Reading Through the Eyes of a Writer - Guest Post written by Ria Majumdar

When Ria Majumdar suggested she write a piece about how writers read as a guest post I jumped at the chance. While T.T.P. doesn't typically wander into this territory, she's done a great job at capturing why I found myself keeping this blog in the first place. But that's enough from me. Frankly speaking, Ria does a better job explaining it then I ever could.   

We all love reading books. If that had not been the case then you wouldn’t be hanging around on a blog that deals with book reviews, unless of course, you are stalking me…

But have you ever read a book that was so good, I mean, so insanely out-of-this-world that it left an imprint on your brain? In fact was the book so exhilarating that it sparked the urge to write something similarly extraordinary in you? An urge that didn’t let you rest since that day so badly that you have been churning out one crap story after another in pursuit of that golden story that would land you in the ranks of that one book that changed your life?

Well, if you have experienced this (like me with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) then congratulations, you are a writer.

Writers have always been voracious readers. We read, cry over the fact that we aren’t good enough, and read more. Well, the cycle can be crueler with you tearing up your manuscript after finishing a particularly awesome book because you realized that your writing sucks big time.

Anyway, this is how a writer reads:-

1. Goes to a book shop and browses through the volumes until their flying fingers land upon a book that “calls to them” (read: has an amazing cover and that’s why drew attention). Yup, they say don’t judge a book by its cover but don’t we all do just that?
2. Turns the book over and reads the blurb. If it sounds intriguing then turns to the first page and reads a few paragraphs.
3. Stops reading because they are getting hooked and realize that their own manuscript at home is a crappy excuse for a novel.
4. Reads the quotes of authors and magazine editors who read the book and found it hot and happening and imagines their own book described in such mushy terms, then frowns as the suspicion that maybe these people were paid to write such good stuff clouds their mind.
5. Hushes the sarcastic insights and buys the book.
6. Reads it in one sitting if it’s good and cries over how crappy their manuscript is.
   
   
   OR 
   
   
   Reads the book halfway and laughs at the contents if it’s bad. Then feels overjoyed that they are really, really, really good at writing until their family turns up to beat out the enthusiasm. (We are woefully misunderstood folk.)
   
   
7. Repeats process… on an e-reader now because we are all modern, aren’t we? 

So that’s how we writers read, petting the green cat of jealousy as we enjoy the magic woven in words.

How do you read? Ever felt the spark I was talking about earlier? Do share your thoughts in the comments below.

About the Author:-

Ria Majumdar is a writer, reader, blogger and undergraduate dentist. She loves her library, which is currently overflowing with books and thinks it’s too weird to write about her own self in third person. So hi, if you want to read more of what I write, feel free to jump over to my blog The Spyglassviewer (http://spyglassviewer.wordpress.com) and enjoy some of my dry humor!

'Red Rain' by R.L. Stine

Back in the days of my elementary school's mobile book fair, R.L. Stine was starting to make waves with his, at the time brand new, series Goosebumps. It was enjoyable to a point. It always embodied a fun, campy spookiness, and each installment was always liberally littered with entirely unbelievable premises. Yet, even though I enjoyed them I never considered myself a great fan. I would argue that it was because by that age I'd already read half of Stephen King's offerings, and those - especially his earlier works - are truly the stuff of nightmares, so I'd already been desensitized to the spook in Stine's work.

Fast forward a few decades and I found myself intrigued by Stine's latest effort, 'Red Rain' in, dare I say it, the adult horror genre. To tell the truth I can't say I walked into it with particularly high expectations... in fact, I'd remembered so little of his writing style from before that I approached this much like I would a newly minted author.

But then I remember something: The only reason I ever went out of my way to get my hands on anything from Goosebumps was because my mom would always give me ten bucks to spend at the book fair. I'm not sure if you remember your grade school book fairs but the ones I attended were explosions of Lissa Frank (not interested), some series about twins named Jessica and Samantha (Sweet Valley High I think?) and other assorted garbage like locker mirrors, calendars, posters of Saved by The Bell actors and - oh yeah, a handful of semi-interesting books.

Why am I telling you this?*

Well, it turns out that I didn't really like R.L. Stine much growing up either - but when I saw this new title come up a yearning of nostalgia came with it. Unfortunately, for this title, it fell flatter then his kids books ever did.

Was the logo the scariest part of that series?

