Welcome to the Book Nook! This is the weekly thread for Avocados to discuss books we’re currently reading, recommendations, genre, and serious literary criticism.
This week’s recommended discussion: when good gimmicks go bad. It’s happened to all of us – you read one book by a new author or in a niche genre, you fall in love, you read more … then realize the thing you loved has diminished returns. Maybe the formula only worked once, maybe different writers have varying skill at executing a formula or working in a genre, maybe the thrill of discovery was the best part. Does freshness inevitably turn into something that feels forced?
Because we’re here to use our words, this is a NO GIF/YouTube/social media embed zone. The OTs are full of clutter, and I want to keep that out of this thread. Images related to a post are fine, though.
upcoming topics:
4/14: waiting is the hardest part – author and publisher delays
4/21: celebrities who write
4/28: better read at a different age (h/t to Pliny the Millennial)
5/5: world lit every 80 days
5/12: innovators – fiction and non-fiction that transformed the possibilities of the form
5/19: authors whose books you’ll read, no matter what
5/26: knowing culture or history to understand a book’s references (h/t Mongo Only Pawn)
6/2: the dream cast for an adaptation (h/t Antononymous)
6/9: read in order to avoid spoilers (h/t MisterSplendiferous)
6/16: the definition of insanity
6/23: deal breakers
Book Nook posts every Wednesday at 8:15 AM Eastern.