“What Kind of Books Do You Like?” they ask.  “Good Books,” I answer.

When people find out that I’m a retired English teacher, they sometimes assume that I read a lot and ask me what kind of books I like.  I tell them that I like good books.  I’m not trying to be a smart-ass.  I’m serious: I don’t have one set genre.  I just like the good books from different genres.

Some readers like specific genres and will read (almost) anything in their favorite genres, but not me.  After a few books of any genre or author, I get bored and move on for a while. In the 1970s, I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I got bored with most fantasy. I read I,Robot and a couple Foundation books by Isaac Asimov, but I didn’t care for much science fiction. I read a couple Louis L’amour westerns but not many (and there were many to choose from).

I noticed my tendency in the 1980s when I stopped reading Needful Things by Stephen King. I had read several Stephen King books before, but I quit several in a row after Needful Things. I finished It (the book) though.  I almost didn’t read It, but word-of-mouth was so high on the book that I thought I was missing something.  It (the book) wasn’t bad (except for THAT scene… if you know what I mean).  As I was reading, I wondered why so many people thought this book stood out so much. 

Then I remembered that I’m different.  I forget that sometimes.

In the 1990s I read a couple John Grisham legal thrillers (The Firm and Something Else).  I read a couple John Sandford Prey novels, but I don’t remember their titles: I don’t think there was a Lettuce Prey.  I even got through a couple long-winded Tom Clancy military thrillers (they were okay if you skimmed through the tech jargon and laughed at the dialogue).  

Sometimes I think that I should have more high brow tastes since I was an English teacher.  Then I remember that I was a public school teacher.  Oh yeah, public school.  Low brow taste is fine.  

Anyway, “good” is a good answer to a lot of questions dealing with matters of taste.

“What kind of movies do you like?”

“Good movies.”

“What kind of music do you like?”

“Good music.”

“What kind of food do you like?”

“Good food.”

When I answer “Good” to these types of questions, I need to be prepared to clarify my answer. If I’m not willing to clarify, then I’ll sound like I’m just being a prick (which is a plausible interpretation of my behavior).  Since I’m primarily a book blogger, I’m just focusing on books here.

Even though I usually don’t read more than three books by any given author, there are exceptions.  I’ll read almost anything Bernard Cornwell publishes.  Yeah, he uses the same formula for most of his books, but it’s a good formula.  I like his formula.  He just takes the same formula, uses it multiple times for one character and time period in a bunch of books.  Then he takes the same formula and uses it for another character and time period multiple times. 

I’ve accidentally read a couple of Bernard Cornwell’s books more than once because it took me over a hundred pages to realize that I’d read it before.  I like his formula so much that I don’t care if I’ve read the same book over and over again.

If you ask me who my favorite author is, though, I probably wouldn’t say “Bernard Cornwell.”  I just say I don’t have one so that I don’t get pinned down to one author.  I don’t even recommend Bernard Cornwall to everybody.  He just has discovered the formula that I like the most in novels.  Maybe that should make him my favorite author.  Maybe he is my favorite author, and I’m just too stubborn to admit it.

My unpredictable taste helps me to be aware of a variety of books because I’m never sure if I’m going to like a book before I start to read. I start many books, but I finish very few. Except for ‘good’ books. I sometimes finish reading those.

Here is a ‘good’ book that I finished writing. Then I finished reading it. It’s called The Sunset Rises, A 1990s Romantic Comedy, and you can find it here on Amazon!!

Or you can buy it below from the ‘trunk of my car.’