Confessions of an Omnivorous Reader

I love to read. My favorite genres include mystery, suspense, thriller, romance, science fiction, and adventure. I read memoirs and history, newspapers, magazines, and if nothing else is handy, the cereal box. This addiction began at age four when my five-year-old brother started reading to me. I saw blotches of black lines and squiggles under the pictures. He ran his finger along the blotches, transforming them into sounds, words, sentences, and stories. I wanted that magic, that superpower.

In time, my brothers and I discovered that most magical of places—the public library! Unleashed in the children’s section, we read and read until mother dragged us out with armloads of loaners. Such riches! We could travel in time and space on adventures and learn about places far from home. Though mother probably brought us to the library so she could study in peace for her eventual law degree, she did us a huge favor. She kept us away from late afternoons of mind-numbing television.

By high school, my brothers and I launched into a competition to read the set of 100 classics in paperback that Mom had purchased. Baby brother, not to be outdone, read the Encyclopedia Britannica set as well. We teased him that only a geek reads reference books, but truth be told, I kept a dictionary by my bed to scour it for new words like syzygy and conflagration to drop into conversation. With reading comes a love for words. In my family, Scrabble is a blood sport.

In college, I studied 300 plays in depth. I had planned to work for a newspaper by day and write plays at night. Fortunately, that didn’t work out. I ended up writing for business, then for magazines, followed by a stint teaching report writing at a police academy, and then publishing my first novel. Throughout the decades, the joy of reading continued.

A website called Goodreads.com became the social media site for readers, so I set up a profile and started listing books I’d read. It would have been easier check off books from a list of classics and the most popular books in the last the thirty years than to name them from memory. Since joining the site, I have tried to rate and reviewing books as soon as I finish them. So many new authors, so many new books by my favorite authors, the to-be-read list is laughably long and considerably incomplete. May I live to read them all.

I read everything but erotica. The three erotica books I read were boring. Seriously, if Tom Clancy put a car chase in every scene, his stories would have been boring. If Stephen King put a killer clown in every story, well, forget suspense. Predictability turns me off.

I cannot imagine life without books. When someone says, “I don’t read” my first thought is “you poor thing.” No stirring of the imagination, no laughter, no seeing the world from a new perspective, no growth, no adventure, no new ideas, no passion…might as well take away color and music from the world. Do non-readers dream in gray?

When asked to name my favorite authors, I begin with Richard Adams, Aesop, Mitch Albom, Louisa May Alcott, Isabele Allende, Poul Anderson, Piers Anthony, Aristotle, Isaac Asimov, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austin, David Baldacci, J. M. Barrie, Dave Barry, L. Frank Baum, Samuel Beckett, Peter Benchley, Steve Berry, Maeve Binchy, William Peter Blatty, Judy Blume, Ben Bova, Ray Bradbury, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Charlotte Bronte, Geraldine Brooks, Dan Brown, Sandra Brown, Edna Buchanan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Meg Cabot, Erskine Caldwell, Taylor Caldwell, Truman Capote, Orson Scott Card, Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Raymond Chandler, Anton Chekhov, Lee Child, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Tom Clancy, Mary Higgins Clark, Arthur C. Clarke, Beverly Cleary, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Harlan Coben, Jackie Collins, William Congreve, Joseph Conrad, Robin Cook, James Fenimore Cooper, Patricia Cornwell, Michael Crichton, E. E. Cummings, and Clive Cussler. People stop me long before I reach the D surnames.

My husband begs me to buy books on Kindle to prevent book hoarding. I call it collecting. The books aren’t stacked two rows per shelf everywhere…yet. If I ever lose my vision, then I’ll switch to audio books. Call me a book addict. Call me a bookworm. Call me when there’s a book sale.

JONI M. FISHER

Joni M. Fisher is a journalist, an instrument-rated private pilot, and an active member of the Florida Writers Association, the Kiss of Death Chapter and the Tampa Area Romance Authors Chapter of RWA, and the Women's Fiction Writers Association. Books in her Compass Crimes Series have garnered attention in Publisher's Weekly and earned recognition in the 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards, the 2016 Royal Palm Literary Awards, the Indiana Golden Opportunity Contest, the Sheila Contest, and earned a Reader's Favorite 5-Star Review. 

What About A Book Signing?

Do you remember the good old days when a famous author came to town and people lined the street to get their book(s) signed? Now, I realize that in some cases that still holds true, because of course, mega famous authors are going to be a huge draw.

I look at the RWA literacy signing and think about the excitement all the readers have at not just seeing one favorite author, but potentially a dozen of them. It doesn't get much better than that. But what about smaller conferences or library events? Do authors sell as many books at smaller events?

It seems as if a new trend is happening. Book signings are giving way to author events. What's the difference? Well, apparently the competition is so stiff these days, that authors are being put in the position of buying their readers. And surprisingly or not surprisingly, many are lining up at the chance to participate... Authors and readers alike.

It's almost not enough to write a good book. I mean, sure, it's great to write a good book, but getting it into readers' hands is the tricky part. I guess it always has been. But now, authors are wining and dining their readers, plying them with gifts in hopes of keeping them and attracting new readers in the process. Sure, authors have done contests and giveaways and I'm sure those will always be around, but this next level of seducing readers is... I don't know... I'll let you supply the adjective.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning these events. I'm just wondering how far an author has to go these days. Is this going to be the new thing? Is the book we slave over not enough any more?

So where else can authors go to sell books? I guess it depends on their target audience. I'm going to the San Diego Women's Expo September 17 & 18. I figure if my target audience is women from 18-118 then I may as well give it a shot. I'll be there with my friend and designer, Grace Grant, who's started up her own clothing line called Fill4Style. Since I love her designs and she loves my books, we decided to combine forces. Women's Expos are held all over the country, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

What about you? What are your thoughts on book signings vs. author events? Have you been to any out of the box places where you've either had a book signed or signed one yourself?