What book feature turns you away from choosing a book?
- obiebookworm
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Re: What book feature turns you away from choosing a book?
- DATo
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I worked with a young lady who had a thing against Orson Scott Card for his political stance on certain issues. I can understand her feelings though his positions never affected me with regard to his writing, especially since he did not overlap his politics with the plots of his novels to any noticeable extent. I do understand how, sometimes, a celebrity's political views or personal lifestyle can turn people away from their work. It is unfair I suppose but it happens. I am only turned away when the work itself does not measure up to the standards I expect from a professional author, actor etc.
― Steven Wright
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- Aithne
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I look at the cover and the blurb and first page, of course. I think most people do.
For me, the biggest turn off is if the main character is a writer (journalism is okay but not writing writing). This basically means the author has gotten lazy and is writing a story about themselves and/or doing next to no research so they can write an easy story about a writer writing and pretend they are inception level clever.
I've yet to read a story about a writer who writes stories that's worth a single page it's written on.
- Craigable
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I've read two Michael Crichton novels. I certainly never had any personal feelings about the author one way or the other until I heard he appeared at the invitation of Republicans to testify in Congress as a global warming skeptic. A medical doctor giving testimony on global warming science? A wee bit of hubris there on his part, I'd say. Did he maybe do a lot of ice core sampling in Antarctica during his residency? Hoo boy.DATo wrote:I do understand how, sometimes, a celebrity's political views or personal lifestyle can turn people away from their work. It is unfair I suppose but it happens.
Regardless of one's attitude about global warming, it's hard to maintain respect for a writer who believes his expertise extends to fields in which he has no educational background or training.
Having said that, I confess that I'm still hoping Congress summons Maeve Binchy to testify on how to fix the ailing Obamacare website.
- DATo
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I totally agree. A celebrity is entitled to their opinions, and they SHOULD be free to express them. My only problem with them is when they get on a podium and attempt to proselytize the opinions of others when they have no credentials to do so such as in the example you've cited. Testifying before Congress yet !!!! Though I understand his concern and perhaps even agree with him to some extent I still feel embarrassed for the guy.Craigable wrote:I've read two Michael Crichton novels. I certainly never had any personal feelings about the author one way or the other until I heard he appeared at the invitation of Republicans to testify in Congress as a global warming skeptic. A medical doctor giving testimony on global warming science? A wee bit of hubris there on his part, I'd say. Did he maybe do a lot of ice core sampling in Antarctica during his residency? Hoo boy.DATo wrote:I do understand how, sometimes, a celebrity's political views or personal lifestyle can turn people away from their work. It is unfair I suppose but it happens.
Regardless of one's attitude about global warming, it's hard to maintain respect for a writer who believes his expertise extends to fields in which he has no educational background or training.
Having said that, I confess that I'm still hoping Congress summons Maeve Binchy to testify on how to fix the ailing Obamacare website.
― Steven Wright
- prisailurophile
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- obiebookworm
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I'm with you but with the exception of Draculaprisailurophile wrote:Well, I'm not a fan of horror, chick lit, erotica and paranormal. I don't get vampires.

A world is born again that never dies.
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- obiebookworm
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- Aithne
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but vampires aren't the only paranormal creaturesprisailurophile wrote:Well, I'm not a fan of horror, chick lit, erotica and paranormal. I don't get vampires.

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- sweetnsassymom
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I completely agree! I won't usually judge a book until I have at least read the summary, but if it doesn't have one I don't even pick it up.llevine2934 wrote:I don't like when books don't have a description of the book because they have reviews covering the back.