Romance writer Anna C. Bowling on writing and reading romance, the search for the perfect nail polish and other pretty things.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Steering into the Skid, aka Reader's Block
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There's another snowstorm threatening the northeast, which means an amount of snow such as above will be dumped upon me. Which is good, because I love snow, but the downside of that is...I'm not reading anything. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Goose eggs. New books? Meh. Old books? Meh. Favorite books? Not now, kthanx. Closest I can come is the Somerset Studio family of magazines, which while they do contain information and inspiration for art, are mostly really pretty pictures.
Normally, I will stomp around in a circle and grouse when these reading blocks hit, but this time, I'm trying something different. I'm steering into the skid, as it were. I'm not reading? Okay, fine. I'm not reading. I'm not going to try to read. I am not going to spend fruitless evenings pawing through my TBR shelves or keeper crates, only to come up with a heartfelt "meh." I am not going to wander unfamiliar sections of the bookstore, plucking random volumes from the shelves and putting them back, only to return to my beloved romance section and hoping in vain there has been a total turnover of stock in the five minutes I have been away.
I love historical romance and that's my home and I'm not leaving. I've tried other genres and they don't give me the same return. If I could grab the gritty feel from the covers of urban fantasy books and smush that into a historical romance book's content, I would be happy as a pig in slop.
Right now, I'm tired of series, and they seem to be everywhere. I want to read one book. One book. One hero, one heroine, one HEA. No spinoffs, no sequels. On to something new. Regency is fine when it's one choice among many, but too many too close and for me, they start to blur. In which case, taking a break is a good thing.
I have other stuff to do. Writing, of course, and I have art, and Sims and I've been watching more TV lately. Bones and How I Met Your Mother are doing more for my romance fix than some books these days, so I'm indulging in many reruns.
The reading urge will return at some point but I'm not going to force or rush it. It will come as it will come. My books will be waiting.
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2 comments:
Good way to handle it, Anna. Well, at least that's my opinion. I've been neglecting reading myself lately until last night and it was pretty wonderful. The series issue, however, seems to not be going away and it's infuriating. Such a gimmick that, like many others, has long since its beginning found the saturation level. Meredith Duran has a book coming out sometime at the beginning of this year.... ;-) Something to look forward to late winter/early spring.
Thanks, Kimberly, and I'm glad you had good reading time yesterday. This would be a perfect reading day, but I'm still steering into the skid.
The series issues is infuriating, but as long as they sell, publishers will keep buying them. Do I see a day when the publishing world will cry a collective "enough already?" I do. Maybe not in the immediate future but all things go in cycles.
A new Meredith Duran book is certainly worth the wait, and I'm looking forward to new releases by Elizabeth Hoyt and Judith James as well.
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