As I sometimes do, when I finished reading THE KEEP, I checked out the reader reviews on Barnes and Noble and Amazon, and frankly, at least one left me gobsmacked. I just don't understand the level of venom and vitriol some readers hurl at a book.
Disappointment, I get. Dismay or frustration, too. I've experienced those feelings when I've finished a book.
So it's not the overall emotion I have a problem with so much as the level. I mean, sheesh, it's just a novel. It's a work of fiction. Nobody forced you to read it.
So what's with the venom? I ask myself, and frankly, the first thing that comes to mind is jealousy and envy. I tend to assume that these Really Angry Readers are writers who are upset by the author's success. Thinking that, I am certainly not inclined to pay much attention to the frothing, except to wonder about the Really Angry Reader's blood pressure.
And then I think that if reading novels is going to make somebody that angry, they should be reading something like the book pictured here instead.
3 comments:
I don't think I've every read a book and been angry. That's just too extreme an emotion for me, as you said, over a book.
If it's really bugging me I put it down and grab another one. Life's too short to let things like that get to you.
I remember being a little angry after I finished The Da Vinci Code... but then I had to reflect on the fact that I had, in fact, finished it-- and quickly.
I think all my anger came from "writer jealousy". While the things he did poorly annoyed me... it didn't annoy me as much as the fact that I couldn't put it down, anyway. LOL
You crack me up.
Now if only they'd read your blog and take your advice.
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