Recently, the topic du jour on Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent, the best-in-class blog by the eponymous Curtis Brown author representative, was a question he posed for comment by his readers:
When do you stop reading a book? << Click to read the post.
I decided to put in my two cents:
"Some of the very good reads I've had in the suspense genre have been provided by James Patterson. In the last few years, I have found that most of his books seem to be coming off an assembly line. He annually does two or three on his own and three or four that are jointly written with other authors. Even though he has gotten watered down, he can still pump out a doozy from time to time.
Back when he was golden most of the time, I decided to buy his first book, The Thomas Berryman Number. Though it won a first-novel Edgar all those years ago, I thought it was very murky and sucked in a manner not dissimilar to a Hoover vacuum cleaner. I have had two agents say that my novel-in-waiting might, at 72,000 words, be too short for the suspense genre. Almost everything Patterson writes is between 70,000 and 75,000 words, and Berryman contained 58,000 award-winning words. Though my research has shown me that most suspense novels are 80,000 words are more, I still believe in the wisdom passed to me by one Nathan Bransford intimating that he did not pay much attention to word count.
Okay, so I took a long route here to say that I used to read books all the way through. Berryman cured me of that. I get excited when I'm grabbed in the first three pages. I find a new way to spend my time if the Geiger counter doesn't make noise by page 50."
Not a stranger to commenting at Nathan's site, I was surprised and disappointed that he deleted my comment that day. There is no doubt that he thought my criticism of Patterson's first novel and current tendency toward cookie cutting inappropriate. I thought I balanced my comments by pointing out that James has written some beauts and still pops a hot one from time to time. That he doesn't always hit the target is evident from my own experience and discussion with numerous Patterson readers, some of whom are consequently now his former readers. It is especially true with his books written with helpers. I know the people who pick the Edgars are more expert in the literary field than I, but perusal of the reviews of Berryman at Amazon will let you know that I am not alone in my opinion.
Oh, well, I hope I haven't worn out my welcome at Nathan's place, and despite my comments, I still think James Patterson is a giant when he doesn't stoop. Finally, I just have to mention that Tyler Cowen's suggestion that we should consider surfing our books like we surf our channels is fascinating. Of course, we don't pay $25 for each of those channels we click through.
