I read another book

I love to read.  I have loved to read my whole life, as far as I can remember.  Reading has always been a stolen  pleasure, something you can do when all the responsibilities of life have been met for the day.

Retirement has given me a lot more time to read.   Sometimes, I feel guilty about it, because I feel like I have too much leisure time.   I'm working on getting over that.

The book I finished last night has really got me thinking.  It had me thinking while I was reading it as well.

The book was well written.  It started slow, but then got quite engrossing.  I guess the book could best be classified as a slice of life book.  The book was set during the Great Depression of the 1930's.  It started in Scotland, moved to New York City, then to Kansas, then to California and Salt Lake City, Utah.

There were multiple characters and storylines in the book, and some of the characters were difficult to like, and others were difficult to understand.  There was only one character that really endeared herself to me, and she was quite a minor character.

I don't know what I expected from the book, but the ending left me disappointed. It wasn't as bad as some books where I actually mourn the time that I gave to those characters and that story, but still, disappointed.

One of the reasons is that the book seemed to embrace the idea that life is pointless, and filled with sorrow and pain.

News flash - I know life is filled with sorrow and pain, but I don't think life is pointless.

I think that life is hard.  I'm not a fan of fiction that focuses on how hard life is.  I like fiction that challenges me to think about how hard life is, as long as it also challenges me to think about how I can make it better.

I like fiction that embraces hope and the power of the human spirit.

I like fiction that has a happy ending.  But I like some fiction that illustrates there are no happy endings, just resolutions on a continuum that we all have to find a way to live with.

That is probably why I tend to read all the works of an author when I find one that I like.  I take great comfort in knowing that no matter how the story ends, I won't be disappointed.

There are a couple of my favorite authors whose books always leave me conflicted, and challenged.  Jodi Picoult and Karma Brown are two of those.  They tackle difficult subjects, like childhood disease, and death, and disability.

But they do it in a way that opens my mind and my heart to what I can't personally know, but what I can experience through fiction.  I like both of those authors because while I might not be able to understand the motivation of their characters on the surface, they inform me of why their characters do what they do and feel what they feel.

And then, even if I can't imagine making the same choices, I can empathize with why the characters made the choices they made.

As I have been writing this blog post I have worked out what I need from the fiction I read.  I need the author to show me a complete picture of a character.

Plot is important.  Storyline is important.  But for me to really enjoy a book, the characters have to be real to me. They have to have enough depth and shading to touch me emotionally.

To really enjoy fiction, I have to emotionally engage with the characters.  Once I do that, engaging with the story is easy.

Lightbulb moment.  I read the same way I live.  It is all about the emotional connection for me.  Connecting to people emotionally, even if I am very ideologically different from them, is what makes life good for me.  Real and fictional people.

I hope I am creating characters in my stories that people can connect with emotionally.  I feel my characters' moods, I see their depth and their humanity and fragility, but I know from my reading how difficult it can be to create that connection for your readers to your characters.

Every time I read another book that affects me either very positively or very negatively, I learn more about what I want to accomplish with my craft.

Every moment spent reading is in a way, a moment spent learning more about the writer I want to be.  I hope that turns out to be time well spent.