Hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!
My musing this week is ... a rant!
A phenomenon that has recently come to my attention involves authors who write a book from one perspective and the book is so successful that they decide to write a sequel. However, instead of creating an original story or developing and advancing an existing storyline, the author takes the easy, and dare I say it, the lazy way out to cash in on their success and rewrite the SAME story from a different point of view.
One of the better known examples of this phenomenon is Beautiful Disaster by Jamie MacGuire and its sequel Walking Disaster. As I have not read either of these books, I don't feel qualified to express an opinion on their quality, however, another more established author who has done the same is Julia Quinn in her Two Dukes of Wyndham duology - The Lost Duke of Wyndham and Mr. Cavendish, I Presume, two books which tell the exact same story from two points of view.
The first book is well written and charming while the second is boring and repetitive, and the question arises as to whether it is fair, and even ethical, for authors to ask their readers to fork out their hard earned money to basically re-read the same book with the same plot? It isn't as if the author announces or advertises that it is the same story.
What do you think of this trend?
I did not think it was a good use of Julia Quinn's time to write the second book. I refused to read it and after reading the reviews felt that I had made a very good decision. Here is my Post:
ReplyDeleteMM
I haven't read a series where the author has done that, but I would be very disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI have seen and enjoyed series books that feature different characters in each book...but the stories are definitely different.
Here's MY MUSING MONDAYS POST
Fortunately I haven't read Julia Quinn’s series or any series where the author does that. But I wouldn’t enjoy that at all. It seems like the authors have run out of inspiration (and maybe they did).
ReplyDeleteHere’s my Musing about Perfume - the story of a murderer
I normally don't touch these types of books but I have read This Girl which is kind of a redo of the book Slammed from the guy's point of view done in a sort of flashback type way. It was good and I enjoyed it but it did feel repetitive. I don't really think they are necessary though..so I'm almost completely unwilling to spend money on them.
ReplyDeleteI read Beautiful Disaster and hated it. I am not the least bit tempted to read it from a different POV. Here's my musing. http://daystarz.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/musing-mondays-8/
ReplyDelete