Well, first I’ll have to explain what I mean, I suppose.
I’m a voracious reader of novels, but it’s been a long–LONG–time since I read when in which I didn’t know the basics of the plot and characters. Usualy I skim through the book in the bookstore or library, or read a review in the New Yorker or the Times, or listen to a piece on it on NPR, or take the opinion of a friend whose read it previously; if nothing else I’ll read the blurb. It occurs to me that I’m missing something by approaching things this way, though. I’m missing the opportunity to read the book with minimum preconceptions, and thus the ability to experience it, for lack of a better term, entirely as a virgin.
So I’m in the midst of an experiment. I’m going to read two novels in the next month–Alice Sebold’s The Almost Moon and Valerie Martin’s Trepass – as near to virgin as I can manage. Admittedly I love both authors (otherwise I wouldn’t drop 40 books on the pair) but I know nothing of the plots or characters. I’ve avoided all reviews, and I’ve even removed the dust jacket.
Will anyone join me in seeing what this is like?
What I propose is simple. Anyone who posts to this thread should either name a book s/he will read virgin, or recommend a book for someone else to try it with. It goes without saying that, if you nominate a book, you should give the name, author, and genre, and NOTHING ELSE. In a few weeks I’ll open another thread to discuss my own reactions, and anyone else who wants to can chime in.
I do this all the time. I look over the titles on the shelves in the library and pick a couple at random. A fair percentage of the time I discover very good authors that way.
It seems to me you’re not getting the “virgin” idea right. Achren describes the truely virginal way, and one that is a lot more fun. Knowing the authors - loving them, especially - is as far from a virginal reading experience as reading the reviews. You’ve already read the reviews and chosen them, based on your review of the author’s past work.
Truely virginal reading would be almost impossible to me. I always read the blurb on the back or the dust cover, although I have read a few based solely on the title.
[hijack]I’ve become a serious Gregory Maguire devotee that way. I chose Wicked based solely on the blurb, and have since read all but one of his books (due to time constraints), as well as gone to the play (wonderful, by the way) and bought the soundtrack and the playbook called the Grimmerie. [/hijack]
Anyway, that’s just my opinion, and I do hope you enjoy your reading experience. I will seek out Valerie Martin’s other works, though, as my part in the game. I’ve never heard of her and have no idea what she writes, so I can try to find a book by her and buy it without reading the blurb (I’m willing to risk the price of a paperback, but like you, I’m not spending hardback $$$ blindly). I’ll let you know how that goes. I won’t even ask which one is best. How’s that for keeping my literary legs crossed!?!
How do you pick them? Just go to Borders and grab something off the shelf?
The only time I read a book like this is if, like the OP, it’s by an author I’m already sold on. I recently read The Accidental Time Traveler by Joe Haldeman and all I really knew about it was the title and the author - which in Haldeman’s case was enough.
But in the majority of cases, I’ll have some idea of what I’m getting into. If nothing else, I’ll have read the cover and decided it sounded interesting.
I can’t remember the last virgin book I read. I usually like to know something about a book before I start reading it…hmmm. It’s an interesting idea.
I’m always watching films and thinking, “Well…I know what it’s about. What if I hadn’t known it was a werewolf/zombie/vampire film”–i.e., the 'transformation" scene would seem that much more shocking. Then again, few films are actually that shocking, so…
I’d like to take advantage of this thread.
I’ll offer up “Foreskin’s Lament” by Shalom Auslander. A memoir.
I often go to the library and choose books by their covers. I only read in two genres–mystery and fantasy–but I don’t read anything beyond trying to figure out if it’s part of a series.
Now that I do the Goodreads thing, I will often look up a book on Amazon, then add most of the books in Amazon’s other-books-like-this scrolly thing to my “to-read” pile on Goodreads. I find interesting books that way, and often incredibly sucky ones, too!
Oh, and I don’t read book jackets, either. I had a book a few weeks ago and handed it to my husband and said, “I’m in the mood for a fantasy book. Is this one fantasy?” He read the jacket, said it was, and handed it back.
Trying to come up with a good book by an author whose work isn’t well-known, where the title doesn’t give anything away – I’ll suggest Time Will Darken It by William Maxwell.
This is the way I pick my books. Sometimes they are by recommendation, sometimes they are by author. If I have neither ready, which is often, I go to the sci fi section or the fiction section in the library, walk up and down the rows and pick titles I like. I do insist on reading the book jackets, though, and *will *put a book back if it doesn’t have a description on the jacket.
So it’s virgin in the book/author, not so much genre.
I never buy books unless I am 110% sure there is re-read value in them.
I’m in pretty much the same ship as Anaamika. Typically I’ll go with a book suggestion or read anything from authors I know I like, but I otherwise refuse to read reviews, book jackets, etc.
At most, I’ll give the book the “one-page” test, where I’ll read a page at random and decide whether or not I’ll like the book on style alone.
As for suggestions for a virgin book for someone else: The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler. Genre is literary fiction (arguably in the guise of YA fiction).
By the way, I ordered Property by Valerie Martin for $1.82. I got it from half.com, so there was no blurb to avoid. I should get it this week. I’ll let you know how it goes, Skald.