Am I reading bad books or do I just have the depression?

[owlectomy]

That feeling when you start a new book that you're slightly excited about reading, but the teen-girl character is a wannabe influencer who's right out of central casting, and the voice is laying it on so thickly and stereotypically, and we're hitting all of the expected sentimental notes of Tragic! Backstory! for the dad, and...

It's like the Truck Driver's Gear Change, right? It works - it's crude but it works - but once you know it for what it is, once you see the gears turning, it seems like a cheap trick.

Everything that works just a little too well feels a bit calculated and pandering.

The advice I want to give myself is "Stop reading genre fiction for a second; read out-there litfic, read that queer one narrated by a mountain lion, read some difficult poetry," and I think that's correct but I also don't really have enough brain for it.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Is the queer book narrated by a mountain lion real?

[owlectomy]

Yes, and it's set in LA!

[radiantfracture]

Came here to find exactly this

[pinesandmaples]

IT'S SO GOOD READ IT FOR REAL!!!

It's one of the best things I've read this year, and I'm just north of 200 books.

Hmm ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Maybe try looking at the books on Kickstarter. They are much less cookie-cutter and contrived, often diverse, but usually fun to read rather than work to read.

[larryhammer]

Try something completely different. Preferably something that requires less brain engagement, if you're feeling thin that way. Possibly a comfort read, or a comfort reread, but way of refilling the well.

[pinesandmaples]

Are we reading the same book? (Margo's Got Money Troubles)

If my obsessive reading of any piece of fiction the NYT mentions can be of assistance, let me know. I love recommending things that people will actually like.

Unfortunately

[jesse_the_k]

It can be both.

All fiction is beyond me right now, but well-written, deep-dive science reporting is a welcome change. Ed Yong's An Immense World; Charles C Mann's 1491, 1493, and The Wizard and The Prophet, Hope Janssen's Lab Girl all transported me away from my grisly brain.