My wife has spoiled a lot of books for me
She did History as a degree with a bit of English Literature thrown in somehow so she knows books!
Anyway - we were talking about book in general and I found a David Eddings book lying around that had managed to escape being lost when my life exploded a few times
anyway - she started reading it and pointed out how badly it was written compared to some authors that she would read
things like conversation being
He said xxx
SHe said yyy
He exclaimed zzz
and so on
and some other stuff that she had found in just the first few pages
Mean that I have trouble reading some sci-fi and fantasy authors that I used to like!
but it does make me realise that I read some books VERY fast
and other books quite slowly
and the difference is how well they are written - the well written ones make me concentrate on the actual details and the words and every sentence has meaning and every paragraph has depth
The books I read fast are not as well written so I automatically skip a lot of the words and concentrate on the words and emotions
which is what makes the original David Eddings books good - teh characters are good and the interactiosn are good
but a lot of the in between stuff is not all that good
Lord of the RIngs is the opposite and I read every word - sometimes 2 or 3 times to tyr a different rhythm which extracts a different meaning - especially with the Elvish and other rhymes and songs
This is exactly why writers should be readers as well, because you learn by finding out what you like or don't, and what works - or doesn't. Certainly, that's how I see it, as I write as a hobby i.e. fan fiction, but I also write - and have written - professionally.
Ideally, you want to achieve that balance between easy flow / dialogue, and the richness of language that brings a story and an environment to life; where you need action and where narration is better at moving things along. I try my best to stick to that when writing. Well, fiction at least. I know I have a tendency towards the florid, but I will go through my writing and pare stuff back if I think I've gone overboard.
Of course, some stuff, like the Mills & Boon books, are largely aimed at people who might not otherwise read at all, and so the language used is perhaps more basic. They're not to be knocked though, because if they get people reading, then that's a good thing in my book. (see what I did there?)
But when I read, what I pick up depends largely on my mood. If I'm not too worried about the quality of the writing, but want something that's easy reading and entertaining, then I'll grab a Star Trek novel. Yet because they're written by so many different authors, there's a lot of variance, even there. Whereas if I want to get really stuck in, then something by Janny Wurz, George Martin or Robert Jordan is what I'll reach for. And of course, there's all the stuff in between.
As for sports biographies, my experience is largely confined to motor racing stuff. But anything by Gerald Donaldson or David Tremayne is usually a good bet. Donaldson's book on Gilles Villeneuve was one of the first driver bios I'd bought (I was still at school), and is a really compelling read. And although I'm not a fan of Nigel Mansell by any means, Christopher Hilton's 1987 biography (i.e. published prior to the explosion of Mansellmania) is worth a look. It was one of the few motor racing books in my local library at the time, so yeah, I read it...
