Tuesday, February 16, 2010

What are you reading?


Okay, today were going to try something new. Today, I want to hear from you. I want to know what books you are reading and enjoying. I want to know how you came to read the book. Was it recommended? Were you drawn to it by the cover? What kind of covers to do you like? Any covers you don’t like? Did you read a review and think it sounded good and just had to get it?

Then I want to know what pulls you into a book? Is it the characters? Is it the plot? Do you always read a certain type of book? Or do you venture out in different genres?

How long do you give a book to pull you in? Do you read the first page and if it doesn’t’ grab you, do you toss it? Or do you give the book one chapter? And make sure you tell me if you are also a writer. I think writers sometimes read differently.

And because I never expect you to answer questions that I don’t, here are my answers:

I recently read Susan Andersen’s, Bending The Rules. I loved it. I’ve bought, Lori Wilde’s “The Sweetheart’s Knitting Club” but I haven’t read it yet. I also bought Susan E. Phillips latest book and haven’t read it yet either. I read six "Rita" books, but because it's a contest, I can't tell you the names. But I had several that were really good.

These above authors are pretty much automatic buys for me. But I do regularly pick up books just because of the cover. I will then read the back cover blurb and a few pages before I invest in it. I think I buy most of my books due to recommendations. Someone will say, “This author was so good.” And I’ll have to go find out for myself. I also read Romantic Times Magazine and will sometimes read a review and then go pick up the book. Do any of you read Romantic Times Magazine?

What pulls me into a book is a character that I want to love. It can be either the hero or heroine, but they need to intrigue me. It can be a great plot, but if I don’t care about the people, I will probably set it down. I read across the board in all genres: historicals, contemporaries, young adult, and paranormal. But not a whole lot of fantasy. I will give a book about 25 pages and if it hasn’t pulled me by then, it usually gets placed in my “maybe someday” pile. There’re too many in that pile right now. And since I did clean off some of the books I'm probably not going to read, I will be shopping for some great reads to build up my to-be-read pile. So come on, recommend some great reads and educate me in how you choose a book.

Oh, and because I always try to offer one little chuckle: My son, who is in Pennsylvania at school, called me the other day and said, “Mom, something is wrong with my refrigerator.”
“What is it?” I asked.
He said, “It doesn’t produce food like the one we have at home. I keep opening the door and checking, but it’s just not working.”

Hey, you gotta love those kids. Now, make sure you let me know what books you are reading.

CC

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Christie ! You should definitely read the Lori wilde and the SEP books !
Now what I read and LOVED lately :

- Her Secret Fling by Sarah Mayberry. She writes the best category romance imho. I'm a real fan, if you haven't tried yet you should definitely do so.

- Lessons From A Scarlet Lady by Emma Wildes. Very good book. What happens when a proper lady decides to spice things up in the bedroom with her duke ? You'll have to read it to find out.

- The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins. I loved this book although it was painful. The epilogue did make up for all that pain though. Plus there is some humor too (albeit not as much as in the other KH's books).

- Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. I LOVED this book. It's a YA romance with a latino gang member for a hero. The story rings true and the characters are impossible to resist. There is a sequel coming out next april and I'm literally counting the days.

Hellie Sinclair said...

Sometimes I will discard a book after the first page or chapter, esp if the premise is something I can't suspend into the fantasy for.

For instance, I'm tired of Regency misses roaming around country houses at night to seduce eligible bachelors. Drives. Me. Crazy. I just can't buy into it 90210 behavior in 1810. Or the virginal Regency miss who's more in touch with her sexuality than I am, like some sort of sexually inexperienced Paris Hilton.

So if the book goes in that direction, I will usually discard it early. However, I did pick up again a book of this nature--I had discarded it--but this time managed to read to the end. It was good. Then I read the other two in the series. All three were good; and the voice of the author was compelling. I admire her voice. (Her 90210 characters? Not overly.) The third in the series was my favorite, featuring archetypes I love: the puritan and the rake. And the author made the puritan absolutely ridiculous; and the hero was ridiculous for the lengths he went to accommodate her.

I tried another new debut, and though I've read about five chapters, it's not compelling; and the voice is not so good that I have to keep reading. Not enough real conflict, I guess, or something.

I just got done reading the first book of the Percy Jackson series, to see if I'd want to see the movie. I loved it! I didn't think I would--I'm not big into Greek myth (aside from Sherrilyn Kenyon novels); and I don't like boy fantasy a lot. But this went FAST and the voice was excellent. The voice was too mature for any 12 year old I knew though...so I aged him up a little in my head. *LOL*

I'm about to read Connie Brockway's The Golden Season. Brockway is a hit or miss with me, but this heroine is different from the typical do-gooder heroine, so I might be okay with it.

I read a lot of historical romance (except historicals with dukes--I am so tired of dukes). And I love historical fiction too (Susan Holloway). YA novels have been great lately.

I tend to veer from category books; or contemporaries (because contemporaries is usually AKA for "suspense" or "cop with a gun" romances. And I prefer contemporaries where the hero is not that guy.) I like contemporaries that are more "chick lit" like.