The premise of adorable twins being swiftly adopted by travel writer Lea and transplanted from their island home to suburban family life is so mundane it hurts. The writing is blocky, pedantic, technical and entirely devoid of a sense of humor. The characters are flat and predictable. What's worse than any of that is that it failed to scare me even once. No sharp intake of breathe, no struggle with myself on whether it would be best to keep reading and find out what happens or put it down and get a glass of water. None of that.

Overall, this one was dead, dry and boring. A book that I would imagine being a tough sell to even the most die-hard now adult Goosebumps fan. My final advise? Steer clear.

*I can almost hear you screaming at me to get to the point already! But you need to allow me a little time - I mean, we are deconstructing part of my childhood here.

'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' by Laini Taylor

'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' by Laini Taylor has to be the best book in the YA, Fantasy genre I've read all year. In fact, it was so good that within minutes of finishing up the last page I swung into the Kindle Storefront and preordered the 'Days of Blood and Starlight' - book two due out on November 6th.

Main character Karou with her natural blue hair, hand drawn chimaera comics and secret double life is hard to resist. Likeable and dubbed with a name that literally translates into the very thing she comes to embody its easy to become submerged in her story and get swept away as the story unfolds.

Even the supporting characters like Brimstone, Akiva, Zuzana and Issa are vital to the story and have a tendency of being much different and more complicated than how they're originally presented. With the entire cast of characters serving their own desires and purposes genuinely, this book quickly comes to life as a story filled with everyone fighting their own internal battles while struggling to shape a better world - all with Karou somehow caught unaware and in the middle. 

If you're looking for the next, great fantasy with a romantic flair, you can't let this title pass you by... but you might want to wait until early November when you can pick up both titles and save yourself the wait!

'The Hangman's Daughter' by Oliver Pötzsch

'The Hangman's Daughter' by Oliver Pötzsch takes the prize for the best book I've read in a long, long time, and to be honest that surprised me. Not only was this an historical fiction, a genre that I'm not terribly invested (or interested) in, but it was originally written in German and brought over for my reading pleasure in a rather excellently executed English translation.

In what I understand is the first of many in this series*, we find Kuisl, a hangman born from a line of hangmen, his beautiful, brilliant, but cursed, daughter Magdalena, and Simon, a fancy-pants city type whose trained at the university (but never graduated) to be a doctor (like his father) but instead of making a proper name for himself has the misfortune of respecting the Hangman, and loving his daughter. Watching the interplay of these three main characters against the hugely gratifying story that includes but is not limited to a murder, a witch hunt, a political scandal and the impeding doom of the local rulers visit is nothing short of fabulous. 

If you like a good mystery, a good love story or just a good all-star novel, this one is for you. If you need vampires or some young-adult fancy to your fiction... well... I know a good vampire series that's worth your time.

*I can honestly say this is probably the first series I've gotten truly excited about in a long time - and probably the first time I've gotten excited about one that didn't really leave my head spinning over some crazy cliff-hanger. I actually want to read it because I've seriously enjoyed the Hardy-boy-esk nature of the books. This one is good folks - read it.

'The Fever Series', 5 Books by Karen Marie Moning

Before starting this review I feel like I need to make an admission: I needed to force myself to write it. 

When I started writing these reviews a few months ago I promised myself (and the lovely ladies of B4R who will take away my book privileges if I don’t post a review for the monthly reads *gasp!*) that I’d review every title, in any genre, no matter what my opinion of the read. But after nearly a month of typing something out, deleting everything, starting over (with a disappointed little huff), and letting this review discourage me from getting on with my reading, my reviewing and my life, I realized that sometimes you just gotta plow ahead. Write what comes to mind and readers be damned (not you of course – just saying).

Not that I haven’t had trouble getting my opinion coherently expressed in a post before, but for whatever reason ‘The Fever Series’ by KarenMarie Moning was both tough to read through and equally as difficult to write about, but here’s the true conundrum folks: these books weren’t poorly written. They weren’t filled with plot holes. The characters were colorful and even the unlikeable ones were well developed. The idea unique and the world was new. 

So what was the problem? Well – it’s the little things that nag at me. Take the protagonist for instance. MacKayla Lane is cut from the same cloth, heck, she’s cut from the same exact fabric pattern, as Sookie Stackhouse. Now I know what you’re thinking. “But you love the Southern Vampire Novels!”

Yes. Yes I do. 

But Mac just feels wrong. I don’t know how else to put it. She takes all the snotty, stuck-up, self-centered and truly unremarkable pieces of Sookie and leaves most of the character growth and warmth behind. However, having an unlikeable pink princess for a lead isn’t the only piece of ‘Fever’ that left me scratching my head.

