My family has encouraged me to give the names of authors I have tried and could not abide. I guess that "abide" is a pretty strong word…. but, there are several authors who I really cannot make myself read. The other night, when I put down that book (after trying unsuccessfully for more than a week to read it) I went to my list of authors and wrote a big "YUCK" by her name. I also proceeded to mark off the chronological list of her books… to make sure that I don’t accidentally buy any more. Once I finished annotating my "YUCK" and strike-out marks, I got both of the books that I own ready to donate to my library. I am that sure that I will never want to attempt to read her work again.

So, my family wonders why I don’t "blog" the name of the author. They think that I should be honest and "tell it like it is." But, that really isn’t how "it is." The main reason I don’t give a strong opinion about an author who I can’t force myself to like, is that there are other people who truly enjoy that very same author. I just don’t want to prejudice people who might want to give that author a try in the future who might become a fan of that author… like so many other people. I know it sounds VERY presumptuous of me to think that I might influence someone who is choosing an author for the first time, hoping to find a new favorite…

I have one friend in particular who absolutely loves an author who I have tried to read….  five times…. unsuccessfully! Each time I tried to have a positive attitude when I started reading the first book in her series, but each time I felt like everything about the book was "forced." I simply could not enjoy that particular author. This friend of mine knows how I feel about that author, and sometimes I wonder if she tries to avoid talking about how much she likes her. I know that she eagerly awaits a new book by that author, and, when I come across a new book by the author (while updating my cozy mystery list), I tell her about the new book. But, that’s as far as it goes……… she never tells me how much she enjoyed the book, or even if she read it.

Anyway, getting back to my family’s thought about this subject… Do people who come to this site want me to disclose which authors I simply cannot enjoy? I think that, no, they don’t. But, my husband and two in-their-early 20s children think that yes, I should "tell it like it is." If you have any thoughts on this question (or comments on how I could improve this site)…. please feel free to write a comment to me. (There is a very dim gray line under this blog post with a button to comment.)  I’d love to hear what you think!

I just started a book by a new author (by "new" I mean that she is new to me… she’s been writing books for years), and try as I might, I simply cannot stay awake while reading her book. Of course, as I have said before, I feel like I absolutely have to start reading an author at the beginning of his/her series, and I know that an author’s first book is not always a true sign of what the author is capable of, but since I have to begin somewhere, it’s the place where I am going to decide whether or not to continue with that author… 

I find that most of my reading is done at the end of the day… while I am relaxing. It’s the time of the day that I consider truly mine… not to be shared with anyone else… doing something I love to do… by myself…. getting immersed in a good, for the most part, cozy mystery.

But, after spending several nights trying to like "my new author," I finally decided that although I know she has many devoted readers out there, I just could not join their ranks.  After trying to read her book for well over a week, and seeing that I was only approaching page fifty, I had to make a choice…

Devout cozy mystery readers know about "the choice" time… It’s the time when you have to decide if you really want to invest more time with this author, or if it’s time to call it a day and move on. Throughout life we are taught to persevere… "practice makes perfect" and "try and try, again" are little sayings that have been ingrained in our brains since we were little. Maybe that is why it is so difficult to move a much-anticipated author from our TBR list (To-Be-Read) to our Tried-and-Didn’t-Like list.

I don’t know if it is the let-down of finding that a much anticipated author just doesn’t cut it for you or if it’s the price of books these days,  I just know that I agonize over not finishing a book. But, I have so many favorite authors who have so many books out there for me to read AND ENJOY, that I just don’t feel like I want to waste time forcing myself to finish a book. Now that I don’t belong to any mystery reading groups, I feel like I don’t "have to finish" a book simply for the sake of finishing it. If I finish a book, it’s because I am enjoying it and want to…. It’s not like I’m in school and there is a test that is going to measure how much of the book I actually read. And, if I don’t like a given author who many other people do like, that just means that variety truly is the spice of life…. or is that the one about a silver lining in wolf’s clothes…