[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

When reading a book, I sometimes I crack a smile because something is particularly funny, or I like a certain passage for some reason and I raise an eyebrow and think about it a bit. That's about it with regard to "being enamored."

Well I guess you can like a story for all different sorts of reasons, and I can almost be heard to chuckle sometimes ... especially reading Terry Pratchett.

I guess by enamored, I mean I really enjoyed a story because it was well written, entertained me without jarring elements that made me struggle to believe.

No doubt the younger more naive I was, the easier to make me believe things. Now being older, I am more educated in life and people, so I question more things ... especially presumptions.

I'm not sure though, if maybe writing for some these days, is too easy, and they feel they can either take it easy and not work as hard at selling all elements of a story, or whether it is just the dictates or beliefs of a publisher or editor, that skew things.

Compare this to my girlfriend giggling continuously, laughing out loud and even squealing when reading a book (and not occasionally; sometimes multiple times per chapter, or even per page), and I often think to myself: "You're overdoing it. It's just a young adult fantasy novel... sjees."

For sure, that is definitely over the top ... but some can't seem to help themselves and need to be quite visceral with their experiences.

Maybe I'm just old and grumpy (already).

Could be. I certainly have my moments I suspect, where I think the author or maybe editor could have tried a bit harder to make you suspend disbelief. I really don't like it when you get thrown out of the illusion whilst reading a story, because the sense of something in it jars ... sometimes quite badly. I have had the same thing happen with movies.

Iron Man 3 was an example of that for me. A main element of the story sucked ... but at least I still enjoyed the action etc.

The perfect book example for me, was I think the 5th book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I thought she and or the editor had lost the plot big time, turning the whole show into a cheap Mills & Boon drama. I persevered until the end of the book, hoping for a reasonable explanation, of why the two main characters were so out of character, that I hated them. But no, I was just left believing it was a deliberate sellout. I've not read any of that series since or indeed any of her other work. None of it was helped by a few things she did elsewhere earlier in the series, that jarred ... the start of the second book in particular ... which I was able to get around with by taking notes to rearrange things, then coming back to start again a few months later, reading things in the proper order ... she did rather spoil things though, so I did not enjoy that book as much as I should have.