Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-perfect-read"
The Perfect Read
Provocative title for this post? Maybe? Is there really such a thing as The Perfect Read?
I think there can be but it depends on what you like to read and your mood as you read it.
For example, I will often read something by P.G. Wodehouse in the darker months because I want something lighter to cheer me. It always does and so, whatever I choose by him here, it will be the perfect read.
When I’m reading an author new to me, having been captivated by their blurb, book cover etc, I simply want the book to deliver on its premise. As long as it does that, it will be a perfect read for me.
What I don’t want is to have expectations set up and then not delivered on unless there is a superb twist or something like that, which I always love because I never mind when an author wrong foots me like that.
What I don’t want is a promising book but the author wrong foots me by delivering something which comes across to me as dull. (Mansfield Park by Jane Austen does this for me I’m afraid but I do love her other works).
The perfect read, in a more general sense, always occurs for me when I can get behind the characters, whether I’m rooting for them to succeed or fail. (There is nothing quite so satisfying as booing a good villain, even if I only do so metaphorically!).
I think there can be but it depends on what you like to read and your mood as you read it.
For example, I will often read something by P.G. Wodehouse in the darker months because I want something lighter to cheer me. It always does and so, whatever I choose by him here, it will be the perfect read.
When I’m reading an author new to me, having been captivated by their blurb, book cover etc, I simply want the book to deliver on its premise. As long as it does that, it will be a perfect read for me.
What I don’t want is to have expectations set up and then not delivered on unless there is a superb twist or something like that, which I always love because I never mind when an author wrong foots me like that.
What I don’t want is a promising book but the author wrong foots me by delivering something which comes across to me as dull. (Mansfield Park by Jane Austen does this for me I’m afraid but I do love her other works).
The perfect read, in a more general sense, always occurs for me when I can get behind the characters, whether I’m rooting for them to succeed or fail. (There is nothing quite so satisfying as booing a good villain, even if I only do so metaphorically!).
