Saturday, July 21, 2007

Harry arrived (and author overdoses)

My new Harry Potter book just arrived. I don't remember ordering it. Oh, the dangerous combination of staying up too late and internet ordering. I'm itching to read it. In fact, I read the first two paragraphs a second ago and that woman does know how to grab a reader...


The problem is, I still haven't read books five and six in the series. Further confirming my late-night-ordering craziness, I pre-ordered those two to arrive on the days they were released, too.

Some backstory: I didn't read any of the the Harry Potter series until the first four books were out. I was working at the time with a woman who had pre-teen kids who were reading the Harry Potter books, she was raving about them, so I bought them mostly to see what the fuss was about.

Like so many people, I got hooked, hard and fast. I think I devoured the first four books in just a few weeks. Very fast reading for me. After finishing the fourth, I couldn't wait for the fifth to arrive. (Hence my first pre-order.) But by the time it came out, I'd moved onto other things. I'd started writing myself and was busy reading a lot in the genre I was attempting to write at the time (romance) and was burned out as a reader.

Do you ever get burned out reading one author or one genre too much?

With very few exceptions -- mostly authors I personally know -- I think I'm over reading romance. I think that's the first genre I OD'd on... But I've OD'd on specific authors in the past, too. When I first read Anne Rice, I think I read at least six of her novels back to back. Similar story with Anne Tyler (do I have a thing for writers named Anne?) Simlarly with Robertson Davies and John Irving -- although I first read Irving when he was still in his book out a year stage and so I did have gaps between those books but bought most of them in hard cover as soon as they hit the stores.

Back to my new Harry book.... Do I need to read Potter's five and six before reading seven? I'm anxious to get going...

11 comments:

Wylie Kinson said...

I, too, had to crack it open and take a peek, and I agree - I'm in!

At this moment I'm simultaneously reading HP Deathly Hallows, HP and the Philosopher's Stone (to my 7 year old), Christine d'Abo's new book and doing the TRW newsletter.
Who says I can't multitask ;)

Anonymous said...

I tend to OD on romance also.
So I alternate it with an OD on business book (yeah, crazy mix but... ).
Balances me.

Amy Ruttan said...

I flipped to the back. Bad me I know it all and it doesn't matter, I'm reading it right now. I'm at page 138 and showing no signs of stopping. Though I should I only have 5k to finish of the first draft of my WIP.

I should do that, my WIP is almost done then the editing begins ... I just can't let go of HP. My hands are wrapped around it in a vice like grip. ARGH!!! ;)

Maureen McGowan said...

I just realized that my post made it sound like I don't like romance. I do. It's just I read so much when I was first getting educated about the genre... and several of my CP's and other good writer friends write romance, and I read their stuff and frankly, all those combined is enough in one genre for me. I like to mix it up...

Diana Peterfreund said...

You will have NO CLUE what is going on in HP7 if you don't read HP5+6. Especially 6. Five you can pretty much see the movie (I hated that book) because it gets across most of the main points.

However, having read the last book now, there is something that they left out of the movie that they shouldn't have.

Maureen McGowan said...

Thanks, Diana! That's exactly what I wanted to know... I'll go see the current movie and then read #6 before #7.

Sara Hantz said...

I've just seen the current movie and LOVED it and am halfway through the new book - I didn't read 6 again but I did go on Wikapaedia and get a plot summary, which helped a lot!

Elizabeth Kerri Mahon said...

I read the first 10 Anne Perry books, and then lost interest after awhile. There were other mystery series like the JD Robb books that I wanted to read. Now if I picked them up again I wouldn't know where to start. By the way, I pre-ordered my Harry Potter back in February!

Marilyn Brant said...

Oh, I have exactly the same problem with H.P. I devoured the first four, bought five and six (but never read them because I had too, too many other things to read) and just got seven today... So, I guess I'll need to begin where I left off, huh?

As for authors whose work I've exhausted--I read just about everything by Sue Miller, Elizabeth Berg and Anita Shreve. I love their writing, but the themes (lots of death and unhappiness) started to depress me after awhile. I also read the first 11 Janet Evanovich's in her Stephanie Plum series before I ran out steam. They did always make me laugh, though.

Karen In Toronto said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Karen In Toronto said...

I think every author has a rhythm. And when you read too many of them, that tends to stand out more. And then when you read 5 or so back to back it becomes annoying.

I once read an author whose favourite word was 'wry'. She ruined that word for me by overuse in book after book. I won't read her again. and I squirm when I read it in others.

With J.K. Rowlings, she goes off on tangents that have no reason...and regular author would have to cut them. But it's easy to forgive when I only read her once every couple of year.

And read the books in order. Everything builds on other information. And you need the backstory on all the characters.

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