Well, that comment I made above about “nerds of my age” is one reason. While it’s set in the near future, a major plot point has to do with a familiarity with pop culture of the 1980s. And you know who gets that? Not teenagers now who weren’t born until the 1990s, but adults, particularly those born in the 70s for whom the 80s were their formative teenage years.

This ties in with my comment from a couple of weeks ago about “historical” books as well. Often, if you’re setting a book at a time when you, as the writer, were a teen, it won’t feel like YA to teens today. A gross generalization, of course, but common.

Anyway, if you WERE a nerd or a pop culture junkie in the 80s, I highly recommend Ready Player One. I can’t wait to read more!

Why am I telling you this, you may ask? Is it just to make you envy my awesome good mood? Hell no! Would I do that to you?

I’m bringing it up because I think reading can do the same thing for writers. Finishing a great book that gets your brain firing on all cylinders can be a fantastic jump start for your own work.

There’s many reasons why I suggest serious writers who want to be published authors should read a lot, but this is another great reason — it’s inspiring! Sure, sometimes you finish a book and think, “Well, I can do better,” and that’s one kind of inspiration. But this is the more positive kind, and so, I like it better. What can I say — I’m an optimist!

Finishing a novel where you fall in love with the romantic hero can and should make you want to get back to your computer, to your own romantic lead. Is he as drool-worthy, heart-thumpingly interesting? If not, how can you bring him up to the high standard set by your recent read? Is your heroine as smart, as cunning, as cluelessly oblivious… until she isn’t? Read other author’s books to improve your own!

I just finished reading Welcome to Bordertown, the anthology edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, and I loved it. Rexroth got rather annoyed with me — I kept interrupting his own reading to read him something aloud, or just to sob quietly in his office. Halfway through the last story, everyone was so happy I wanted to stop reading, so they would stay that way. Will your characters inspire a reader to do the same? To want to keep them safe?

What books have you read that have produced that endorphin high for you as a writer? Share your faves in the comments!

Until then, however, I thought I’d pop in with a round-up of my vacation reading, since you were so great in helping me decide what to bring. I’ll admit right now, however — I didn’t get to Leviathan. On the flight home, I succumbed to the lure of a glossy magazine in the airport newsstand, and read that during the “no electronics” phase of the flight.

So what DID I read? Of bound-paper books, only Will Grayson, Will Grayson. On my Kindle, though, I also read InterWorld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I also read three client manuscripts — new books by Kater Cheek, Carrie Harris, and Kiki Hamilton.

I’d have liked to have read EVEN more, but most of that reading took place on the first half of the week, which was overcast and/or rainy. Once we got to spend more time at the beach, between the boogie-boarding, sandcastle-building, and wave-jumping, there wasn’t much time to sit and read with a five-year-old.

I’m of course not going to pick favorites, though it was neat to be a part of the kidlit community while we all tore through Mockingjay together. And Will Grayson had me in happy tears on a crowded airplane. And I think InterWorld was maybe the most surprising to me — if only because I think if it had come out AFTER The Graveyard Book, it would have been more justly lauded as a great YA novel. In some ways, it reminds me of kt literary client Matthew Cody‘s upcoming novel The Dead Gentleman, which I can’t wait to share with you. And if you know me, you’ll know what high praise that is, indeed!

As for the client manuscripts I read — well, let’s just say I can’t wait to share those with you either! They included a couple of sequels and an exciting new direction — more soon, I hope!

As for the above totally-not-posed picture, it’s of one of my sisters’ friends’ daughters reading Maureen Johnson‘s 13 Little Blue Envelopes across the circle of beach chairs from me last Saturday.

But I loved The Chestry Oak as a child, and it holds a place of honor not just on my bookshelves, but in my heart.

Today I got an email from a woman who also loved The Chestry Oak, and wrote (minor spoiler):

The part I wanted to reread most of all was Michael’s conversation with his father and Nana, the one where mention of his mother led Michael to recall a shattered figurine, which had been a beautiful woman but was dirty and hollow inside. That was the first book I ever read as a child that suggested that a parent could be less than perfect. I never forgot that image, and I never forgot the planting of the chestry oak seedling at Michael’s new home in New York.

Thanks for bringing back memories of a terrific book from my childhood.

I’m so grateful to Mary for reminding me again how much this book meant to me. I blogged about it before, but I think the readership of my blog has likely changed some in the last two years, so I’ll pose the question again — in a slightly different way for any of my devoted followers.

What book did you adore as a child or teen that caused you to become a pusher of that author’s works on others? Also, or alternatively, what book does it surprise you that most people — even devoted readers of kid lit — haven’t heard about?

On a whole, I think one of the most encouraging things I heard from international publishers at the fair was an interest not just in paranormal, which continues to do well, but also contemporary YA and MG adventure. Which just about covers all of my authors, so yay!

And I even had a chance to read a book! Holly Black‘s fantastic new YA novel White Cat, which is being published in May. If you love heist movies, or stories about con artists, you’ll love this. Plus — magic!

Have you read anything great while I’ve been gone? Besides my fabulous guest bloggers, of course!

