You do not want to believe

I am now perfectly happy to put down a book I don't want to finish. Some people have a guilt association with putting down a book, no doubt from school. If you view reading as an assignment or test of the will, I can understand it. If you view it as pleasure that it is easy to stop and put it down. The downside to this approach is that I waste time giving chances to books that I am nearly certain will suck. For example, Bentley Little's Revelation. It's so bad, it makes me a little sad. Sad that so many people spend time with it. I once read a book of Little's that was pretty entertaining called Dominion. It involved Dionysus returning to our present day and making a real mess of Napa Valley.

I was trying to figure out why Stephen King is (often) good while almost all of the rest of horror is bad. I think it is because most horror writers take the flashy bits without getting at the core issues that King addresses. Sure the Shining is scary, but it is also about abuse (both spousal and child) and that makes the characters that much more interesting. Most horror writers create sketch characters and then ladle on some twisted sex and bizarre death scenes.

I think I can now write off Little, but I bet I will go back to bad horror again. It's like in college when you swore you would never drink again and then you have a beer in your hand twelve hours later. Pathetic.