Do you make allowances or concessions for bookstore books that you don't make for Authonomy books?

For instance, are you more inclined to dismiss a slow start in the former rather than the latter? If so, why?

Share your thoughts on this or other ways you treat the books differently or similarly.

Posted: 07/02/2012 19:54:51

I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but I give authonomy books more allowances than bookstore book in the area of typos. It really bugs me to find mistakes in a bookstore book, but on authonomy I don't care.

Posted: 07/02/2012 19:59:00

I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but I give authonomy books more allowances than bookstore book in the area of typos. It really bugs me to find mistakes in a bookstore book, but on authonomy I don't care.

I guess I read Authonomy books with a more critical eye as most have been posted up for constructive criticism. When I buy a published book, I'm reading to be entertained/educated etc

That's why it's always a nice surprise when I find an Autho book that makes me forget it's an Autho book (if you know what I mean).

Posted: 07/02/2012 20:01:00

That definitely is one of the things I was getting at.

Here's an example of what I meant, too. You pick up a book in a bookstore (or you peruse it online), and the book has a slow start. Do you automatically reject it because it doesn't zoom out of the starter blocks immediately? Many readers here on Authonomy seem to want a book to take off like a rocket.

Posted: 07/02/2012 20:04:04

Here's an example of what I meant, too. You pick up a book in a bookstore (or you peruse it online), and the book has a slow start. Do you automatically reject it because it doesn't zoom out of the starter blocks immediately? Many readers here on Authonomy seem to want a book to take off like a rocket.

I would say that I expect a hell of a lot more from a bookstore book. Then again, my tastes are at the literary end of the spectrum so that shouldn't be a surprise. Authonomy books I expect to be not quite there and often they are a long way from being there. Occassionally, I am pleasantly surprised to find a book here that appears to be ready for publication, ie, it is in quality indistinguishable from something I might find on a shop shelf. The biggest difference is that I read a published book as a finished item, whereas books on here are, almost by definition, works in progress and so amenable to constructive criticism.
So yes, I treat them very differently, but in a completely different way from what you suggest.

The other aspect of course is reading off the page is a very different experience from reading something on autho which has a habit of making any text look ugly.

Posted: 07/02/2012 20:06:02

Oh, and I don't care about slow starts. What's important is a writer who has 'voice' and the prospect of an interesting or unusual story. The 'story' I get from the back cover. The voice I get from the first page.

Posted: 07/02/2012 20:09:16

@Shalini:

I know exactly what you mean.

Posted: 07/02/2012 20:09:45