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[mare]

This came up in the Twilight thread and I was curious to know what you guys thought about it here. When you choose a book to read does it matter to you what kind of style the author has or more about the plot of the book?

For instance I love Wally Lamb's writing style so much that no matter what he wrote i'd be all over it.

Also when reading do you tend to enjoy books with a lot of descriptions and not so much dialogue or visa-versa?

First person compared to third person?

Do you have a preference?

That might also help in deciding which books are good ones to pick for us.

When I have time i'm going to make a nice book survey. When I 'have time' being the keywords there lol

[RokofAges75]

Hm... interesting questions.

I'm not big on overly-descriptive, overly wordy narrative.  I prefer dialogue and action to move along the story.  I can appreciate that some time needs to be spent on settings and back stories, but some authors go too far with it.  For example, Nicholas Sparks spends pages and pages describing the small North Carolina towns that all of his books take place in, and it's a yawner to me LOL.

Most of my favorite books are written in third person.  I don't mind first person, but I seem to gravitate toward third.

As far as specific authors...

I'm reading Stephen King right now, and sometimes I love his writing style, and other times it drives me nuts.  Like when he goes off on these random, stream-of-conscious narratives that make you go WTF??  But he has a way of really unsettling you.  It takes talent to come up with a whole novel about a rabid dog and make it good... Cujo was the first Stephen King book I ever read, and I loved it!  And I cried at the end, for Cujo... he made me feel so much for that dog, even though it was rabid and attacking this poor mother and little boy LOL.

My favorite author is JK Rowling; I absolutely love her writing.  It's quirky and cleverly funny, and she has the balance between description and action down pat.  She can write scenes that are truly suspenseful and scary, and lines that make me laugh out loud no matter how many times I read them.  And she's an excellent character-writer too; pretty much all of her characters are dynamic and interesting, from the good to the evil to the in-between.

[cabybakes]

I am totally addicted to the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich at the moment...I am on Hard Eight right now, and still have through 14 to go.  I read 3 this weekend (which may be why you aren't seeing a Casual update from me!)...her style is very unique.  She has very interesting, off the wall characters that seem larger than life.  And our herione, Stephanie Plum, is the anti-hero, which is what makes her so fantastic, funny and endearing.  Another interesting thing about Evanovich's writing style is that she writes in the first person, which I personally think is SO hard to do. 

I love these novels, so I can't really think about another author right now!!!

[Frick24x]

This came up in the Twilight thread and I was curious to know what you guys thought about it here. When you choose a book to read does it matter to you what kind of style the author has or more about the plot of the book?

For instance I love Wally Lamb's writing style so much that no matter what he wrote i'd be all over it.

Also when reading do you tend to enjoy books with a lot of descriptions and not so much dialogue or visa-versa?

First person compared to third person?

Do you have a preference?

That might also help in deciding which books are good ones to pick for us.

When I have time i'm going to make a nice book survey. When I 'have time' being the keywords there lol

When I'm reading a book, I like a lot of dialogue, though I tend to write the opposite way. Go figure.

First person or third person? Hmm, before I started posting here, I only wrote in first person. The Fic that I just finished is my first story ever written in third person, actually, though I digress. I like first person because you get to know one character really well, but then you miss out on what the other is thinking and feeling and experiencing and whatever, so... yeah. I like third person better, I think.

[LenniluvsBrian]

When you choose a book to read does it matter to you what kind of style the author has or more about the plot of the book? The plot hasta be super interesting & I judge a book by it's cover sometimes-lol. But if the stuff on the back catches my interest, I'll prolly read it.

Also when reading do you tend to enjoy books with a lot of descriptions and not so much dialogue or visa-versa? Prolly more dialogue than description.

First person compared to third person? Doesn't really matter for me here, though I think it's usually third person that I read. Maybe. I never pay attention. Lol.

Do you have a preference? Nope.

~Lenni~

[Frick24x]

Lenni, I'm the exact same way. I judge a book by it's cover as well. That's bad, but it's the truth.

A marketing major that falls for it every time? Yeah, that's mostly me.

[julilly]

I'm reading a book. Just thought you all should know since it happens so rarely.

[MonkeyAbu]

I'm amazed Julilly! *gives you props*