I think surprises become more difficult the more one reads, especially one's favorite kinds of story. We humans do have our patterns, and the longer we read, the more obvious some patterns, and meta patterns become.
Oh, yes, very much this. Although I'm sometimes amazed at how obvious and predictable some people find books in my genre that I found entirely surprising, so I think sometimes it's not just how many books you've read in your genre but which ones, too. If you've read all the same ones as the author, you might indeed guess where she's headed before she gets there, when somebody else might think her terribly original and clever.
And patterns are lovely, yes. That's why I enjoy re-reading books with twists even a little bit more than I enjoyed reading them and being surprised by them the first time -- because looking at the pattern is so satisfying.
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Date: 2010-10-21 10:39 pm (UTC)Oh, yes, very much this. Although I'm sometimes amazed at how obvious and predictable some people find books in my genre that I found entirely surprising, so I think sometimes it's not just how many books you've read in your genre but which ones, too. If you've read all the same ones as the author, you might indeed guess where she's headed before she gets there, when somebody else might think her terribly original and clever.
And patterns are lovely, yes. That's why I enjoy re-reading books with twists even a little bit more than I enjoyed reading them and being surprised by them the first time -- because looking at the pattern is so satisfying.