Yes, I've enjoyed a few novels lately. I've almost finished The Girl Who Played With Fire. It'a good, solid book, as was its predecessor, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I like this series, and will eventually read The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. But..."I'm not gaga."
I read a lot of book reviews, and most can't convince me to give a fictional work a chance. Do I not "relate" to any fictional characters? At some point, they stopped being real, their worlds no more than sound stages.
Novels are a so-so food with too many calories. I will gladly devour a high-calorie snack, but it has to be delicious. Not many novels are delicious.
As a kid, Harriet M. Welch (Harriet the Spy) was as real as anyone I knew. I had no doubt of her authenticity; she was my friend. Every aspect of her life was vivid and I delighted in her world.
Somehow, in my innumerable writerly fantasies, I never saw myself a novelist. Writing assignments requiring characterization or plot were little more than straitjackets. I sought comfort in poetry.
Now I turn to nonfiction when I want to lose myself.
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