Making the Internet My Accountability Partner

Many of you may know I love reading. My love for fiction and nonfiction are equal. Within fiction my favorite genres are thriller and mystery. With my partner being a library worker, I am constantly getting recommendations that he comes across. Recently he recommended a book called The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I read the synopsis provided on the dust jacket and dove straight in. I immediately knew it was different from most of the books I’ve read before. I did really enjoy the writing and enjoyed the reading process. However, I was constantly searching for the plot. It wasn’t until about 75% of the wayt through that I was going through my Youtube watch later list and a video I had saved from Diaries of Creativity about Literary Fiction caught my eye. Specifically because the thumbnail included the phrase “where is the plot”.

It was immediately clear that The Signature of All Things fit into this non-genre. It is a very character and theme driven. The primary protagonist Alma Whittaker is a flawed but enjoyable character. Despite how much I genuinely enjoyed learning about her and exploring her life, I found myself reticent to pick up the book becuase I wasn’t invested enough. Without a driving plot, the book felt plodding. The book not only covered Alma’s entire 90+ year life, but also covered a significant portion of her father’s life beforehand. As pleasant as it was to get the father’s tales of adventure, it makes you wonder if it was worth the additional pages it added to a book that ended up being 500 pages.

As usual, while reading this I had several other books on my nightstand lined up to read. Multiple times I considered DNFing this book. I am ultimatley glad I didn’t. While I am not swearing off literary fiction entirely, I believe future forays will need to be a lot more intentional as it maybe isn’t the style best suited to my reading preferences.