A Week of Missed Thursdays (3)

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No... it’s because you want to know what happens next?
Or, um, is it just me? (from August 28)

In many cases, yes, part of the joy of reading is the story and finding out what happens. There are, of course, many books in which nothing much happens and they too can be enjoyable reads as long as there's something else there.

Different books I like for different reasons. I also think that in general we come to books with certain expectations which vary depending on the genre of the book, whether we've read the author before, what we've read in reviews or heard about from friends, etc. If I come to a book expecting more than just an interesting story, I'm liable to be disappointed if it fails to engage me on other level. Similarly if I come to a book expecting not much more than an interesting story, I can be disappointed if the story's lacking and there isn't something else to tip the scales.