Terry Pratchett on the Imagination

Jill here.

There are all kinds of readers out there. And there are all kinds of books. This is good. But sometimes, a reader stumbles onto the wrong kind of book, and for whatever reason, they read it anyway. This sometimes results in a surprise. It's good for people to read widely and experience all types of books. More often than not, however, this results in an angry reader who knew better than to read that type of book in the first place. (These types of book reviews mean nothing. If it's not your regular genre and you have nothing good to say, don't review the book. Just don't.)

Anyway, my quote today comes from the late Terry Pratchett, a master in his subgenre of humorous fantasy.

I've found this to be true far too often. If you love to read, have mercy on authors who write outside your favorite genre. You should read unfamiliar genres every-so-often so that you'll be familiar with all types of writing, but don't get upset if you don't like something. In fact, I challenge you to do the opposite. Find something positive to say about every book you dislike. Because there is always something good you can focus on. This will be excellent practice for critiquing. Too many of us forget to say positive things along with our critiques.

So, let's have some comments below. Tell me:

1. The last book you read in a genre you typically dislike.
2. (Without ranting or being cruel) tell me something you really liked about that book, even if, overall, you disliked the book.

Ready . . . set . . . go!