The success of Theo of Golden suggests readers never stopped craving ambitious fiction—and exposes the publishing industry's assumptions about modern audiences.
It’s kind of amazing how backwards traditional publishing is. People naturally gravitate *toward* difficult books because we’re hardwired to find moderate adversity more enjoyable. The pleasure of reading is developing our imagination through effort, not skimming through short sentences.
I'm currently in the middle of reading a literary fantasy series by Victoria Goddard. The books are "thick", beautifully written, leisurely in the best kind of way, and a few are 800 pages long. She's created an immersive, lovely world that the reader gradually moves into, and she has a very devoted readership. Goddard holds a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, focusing on Dante and Boethius. Her background shows, in all the best ways. Not coincidentally, I believe she's self-published.
‘The result is a novel that is easy to consume but difficult to contemplate.’
That’s a bar.
It’s kind of amazing how backwards traditional publishing is. People naturally gravitate *toward* difficult books because we’re hardwired to find moderate adversity more enjoyable. The pleasure of reading is developing our imagination through effort, not skimming through short sentences.
Sounds like teaching 9th grade English! Guess the authors mentioned were not in your class.
I'm currently in the middle of reading a literary fantasy series by Victoria Goddard. The books are "thick", beautifully written, leisurely in the best kind of way, and a few are 800 pages long. She's created an immersive, lovely world that the reader gradually moves into, and she has a very devoted readership. Goddard holds a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, focusing on Dante and Boethius. Her background shows, in all the best ways. Not coincidentally, I believe she's self-published.
Good points and excellent examples of mindless “BookTok” prose.
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