My New 20% Rule

As you well know (and are probably tired of hearing) I complain a lot about books. A lot of them are crap (to me, your mileage may vary). I force myself to suffer through them and do nothing but waste my time that could be better spent on better books or procrastinating editing.

I'd better clean this before I start on chapter 14...

So I've decided on a new rule based on the few books I've been trying to read for the past few months. If descriptions or reviews give me certain expectations then they'd better deliver before I'm 20% in or else I'm done. Period.

Wait I'm not THAT done.

I've really waded through some books that were considered pretty awful to me. So what was the ultimate breaking point?

It was a book called Flee by Miranda Kavi, and it was the first sentence:

"I can fly."

I waited...

And waited...

And waited...

Watching my cat proved more entertaining.

Yeah, she hovers 1/16th of an inch off her seat at her desk a couple of times for a few seconds. However, if your opening sentence is "I can fly," you'd better be flying pretty soon.

Here are some examples of what's going on 20% of the way through various other books:

In Maximum Ride, the flock are sheltering in a cavern on their way to rescue Angel. Max is separated from them and trying to escape someone who had just shot her with a shotgun. Might I mention plenty of flying has already happened?

In My Life As a White Trash Zombie, she just received an anonymous note that says "If you crave it, eat it," and she's freaking out because she's craving brains.

In Twilight, Bella fainted and had to be carried by Edward (okay bad example...)

In Divergent, Tris just got the tattoos of her birds and gets beat up to the point of landing in the hospital. They've already done extensive training.

In Starters, she wakes up from one of her times of being "rented" and has already done so several times.



Meanwhile, in Flee (which I actually made it 25% of the way through) it was instant romance of movie star, girly teenibopper talk, and "omg what to wear?"

Now, if you're into that kind of reading, more power to you. The point is, I'm not going to put up with books I don't want to. If they promise me X and deliver nothing but S (S being an unknown factor that of which equals suckitude) then I'm not going to put up with it for the entire length of book.

Of course there are some exceptions, like The Hunger Games. It doesn't launch right into the teen-filled death sport (the name of which escapes me at the moment...)  it has a lot of setup, but the important thing is that it's still interesting.

So, I have decided to implement a new rule on myself. That being if a book doesn't grab my interest 20% of the way though. Looking it up, one website says 50 pages. The problem with giving a hard and fast page number is that books vary in length so much that 50 pages could mean you've finished it (especially with ebooks being shorter than most, it seems) or it could just barely be getting into the intro.

The hardest part, however, is stopping. The first book I ever stopped reading in the middle of was really difficult, so were the other few. It becomes much easier once you realize stopping in the middle of the story isn't the end of the world. If it's bad enough, you'll forget it pretty easily.

Besides, it's much worse to agonize over it, thinking "Why did I waste my time!?"

The sooner a bad book is given up, the sooner a good one can be discovered.

What I read in 2014 Fourth Quarter: I Should Probably be Editing

October

Tricked by Kevin Hearne

I read the entire book in three days. The only thing that stopped me from reading the next one so fast was that I had to work.

Trapped by Kevin Hearne

This one flew by by pretty fast too.

Hunted by Kevin Hearne

This one I didn't seem to like quite as much. Most of it involved running from A to B. Although I still enjoyed it, and it had its good moments, it just didn't totally grab me.

Obsidian Curse by Barbara Aninno

The first three Stacy Justice books were fantastic. Book four, Emerald Isle, however, just didn't have the same spark. I didn't plan to get book five but it was 50% off as a daily deal and decided to give it a shot. Sometimes there's just one book that doesn't seem to "work" with the rest of the series (like Ghost Story in the Dresden Files series) and I wanted to see if that was the case.

It felt like the author seemed to scrap some of the buildup/cliffhanger plot elements of book Emerald Isle and just shrug her shoulders, introducing different plot elements rather than tying them from the previous book. Still, it was a letdown and, while I finished the whole thing, it was a forced effort.

November

Shattered by Kevin Hearne

First, I had to get past the fact that it had a deckle edge (dun dun duuuuuunnnnn) I enjoyed it, and it wrapped up a lot of the stuff that's been going on since Hammered, but there are times when I feel like the author made the story too big, too fast. I keep reading and, for some reason, yearning for the main character's past adventures before things got so convoluted with a bazillion pantheons and an impending Ragnarok.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

I was sucked in just reading Amazon's book preview a while back and was dying (pun seriously not intended) to know what happened next. I think I read the whole thing in 2-3 days. It's a little bit Warm Bodies, a little Sookie Stackhouse, and a little Dead Like Me. It's a very satisfying read, and different than the bazillion zombie novels that have come about in the last few years. Best of all, the whole story wraps up neatly without needing any sequels (although there are some if you wanted to continue.)

