What I want in a book

I read between three and five books a week, That's a guesstimated average, many times I have exceeded that, reading two books a day. I have almost 500 books on my Kindle many of which I have read multiple times. My wife bought it for me to reduce the number of books I brought home each week, she was only partly successful in that. I have shelves and shelves of books in my house and some where around twenty books in my ready pile I need to get to. In fairness I do have to read for the military and some of the books are rather dry, so I have been know to skip “How Terrorism Ends,” or “War by Other Means,” or “Fixing Failed States,” for the latest Bill the Vampire story.

I'm a fast reader, so a story has to really draw me in otherwise I slow down and start to notice things, like plot holes, or technical inconsistencies, or heaven forbid a grammatical mistake. A grammarian I am not, I have an editor for a reason, so if I spot your mistake, there are a dozen that slid by me that others will catch.

So that's the key for me, the story has to suck me in. I can forgive editing mistakes, POV shifts, even weak character development if I'm entertained. However, if an author can not draw me in I will notice imperfections and then things tend to slide downhill messily. Another problem is that I've done a lot in my life, so technical mistakes are spotted. If you try and have your hero bank his spaceship in space, I'll recognize you're either ignorant of how gravity works or ignoring gravitational law. Not really a big deal by itself, but if said character then engages is zero gravity sex with the incredibly nubile triplet princesses of Zeta Seven, and phrases like, “budding bosoms,” or “throbbing manhood,” are used, I'm going to probably lose interest.

It's simple, entertain me. If you want my money and my support write something that I devour. All else are mere words.