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Every novel is boring until it isn't

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11–20 of 78 posts

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#11

The key to enjoying novels is to read them in long enough sittings to get into the flow state. If you only read a couple pages at a time between doomscrolling sessions, it will feel like a chore. Anything would.

There was a rule a fourth grade teacher of mine had that she used in her English class to try and get some of the less literate kids up to par. That rule was embodied by the name she gave it, "Thirty minutes thirty pages." She gave them thirty minutes to read thirty pages of a book. A minute a page. Considering most of them were choosing things like Goosebumps that were only a hundred and twenty pages or so it was an easy enough ask. But because she set it as a challenge so many of them went blasting beyond that. Many would finish half the book during that thirty minute reading period. The interesting thing I didn't pick up on until years later as an adult was that it was also slow enough that they could actually understand and remember what they were reading rather than just blasting through it. It left the slower readers with enough time and didn't make them feel like they were falling behind while encouraging them to learn how to read faster.

Many modern adult book series are six hundred pages or more for a single installment with about four hundred words a page versus the maybe hundred and fifty of a children's book like Goosebumps. Since it's three to four times the text that makes thirty pages thirty minutes actually viable as a self challenge even as an adult.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oof, maybe don't. A lot of them are written directly for children, which they mostly work for, but only later bits have stuff mostly for adults and are vaguely worth analysing.

Don't what? I enjoy a lot of media written for children. Trollhunters / Tales of Arcadia, Miraculous Ladybug, Max Steel, My Little Pony (G4), Sonic Prime, etc. Though I tend to prefer media that respects intelligence rather than pure babyslop. Max Steel in particular was so untargeted to adults that it's nearly lost media. I'm so glad for whoever managed to collect it and upload it to YouTube while it was still avail…

Don't spend too much time on what was at the moment not meant for adults, like there is alot of other art to look at and interpret. It was more of a don't get crazy into it, my own Dad got super weird into interpreting things he thought he found in Doctor Who. It was both sad and weird. Just maybe don't dwell to much on things people didn't also give much thought to.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't what? I enjoy a lot of media written for children. Trollhunters / Tales of Arcadia, Miraculous Ladybug, Max Steel, My Little Pony (G4), Sonic Prime, etc. Though I tend to prefer media that respects intelligence rather than pure babyslop. Max Steel in particular was so untargeted to adults that it's nearly lost media. I'm so glad for whoever managed to collect it and upload it to YouTube while it was still avail…

Don't spend too much time on what was at the moment not meant for adults, like there is alot of other art to look at and interpret. It was more of a don't get crazy into it, my own Dad got super weird into interpreting things he thought he found in Doctor Who. It was both sad and weird. Just maybe don't dwell to much on things people didn't also give much thought to.

Not crazy into it, just generally appreciative of media with internally-consistent science or magic.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#14
If you want to tell reading-skeptical kids about "the volta", please don't phrase it as "the volta". Just say that a lot of good novels need you to read them for a bit to see what's going on, and then it will get good. They might already be familiar with the idea from TV shows.

But also, it's extremely possible to write a novel that grabs you from the first page. Thriller writers are the most obvious case. A gripping concept or setting can do it, too. This author might think they're too cool for books like that, but we shouldn't keep them away from kids if that's what they want to read.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't spend too much time on what was at the moment not meant for adults, like there is alot of other art to look at and interpret. It was more of a don't get crazy into it, my own Dad got super weird into interpreting things he thought he found in Doctor Who. It was both sad and weird. Just maybe don't dwell to much on things people didn't also give much thought to.

Not crazy into it, just generally appreciative of media with internally-consistent science or magic.

Doctor Who is definitely the last thing I would dub as "internally-consistent". It's a serial--and the duct taped seams show--sometimes glaringly so.

But, every now and then, the writing CLICKS and you get genuine emotional ART--generally as a monologue.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#16
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not crazy into it, just generally appreciative of media with internally-consistent science or magic.

Doctor Who is definitely the last thing I would dub as "internally-consistent". It's a serial--and the duct taped seams show--sometimes glaringly so. But, every now and then, the writing CLICKS and you get genuine emotional ART--generally as a monologue.

I will admit a fair bit of enjoyment comes from the TARDIS Technical Index: https://whoniverse.net/tardis

I think the existence of enough technical information for such an index to even be possible is what I mean by internal consistency. Not the absence of plot-holes or ret-cons.

A lot of shows simply aren't very technical.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#17
I recently read Dungeon Crawler Carl. It’s pretty much interesting from the very beginning.

On the other hand, Blind Assassin was extremely boring to me until the very last page, but that last page blew my mind.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#18
post #5

No, NOT every novel is boring from the get go. And some novels ARE boring. And the fact that so many people recommend the ones that are is the bloody problem. The first thing to accept is that different people like different things. If someone likes the Beatles, you wouldn't immediately jump to recommend Handel or Black Sabbath. And, yet, this is EXACTLY what people do all the time with literature. Oh, you liked that…

You did not read the article completely, did you? For someone with wise father, you are not being wise yourself. The writer is exactly talking about this subjectivity.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#19

If you want to tell reading-skeptical kids about "the volta", please don't phrase it as "the volta". Just say that a lot of good novels need you to read them for a bit to see what's going on, and then it will get good. They might already be familiar with the idea from TV shows. But also, it's extremely possible to write a novel that grabs you from the first page. Thriller writers are the most obvious case. A gripping…

Margaret Mitchell got me to read a thousand pages of Gone With The Wind because she placed a juicy hook in the first chapter (Ashley) which gave me the motivation to read the entire book to see what happens.

Why more novels do not have central hooks I do not know. Hooks are usually what keep me reading, unless the book has some kind of reason for being interesting otherwise.

Re: Every novel is boring until it isn't

#20

The key to enjoying novels is to read them in long enough sittings to get into the flow state. If you only read a couple pages at a time between doomscrolling sessions, it will feel like a chore. Anything would.

Reading in 5 min bursts in-between longer sessions can remain a valid strategy, but you have to carry the book with you everywhere for it to work out.
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