Must. Read. Books.

Hi there, I’m a zombie monster who must devour books instead of brains. Mediocre writing is not a deterrent. If I see words, I have to read them. It’s as simple as that.

It all started when I was a child. I wasn’t the kind of kid who merely looked at the pictures on the back of the cereal box over breakfast. I read every bit of advertising, played every game, then turned the box on its side to puzzle over words like “niacinamide” and “monolyceride“. (In case you’re curious, I’m pretty sure niacinamide is vitamin B, and monolyceride is a preservative that also binds ingredients together. I was also the kind of dorky kid who looked things up in the dictionary.)

I haven’t changed much over the years. I’ll still read anything and everything. That trashy romance novel in the waiting room at the doctor’s office? Yep, devoured it despite the paper doll characters and formulaic plot. The book about the polio epidemic in the 1920s? Uh huh, I read it in snippets each night over a month even though the book bored me to tears. That box of science fiction and fantasy books my friend tried to throw away? Rescued, read, and reread. And let’s not even mention those impulse purchases at the bookstore.

I’m not bragging here. Being an avid reader doesn’t make you intelligent. If it did, I’d have transformed that early interest in cereal ingredients to a career in the sciences, instead of being a starving artist with a book addiction. However, after twenty-five years of reading every scrap of print that fell into my grubby little hands, some knowledge of what makes a well-crafted story must have wormed its way into my brain.

I’ll share my thoughts here. If I had my dream job, I’d be that editor who reads through all those manuscripts sent to the publishing house by aspiring authors; you know, the editor who wades through fifty stories to find the one manuscript good enough to send upstairs? Until I get that job (and win the lottery, and grow wings, and have my next carving displayed in the museum), I’ll have to content myself with using this blog to review published works. Hopefully, I can lead others to the good stuff and warn them away from the bad.