Oh, I Loved That Book!

I love books, and I love talking about books. There are times when I see someone reading a book and I want to stop them--a complete stranger, mind you, and gush about how much I loved the book they're reading, but I don't usually. I hate spoilers, and I wouldn't want to ruin the book in some minor way for that person. So I have mixed feelings about reading in public. I don't want someone to ruin the book for me in any way, like when I was reading one of the Harry Potter books at about 12:30 in the morning of its release and someone walked by and said, "Oh, I heard so-and-so dies in this one." WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!? unless you're some sort of sadist. I mean, come on. So that's an obvious breach of etiquette...but the seemingly harmless "oh, I loved that book!" gush can be just as annoying. There are some books where if you'd really read the book you just would not do that. Instead, knowing how traumatic the book was for you, how treacherous some books can be just to reach the climax and ultimately the finale with your heart still in one piece...you wouldn't be so exuberant and bouncy with words like "love". You would gently lay a hand on their forearm or maybe their shoulder and look deep into their eyes with strength and understanding and maybe not say anything at all. Just nod in understanding. Maybe your eyes would tear up a little. But you have to be careful with that. The reader might be just at that breaking point and the teary eyes might push them over the edge and you might have to sit there with them for a moment as they grab hold of you in a bear hug and sob uncontrollably. And you'll know because you'd been there before.

If I Had Any Spare Time with Books That Would Like to Live in Another Form

I came across this blog post and thought it was amazing. I thought it was even better when I found out that no one knows who the artist is as s/he leaves the artwork behind with a little note to the organization or about the piece. It makes me want to read these books, which may have been the point behind making the pieces. I especially want to read the one about the dragon if it exists, which I think it might not yet.

The Help

I am in a book club, and the pick for last month was The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I liked it well enough, but what I found annoying was the fact that she needed a better editor. The character descriptions were inconsistent and some of the story left me feeling short changed. Instead of investing a little more on the outcome of a certain character, that character was just killed off. It's not that I particularly loved the character or anything, but it was a pretty decent part of what motivated the main character. I think that character deserved a little more than "oh, she died." The story was good, though. What I found I could take away from this book, though, was the need for me to work hard to maintain consistency in my own writing. I saw a few tricks other people did when I was reading the review for a book I was thinking about purchasing. The author was talking about author rituals and how she used to have one and had heard of other rituals other authors do. One I found interesting was making a collage for each of the characters to incorporate what they look like, their likes, etc. I think I may try this. I don't really have much room to display them while I'm working on my novel, but I think it would be better to keep it small enough to put in a file that I can carry around with me. Maybe I should put Photoshop on this laptop and create digital versions or I could scan the physical ones I create. So many options...oh, dear, could this turn into a procrastination method?