Melissa

I’m not sure I’d say that books like Harry Potter are worthy of the moniker good simply because they are popular either. That would be to me like saying I’ll go bungee jump because everyone else is. I dislike the “mob” mentality of its ok because everyone else likes it or because an “authority” on the subject says go for it like all those books they made me read in school. Some had their redeeming qualities but most of them I was just grateful to be through with and move on to something else.

Thank you about the screenname – it actually was one of those OK so what do I use online that is uniquely me and won’t be already taken. I actually compounded portions of my favorite color names together it is the blend of Forest Green and Dusty Rose which has played into Forest without the e and Rose. Much easier to create profiles online than with my real name as there are an amazing number of people that share that name I even had classmates in school at times with the same first name.

As for criticism I never claimed to be a critic, reviewer yes and that is what I call my blog posts on books (reviews). Perhaps there are some literary critics out there who are truly that but I think it is really just some people’s way of making reviewing sound more upper crust. Even “criticism” is difficult if not impossible to remain 100% objective as humans just aren’t and our tastes filter into what we say and do and choose.

Melissa (my real name btw)

But Auralia’s Colors will definately be read right after I finish those two. I’m very intrigued.
And it reminds me, in a good way, of the first chapter of another book that I read ((which I still need to finish))

Robert, I was really intrigued by your comment about the lack of villains in your review post. Also, I’ll add you to the feed.

kim, it’s always good to hear from you! I liked that sentence too. It reminded me of Dune and the House Atreides, something Robert picked up on as well in his review.

Jenn, I wouldn’t worry about it. There’s no accounting for taste you know? And the literary nature of this book almost means it is less engaging. More artifice, less suspension of disbelief. I’ve heard other people say the same thing about Gene Wolfe, one of my favorite writers. But he’s more Melville than Michael Crichton.

Mike, thanks! I’m glad you stopped by. Do you have a blog?

Kait, I’m so glad you liked the widget. By all means borrow away. That’s the whole point–and the advantage of widgetbox over googles built in widgets. I’m looking into clearspring widgets as well–but they are so powerful that I left the site a bit confused.

Merrie, it is really quite simple to make a widget, it just takes a long time to load the RSS feeds into a reader. I saw Willow on the video rental shelf this past week and wondered when my kids would be ready for it. When you get published, I’ll be more than happy to share all of my techno-genius with you. It will only take about two minutes.

Donna, I agree completely about a reader’s intuition accomplishing reinforcing the logic of good editing. That’s the difficulty of editing, though. Not getting so caught up in fancy logic that I forget to look at the piece intuitively as well. The sum is definitely greater than the parts with literature. I’m glad to hear you have a poet’s mind! I wish more people did…

ForstRose, cool screen name. I applaud you for putting books down if you don’t like them! It took me years before I was willing to give myself permission to do that. And you are absolutely right about the variety of readers’ tastes. Which raises the big question of literary criticism. What makes a book good? Do we call Harry Potter a good book because it captures the world’s imagination? Do we call Bleakhouse a good book because English professors assign it? (The answer to that last one is a resounding NO, by the way.)

And whoa. This comment is out of control.

The lead in and subsequent pages as someone on this post said are key to keeping a reader interested. If a writer doesn’t draw you in and hold you they will likely lose readers however any reader’s taste is subjective so not all books are going to grab or draw everyone even when they are well-written.

For me, the writing was so fresh and vivid. I was captivated immediately. It reminded me of the beginning of the movie “Willow.”

And, Mark, I LOVE your widgets! You made those? Yourself? Are you a techno-genius, or something?

I just have two things to say about your widgets:
1. I wish I knew how to make something like that.
2. I wish that whenever I get a novel published, somebody decides to be that creative and nice and will make me a wonderful present like that.

Great job, Mark. Five stars!!
Blessings,
Merrie Destefano

I like the idea of doing a first page review. You did a great job exploring it!