There's been a little bit of radio silence around the ol' DNook, but it's not been because I quit reading, I promise! Reading is an essential part of my existence and has been my entire life. I think part of it comes from my childhood, where reading let me escape stress and boredom and took me into a world where I could think about someone else's problems instead of my own. But also, I learn so much from reading! I see the world through another person's eyes for a few hours, and it makes me step back and consider my own life and how I see things. George R.R. Martin said it beautifully: "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies [...]. The man who never reads lives only one.” (Don't ask me about any of his works though--haven't read any of them. I've just seen the quote floating around the Pinterest-verse.)
When I started this blog, I knew I'd need content, and a LOT of it. I've had other blogs before--personal and public--and I have a decent idea of what it takes to hold a subscriber's interest. So I started reviewing EVERYTHING I read. Yep, 26 books in two months. I really do read that fast. Do I retain it all? Eh, only the stuff I like.
Which brings me to my other point: I'm a nice person. Like, a really, REALLY nice person. I hate giving bad reviews. So if I read a book that I can't recommend in the least, I won't review it. Simple as that. But that also means that sometimes there will be radio silence. It's unfortunate, because all books have had some heart and soul and blood and sweat poured into them--I know, because I have a couple of novels of my own sitting on my hard drive that will NEVER see the light of day. I *know* the effort that it takes to bring forth a creation like that. It's often been compared to giving birth, and I agree. So I try to be respectful of other people's "babies" and if I find them to be poorly written and underdeveloped or just NOT to my taste, rather than damn them with faint praise, I won't say anything at all.
So.
I read to relieve stress. The very best books do that for me. But I also read to give voice, to shout out from my own little corner of the interwebs to the rest of the world, "I LOVED THIS. YOU SHOULD READ IT! SHARE THE LOVE!" or "HEY! THIS BOOK AIN'T HALF BAD! DEFINITELY WORTH TAKING ON VACATION!" or "THIS IS THE PERFECT BOOK TO READ IN THE DENTIST'S WAITING ROOM--ENTERTAINING, BUT NOT DISTRACTING ENOUGH FOR YOU TO MISS YOUR APPOINTMENT!"
Also, being of a conservative religious bent, I always appreciate it when people give me the heads-up about potentially offensive things they encounter in books, so I can make an educated decision about reading a book. (For example, I love Tana French's novels. They're beautiful, twisty, ethereal mysteries--but she's Irish and uses the f-bomb like I use "um". SO. There's that. See also: anything by Melina Marchetta, not for f-bombs, but other stuff. ANYway. This is turning into a confessional, and I'm not even Catholic!) Thus my "Gentle Reader Alerts" in every review. I know what I can handle, and I know what could be offensive to some people. Granted, I may miss something and you're not allowed to yell at me about that because HEY! I'm human. To err is human, TO FORGIVE IS DIVINE.
So there you go. Radio silence is just another poorly written book biting the dust of my "finished" pile and me moving on. Stay tuned--I have plenty in my review pile and I'm pretty excited about a couple of them because they have GREAT potential. And I've got some retro reviews too, because sometimes I just have to read something printed on actual paper. And every once in a while, I'll post promotional stuff about books from authors I love, because like I said--I am a REALLY nice person. :D
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