December

Night Broken by Patricia Briggs

I didn't like the previous two books, so this one took me awhile to get to. Luckily, it feels like it's getting back on track. Still, the main villain of the story felt completely random, like the author threw a couple of darts at some ideas. I didn't see much that contributed to the overall arc of the series, though I suppose I might be missing some stuff that will become more obvious in the next book

I'm actually pretty baffled, as I could swear that I read a couple more books in December, but I couldn't remember since I was getting lax about writing down what I had read. I also spent a lot of that time doing other things.

On to another great year of reading!
 

What I Read in 2014: Third Quarter: I Can't Read in All This Rain

July

Skin Game by Jim Butcher

First thing I did the moment I had my hands on it was that I thumbed through every page, ensuring the count was correct. I was so paranoid that I even had a couple of scares and had to go back and recheck a small handful. What can I say? I'm incredibly paranoid after that last time.

It was awesome. The story went in a good direction that didn't rehash a lot of the same ideas from previous books. Rather than the usual mystery-solving this one was very Oceans Eleven-esque.

Tales of Ever by Jen Wylie

Minecraft meets Stephen King's Firestarter, then throw in some Hunger Games for good measure. Awesome.

Undead and Unwed by Maryjanice Davidson

A quick reread before loaning it out to a friend to make sure it's still as funny as I remember. It sure is! A shame the series deteriorated before it could finish with some grace. 

Pines by Blake Crouch

This one grabbed me by my shirt collar and walloped me with awesome. When I was finished I immediately bought the second one.

Wayward by Blake Crouch

Part of the enjoyment of Pines was a mystery surrounding the entire story and I worried that, after the Big Reveal, it wouldn't hold water anymore. I'm glad I was wrong. This is the perfect example of how to write Book Two in a trilogy without it turning into a filler book.

July

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

The beginning of Allegiant was far too confusing, and I knew it had been too long, so I decided to reread this one. This one is a perfect example of a filler book.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I've had this one when it first came out back in October of 2013. So I've been procrastinating it for nearly a year! I was worried since reviews were lukewarm at best and, I'll admit, I felt that a lot of it was emoing and doing nothing, making it feel like yet another filler book right up until the last 20% of the book, but I was not disappointed with the ending.

August

The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Kind of a creepy book, really. Still, apparently it was published in the 1970's, and has held up well despite the time. Not the most paranormal of books, especially by today's standards, but it did hold my interest.


The Giver by Lois Lowry

This one was actually reccommended to me to a friend and it sat on my bookshelf for about 2-3 years. It's tiny, so it hides well when I'm looking at my shelves for what to read next. The movie released recently so I knew I had to read it before it became a Big Thing. I blasted through it in a single evening. It's nice in the fact that it's pretty much every YA Dystopian novel out there right now, except bite-size. No offense to Veronica Roth, I love Divergent, but The Giver told the same story in 175 pages as what Divergent did in an entire thick trilogy.

The Last Town by Blake Crouch

From the way Wayward Pines Book 2 ended, there was no possible way I could wait for book 3 in any way at all. I actually broke my Kindle rule and spent a whole $5 on it. Anything I say about it would be spoilers of all kind for even book one, but I will say the one-sentence epilogue gave me chills.

Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells

I got about 40% through this one, but was ready to give up at 25%. Generic gritty female cop trying to solve the case of a new drug in town making people go murderously crazy when they use it. Except switch the word drug with magic and that's Dirty Magic. No magic to speak of at all, really. Kim Harrison's Hollows series is a more entertaining option along a similar theme.

Moth by Daniel Anderson

Moth is your typical high-fantasy story except the planet the story takes place on no longer moves. As long as you have some suspension of disbelief for the scientific aspect of that it's not a bad story. On the light side are typical humans, but they are afraid of the creatures living on the dark side. First diving into the book I was expecting some sort of LotR badguy army knockoff to be on the dark side, but was pleasantly surprised. On the dark side are Elven, Asian-cultured people (called Elorians) who live rather peacefully. What I found most interesting is that both sides consider the other a myth. The humans think Elorians are demons who live in a dark, black wasteland. The Elorians, however, believe the light side of the planet is heat and light that nothing can possibly survive in. Although the description of the story suggests it's just the viewpoint of one character, it actually switches between two, one human and one Elorian. The story starts with subterfuge and, as both main characters realize there is a looming war between both halves, it promptly starts going in a circle.

