how we choose what we read

[bluegreen17]

 this is a snippet of a comment i just wrote and i thought it might be a good question/topic for this comm.

 a lot of the time i choose my reading...especially fiction...by how much i like the writing regardless of topic,pretty much. i don't know what that says about me or if other folks do that.

for instance,years ago i read a bunch of books about planes and aviation because i liked richard bach's writing. recently,i read 'reamde' by neal stephenson,which i would say is an action/thriller,even though that's not usually my favorite type of book,because i love how neal stephenson writes.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

I find content and plot can keep me happy as long as the prose is adequate, but bad prose can make me put down a book which sounds like it ought to otherwise keep my interest.

So I guess good prose alone is rarely enough to keep me reading content I don't find compelling, but bad prose will actively stop me from discovering new stuff.