Tag Archives: book reviews

Novels and the author’s mind

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Thoughts on Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dresier

There are so many different ways to read novels.

One, of course, is to just let yourself be carried (no pun intended) along by a story.

sister carrie by theodore dreiser

Now that I have a few years under my belt, I also really enjoy reading novels because of the clues they reveal about authors’ minds.

I’ve written, before, about the similarities between writing fiction and dreaming. (My longish essay on that topic, Writing, Dreams, and Consciousness, is available for Kindle here although, full confession, I haven’t looked at it for years. Probably should pull it up and rewrite it!)

I’ve also touched a bit on philosophical idealism, which I think is the most plausible metaphysical framework for describing reality. At some point I’ll post more about that topic (I have a post in draft that riffs off the works of Bernardo Kastrup, who has made the case to my satisfaction for idealism) but the short version is that we humans are participating in an interconnected dream or mental simulation. The seeming “solidity” of reality is a function of how it is generated; even though our interaction with reality is entirely subjective, none of us as individuals “owns” it or controls it. It is generated collectively and that mass attention to “what is real” stabilizes it.

What is fascinating about this, to me, is that “other people” are known to us via an interface between their minds and our own. If I encounter another person, talk to that person, form a relationship with that person, everything I experience is a mix of perception and projection — and probably a lot more projection than most of us realize.

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I swear I don’t know this person

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Stopped by Amazon this morning, and someone has posted a new review for Outwitting Dogs.

A week or so ago, the subject of Amazon reviews came up on a Yahoo list I’m on, and someone said that they generally ignore 5-star reviews. The reasoning is that no book is perfect, and if someone says so, they have to be a friend of the writer. A shill.

Well, I do not know this person. Maybe she knows Terry (the book is a collaboration; Terry Ryan, my co-writer, is a professional dog trainer) but the book’s been out for a year and as far as I know Terry hasn’t asked anybody to post an Amazon review for her. (I haven’t either. Call me a wimp but I’m descended from a long line of Methodist ministers. Somehow I just can’t get the words “would you fake a nice Amazon review for me?” out of my mouth. And my day job is PR. I should be cynical and conniving. Thanks a lot, Grandpa, wherever you are.)

So anyway, I’m reading the review, and maybe I’m a little short of sleep, but it made me teary. This person loved the book. Really really loved it. The writing, the organization, the content, the attitude . . .

It was a nice, warm, pat on the back and I am deeply grateful for it. So citywulf, wherever you are, thank you. Thank you so much.

I’m going to go write some more, now.

Book Reviews

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I’m sure I’m not the only writer out there who has had this experience: your first book is published. You google the title. You get a lot of hits and at first that’s a bit of a thrill, until you realize that 99.99999999 percent of them are the result of keywords being auto-harvested by websites hoping to tap into Amazon affiliate dollars.

Over time, your book does get mentioned by a few actual human beings (Outwitting Dogs gets a hat tip here and here, for instance) but these are the exception, not the rule. So the question is: where are the virtual book reviewers? (I’m deliberately excluding Amazon’s reader review system, if for no other reason than that the reviews don’t come up on search engines.)

I know from experience, having been involved in DYI book publicity for two titles now, that sending review copies to mainstream media can be an exercise in futility. The venue is too finite. If you don’t happen to hit a reporter for whom your concept clicks, whether for personal reasons or because he/she “gets” why your concept is topical, then you are sunk.

What we need are more reviewers.

I’ll do my part by posting an occasional review here. Updates to follow.