Ireland felt wrong too. It truly felt like the only places in the whole of Dublin were Temple Bar and not Temple Bar. None of the characters really spoke like the Irish – that is to say the author didn’t use any real modern Irish lingo to color their heritage appropriately. Instead, the dialogue would reflect a strange twang that seemed more uneducated than accent. 

Lastly, there’s the character of Barrons. Oh Barrons – a beast of a man that MacKayla can’t get her barring on. I could probably dissect the relationship here in detail but I’ll save you the long form and just say this: On some level Barrons reminded me of Christian Grey. Not because he had some kinky, distorted, bondage fascination, but because he possessed that same odd need to control everything about Mac.

And that’s it everyone. Overall, the five books in that make up the ‘Fever’ series are good enough to recommend to people who enjoy the fantasy, young adult genre. My personal feelings of the two main characters aside, it was well done and the ending was a clever surprise, but I won’t be rereading them anytime soon.

This Months Waiting List

Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that the title of this T.T.P. segment has changed. What once was the Weekly Waiting List is now the new and improved Monthly Waiting List! Not only will you find out what's currently in my Kindle hopper, but I'll try and shed some light into what else you'll be seeing reviews for (i.e. things I've already read but have been too busy/tired/lazy to get a review up for yet) and why I might not have gotten through everything in my last queue.

So, let's start from the bottom of that list and work our way backwards, shall we? Bottom line is I didn't get to all the weekly reads because the goal of four books in a week was just a slight bit of an overreach. Turns out that in a normal week I can easily get through two titles, three in a stretch, four or more if, and only if, it co-stars my favorite blonde viking vampire*. That and two other titles (Blood of Anteros, (still feel absolutely gypped by that one) and the finale of Forest of Hands and Teeth), in conjunction with an entire five book series by Karen Moning did a fantastic job of preventing me from hitting my lofty, entirely unattainable, goal. So even though an entire month has practically flown by the Hangman's Daughter is only 50% completed - as an aside its absolutely one of the best books I've read all year and I'm embarrassed to admit that it's been shoved out of the way twice now so that I could get through other titles.

And that's the long and the short of it! Finger's crossed you'll see reviews up in the next week or so for the only outstanding title from last month, Hangman's Daughter and another for The Fever Series by Karen Moning (don't think I'll split this one into multiple reviews... nope... no I won't do it).

Enough of the excuses though. Here are the four titles I know I'm going to be churning through over the next thirty days:

1. 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' by Laini Taylor
2. 'The Casual Vacancy' by J.K. Rowling
3. 'Red Rain' by R.L. Stine
4. 'Something from the Nightside' by Simon R. Green

A bit of a departure from the Y.A. that's been hogging up my time for the last... oh... three months now and I'm excited to take a bit of a break from it to be honest.

*Fun fact: The first time I picked up a Southern Vampire Mystery I literally got through all ten books over the course of seven days. No - I don't just sit at home all day and read thank-you-very-much. I've got bills to pay and a full time job to do it. But thinking about it now... I'm not sure that I slept much that week.

'Madly' (Madly #1) by M. Leighton

Before sitting down to 'Madly' book #1 in the aptly named Madly series by M. Leighton I'd absolutely no idea what it was about but a friend recommended it, and, if you've been around these parts for any length of time, I'll read just about anything that someone throws in my general direction. This title about Madly James and her world steeped in fairy tale lore is no exception.

At first, two things struck me. The cover being the first. Now I know what you're thinking - this is a book review, not a cover review. Don't worry, I'm not an artist or outragouesly talented marketer so I won't spend too long on it - but the cover turned me off.  Too me it looked cheap, more like a manga cover than any serious fiction I'd ever picked up. The second was how short it was. Only one hundred pages? I thought - well, if I didn't like it than at least it would be an extremely short term commitment.

While I still pretty much hate the cover art, this is a good lesson in putting covers aside and reading the material before passing judgement. Even more impressive was that I got to the last page of this fast paced introductory novella in just under an hour and was disappointed that I'd need to get my hands on the next volume to keep going.

Will I pick up Madly & Wolfhardt (Madly, #2)? Most likely, equally terrible cover and all.

Should you pick up 'Madly'? Well - if you've burned yourself out on young adult fantasy romance then I'd probably steer clear for now. But if you can get past the cover and want to read something in this genre that isn't about vampires or werewolves you've got the green light - just do yourself a favor and make sure to have book two queued up and ready to go!