Kristine's Friend Comments
Comments (showing 1-3)
post a comment »
date
newest »
newest »
Discovered The Strand bookstore (828 Broadway at 12th St.) while we were vacationing in New York City last week. True love! Since I have so many travel books to read, I limited myself to buying only four more new books.
Logged in all the travel books I have been collecting for a while. I'm so excited about spending this summer not working on my book (being published in a few weeks and reading about everyone else's travels.If Your Dream Doesn't Scare You, It Isn't Big Enough: A Solo Journey Around the World
* Is the story engaging? This gets complicated because there may be times when the story is not engaging because part of the experience/trip was not engaging.
* That leads me to ask who is the target audience? Armchair travelers looking for a thrill (keep the story constantly exciting) or future travelers looking to learn (keep the story real, include bits that are not exciting because they were an integral part of the experience).
* Are there too many target audiences? What is the focus? I'm big on travel and not much on romance, so a book with a 50/50 blend doesn't work for me, but should not be blamed on the author with a low rating.
* Is the story told well? Am I able to follow the story line when it jumps back in time or skips forward a few days or moves to a new location? Do I know who is talking? Are there so many characters and place names and other factors that I get lost?
* Does the author take the time to let me the reader be in the moment, in the place, even if it doesn't thrill the author/traveler. I loose interest if there is a big build up to reaching a location and, when the author gets there, he/she deems that it sucked and moves on to a new place in one paragraph. I feel ripped off.
* Do I connect with the author's voice? Is it believable or consistent? A book I recently abandoned a book for many of the above problems, but it also tried to convince me what a tough, experienced traveler she was but she hid in her room on the swanky ship she was hitchhiking on just because she found out the owner was Russian mafia.
* Is the book not working because the reader is used to reading fiction and romance, both of which portray characters and scenes and pacing of story so differently?
Lots of things to keep in mind as I judge books written by others and readers judge mine.