My problem with books
was that you always know how many pages are left throughought a book. I get angry when characters face some kind of disastrous 'peril' on page 40. Of course they aren't going to die; there are a good 140 pages left, so I would simply start to skim-read past those parts. This bugbear seemed to get worse and worse over the years, and I came to resent every single bastard character that I was reading about, hoping that they WOULD die on page 2 and get it over with. This culminated in me stopping reading fiction altogether about ten years ago, in a rather self-satisfied, smug manner.

I was arguing this point recently with a friend, who pointed out that maybe I had been reading crap books. Good books aren't necessarily based on gripping plot twists and cliffhangers. Good books sweep you away, make you think, and change tiny little parts of you, sometimes without you realising until later. Good books tell stories that aren't even included in the words on those pages. This (slightly naive) realisation has had the positive effect of helping me to rediscover the pleasure of reading fiction all over again. The list of great books is far too long (thankfully - meaning that there are thousands more to discover), but I've recently loved:

Concrete Island (JG Ballard)
The Spire (William Golding)
Legend of a Suicide (David Vann)
( Norbert Lightowler, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 15:52, 5 replies)

Read game of thrones
The author has a good habit of getting bored part way through a book and killing off a few of the major characters, meaning the massive twists/everyone dieing isn't localised to the end of each book.
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Thu 5 Jan 2012, 15:54, closed)

I've always kind of wanted to read a book
where the protagonist dies on page 55 and all the rest of the pages are blank. It would be hard to stop people flicking through and seeing the blank pages, though. Maybe filling it with 'lorem ipsum' text (and an explanation) would help.

Or a kindle.
( Norbert Lightowler, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 16:01, closed)

I think it's because he was a TV writer for decades before he took up novels.
He writes as if it's just an ongoing series. The unfortunate side effect is that he'll almost certainly die before anything reaches any sort of clean conclusion.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 16:16, closed)

I know ots a fillum
But it might also be a book. But Joe Black dies right at the beginning..
(lordy lordy, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 16:13, closed)

It's always fun reading compilations
such as the collections of Victorian Gothic stories, or whatever. Some stories have 40 pages, some have 3, so it keeps you on your toes.

Stephen King's short story comps seem better (to me) than his novels for that reason.
(Sivvus trolley collision in the fruit aisle led to a jam, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 23:21, closed)