Thread: I'm the PICKIEST reader you'll meet.

Hey everyone!

I want you all to know that I am absolutely in LOVE with writing, but the odd thing is... I DESPISE READING. Despise it! Absolutely a torture to make me read. I never get into books, I find them useless. I only read fiction books, IF I read...

Now I want some of YOU to help ME, please.

Here is what I usually look for in a story:

A QUICK Climax.
Learn the characters through HOW they DEAL with a climax, not learn them, then see how they do.
Quick Scenes. [I despise when it takes more than 1-3 pages describing a place, or a scene.]
I LOVE DIALOUGE. All of my stories are FILLED with Dialogue.

So pretty much my main incentive to read would be that the story gets interesting within a few pages, literally. I hate series, usually because the authors believe "Oh, I have 8 books to write, I might as well make the first 3 just an introduction." When in reality, I can't even read three pages as an introduction!

I hope someone finds something for me, because I am convinced that reading stories like such as I have described my definitely inspire my to write much better than I ever have.

Thank you if you read this, and if you reply, thank you much more..


Triple A.

Well, I am equally a picky reader and I most commonly end up reading non-fiction which makes me even more critical; not a big fan of snooze writing.
However, I would have to say that my all-time favorite book was Jack London's "The Iron Heel". It is a very politically inclined book considering it was a dystopian novel, however it was very well thought out and intellectually superior to most counterparts.

If you could give me a sub-genre to fiction, then I could probably be of more help.

Try shorter fiction. I'm waiting on Colm Toibhin's The Empty Family, which is a collection of stories rather than the traditional novel. Sometimes I find it hard to commit to reading a novel, due to time constraints - exacerbated since I started writing on an almost daily basis. I prefer writing shorter fiction because when I begin I can already see the end, and I think it's the same when I read. Having said that I'm halfway through a highly detailed history of the Falklands conflict, which is time consuming, though eye-opening at the same time.

I DESPISE READING.

And who said you must enjoy it? Sometimes things need to be done. I write and enjoy it sometimes, though others I do it because I feel as though I must, that there's a story waiting to be told and no-one else will tell it if I don't. I enjoy the end product and the achievement more than I enjoy the process, sometimes, and others the opposite is true. If that can be so for writing, why can't it be so for reading. The book on the Falklands conflict I mentioned, and other military history books I've read, they're not easy reading and aren't published to be enjoyed, but to distinguish between truth and myth, and simply to tell the story.

Thanks for starting this thread. It's nice to see that I am not alone. I can not read the same author two books in a row. I get bored with their writing style. I despise flowery description. My writing tends to be 50% dialogue and much of the rest is narrative summary of dialogue just so the entire book is not a series of quotation marks. I have a theory that my style of writing would be very popular among people who do not read books. Most of my reading is non-fiction which is reflected in my fiction writing since I write long on facts and short on emotion and opinion. I would just as soon not be bothered by a character's emotional baggage. I'm focussed on what they do and I really don't care how they feel about it. Does this make me a terrible person?

I can't think of any books that fall into that category. What was the last book you read that you liked?

Most of the other stuff you said about series just strikes me as a gross generalization. I would think for a series to be popular and enduring (Harry Potter comes to mind), each book still must have a structure, rising conflict, and climax.

Also, your point about climax is interesting. Doesn't a climax get its potency from all the conflicts that have come before?

And character. Isn't what they do the result of who they are?

Try Matthew Reilly. His pace is so fast its exhausting just reading the book. I'd start with hover car racer. Any of the scarecrow novels are also good. His recent work is less impressive, trying to imitate Dan Brown a bit much.

Stay away from anything fantasy.

I don't despise reading but I am picky about my novels. If it is not going anywhere within the first few chapters I stop reading. Generally I have most often read non fiction, but have been reading more fiction lately for research into how writers write, and how stories unfold.

I love reading and consequently I love writing.

I love reading but I'm finding the more I learn through reading the more difficult it is for me to stay interested in what I'm reading. If I get 5 books at the library, there's a chance I'll only end up reading one of them, if that. It's frustrating because a lot of novels first few pages tend to hook you but then that's all they have and it dwindles from there. I personally don't like drawn out introductions. I like to be hooked right away and preferably stay hooked. I hate long descriptions and pointless scenes that don't move the story along. I don't know how many times I've read characters just going to a party/bar/etc. and they just talk about pointless shit. It's aggravating to get through half the novel and it just loses it's steam so you have to put it down and move on. I hate that.

I just really love a good meaty story with lots of twists and turns. I hate long chapters. I like to see things moving along at a reasonable pace. I seem to only really be interested in conspiracy and dystopian fiction and I'm find those harder to come by but even with that, I'm still picky. I absolutely hate first person but... there are exceptions. Right now, I've been reading kindles on Amazon. The only downside is I hate reading on the computer and you can't print it so I end up only reading a chapter or two a day. I need to get myself a kindle.