How much of the fiction you've read have had markedly satisfying endings? I'm not referring to those whose endings answered all questions or whose writing was decent or whose main male and female characters lived happily ever after. I mean, what was the last book you read which actually ended well. Very well. Like, with no sense of dissatisfaction whatsoever? (That feeling of let-down is something entirely different, as it just means you re-entered reality after a thrilling good read.)
The best book will leave you wanting more, because it was so good. Not because it missed a crucial element.
I can count the number of fiction novels which left me feeling content on one hand. I can't count the number of novels I've thrown across the room, burned (yes, burned) or left sitting on a shelf collecting dust because its ending was so poor. Perhaps I'm alone in this, but it says something of the state of things when a reader is left feeling like reading the bloody novel was a waste of her freaking time.
I hate it when you adore the characters, but there is not plot. Or it's a bad one. Or the plot is good, and the characters suck. Or both are great, but the end was abrupt, predictable or downright deplorable. I loathe it when the character you enjoy so much disappoints you by doing something stupid, and never redeems him/herself, ever.
Granted, not every reader will be satisfied with every book. Take the Twilight series for example. Obviously there are some pretty satisfied readers, as it's got quite the cult following. I am not among them. I tried reading it, and I will give Meyer points for not thoroughly sickening me. I simply couldn't handle the 17-year-old "romance", and so quit. That's perfectly fine with me. I tried, it failed me. Not to say it doesn't have its merits--it's just not my sort of readery. Your opinion, whatever it is, doesn't hurt me in the least. If Twilight gives you what you want from a novel, GREAT!
One of the first things which prompted me to write my own work was this dilemma: I can't find anything new worth reading. I keep resorting to the old and familiar, because those few books I thoroughly love are guaranteed to satisfy. But there are only so many times you can read the same thing. Where is the next J.K.Rowling or Lorna Freeman? I'm waiting, despairing, praying someone will write something right. Well. Good.
I want something which speaks to my heart, not my head and more base desires. I want something which motives laughter or tears or inspiration to be better. We need better books. We need better writers.
I have no doubt that out there, someplace I haven't yet explored, are the sorts of novels I'm looking for, and I hope I find them. Someone must have written one specifically for me. Where's my Twilight? Where's my next Harry Potter? Where's my lovable, eccentric Rabbit?
I read a statistic a while back which stated that if more people don't become interested in reading, then reading will virtually disappear within thirty years.
A separate group of statistics seem to back the first.
- 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school
- 42% of college graduates never read another book
- 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
- 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years
- 57% of new books are not read to completion.
- Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.
If that isn't proof that the literary world is failing, what is? We need fresh blood. We need new ideas, or perhaps very old and forgotten ones. Obviously novels are lacking.
Something must be done, or people will have no reason to read anymore.
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