You Can Hate the Book Your Best Friend Loves
A guest post from author Evelyn Skye
Hey there, readers! Today I’m bringing you something just a bit different than the usual Tuesday discussion.
, bestselling author and reader of this newsletter, has written a guest post just for the Read More Books community. It’s all about how different books speak to different people at different times in their lives.In the comments, let us know the bookish disagreements you’ve had with your friends and family. I’d love to hear!
One of the greatest lessons I learned from running a book club for 7 years is that a big group of brilliant, well-read people can all have differing opinions on the exact same book. It was not uncommon for me to arrive at a book club meeting having fallen madly in love with a month’s pick, only to discover that my best friend couldn’t stand the main character at all.
Right Book, Wrong Time
I remember very clearly one award-winning, magical realism book we read—Bone Gap by Laura Ruby. The members in my book club were in awe of everything about it. They loved the world-building, how the serious characters unquestioningly believed the magic in their small town, and how no one had to explain the magic at all.
That last point infuriated me! I was writing full-blown fantasy at the time, and my editor was a stickler for making sure that my magic system was airtight. Any magic I introduced into my books had to follow the rules I established, and those rules had to be clear.
So I could not understand how my very smart friends could love Bone Gap? How it won major awards? B-b-because . . . the magic wasn’t even explained!!
Ironically, later in my career I moved away from full-blown fantasy and into contemporary fiction with a light-touch of magical realism. And now I understand and love Bone Gap, many many years later.
In turn, my book club has made it easier for me as an author. Good writing requires you to put your soul onto the page, and then to expose that raw, vulnerable soul to readers who will have all sorts of opinions. I try never to read reviews, but sometimes I’ll accidentally see one, and…
It hurts for a moment when someone doesn’t adore your work. Even if they give you 4 out of 5 stars, what the writer sees is the missing star, not the four wonderful, shiny ones you gave them.
Even worse are the reviews where the readers say things like, “I don’t get the hype. This book made no sense to me at all.”
But after the initial sting passes, I just remember that my best friends and I don’t love the same books. My husband Tom and I like different kinds of paintings. Taylor Swift is a self-made billionaire and one of the most successful musicians on the planet, but not everyone enjoys her songs.
Not all books will be for everyone, but they will be perfect for someone. Maybe it’s you! Or maybe it’s not, but you’ll buy one to give to your mom or your best friend.
We are blessed to live in a world full of art in many forms. It makes me smile just thinking about how there is something—a book, an oil painting, a carefully tended Japanese garden, a poem—out there for everyone.
Thank you to all of you who are brave enough to create art, and to all of you who love it.
For more of my writing, including a Book Club for Writers & Curious Readers and behind-the-scenes peeks at a bestselling novelist’s life, head over to Wordplay with Evelyn Skye. It’s warm and friendly over there!
Evelyn Skye is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including The Hundred Loves of Juliet and Damsel, a groundbreaking literary and film collaboration with Netflix. Damsel stars Millie Bobby Brown, Angela Bassett, and Robin Wright and debuted as the #1 movie globally on Netflix. Evelyn’s books have been published worldwide and translated into sixteen languages.
Evelyn is a graduate of Stanford and Harvard Law School. Prior to her career as an author, she was an intellectual property and mergers & acquisitions attorney. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter.
 | A guest post by
|
There are some people who like Faulkner quite a lot (my wife) and there are those who dislike Faulkner quite a lot (me). There are 129 million books out there to read. If my wife wants to read Faulkner's impenetrable interminable sentences and takes joy from it, go forth! Be content! I will never harsh that buzz! I'll just be over here reading, say, anything else.
Agreed! I’ve stuck with my book club for years specifically because they don’t generally agree with my views—or each others’—and being exposed to that constant and often perplexing diversity of opinions grounds me as an author. I have to endlessly remind myself that pleasing everyone is both impossible and not the point. On top of that, I can’t even predict which book club members will like which books. Recs I am sure will please them often fail and vice versa!