If there is a special writer whose serial novels you are addicted to, there’s a curious feeling of sadness as you close in the last 2-3 of those books. You don’t want the storyline to end. You want more.
As an addict of the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child (and now his son Andrew), the past few months have proven oddly disconcerting for me. At some point, after discovering my addiction, I wrote down all the books in the Jack Reacher series. Then I checked off the ones I’d read (or could remember that I read).
Since, initially I chose a book that was written multiple years ago, I did not have the current list of all the books. At the time, there were 21 or so, and since then, I’ve added hand-notes of his more recently written books.
Regardless of the current total, Child has written a lot about Reacher. The plots have been adapted to TV and movies, not always the best forums to get a full sense of the character. While I do appreciate expanding the audience visually, it’s still the sitting down with a book to get mentally engrossed in the plot nuances that drives my excitement. I CAN’T WAIT TO TURN THE PAGES! Yes, a cliché, but true for me.
The books make me want to get in bed. Why? Because I read before going to sleep. I want to launch myself under the covers, dwelling on his escapades. I want to see the intricacies of how he gets into trouble and the logic, intuition and experience he uses to extricate himself from complicated and intense situations.
The plots in Jack Reacher novels, and a major reason they resonate, are in the details that compel you. Details can bore you in many books. Reacher’s choreographing of how he plans to knock someone across the room can take up three pages and you practically fall out of your chair (or bed) devouring those details. You so totally picture what will happen that your mind creates the scene, which is what great fiction does. Paint the picture.
That type of praise also applies to the complexities of technology and the various levels and intricacies of law enforcement. You can blab about those things or you can write so the reader wants to know more. Child does the latter.
Closing in on his last few books makes me slow down. I savor the pages more, put the book down, think about what’s going to happen next. There’s a lot to be said for wanting to flip faster and faster to get to the conclusion. There’s even more to be said when you so enjoy what you’re reading that you wait and think. “Hmmmm, maybe he will do this. Or perhaps that. Let’s think this through.”
As the last few books beckon, the next tactic is one available to all of us when it comes to authors we appreciate – rereading previous books. Despite tracking the novels on Reacher I’ve finished, I’ve been rereading previous books as well. You know they’re really good when you reread one, discover and uncover more that revs your engine.
In fact, that perhaps is the greatest compliment you can have for an author’s writing – that you want to go back and read them again. I have confidence that will continue for me when it comes to the Jack Reacher stories.
As an addict of the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child (and now his son Andrew), the past few months have proven oddly disconcerting for me. At some point, after discovering my addiction, I wrote down all the books in the Jack Reacher series. Then I checked off the ones I’d read (or could remember that I read).
Since, initially I chose a book that was written multiple years ago, I did not have the current list of all the books. At the time, there were 21 or so, and since then, I’ve added hand-notes of his more recently written books.
Regardless of the current total, Child has written a lot about Reacher. The plots have been adapted to TV and movies, not always the best forums to get a full sense of the character. While I do appreciate expanding the audience visually, it’s still the sitting down with a book to get mentally engrossed in the plot nuances that drives my excitement. I CAN’T WAIT TO TURN THE PAGES! Yes, a cliché, but true for me.
The books make me want to get in bed. Why? Because I read before going to sleep. I want to launch myself under the covers, dwelling on his escapades. I want to see the intricacies of how he gets into trouble and the logic, intuition and experience he uses to extricate himself from complicated and intense situations.
The plots in Jack Reacher novels, and a major reason they resonate, are in the details that compel you. Details can bore you in many books. Reacher’s choreographing of how he plans to knock someone across the room can take up three pages and you practically fall out of your chair (or bed) devouring those details. You so totally picture what will happen that your mind creates the scene, which is what great fiction does. Paint the picture.
That type of praise also applies to the complexities of technology and the various levels and intricacies of law enforcement. You can blab about those things or you can write so the reader wants to know more. Child does the latter.
Closing in on his last few books makes me slow down. I savor the pages more, put the book down, think about what’s going to happen next. There’s a lot to be said for wanting to flip faster and faster to get to the conclusion. There’s even more to be said when you so enjoy what you’re reading that you wait and think. “Hmmmm, maybe he will do this. Or perhaps that. Let’s think this through.”
As the last few books beckon, the next tactic is one available to all of us when it comes to authors we appreciate – rereading previous books. Despite tracking the novels on Reacher I’ve finished, I’ve been rereading previous books as well. You know they’re really good when you reread one, discover and uncover more that revs your engine.
In fact, that perhaps is the greatest compliment you can have for an author’s writing – that you want to go back and read them again. I have confidence that will continue for me when it comes to the Jack Reacher stories.