A New (incredibly simple) Discovery

Big events in life change you. That's a no-brainer. But is writing a book a big event? One that isn't yet published? I would say getting published would be a big event for sure. Regardless of whether or not simply writing a whole novel is a big event, it has tweaked the way I view books so it's definitely changed me.

When I read books in the past I was SUPER picky. I could spot a problem in every novel. Not so much with the punctuation or grammar, but the story-telling. And in a way that's a good thing. I saw what not to do. However in some cases I realize now I was picking at another writer's writing style. And no book is going to be absolutely perfect in every way.

I know this all sounds very obvious but I only truly realized this recently. I was reading a book and although I liked most of the story-telling, I found faults with it's description of things in the story. I wondered to myself why, if I thought this was a great story, would I find fault? And the answer hit me. Different writing style. DUH! This author by no means gave too much description (because lets face it, there is such a thing) but merely more description that I would give. Does that make it wrong? No. Does it make that story any less fun to read? No. It only makes it different than mine and isn't that great? We WANT different writing styles. If every book was written the same, who would want to read anymore?

So I say MORE POWER TO THE DIFFERENT WRITING STYLES! The more the merrier!

Here's the question: When you read a book that isn't your own do you sit back and enjoy the story or find yourself critiquing it?