How do you like your books?

[Durkinator25]

Do you enjoy reading from a male or female perspective?
Do you like it when each chapter is about a different character?
Third person or first?

I personally enjoy reading from a male perspective simply because I have this crazy idea that it will help me better understand how men think. I have realized that books from men's point of view always has very raunchy sex scenes whereas the female point of view is typically more passionate and full of tension and heat.
I love when you get more than just the main characters point of view, I like knowing what the author knows. It adds so much more body to the book when you can see the whole picture. What's that one quote? There's three sides to every story?

[dickens 100]

I like books from a child's perspective, like the classic Roddy Doyle novel, Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha.
If you haven't read it, I strongly advise, much better than his other novels

[quadbrookie]

It depends on the mood I am in. I prefer that the book has minimal cursing, no trashy sexual content, and since I got my Kindle last year I have been reading primarily Amish fiction.

[HalcyonFlower]

Reading from the perspective of a protagonist by an author who's the opposite gender is intriguing. It gives me insight into what characteristics authors think are normal for a girl/boy/man/woman. Reading Harry Potter was neat this way since a lot of 'normal' boy things weren't covered, I felt. Although it's frustrating, it's interesting to see what some male authors think a woman is - the frustrating bit coming from hourglass figures with daddy issues.

[TrishaAnn92]

I don't mind which perspective it is told in, whether female or male. Third or first, I still don't mind as long as the book is intriguing and keeps me interested I don't care.

[Jolyon Trevelyan]

Do you enjoy reading from a male or female perspective?
Do you like it when each chapter is about a different character?
Third person or first?

I like to read from both male and female perspective. I do not really have a preference.

I like chapters to be about the same character and i like it to be about different characters.

I like both don`t really have a preference.

[Jausten11]

I like my books leaving me thinking Wow! From drama, mystery, romance, YA, etc. Not preference on topic.

[moderntimes]

I don't care but I only read adult books, so children as narrators are not my cup of tea. I realize that there are lots of members here who enjoy juvenile fantasy books (LOTR, etc) even though they are adults, but I'm not one of them.

What I am okay with is books which switch perspective from character to character, but occasionally I've reviewed books which switch too rapidly, sometimes several perspectives change within the same chapter. This is annoying to me.

I'd rather that the author establish one character's narrative for 3-4 chapters without switching, then cut to the other person, then back. This of course depends on the length of the chapters.

A superb recent mystery I reviewed is "I, Ripper" which of course is about Jack the Ripper. It's told from two perspectives -- Jack's diary, and the journal of a newspaperman who's on the case. Each chapter is alternating but the chapters are long enough for you to get into the rhythm and narrative of either character, the writing style, and so on. This was very well done.

I'm also okay with a single perspective. My 3 private detective novels (now being published) are all first person narrative and that's tricky to do, since we've only got one POV (point of view) but that's the style I chose. I do however work hard to have lots of additional characters who have lots of dialogue so we can learn about the other people in the story. That prevents single-narrator vapor lock, ha ha.

[Crossroad Readers]

I usually prefer to read from the female's perspective. Although I can enjoy reading books from the male perspective also. I sometimes really enjoy when different chapters are about different characters.

[LivreAmour217]

My favorite is probably the first-person perspective, and from a female point of view, since I can relate to the character more easily. However, I don't really care all that much, as long as the story is good!

[originaloflaura]

I have to admit, I usually hate it when the narrator switches every chapter. But, that being said, I really liked Gillian Flynn's use of the "he said/she said" switch in Gone Girl. It was a good stylistic choice, to help reveal different issues in the book, and something you couldn't have gotten if she'd only stuck with one narrator.

Second person narratives are really the only ones that can grow tiresome, but even there, I enjoyed its use in How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid.

So, if used to good effect, I like my books any which way!

[DATo]

I have to admit, I usually hate it when the narrator switches every chapter. But, that being said, I really liked Gillian Flynn's use of the "he said/she said" switch in Gone Girl. It was a good stylistic choice, to help reveal different issues in the book, and something you couldn't have gotten if she'd only stuck with one narrator.

Second person narratives are really the only ones that can grow tiresome, but even there, I enjoyed its use in How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid.

So, if used to good effect, I like my books any which way!

Second person is hard to pull off well. The narrator has a limited perspective and can have a personal bias to the events he describes. This can open the door to some really great plot manipulation though. A good author can use the limited perspective of the narrator to tell one story but allow the reader to see through this story to the truth behind the narration. Writers all have a toolbox and pull out the right tool for the job at hand. Second person narrative can be just such a tool.

[moderntimes]

In my 1st person personal narrative for my private detective novels, the reader of course has only the narrator himself to know the story. And as DAT says, even if the narrator is 1st person and only that, it's possible for the author to manipulate the story so that the reader might first think "Huh? He's contracting himself."

But this is intentional because the protagonist sometimes lies to himself, and by this, lies also to the reader. I do plant clues for the reader to discover this, however, and don't overuse it. I only employ it when the private eye is talking about his internal feelings, not facts of the case or reality. And like all of us, he often deceives himself and becomes fixated or slightly mis-focused on things. What I am of course trying to do is to create a very human and realistic person, not a demi-god, but a genuinely flawed person who often is on shaky internal standings. And by this I create tension in the story line in addition to the "external" story, the actual mystery plot.

Tricky, but hey.

[Carrie R]

I don't mind which perspective it is told in, whether female or male. Third or first, I still don't mind as long as the book is intriguing and keeps me interested I don't care.

Same here. Just keep me reading and I'm happy. But I once read a book told from the first-person plural. We this, we that. That was kind of weird. Since it was called The Weird Sisters, I guess it lived up to its title.

[moderntimes]

What tends to bother me is if the voice or tense is used for a "cutesy" effect. That gets on my nerves a lot. Likewise similar "tricks" in text, like weird paragraph styles or oddball text. If the author cannot convey the effect intended by simply using, as Hamlet says, words, words words, then maybe the writer should try harder.