The release date for Look To The East gets closer every day! My publisher (Tyndale) has already distributed the ARCs, which always feel so much like the real thing. They’re printed on different (heavier) paper and the cover clearly states it’s an unedited copy, but it has the look and feel of a real book.
So it reminds me that the release is only weeks away. The official date isn’t until September 1st, but barring any unforeseen problems Tyndale usually starts shipping books a few weeks in advance. I’m hoping to see the finished product some time in August.
By this time, having gone though the manuscript in the editing process several times, it’s hard to read through it again without knowing practically every word on every page. A definite drawback for finding any last minute flaws. But by the time the book is with the printer, it’s impossible to change anything anyway, at least for the first edition.
I don’t often read through the finished product anyway, mainly because it doesn’t seem necessary and I’m usually caught up in a new project (as I am now). But if I’m in the right mood, I might try.
That’s what I wanted to talk about today—the reading mood. Have you ever noticed your mood affecting the enjoyment level of whatever book you’re reading? If you’re in the “mood for reading”? What if something else is on your mind, or you just feel a little…funky, for lack of a better word? Or what if the book you’ve just finished left you wanting to read more of the same, but you can’t find something like that? Whatever the reason, whatever the mood, sometimes the feelings we start out with enhance—or hinder—the reading experience.
I think my first inkling of how powerful mood can be came to me when my father told me about a slice of apple pie he once ate. Despite the fact that my mother could make an absolutely delicious apple pie herself, even her best effort never met my dad’s memory of that one slice of apple pie he ate when he was a kid. For one thing, it had been a long time since he’d had such a thing, making the experience unique and quenching a parched feeling for the sweet taste. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the pie had been procured under exciting means, for a youngster growing up when times were tough. Either he or one of the gang he ran with swiped it from a neighbor’s porch. So he shared the experience with good friends and adrenaline—a heady mix to be sure. My mom figured out that no pie she ever baked could live up to that memory, because for my dad it was about so much more than apples in a flaky crust. In short, his mood for enjoying it had been so ideal nothing else would ever live up to it.
It’s hard not to be impacted by mood. Some of my favorite reading memories are those connected to mood; reading my first romance when I was a teenager, after my sister introduced me to the genre. Being home sick—too worn out to do anything except rest in bed reading. But with a good book what should have been a bad memory turned unexpectedly bright. Even listening to a book on tape while driving or baking are favorite “reading” memories.
Sometimes a good book can change a mood, too—at least from bored to engaged, or better yet, uninspired to invigorated.
This is why, when I’m working on a new project, I’m especially picky about what I read. If I’m not engaged in the story line, dazzled by the prose, interested in the character and their journey, then I usually don’t finish the book and tend not to get back to it, either. I end up putting it in the giveaway pile, unless I suspect it’s my mood and not the quality of the writing that disappointed my reading experience.
This also may explain some of the wide variances I see in contest scores, and unfortunately something we can’t predict or control. We hope judges are unbiased, and I’m sure they strive to be. For a large part of the assessment, mood shouldn’t affect the score: grammar (either it’s a problem or not), or easily definable things like the logic factor, or character motivation, character depth and plot clarity. But mood may very well play a part in some of the scoring when it comes to those points that are less specific. What about scores for overall impact and/or engagement? Or the question where the judge is asked if they would keep reading if they had the opportunity? Those are the nebulous kind of questions that try tapping into the “this book has it” or “this book doesn’t have it” and where mood might play a role.
The bottom line is we all bring our moods and emotions to something we read. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hinders.
What about you? Does mood impact your impression of a book?
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