Listening to Episode 65 of the podcast “Secrets from the Green Room”, where hosts Irma Gold and Karen Viggers chat with authors Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist. I was initially interested in the part about foreign rights and the “shocking stats” promised by the hosts, which take up the first one-fifth of the 50-minute show. But it turned out the chat with the authors throughout the rest of the episode is far more thought-provoking.
To make a long story short – I realised I really need to read an author’s book(s) before I am able to justify making commentary on their writing. Not only is this necessary and fair, but a more important reason is that reading is such a subjective experience. How I respond to a book, emotionally and then intellectually, may not and probably should not have anything to do with my views about the author and their career as a person. My emphasis has always been on books – how good they are in terms of storytelling and reader impact – rather than what has been done to enhance the performance (read: sales) of this or that book. It is the stories themselves, instead of their marketing strategies, that remains my focus, so words such as “hype”, “buzz” and “bestselling” don’t really apply to me.
(Day 58 #WarmWinterRead #WWR25 via @librarieschangelives)
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 