Bibliophobia

Dear Reader,

I am faced with something I don't ever remember facing. The book I am currently reading for my diet is a mystery by Agatha Christie. This is my first Christie book and, from what I understand it is one of the most famous mysteries ever written. But that's not why I'm writing this. The next book in my diet is a romance by Nicholas Sparks titled THE NOTEBOOK. I knew that eventually I was going to have to tackle the genre of romance, but I was not looking forward to it. You see, there are three different types of romance novels. There are what I call the acceptable romance novels. These are the regular novels about boy meets girl. This is Kurt Vonnegut's view on the subject:




In this story line, an average guy meets a girl, his life becomes great until, "son of a bitch," they fight and make up and he is better off than before. This is the type of novel I will be reading for my diet. The other two types of romances are cheesy, mediocre romances written by people who just want to get published, and what I call PBP: PaperBack Porn. Smut. The books that are often on the shelves of your local grocery store with pictures of nearly naked men on the cover. Let's put the latter two aside because I do not plan on reading anything that falls under that category. What I want to focus on is my first ever case of bibliophobia. I am afraid of reading THE NOTEBOOK.

Allow me to explain. I love to read Stephen King, fantasy, some science-fiction, YA, mystery, horror, etc. I am a slow reader, so I have not read much of any of these with the exception of Stephen King novels. However, I feel comfortable talking about any and all of these genres. See, I am an observer. I notice things, especially in books. My wife tells me that is one of the advantages I have as a slower reader. I see more than most people. More than that, though, I just know enough about these types ofj stories to talk about them.

I know nothing about the genre of romance. I have never read a romance novel in my life, and I suspect that after reading Sparks' novel I'll never read another one again. In writing the chapters for my other books, I could draw on past experiences, but I can't do that with THE NOTEBOOK. I chose this book because of the fantastic story of its publication. This was Sparks' first novel. Many novels do not receive much attention from publishers, let alone debut novels. However, when Sparks received an offer from his publishers, they gave him a $1,000,000 advance. That is six zeroes. One million dollars. Unheard of in a debut novel.

I want to find out if I can see what the publishers saw, but I'm afraid I will miss it because I don't have the background in this genre that I do in others. I do not like romance novels, I do not like the idea of romance novels. Other people do, and that's fine. I just don't want to miss out on an opportunity to grow as a writer. I guess I will just have to read it to find out if I can pick up on the literary cues.

Anyway, that is what I'm struggling with for now. Until next time, Reader.

Speak freely. Write candidly. Read endlessly.

Beau James