Last year in total I read 392 books
Of which 41 were re-reads
2 were non fiction for the purpose of research
the majority of which would fall into the category of M/M romance but with there also being books in the genres YA GLBT, crime, fantasy and historical
On average I read 32 books a month
I have 88 books sitting on my Kindle waiting to be read (around 60% of these were freebies). 3 of these are books I have read and sit on the Kindle all the time as ultimate comfort reading. I really need to read at least 10 of these a month before I buy any more books!
I still don't review - save for the comments I put on the books read list each month as I still maintain that my opinion is probably not going to be that helpful to the majority of other readers given my own personal slightly warped view of life and books (not to mention I have my personal bugbears concerning transatlantic spelling & grammar)
In reality I have been reading M/M romance for a short time .... but I have some firm favourites author wise who will remain on auto buy (despite the occasional book just not quite being as good as I had hoped). I have no preference between stand alone books and series (though I prefer series with the same MC's rather than those that spin off with new MC's each book).... the completest in me will keep reading a series, even if it seems to have gone off the boil.
I am astounded by the amount of work some authors in the genre are putting out there or have in progress at anyone time...... and I fear it does show in terms of deterioration in quality of plot lines and editing.... I still maintain that one or two good, high quality, well edited and polished plot driven books in a year is really the maximum an author should be looking to publish. I also think there are a fair few publishers that need to take a step back and look at what they are putting out and whether in their push to put out more in volume they are leaving their readers disenchanted and tarnishing their writer's reputations. With the sudden interest by many of the adult M/M publishers to have a range dealing with YA GLBT books I am worried that there will be a sudden decrease in the quality of these books given the push to get them out there onto the market.
One of my main issues at the moment appears to be the "ooh, look, a minor character, quick, spin it out longer and give him is own story" even when there isn't really a story for him to tell...... these books tend to be a high sex to storyline ratio and a rush to a happily ever after with virtually no plot.
So, that's some reading thoughts..... as for writing... it was pointed out to me that I haven't got any course work to do any more, so I have no excuse for not getting back into my writing..... a few more books which leave me feeling meh about them and I will probably start thinking that I can actually write but until that happens I will probably stick to reading
"and I fear it does show in terms of deterioration in quality of plot lines and editing"
ReplyDeleteYES.