Good Morning!
I was talking with a writer friend the other day, and we’d both noticed that readers don’t seem to dissect, or talk about books like they used to. Goodreads groups used to buzz with lively discussions about the latest books they’d read, but now it seems no one is doing that as much.
I don’t think that this new development is because readers don’t care about books. My guess is it has more to do with the fact that people read so fast now. Kindle Unlimited has been instrumental in encouraging binge reading. I’ve seen some readers say they read as many as twenty books a week. I don’t know that I’ve read twenty books this year. Granted, I’m on the low end of the scale because I’m busy writing books. I’m not condemning anyone who does read that fast or that many books, but I am saying it probably impacts how well one can immerse themselves in the story. It must affect how deeply they think about the book once they’re done reading because they’re on to the next book right away.
I remember a time when readers would pick apart every detail of a book, and talk for hours about their feelings about the story. Readers would savor the books and comb through the pages. On one hand, it was probably unsettling for those authors of yesterday that anyone would pay that much attention to all the little details. But it must also have been flattering and energizing knowing all the details you bothered to put in were indeed being noticed by enthusiastic fans.
Perhaps the lack of book dissecting is because a lot of readers aren’t only reading for pleasure anymore. Many readers are on numerous ARC teams, and the pressure to read and then write reviews is relentless. If Amazon would stop including reviews in the algorithms, which affects authors ability to appear on lists, many authors wouldn’t care if anyone ever reviewed. Maybe that’s just me. Although, come to think of it, I actually do love feedback on my books. But I don’t enjoy having to hound readers for reviews. In fact, I hate it. I wrote a blog post not long ago about how authors AND readers are both suffering from burn out. I still stand behind that.
One also can’t ignore the fact that there are way more books to read now than ever before. The explosion of self-publishing has made it so literally anyone can publish a book. There are so many stories to read now, it must mess with how people read. When there were only a hundred or so new books a month in MM romance, I’m sure readers remembered the characters and experienced the stories so much more powerfully. To truly immerse yourself in a book, you need time.
I still enjoy talking about the books I love, and I’m looking forward to doing that at GRL. What about you? Do you feel like you have to rush through books and it sometimes feels like a chore? Or do you still discuss and dissect the books you love?
S.C.