With a multi-book series like this, though, I think the author can run the risk of boring readers with long, detailed descriptions of characters they’ve met before, in previous books. I’m not saying I was bored, exactly (and that may be because in Silva’s books, I don’t have a hard time keeping track of the important characters — Gabriel, Chiara, Shamron — and I don’t mind forgetting about the others), but I felt like if I had the previous book in front of me at the same time as The Defector, I could easily flip to similar descriptions the last time these characters were introduced.

Don’t get me wrong — it needs to be done somehow. As a writer, you can’t assume that every reader will work their way through your entire oeuvre. Some may come to you midway through a series, and you have to make some new introductions, even while your faithful readers are standing nearby at the cocktail party that is your book, saying to themselves, “Yes, I know who that is, we’ve met before, get back to your story!”

I’m remembering another author’s series where I read two books in close succession, and I noticed word-for-word repeats of character description. You have to find the middle ground that works for you — that keeps your longtime readers engaged, and doesn’t leave your newer readers clueless.

Those of you that are writing series certainly need to be aware of this, but it’s useful information for all writers. Even if you don’t NEED to find different ways to introduce your characters, can you? And (nod to this off-color but dead-on review of The Phantom Menace) can you do it without describing what they look like, what they’re wearing, or what their job or “role” is?

Try it with some of your favorite characters! I’ll give you one to start with: Spencer Martin. Ok, go!

That being said, I still finished it, and after I got past a few of those horrible decisions, I really enjoyed the book, and was, perhaps, even more pleased at the happy ending.

But I have to wonder: if I were reading this book as an agent — if the opening chapters came to me by submission — would I have kept going? I don’t know. In my pleasure reading, I think I do “grade on a curve,” somewhat, in that I trust a published book has gone through a rather vigorous vetting process. An agent liked it, sold it to an editor whose acquisitions board agreed, got their sales and marketing team behind it, a book store agreed to stock it, as did my local library, etc. etc. That’s a lot of hoops to jump through, and I have to trust that those hoops make the book better.

Which isn’t to say I haven’t been disappointed by published books in the past. I know that some authors at a certain level of success have their books published perhaps more quickly that a new author might, without the close, careful editing that a debut might receive. I’m not knocking editors at all — I know hordes of brilliant ones, who do amazing things with their titles — but sometimes a book may be delivered and published with a shorter turnaround that makes it hard for editors to do the jobs they’re hired for. Some authors may even believe their words can’t be improved by an editor’s hand, and don’t let their books be edited.

Anyway, all this is just to note another Recent Read, and open things up for discussion — have you been disappointed by published books, maybe by authors you’ve loved in the past? No names, please, but I’m curious if you kept reading them.

Full disclosure: By my nature as a literary agent, I get a commission on sales of books by my clients, through any eventual royalties. My links to any Amazon pages also earns me a small fee, if you click through and buy a copy. Though you should also feel free to support your local library — which is where I got my copy of this title.

Anyway: good story. I laughed, I cried, I eagerly read the teaser chapter of book three at the end to see if I was right as to who would be the featured couple in book three (Yes, I was).

Are you a Nora Roberts fan? Which are your favorite books? If you’ve never tried and are looking for an easy starting point (since the sheer number of titles she’s published can seem overwhelming), I recommend the Chesapeake Bay Saga if you like contemporary romances (books 1, 2, 3, and 4), or the Gallaghers of Ardmore trilogy (1, 2, and 3) if you want a little magic (and Ireland!) in your romance.

Full disclosure: By my nature as a literary agent, I get a commission on sales of books by my clients, through any eventual royalties. My links to any Amazon pages also earns me a small fee, if you click through and buy a copy. Though you should also feel free to support your local library — which is where I got my copy of this title.

In the meantime, one of the most popular requests was for reviews of books I read for pleasure. I’ve been somewhat leery about this in the past, because I have to work in this industry, and I don’t want a lukewarm review of a book to make an author think twice about blurbing one of my client’s books, for instance. (You’d think it was self-explanatory that my reviews of books are merely my own personal opinion, but in an industry about relationships, personal opinions can come back at you. Anyway…)

I use a reading list on Amazon and Visual Bookshelf on Facebook to keep track of books I read, but I will try to be better about putting up some thoughts here as well — with the understanding that the books I’m likely to be posting about will be the ones I liked and enjoyed.

So I hit the library this afternoon and picked up a few titles I’ve been looking forward to, and the picture above is my to-read pile next to my bed (not to be confused by the to-read pile in my office, which covers about two bookcases). I look forward to getting back to you about them!

If you also got a chance to read one of Cassie’s Mortal Instruments books recently, or Catching Fire, OR any book by a kt literary client, don’t forget to leave a link to your posted review in the comments here or on my post about Catching Fire, for a chance to win a copy of Band Geeked Out by Josie Bloss.

And speaking of Josie — I’ve got some fab news to share soon about her next book, so stay tuned!

P.S. If you’re not already a fan of Cassie’s “Very Secret Diaries” of the characters from The Lord of the Rings, I highly recommend checking them out. “Still not king.”