* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
#WDYTWed: finishing a book, and what’s important to your enjoyment of a novel
In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.
That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.
One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.
It’s a good idea. 🙂
I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).
I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…
This first one today is just something I’ve noticed in myself, and I was wondering about you.
When I get close to the end of a book I like, I find I slow down my reading of it. I don’t want that book to end, and to then move on to another book. Hm…that’s if it’s not a series, where I may want to move on quickly to get to the next one.
However, I’m sure many people read more quickly because they want to see what happens!
That’s if you aren’t like at least one of my readers, and read the ending first: I would never do that, personally. I always read fiction in the order the author intended. I try to do that with books in a series, too, but that’s not always easy (earlier books may not be available, or I may not realize it’s a series when I start reading one mid-series…and since I finish every book I start, I can’t just abandon it because it’s in the middle of a series. I could postpone it and start the first book, if it’s available, but if it isn’t, I’ll finish the mid-series book
What about you?
This next one came from a poll on Twitter, although frustratingly, I can’t find the tweet again right now so I can credit the inspiration to that author. If I find it, I’ll amend this post. I responded to it with a tweet, but haven’t found that digging back, either…if the person deleted it for some reason, I suppose that might do that.
Anyway, the question has to do with what’s the most important element of a fiction book for you. This was intended for authors (there is a thriving author community on Twitter), but I’m going to ask you as readers.
That author contended that plot was most important. I countered with my feeling: characters are generally the most important. I said that I’d rather a book with interesting characters where nothing plotwise happens than a book with an interesting plot and wooden characters. I used the example of Seinfeld, which was famously “about nothing”, although that was hyperbole (they often had significant plots).
I think that’s natural: people are more interested in people than they are in events. That’s not to say that they aren’t interested in events, they certainly are. If you say, “I saw this person do this really weird thing,” the next question is likely to be “What did they do?”, not “What was that person like?” Now I’m starting to question myself: if I say I saw a great show, I think people may want to know what happened in it, rather than who the characters were.
Still, I do think the characters are what tend to engage us. Let’s take the Sherlock Holmes stories, for example. Let’s say that in every Holmes book, the plots were exactly the same as they are now, but there were different characters in each one from Holmes and Watson (also meaning they would approach the mysteries differently…that’s part of what makes Holmes’ character, for sure).
The other element raised was world-building (or setting). I’m sure many books have started with a “what if” thought. “What if there was a world where time ran backwards?” Philip K. Dick has a book like that:
The Oz books have a great setting (after the first book), and I do think I could read an Oz book with none of the known characters (not every one of the “Famous 14” main books by L. Frank Baum stars Dorothy and friends…Baum really pioneered crossovers) and enjoy it. I’ll write something at some point about how Baum brilliantly and amusingly tested the limits of the fascinating rules that Baum created, but that’s for another time.
What do you think is the most important for your enjoyment of a book? I’ll do multiple choice even though I’m using a superlative…it could be a tie. 🙂
I could see some possible other factors: length of the book, relationship to other works by the author, and so on.
Well, these two polls do intrigue me! I’m looking forward to seeing how you respond.
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
The next time you ask Alexa a question, I might be the one to answer it 🙂
Oh, this is going to be a major temptation for me!
My readers, and the people with whom I work, and, um, people on public transit 😉 know I love answering questions. It’s one of my favorite things to do!
Anybody can sign up for it, and then you see questions which Alexa wasn’t able to answer. You can answer them, and they’ve done a good job of gamifying it: you get points earn badges, and there is a leaderboard. You can see if your answers are being shared by Alexa and what Alexa users think of your answers
Probably just as fascinating for me is seeing the questions being asked.
Some questions are, of course, by kids.
However, there are also cases where Alexa has apparently misunderstood the question. My favorite one that was visible when I looked this morning?
“How many calories are in saint louis?”
Well, the answer is gazillions, I’m sure! 😉 I’m confident that Alexa misheard something else as “saint louis”.
Some questions, I hope, aren’t being asked in emergencies: “How fast is a green anaconda?”
To be clear, you aren’t answering the questions real time. Alexa failed to answer the question. Community members answer them, so that the answer can (after some sort of vetting and weighting, of course) be available in the future. I think Alexa may even be able to return to you later with the answer.
Another important thing: eventually, they could do this in many languages…which I’m sure is part of the future of Alexa.
My guess is that I could, if I devoted enough time and energy to this, be one of the top question answerers. Communication is what I do in my day job as well, and I can be accurate and succinct (when I choose to be…I prefer verbosity, but can be focused). I can also be clear.
That’s going to be the difficulty: not to wander down the rabbit hole. I’m already stretched quite thin (although things are looking up at work: we are about to double the size of my team).
Still, maybe I’ll just answer one…or, a couple, or…to quote Admiral Akbar, “It’s a trap!” 🙂
Update: I’ve answered one now (about Ray Liotta’s roles). You get 300 characters, and a nice feature is that you can hear how it will sound when Alexa says it. I’ll be told it is “live” once Alexa can share it, and I’ll get statistics such as how many times it has been shared.
What do you think? Are you going to be answering questions? Does this seem like a good way for Amazon to “crowdsource” answers? Should they be crowdsourcing? Do you think this can be manipulated and abused, so that wrong answers (or, perhaps, answers with an agenda) are given? I think somewhat of an analogy is Wikipedia, which is one of the greatest resources ever created…but that can be, at times, unreliable and prejudiced. It usually doesn’t take long for the corners to get smoothed, though. You can let me and my readers know what you think by commenting on this post.
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
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