(Closed To Catch Up) Interviews With Undiscovered Authors

16. Interviewing an Avid Reader- AnyaSharma

Q. What is the title of the last book you read (on and off wattpad)? Can you give us a brief description of what liked and disliked about the story?

A. Off the wattpad, the last book I read was The Adultery by Paulo Coelho. It was a nice book. Towards the end I liked it. Not as good as The Alchemist though. It's far from that one. But a fine read nonetheless. What I like about that book is it's ending and pieces of observations and monologues - the whole book is the monologue in itself. What I disliked was that it was getting a bit draggy. Boring at some places. And now on Wattpad the last book I read was The White Capes by. This book is a treat! And I dare say I liked it better than I liked The Adultery. Best points about the book was it's fresh story and authentic characters. Apart from that, the characters are all nuanced and the narration itself, in terms of vocabulary and literature, is flowing smoothly. A story set in medieval times is accompanied by the medieval narration, old English, I mean. It goes perfectly with the times and age. When I first started reading it, the narration and metaphors used caught my attention the first thing and it didn't take more than a chapter to decide that this will be one of the best narrations found on wattpad. Apart from all that, what makes a story connect with readers is that it must contain some original thoughts and observations that the writer feels about himself. And that's what was the case with this one. Parallels with our own society in terms of characters and situations were brought forth effectively and philosophy made it rich!

Q. What is it in a story that keeps you hooked till the end?

A. I think it's safe to say characters and plot but that's not always the case. As for me, I finish the books to the end even if they are somewhat boring in the beginning because some of the books get interesting only towards the end. But there's something in certain books which makes you want to devour the book in a single sitting. Now the books that I've binged had either a very strong and suspenseful plot or very interesting characters. Sometimes the plot is what holds the story because the book is plot oriented, for eg Shutter Island, and in case of Wattpad, consider your own book. There are just so many layers of stories to unfold that you can't leave the book. But it's not just the plot which has layers. The characters have layers too! And unfolding these layers is what keeps me hooked. I would want to be consumed in a book in depth. A book which raises questions and give you something to think about. For eg, how about biographies? What keeps you hooked on a biography? It's the originality, the knowledge that what you're reading is true makes it more fascinating. And what in a fiction? What does fiction do? Fiction expresses those same originalities by weaving them in a story. So if the book that I'm reading is honest and it has layers - in terms of characters and plot both, then that keeps me hooked!

Q. What genre do you prefer reading the most and least?

A. I think I don't really have a preference as long as the book is great. I do read lots of horror, but when I read a fantasy or a romance or any other general fiction, I'm just as occupied as I am while reading a King's book. So I think I can say that there's not exactly a favorite genre, only favorite books. Because the list of my favorites contains books from all genres. But yes, there's one subgenre I'm not so fond of, which I naturally avoid, and that's action. Too much of useless action gets a bit boring, unless, of course, that action is quite creative in a way maybe.

Q. Name your five favorite books of all time.

A. Well, only five? Lol. I have too many. But to name five- Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, Misery, Sacred Games and The Alchemist. But these are not the only ones. These are five of my favorites, not all of them.  

Q. Have you ever gotten reader's block? If yes, tell us what has gone wrong with the book.

A. No. I haven't ever got a readers block for edited, published books. But if you want to count some books on Wattpad, then yes, maybe you can say I've had them. Usually what kills the mood to read is too weak characters and not much originality. I can't read cheesy fanfictions and I can't read those books in which the sentence starts from a small letter after a full stop. I mean, I know, you shouldn't judge grammatical mistakes too much because they are bound to happen, but heck!!! You should know the first letter should be capital and that there are things known as paragraphs and commas. Dialogues get mixed in internal monologues sometimes in some books and you can't tell if there was supposed to be a full stop there or not. Grammatical mistakes are allowed on as far as it allows the flow of reading. When it starts hindering my understanding of what's written, then no matter how cool a story is, it will go down the gutter because that cool shit is unreadable. And then comes cringing romance. Don't get me wrong, I love romances too - Nicholas Sparks is one of my favorite authors after all - but there's a difference between good romance and shitty romance. The latter makes me flinch. Consider a couple where the good girl gets a possessive and 'protective' bad boy. This is just an example. There are many other romances which aren't really romantic but more like misinterpreted horrors. And then there are horrors which should have been in romance genre. I mean what the hell are you doing, putting it in a horror when all it has is a kidnapper who falls in love with the one he kidnaps just because she's too good looking? What's that, huh? Why put it in a horror genre and cheat the readers? And then comes CEOs. Ah, the hot CEOs!! Why don't I find one and spend a fairytale life where a control freak is called a protective Prince Charming? I know why. Because I'm lucky. This CEO thing happens just so often that it has become a freaking accident that needs live coverage. Aren't we lucky it wasn't us?