Well -- duh -- don't know WHAT to make of this

[oursin]

In a link to a comment on a blog via ankaret:

[N]earing my seventh decade I don’t have decades to read every book that appears interesting. So I screen them by knowing the plot line before I read the first paragraph.*

My first thought on this was 'Hello, I'm already in my 7th decade, and I feel I have plenty of good reading time left, both for new stuff and rereads, and I haven't even retired yet.'

My second thought was, how is he counting, because we had a trick question in one of the papers in the archive diploma exam which turned on the distinction between 'third decade of' century and 'XX30s'.

My third thought was 'Does he check the ending of books in case he pops his clogs before he discovers whodunnit/who married who'?

And my fourth thought was, that is a really, really bizarre way of choosing what to read.

Which may, diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, just mean that's not how I'd pick what I'd prioritise for reading.

I've read enough books that have been recommended to me on the basis of plot &/or character elements you would think I would go for, that just did not work for me, and others where I might initially think, uh, not my kind of thing, or hack, cliche, done 1000s of times, not for me, which nonetheless work on the page and lead to turning it.

This led me to to try and articulate what it is that draws me in, and while plot and character are important, I sometimes think that what beguiles me is a certain voice, a certain approach to narrative, something to do with style.

And then I think of the vast range of things I do like and would happily reread or long for more works from the pen of the authors and I am not at all sure that there is a common thread.

No, really - (Frankie Howerd voice, 'Don't Mock') - srsly -

It's All More Complicated.

But, anyway, what is it that makes us pick up one book rather than another, and not put it down?

*I suppose this is perhaps a refreshing twist on the more usual cries of 'Don't Spoil Me' for plot developments?