The Read Path – Olga Godim
In this series, guest bloggers spill all about their roles as gatekeepers between authors and readers. They review books on blogs, websites, podcasts or booksellers’ webpages, influence buyers and connect with authors. My guest today is Olga Godim, a reader and author who understands and takes advantage of the vast resources offered by Goodreads.
Let me hand over my mic. The next voice you’ll hear will be Olga’s.
1. What type of books first captured your imagination?
This is a more complicated question than you’d think. I always liked reading. Since childhood, I liked to stay home on my sofa with a book much more than play outside with friends. I was a solitary child, a bookworm. There were too many interesting books to name one type.
My family was into modern literary fiction, so I read it too, mostly. After a while I realized that I didn’t like it a great deal. Eventually, I gravitated towards classics and from them towards mythology: ancient Greek myths, King Arthur’s legends, Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, Homer.
When I was a young mother myself, with children of my own, I finally discovered fantasy. My first fantasy writer was Mercedes Lackey. I was smitten from the first moment I opened her book. It felt like coming home, finding my niche in the universe of books. Everything I had unconsciously searched for in myths and legends was there: the imaginary worlds, magic and heroes, dragons and princesses, talking horses and brave adventurers. Through Lackey’s Valdemar novels, I fell in love with the genre.
Of course, I read other genres as well – romance, mystery, mainstream – but since 2012, when I started regularly posting my reviews on GoodReads and later on BookLikes, my statistics show interesting figures. Here are my shelves on GoodReads as they stand today.
• Fantasy – 277
• Mystery – 75
• Romance – 61
• Mainstream – 45
Obviously, fantasy dominates my reading list and it also dominates my writing. I’m a fantasy writer, too.
2. With so much choice, how do you find new reading material?
That’s easy. Once again, I’ll direct you to my current GoodReads statistics. My To-Read shelf contains 171 titles, and it’s not nearly complete. Sometimes, I don’t put books into it, but write them (the authors and the titles) into a special notebook. Most of my To-Read lists (both digital and paper) come from my online friends’ reviews and recommendations. Some come from book blurbs. I read them. I also love spoilers. They let me decide if I want to read the book.
Several of my favorite authors automatically go into my lists, whenever their new books come out. Those include in fantasy and sci-fi: Sharon Shinn, Patricia Briggs, Wen Spencer, Frank Tuttle, Sarah Wynde, Cassandra Rose Clarke (my latest love affair in fantasy), and Lois McMaster Bujold. I love Terry Pratchett, too, but I’m selective about his books. I prefer his City Watch sub-series to the others. In romance, Jennifer Crusie is my absolute favorite. Georgette Heyer is a wonderful romance writer, the founder of Regency romance, but unfortunately I already read everything she’s written, and she’s been dead for decades. Sometimes I re-read her just to re-live the pleasure. In cozy mystery, Carola Dunn holds my heart.
Before I joined GR, I was often stumped: what to read next? I couldn’t imagine myself without a book waiting, but it was hard to choose. Now, my list is getting unwieldy. I don’t know when I’ll be able to finish it. Probably never, which is encouraging.
And I still read classics, although not nearly as often as I did in my youth. My latest classical discovery was Christopher Morley’s Parnassus on Wheels – a delightful little book published in 1917.
3. How do you go about writing your reviews?
It depends on a book. In most cases, I start with a short blurb and then segue into what touched me most. I often disclose my take on the characters, the plot, the pacing, the dialogue. Sometimes, I include quotes in my reviews. Some books have deeper ideas, and I mention my thoughts on the subject, whether I agree or disagree. Some books are funny, and I point that out. If I’m irritated by a certain aspect, I write about that too. Not necessarily everything goes into every review. There are no rules.
I rarely write bad reviews, generally because I almost never finish books I dislike. Writing reviews for such books seems dishonest. And I really don’t want the writers, especially the new writers, to feel bad. I may not like their books, but someone else might. I don’t wish to spoil their chances. On the other hand, I’m not as reticent about classics or famous writers. If I dislike their books, I say so. They can’t be harmed by my negative reviews, so I don’t have to guard my tongue.
I want to stress one important point about my reviews: I never write them on demand, never accept books for reviews from anyone. I either buy my books or get them from the library. The only exception is NetGalley. Sometimes, when I want to read a new novel by a certain author, and it’s not yet available at the library, I look through NetGalley.
4. The publishing world is undergoing a radical change brought about, in no small measure, through readers. How has the new landscape affected you?
As a reader, it didn’t affect me at all, except I had to buy a Kindle to read books that are only available in electronic formats. As a writer though, the effects are still rippling. For one thing, there are so many books being published daily it’s hard to get my books noticed by readers. Hard to get reviews. Hard to sell books.
One fact is glaring though. With the ease of self-publishing, many authors opt to go that road, and the results aren’t always or even often good. In fact, most self-published books I read are bad. They’re raw, need serious revisions and deep editing. A few exceptions only emphasize that rule, but I’m glad those exceptions exist. One of them is Sarah Wynde. She is a great fantasy writer and she is self-published. Another is Frank Tuttle. I love his fantasy. There are a few more like them, and I mightn’t have discovered these terrific writers without the self-publishing option.
5. Out of the many books you’ve read, which two had the greatest impact on you?
It’s easier to name writers than books. The first one was Mercedes Lackey. I told you about her in the question #1. She started me on my current road of reading fantasy and writing fantasy. She opened the genre for me. I don’t read her much anymore, I found a better fit for my penchant for fantasy, but Lackey would always have a special place in my heart.
The other one is Sharon Shinn – my favorite fantasy writer. I enjoy her lyrical and magical tales, a blend of fantasy and romance. Her stories are full of light, without the darkness that’s dominated fantasy novels in the past decade. I especially like her older Samaria series. In it, she writes about angels, and her concept of angels is unique. It has nothing to do with biblical angels and everything to do with the writer’s imagination. She created a charming race of angels in her stories, angels I believe in, despite my atheism. When I read Shinn’s books, my spirit soars. I want to write like she does. This is my aspiration.
She is one of very few writers I use as a self-teaching aid. Whenever I’m blocked in my own writing, I ask myself: how would Shinn handle such a conundrum? I open one of her books at random and page through a dialog or a narrative to see what she does. It often helps.
In general, my reviews are helping me to become a better writer. When I analyze a book, I see mistakes the author made, see what is working and what isn’t, and apply what I’m learning to my own writing. But there is a side effect to this postulate. Because I see mistakes, I stopped enjoying books that are not written perfectly. I’ve become too picky in my reading, much more so than before I started writing reviews two years ago. It might be a good thing though.
Media links:
Website: http://olgagodim.wordpress.com
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6471587.Olga_Godim
BookLikes: http://olgagodim.booklikes.com/
Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/olga_godim
