Booking It--Plotting

Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? Which would you rather read?

Please, please, please give me a plot. I prefer stories with beginnings, middles, and ends.

It's not that I don't appreciate the art of stream-of-consciousness or the skill it takes to write it well; it's just that I'm a fan of traditional storytelling. I can handle a flashback or two, multiple interpolations, or even an unreliable narrator. In fact, sometimes the interpolations can be more fun than the main story, and being taken in by an unreliable narrator can be delightful.

But I must have a plot!

Booking It--Twisty

“I love books with complicated plots and unexpected endings. What is your favourite book with a fantastic twist at the end?”

So, today’s question is in two parts.

1. Do YOU like books with complicated plots and unexpected endings?

2. What book with a surprise ending is your favorite? Or your least favorite?

Answer #1--Well, of course I do! It's hard to imagine a fiction reader who doesn't.

Answer #2--I've read lots of books with complicated plots and surprise endings, but I think the first one I ever read like that was Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, way back in the sixth grade. We were reading it out loud in class, something I've always had a hard time bearing because so many students read so poorly and so00000 slowly. So I was racing ahead, pulled along by the plot, and you guessed it--when it was my turn to read, I had no idea where to begin and was scolded by the teacher. The funny thing about this story is that, as I was leaving, she called me to her desk and told me, although I really did need to try to stay with the class, it made her very happy that I was enjoying the story so much I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. She's always been one of my favorite teachers.

I think that I was pretty much a Dickens addict for a few months after finishing Great Expectations, toting one of those huge novels with me wherever I went.

I'm still a Dickens fan.