Perforation Problems

(Day Forty-Six) I'm going to pretend I'm an NPR reviewer for a sec to do this intro: Now it's time for our brand new series, "Good Book Breakdown," where we look at books that stand out among the masses as crowd pleasers, classics, and must-reads. On Monday we covered the loved children's story  The Secret Garden ; today we'll talk about a children's book that has crossed over to fans of all ages: the  Harry Potter series.  People love Harry Potter , but why? There are hundreds of books about magic, about wizards. The shelves of our home library are full of fantasy books with supernatural elements, strong heroes, and epic good-vs-evil battles -- so why does Harry Potter get the attention? What made those books take off? To some extent it's a question of luck, circumstances, and the zeitgeist -- I've read books that are better written than HP and similar in nature and enjoyment but which get no attention at all. But there is a particul...

(Day Forty-Four) During my morning commute today, I was thinking about what kind of book I'd like to write, with thoughts of my most recent disappointment over Allegiant in my head. There's no reason I couldn't write a series at least as good as the Divergent books, if I really put my mind to it. It would be hard and take a lot of painstaking hours (yes, even a bad book can be a lot of work), but I could do it. That led me to think about the books I read as a kid and as an adult that I really just loved -- the ones I couldn't put down, and which stayed with me days after I finished them. Those books aren't always the bestsellers or great literature, but they pull you in and make you care. Good writers are good readers -- I'm sure you've heard that -- so I'd like to start a new blog series on here where I look at what makes the books I love great, both from a reader's perspective and as a writer. The English Major in me will want to break out t...