Things I've learned

I've spent a lot of time on Goodreads lately and I've been on a roll reading a lot of books. I am primarily a fiction reader. I love to dive into a complex story like a Pynchon novel or a John Irving tale. But then other times I like a simple guilty pleasure book.

One thing I've learned is that I tend to like a book better if I DON'T read the reviews before reading the book - especially the negative reviews. Whether they are spoilers or not, a negative review points out specific things the reader didn't like. If I read that review, then when I'm reading the book I'm looking for those negative things and dwelling on them. If I read the negative review after reading the book, most of the time I think "That didn't bother me." or "I didn't even notice that."

Something I don't like is a very specific description of a book by the author (or publisher) that is not true to the actual book. I recently read a book that was hyped as super-scary - "Read this with the lights on". I kept waiting to be scared, but it didn't happen. It doesn't mean it wasn't a good book but it set an expectation that it didn't meet - and that is disappointing. I think that the only book I've ever read that REALLY scared me (Enough to go and turn on lights and background music) was Stephen King's Pet Sematary. Not that it was my favorite book, but it was freaking scary.