Reading and Writing

While in the midst of the kitchen remodel and all the goings on with picking granite (fun) buying new baking supplies (old ones were VERY old) and living in my house as a camper would, with paper plates, BBQing if I want a home-cooked meal and such, I've also been doing a bit of reading.

Now, that's really my favorite thing to do. And as I'm reading this book from a well-known author, with many books in print, I'm finding myself not "into" the book by page 80. That usually doesn't happen -- not with this author. And I'm thinking that if this was the author's first book, perhaps it wouldn't have been published at all. I stayed up and got fully immersed in the book, because I KNOW this author doesn't disappoint, but that thought niggled at me all the while.

There's something to be said about author status and reputation. Because truly, on any given earlier page, 20 or 30 or 50 or even 60, I could have put the book down and never picked it up again. There just wasn't the conflict going on, I didn't care about the characters, nothing intrigued me. Like I said, though wonderfully written, this book broke a lot of rules most authors have to follow to "hook" the audience almost from page one.

And I realized that ONLY because I trust this author to give me a good book and a satisfying ending, that I continued to read. It shouldn't take 80 pages to garner interest, set up conflict and intrigue the reader, but this time it did. So, I guess the author skated, at least for me, due to popular demand, a wonderful reputation and great track record. I hope this doesn't sound like sour grapes. It's not meant to, really. But it just goes to show that paying your dues in the writing world, ultimately pay offs with loyal fans and sometimes, just like in life -- authors get a free ride.