are consistently better reads. Also lower investment, which is nice. And good prose is good prose, like always.
A year or so ago I read some of Ursula K. Le Guin’s short stories, and that was when I really noticed that there were levels to the whole business. I don’t recall the story, but the scene which struck me was walking down a road in the autumn. I now suspect that depicting banal events well is a mark of craft in the same way as drawing a circle or squaring an edge.