I veer from books with dogs in them. And children (usually). So if I see a dog on the cover, I go past it.

I now veer past Stephanie Plum novels as well. They were different and they were hilarious. But the heroine didn't ARC...she didn't grow. Tinkle or get off the pot.

I look for funny; I look for VOICE; I look for "can I believe this might have happened?" (which incidentally makes my CP crazy--"It's fantasy"--no, it's gotta be probable, okay?); I look for bad boys or rakes; I look for really well done love scenes.

Tori Lennox said...

Right now I'm re-reading Dick Francis' The Edge since he passed away this week. It's the only book of his I own but it's a good one. I hadn't read it in a long time, so mostly forgot whodunit which is a plus. :)

Suzan Harden said...

LOL I'm all over the place.

Just finished Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Silver Bullet. Ben proposed to Kitty. Yeah!

Started Charlaine Harris's Grave Secret. Not a lot of folks like the romance between Harper and her step-brother Tolliver, but I think it works.

Had to re-read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prarie and read Laurence Yep's Cockroach Cooties in order to test the kid's reading comprehension

The bedside book I'm still working on is Stepahnie Meyer's Eclipse. Even if something's not to my taste, I think it's important to understand what attracts a best-seller audience.

And now that I FINALLY got it back from my husband, I want to finish Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope.

Then there's the gigantic stacks of TBR piles in various rooms. LOL

Hellie Sinclair said...

The bedside book I'm still working on is Stepahnie Meyer's Eclipse. Even if something's not to my taste, I think it's important to understand what attracts a best-seller audience.

I think this is so true.

The Twilight series isn't really to my tastes (and if I had to pick, I'd pick Jacob), but I can read it and understand why it's so popular to a degree.

Rashda Khan said...

I'm reading Waifs and Strays by Charles De Lint. He's a fantasy writer I'd heard a lot about, and am glad that I'm finally reading.

Recently finished books include: The Book of Unholy Mischief, Ghouls just haunt to have fun, Don of the Dead, The Crack in the Lens, and The Red Tree.

Hmm, I'm all over the place. And yes, I write...

Christie Craig said...

Emmanuelle,

Love your list. You should write reviews. LOL. You make them all sound very intriguing.

CC

Christie Craig said...

MsHellion,

You got a great list of what you like and don't like. That's good that you have a sense of it.

As for me and believablity. The writer has to help me suspend belief if it's pushes the envelope. I'm not too hard to convince, but if you even try to make me believe, I get frustrated, too.

Thanks for sharing.

CC

Christie Craig said...

Tori,

Enjoy his book is his honor. Thanks for sharing.

CC

Christie Craig said...

Suzan,

You amaze me, girl. I don't see how you have time to get it all done.

Hey...I'm feeling another chocolate martini day coming soon.

CC

Christie Craig said...

MsHellion,

I did enjoy Twilight, loved the characterization, but it did move a tad slower than I thought a YA should, but I still really liked it.

CC

Christie Craig said...

RK,

You are all over the place. I like it when I hear this, too. I think if we read across genres, we broaden our taste and open ourselves up to so much more.


Thanks for stopping in.

CC

Kristi said...

Right now I'm reading Yasmine Galenorns Chintz & China series. It's a paranormal cozy mystery. I belong to Paperbackswap.com and someone on there recommended them.

There are 5 in the series and I'm on book 5. I like all the main characters. I also just finished Poor Little Bitch Girl by Jackie Collins. It wasn't her best but I give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

I read paranormal,fantasy,contempary, thrillers, cozy mysteries and historical fiction.

I just bought Into The Wilderness by Sara Donati (book 1 of 7) (historical fiction) and my favorite series ever is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.

I usually give a book at least a chapter before I quit but I have had a couple I quit 100+ pages in. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown was one of them.

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Dru said...

I just finished Dead by Midnight by Beverly Barton and now i'm reading If Books Could Kill by Kate Carlisle.

Both books are part of a continuing series.

A lot goes into why I pick up a book in addition to the authors I enjoy. The cover is going to pull me to the shelf or give a closer look. The synopsis will get me closer still and that line or two will bring to the checkout line.

Becky LeJeune said...

I just finished Mo Hayder's latest UK release, Gone. I'm a HUGE fan of her work and have been ordering them from overseas rather than wait for her US releases.

I also just finished Molly Harper's Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs, a humorous paranormal romance that was a lot of fun. And Richelle Mead's Succubus Blues, another paranormal that was also super fun.

I'm a total book junkie so it doesn't take much to get me to read a book. I read reviews (Romantic Times included), author recs, and other reader recs. I'm drawn to cover art and good cover copy as well.

I try not to abandon reads. Usually if I do, it's because it's just taking too long for me to read. Sometimes it's circumstances (travel reading is hard for me for some reason. Travel reads get abandoned more than others for me.) and sometimes it's mood. Most of the time I'll come back to it eventually.