How do most people chose a book? Lets face it- those couch potatoes are just going to look at the length, thickness, and the number of pages in a book and pick whether or not they'll be reading that book. Just try to lie and tell me that this isn't true and we haven't done this in our lives. You can't. Physically not possible. Those types of people are always going to be like, "oh nope this book is 100 pages long... not gonna read it." Then they'll put it down and awkwardly walk away hoping no one saw them. Yeah.. I know you're a little embarssed reading this because a) you've done this before or b) you still do it now. But hey..who's am I to judge?
Then there are those who will pick a book based on the cheesy, annoying, and over dramatic book summary on the back of the book, or possibly on the inside cover. To them it all depends on the how "smart" those words can sound and how captivating those five lines can be. Right, because FIVE lines of words we barely understand is enough for a person to know if they want to read the book. Okay... that logic makes total sense.
Now, there is a that small percentage of people who will actually do research to see if that book is worth their time after all time is the most valuable thing we have and we can't lost it. So I decided to be that small percentage of people and did a little research to see if I really should read the book and not do an abandon ship kinda thing. After getting the book...yes I know AFTER... I read some of the reviews that I could find online and quickly came to the conclusion that this may be a novel worthwhile reading. Most of the reviews said, "A Separate Country has its moments, and Hood was indeed a rather tragic figure in our nation's history. It's not that I disliked A Separate Country; I just felt as though there was something I was missing from the story." Most of all the reviews said something similar along the lines things such as something being left out of the book, or the book not meeting the expectations of the author's previous books. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by other reviews that quoted the the book as "elegantly written" or "Very well written; much detail, and keeps you turning the pages."
So I decided why not try it. And here I am almost 100 pages into the book and its not as bad as I thought originally. Right away, I have noticed the complexity of the text because Hicks does a wonderful job describing each scene in great detail allowing the readers to create a picture in their minds while they are reading. Overall so far I have found a liking towards this book and its tie to the Civil War.
So I was glad I didn't become a couch potato because I would have truly missed out on reading a very new type of book based on its concept and plot.
A link to an article commenting on the book.
I am so used to reading the same type of books and same genres, I think I need to go out of my comfort zone and read a book I would usually not pick up. I will for surely try to get out of comfort zone and try reading books new to me and hopefully won't be one of those couch potatoes and actually of some research on the book I want to read.
ReplyDeleteI like how you talked through how you chose your book. I also liked how you included the reviews of the book. Your post was very relatable
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