::Discard

In the last year or two, I managed to kick my habit of going to Half-Price Books and buying up armloads of paperbacks every month.

In its place, I started going to the public library again. Yay for using my tax dollars!

Since I’ve started going to the library for my reading material, I’ve discovered a fantastic new ability: the ability to put down a book that sucks! When I was paying for a book, I would fight through to the bitter and unsatisfying end, no matter how dreadful it was.

On the one hand, I feel liberated! On the other hand… ugh. I’ve realized how awful a lot of sci-fi/fantasy writing really *is*. I tried out a Melanie Rawn book last month, because I’d seen a lot of her work at the bookstore, and I stumbled across the first volume of a series (hard to do at the library). 100 pages in, there was no main character, no exciting plot, a drab and poorly described fantasy world, and the author was ham-fistedly nudging two characters toward a horrible love-at-first-sight arranged-marriage story. Pass!

So on my last trip, I decided to branch out and get things from outside my usual niche.

I’ve already given up on Agatha Christie, who I’d never read until now. This book (Mystery of the Blue Train) was just awful. I ditched it 75 pages in — about a quarter of the way through the novel. Note that the plot synopsis begins with Hercule Poirot (the ‘main character’ detective) boarding a train.

When I quit the book, this had not yet taken place. Yes, the main character had not yet made an appearance in the book. The crime had yet to take place. Oh, it was a dreadful snooze, bouncing between three or four groups of high-society English, and their little feuds. Utter tripe.

I’ve started Burroughs’ Naked Lunch next, and I’m not so sure about it, either.