Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 07:29:42 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: reading likes and dislikes
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

At 06:41 PM 03/26/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>A friend taught me this trick at Worldcon and it has saved me buying/reading
>a lot of books, because it gives you a sense of the book without spoiling
>it:
>
>Turn to page 86.
>Read it.
>Are you intrigues enough to continue?
>
>Turn to page 102.
>Read it.
>If you like what you've read, buy it/check it out; if not, you've saved time
>and possibly money.

That sounds like a very good idea.

>It works for me. Doesn't guarantee a happy ending, though, Candy! Also,
>check the covers, acknowledgements, and "Other books by..." page carefully
>to make sure this isn't Book 2 or 3 of a series. That info can be very well
>disguised, and I'm pissed as hell at the publisher when I'm tricked into
>buying something that I can't read until I've bought something else.

I am actually willing to read books out of order.  I read the last book in
a series and a stand alone in the same universe recently, and then a week
or so later, I happened to be in a conversation about the books (Anne
Bishop's The Invisible Ring and Queen of Darkness).  I had enjoyed the
books, but as I listened to my friends, they were complaining about how
ssllloooooowwww the first book was.  Lucky me, I hadn't read the first books.

Candy