Laura... and a tangent....

Laura has a way of writing that enchants me... with both this novel and Seabiscuit I couldn't put them down. Whether or not that makes her a great author or not I can't say, (coming up when I go off on a tangent)... all I can say is that she's great for ME. She strays, at times, and according to me (which doesn't count), but never to the point of boring me or causing a lack of interest on my part.

The tangent: I should note: I don't read 'critically', I read purely for enjoyment. I'm less like that with movies BUT... I still can do it if I put my mind to it.

I somewhat recently became close friends with a young lady who just graduated with a degree in "Creative Writing", and she sent me an email about a week ago that REALLY got my attention. Back a couple of months ago I had recommended a novel to her.. something I rarely do. She's not well-to-do so I bought it for her. In the email I received from her last week she mentioned that due to her studies in creative writing she hadn't read a novel purely for 'enjoyment' in a LONG time... everything she read was read critically, for her classes. So she told me that she had started the novel but it was going slowly.. NOT because she didn't like it, or was bored by it, but because she had become so habituated to reading 'critically' that she found reading just for the sake of enjoyment was not coming easy for her. She had restarted the novel I recommended a couple of times trying to put aside that 'critical' side of her brain and simply read for the sake of reading. She promised a follow-up when she completes the novel.

I had never really thought about that before she sent me that email. I found it intriguing. - JamesJM