I finished that book I mentioned earlier in the week--A Discovery of Witches. I was pretty much into it at first and then . . . I wasn't. I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe in the end I really, really don't understand all this eroticism surrounding vampires. I can just never quite get the image of Bela Lugosi in Plan Nine from Outer Space out of my head. And wow. Cold skin? No thank you.
So there's that.
The other thing is this. The book was long--like maybe 600-700 pages. And yet after the first 100 pages or so--which did a good job of setting up an interesting story--nothing much happened. It's like the characters were going to yoga classes (literally--the characters actually were going to yoga classes in England), waiting for something bad to happen.
Okay. This is not a general dis of editors. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I'M SINCERE WHEN I SAY THAT, EDITORS OF AMERICA, BECAUSE I STILL WANT YOU TO BUY MY BOOKS. But sometimes I wonder what's happening in the world of editing these days. I often read books that make me shake my head and go, "What this book really needed was a good editor." As in an editor who can help an author focus and tighten a story. I'm not saying there's not a place for looooooong books. But I am saying there are too many of them these days.
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2 comments:
I have heard mixed reviews on this book. I haven't read it so can't offer my opinion.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I just read The Film Club, and it enjoyable to read. It was under 230 pages long. It was non-fiction, but it was a story of a father and son and movies...and no vampires. Good job, editors.
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