The human character gets a lot of focus at the beginning of the book, however, once it switches to the Elorian girl, it pretty much sticks with her, and she does nothing but putter around. She travels to a large city, waits, joins a thieving gang, waits, leaves, plays a flute until she gets fifty coins, gets it stolen, plays a flute until she gets fifty coins, gets it stolen, plays a flute with the plan of getting fifty coins, ends up in a brothel.

I was 66% of the way through when I gave up. Maybe I'm much more impatient about books at the moment, and it started out interesting, but a good beginning can't make up for a book where the character more main than even the main character does nothing. I don't want to read about a character waiting around to talk to someone, then has to work really hard to get money. It started to feel like some kind of Fantasy DMV from Hell. Despite the unique setting, it failed to keep my interest.

Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead by Christiana Miller

I mentioned this one in a previous post. Aunt Tillie is magical and funny and a but more, ahem, adult than I remember. Still, it was incredibly fun to reread this one. Yes, a reread, of an indie book no less! This one actually holds a special place for me because it was the very first Kindle book I ever bought. It had been almost two years ago to the letter when I found out you don't need to input payment information to download free books on Amazon (Barnes and Noble, meanwhile, does require it.) When I read Aunt Tillie on my laptop I thought to myself "Wow!" because I had never read an indie book before, and it didn't suck! Yes, I know I'm one of those indie authors, but in my own writing career (BAHAHAHAHAHA I know, I know, I said "career" to describe what I do) I've run across a  lot of people who still need a lot of polish in their work.

I said polish not Polish.

But I'm getting off track here. Once I realized how awesome some indie books could be, and getting a few more freebies, it's what pushed me over the edge to go ahead and get a Kindle. So, rereading Aunt Tillie was a treat, what I didn't expect, however, was a sequel being released only a week later.



Wickedly Magical by Deborah Blake

You were expecting the sequel, weren't you? I had finished rereading Aunt Tillie and preordered Aunt Tillie 2 (because Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie We're in Trouble! is both a mouthful and a keyboardful) but, as I mentioned, I had to wait a whole week. I don't go a whole week without reading something, so I picked up Wickedly Magical, a prequel story to Deborah Blake's Baba Yaga series. Now, I've only read nonfiction by Blake, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm not big on short stories, but it was okay. It came, told its story, and left. I was satisfied without feeling cheated, like I do with most short stories. It made me feel better about getting the first book.

Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie We're in Trouble! by Christiana Miller

While not as fun as the first Aunt Tillie, Aunt Tillie 2 still delivered. What I really liked is that Miller must have listened to her fans, because the side character, Gus, has the spotlight. Best of all, I got to experience a type of story I've never really had the chance to read before, something I could really only describe as "Looming Doom". There's not really any mystery, but the main character spends a lot of the story trying to keep certain events from unfolding before the next full moon and, no matter what happens, things keep going in the same doomed direction. It really grabbed me that way and didn't let go.

Wickedly Dangerous by Deborah Blake

This one was part what I was expecting, and part of a let down. Deborah Blake has started a series based on Baba Yaga lore, making Baba Yaga more of a formal title, and the heroine of the story much younger than the crone appearance Baba Yaga has in traditional Russian tales.

It's a mystery romance, but Deborah Blake promised a tough-chick ass-kicker heroine, which I feel failed to deliver. Any ass-kickery was done off-screen, and even then it was by three of Baba's friends. The story kept me interested though, as I wanted to know what happened next. There is absolutely no violence in it, and only some mild romance so, in all, a very cozy mystery for those who enjoy that kind of thing. The setting is also different from the usual large city, instead taking place in a small town and the surrounding countryside/forest. This is one you could read just a preview of and decide from there if you wanted to keep going or not.

Small Town Witch by Kristen S. Walker

Part Hex hall and part Sweep. Small Town Witch nearly put me to sleep. The first 60% of the book is a girl going to school and hanging out with her friends, you know, typical high school girl stuff. Except some minor witch elements were thrown in. Initially it seemed as though the author didn't know where she was going to go with the story and kept writing it until she figured something out. Even then. the mystery in the plot was so obvious I wanted to slap the main character and I nearly stopped reading it, but I'm glad I didn't because once the main character finally (finally!) figures things out the story revs up and then promptly ends on a cliffhanger. If you can read through teenage drudgery there's a good story. The defining part of it, however, is the broom flying. There's not a lot of it, but it gave me a nostalgic Kiki's Delivery Service vibe.