I need to learn to give up books I don’t like. It’s a Gretchen Rubin lesson: don’t finish a bad book. It will only slow your reading down and keep you from the good stuff.
When I am in a fanfiction binge this is easier. It feels less weighty to give up mid-story. Fanfic writing is intended to be amateur. A lot of it’s bad, but enough of it is amazing that it’s not worth the bad stuff. Though in fanfiction, you often settle for somewhere in the middle.
But this month I haven’t read fanfiction, I’ve read books, and I just finished a bad one. Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell was gifted to me a couple years ago. It’s a Cinderella story, a supposedly feminist take on it where the protagonist is an inventor paving her own path to freedom. I had trouble getting into it but I told myself to give it enough time that I could decide. By the time I decided I thought I was too far in to give it up. It wasn’t a long book after all. A fast read that I did not want to read.
I pushed through but it was not worth it. The prose was plain and uninspiring. Our mechanical protagonist was mechanical in her thoughts and emotions as well. I didn’t believe anything she felt. The story was both overplotted and boring. It wasn’t queer and it only scratched the feminist surface. After reading books like When the Moon Was Ours and The Miseducation of Cameron Post last week – that bring you to your knees with their beauty – I’m reminded that there are too many gorgeous books out there to waste time on bad ones.
This morning, I reread Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson. It’s a short middle-grade poetical fiction. It’s lyrical and heart-grabbing and was a finalist for the National Book Award. I read this a few years ago but decided to do a reread this morning in order to start the companion book: Peace, Locomotion.
I’m picking short reads today because tomorrow I’m following through on my promise to get a library card. I’ve applied online and am doing a lunch & library date with a friend. I’m going to start plowing through my goodreads list and stay in the lane of queer young adult fiction as much as possible. If that’s where my writing heart lives I need to understand the landscape.
I’m having more luck with the audiobook I’m listening to: Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I’m a little over halfway through the
Unlike Mechanica. God, I might reread Ella Enchanted or Cinder just to soak in a good Cinderella story again. They are usually my favorite. Actually, Ash by Malinda Lo is on my to-read list. I believe it’s a lesbian retelling of Cinderella. I’ll see if it’s on the library shelves.
WIth Love,
Natalie