I don't know about you but I've about had it with all the reality shows on tv. I mean, how unreal can they get? Real Housewives for example, you know any housewives who act like that?
Thing is, I get enough reality every day by myself, I don't need to watch it, or what some producer thinks is reality. I deal with the reality of finances, high grocery prices, higher gas prices, children, cats, dog, deadlines, cooking and cleaning. It's my own version of Survivor every day.
So, I read to escape my reality for just a while. And I think that's why many, many others read. Starting as low as .99 I can find a book on Kindle (I don't have one but I have the kindle for pc thing) and read on the computer. I can pay a little over $5 at walmart for a paperback, then sit in the shade outside and read myself away. It's like a vacation but not near as costly. Sure, there's no hunky pool boy to rub suntan oil in for me and bring a cool drink with an umbrella in it but at least I don't have to pack and unpack.
Which brings me to my point today. We have to do our very best to deliver the kind of story that takes the reader on vacation. But many times, we mess that up. We throw in humongous words when small ones will do. We have sentences that run on for paragraphs and are hard to understand. We hop from one character's head to another without warning the reader or we leave out dialogue tags so it's hard to keep up with who's saying what. All these things distract the reader from the story and we don't want that. Reading shouldn't be hard. Sure, there's times and topics that are hard to read/understand but those aren't escapism reading.
It's been a while since I found a book that totally swept me away. One that sucked me in and didn't let go until the last page, that made me forget about everything but the characters. But, I'm still looking. And I'm seriously trying to write one.
What about you? What have you read lately that made you forget reality for a while?
6 comments:
I just finished "Where She Went" by Gayle Forman and that was a book I couldn't put down. There's some beautiful writing and just raw emotion on those pages. It was fantastic.
Poetry does it for me...Billy Collins is my favorite contemporary poet. Simple, profound, inspiring.
Every story (as long as it's told well) always draws me away from reality. My audiobooks definitely keep me from going insane during the long drive to and from work.
Great meeting you through the A-Z!
nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com
Love the blog title and the computer companions!
I hate reality shows. In fact, I barely watch any television at all.
I am currently reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I am enjoying it so far. It is written so realistically that the characters seems real. And the best part is, when I have a bad day I can think, "it could be worse. I could be in their shoes instead." A bit sad at points but shows the complexity of relationships and the "human condition".
I'm with you on the "reality" shows. They're so unrealistic as to be rediculous. And I also agree on books that take me into their world. I don't enjoy reading books that contains words or language that makes me feel I need a dictionary in one hand and a bottle of sanitizer in the other.
Gayle Trent writes wonderfully uncomplicated, clean mysteries that keeps the reader engaged.
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