Choosing Books like a Kid

Whenever I visit schools, I tell the children that as much as some people think writing for children is easy, it's anything but. Children are ruthless readers, I tell them. "How many of you will turn down a book that your parent or teacher or librarian is trying to interest you in, based on nothing more than the cover?" I ask. Many hands raised. "How many of you will look at the first page and reject a book based on the first sentence?" I ask. Many more hands raised.

Raised with pride, I might add. Being thought of as ruthless seems to appeal to them.

Well, today I came home with four books I'd reserved at the local library. One was adult, three were children's. I'd reserved all of them based on reviews I'd read in ads in newspapers, blogs, or other online review vehicles. I picked each one up, read the author flap and then the front flap, and then I turned to the first page. And, based on the first sentence or sentences, decided which one I was going to read first.

I rejected one of them because the first few sentences didn't interest me. And I'm now slightly skeptical about reading two of the others.

It was as I was going through this process that I suddenly realized I was reading like a ruthless reader. Instead of giving each book the time it might take for them to snare my attention, I was summarily rejecting them based on the first page.

It's all of those rotten paid reviews I've been reading about recently, I thought. They gush and ooh about a book until you feel you can't live another moment without reading it. And then you open it, and you're immediately disappointed because it's not very good writing and the blurbs were from people who don't know what they're reading.

As for the two children's books I may not read, it's because their plots felt, well, not trite exactly, but as if I've already read them. They're derivative. They came about because one book took off and before anyone knew it, half a dozen books with covers and plots exactly like it jammed the shelves.

Of course, the same thing happens with adult novels, especially in the genres of mysteries or romance or suspense.

Whatever the reasons, I've become a ruthless reader. And I kind of like it. Earn my attention, I think. Win me over. Keep me entertained.

Just like a kid.