Willa Cline's Blog
January 15, 2016
Random thought
I was doing some research on something and was looking at someone's Goodreads page. She reviews a lot of books, and they all seem to be rated one or two stars. The most she ever gives any book is 3 stars.
My question is -- why would you bother to read all those books if you didn't like them? As far as I'm concerned, life is too short to read bad books. If I start a book and don't care for it, I stop reading it. I don't force myself to read something I hate, and then rate it 1 star.
People may look at the books I've read and think that I rate them too high -- almost all of the books I read, I rate 4 or 5 stars -- but it's because I don't see any point in reading a book that I don't like. If it was my job to read books, that would be different, but I read completely for pleasure.
Ebooks have made it possible to download a sample of a book so you can decide whether you want to buy and read the whole thing. I guess libraries serve that purpose as well, but with ebooks, you don't have to lug them all home.
My question is -- why would you bother to read all those books if you didn't like them? As far as I'm concerned, life is too short to read bad books. If I start a book and don't care for it, I stop reading it. I don't force myself to read something I hate, and then rate it 1 star.
People may look at the books I've read and think that I rate them too high -- almost all of the books I read, I rate 4 or 5 stars -- but it's because I don't see any point in reading a book that I don't like. If it was my job to read books, that would be different, but I read completely for pleasure.
Ebooks have made it possible to download a sample of a book so you can decide whether you want to buy and read the whole thing. I guess libraries serve that purpose as well, but with ebooks, you don't have to lug them all home.
August 14, 2010
Shopaholic
I just finished reading all five of Sophie Kinsella's "Shopaholic" novels, and loved every one of them. I had never read them before, or seen the movie, but Amazon was offering "Confessions of a Shopaholic" for under a dollar a week or so ago, so I snapped it up. I liked it so much that I bought all the rest of them, and read them in about a week.
The main character, Becky, is, of course, not really someone to admire; her main interest and activity is shopping and spending money, and she gets herself further and further in debt, lies about it, hides her bills, etc. But she's a good person at heart, and I think that's why I enjoyed the books so much. I'm not into fashion at all, but I do enjoy shopping, just not to the extent that Becky does!
I'm writing this here mostly because I just read a bunch of reviews that said these books were complete trash, and said how much they hated them, and found them disgusting because they glorified spending.
I think that people need to lighten up a little bit, you know? I read for entertainment, and I don't have any trouble admitting that. I read almost exclusively fiction, and if I don't enjoy reading something, I stop. In my opinion, life's too short to spend my precious free time forcing myself to read something that I don't like. On the other hand, I certainly don't judge anyone else's reading choices. I figure that's a pretty personal choice, and no one else's business.
Anyway, if you enjoy a light, funny read, these books are perfect. The last one--Shopaholic and Baby--was probably my favorite. It was a bit darker and deeper, with a mystery that had me wanting to keep reading to find out what happened. "Mini Shopaholic" is coming out next month, and I can't wait!
The main character, Becky, is, of course, not really someone to admire; her main interest and activity is shopping and spending money, and she gets herself further and further in debt, lies about it, hides her bills, etc. But she's a good person at heart, and I think that's why I enjoyed the books so much. I'm not into fashion at all, but I do enjoy shopping, just not to the extent that Becky does!
I'm writing this here mostly because I just read a bunch of reviews that said these books were complete trash, and said how much they hated them, and found them disgusting because they glorified spending.
I think that people need to lighten up a little bit, you know? I read for entertainment, and I don't have any trouble admitting that. I read almost exclusively fiction, and if I don't enjoy reading something, I stop. In my opinion, life's too short to spend my precious free time forcing myself to read something that I don't like. On the other hand, I certainly don't judge anyone else's reading choices. I figure that's a pretty personal choice, and no one else's business.
Anyway, if you enjoy a light, funny read, these books are perfect. The last one--Shopaholic and Baby--was probably my favorite. It was a bit darker and deeper, with a mystery that had me wanting to keep reading to find out what happened. "Mini Shopaholic" is coming out next month, and I can't wait!
