What I'm reading

I've finished Forever and am now reading Robert McCammon's Speaks the Nightbird. Late 17th Century southern. Charles Town's answer to Salem... I'm only 250 pages in but an excellent read so far.

I'm seeing many similarities between McCammon and Hamill, dialogue, pacing, command of content among them. The fact that the protagonist is but three years younger than myself



When you read History, fiction or non-fiction, what do you look for?



Like many, I need a hook in those first few pages. If I cannot feel a connection with the characters or get engaged with the content about to be covered, an author will not hold my interest.

Finally:

A major pet peeve of mine is when the author decides to use the book itself in lieu of maps. There are two big reasons why this aggravates me to no end. First, the libraries inevitably screw you out of half a page by putting the card on the back cover instead of on the last actual page. Secondly, rather than remove the applicable book covers, they glue them to the book itself, rendering even more of the potential maps useless...

What drives you up the wall in terms of books?