Priniciples of Choosing Fiction

David Kirchinger's Four Principles of Choosing Fiction

1. The Principle of Inverse Fiction Proportions:
There are more good books than you can read in a lifetime; therefore, life is too short to read mediocre books.

2. The Principle of Fiction Taste:
We don’t all agree on what constitutes good fiction. That doesn’t make either of us right or wrong.

3. The Principle of Universal Fiction Quality:
While tastes may vary there ARE characteristics of fiction that can be universally evaluated in any genre, by any writer, of any age or language, to judge the quality of the fiction


4. The Principle of Sadness and Humor:
My life has been too full of sadness already. At the age of 48, I've had more sadness and soul-emptying disappointments than anyone needs. A book that make me laugh are twice as good as a book that doesn't. If a book doesn't make me laugh, it damned well had better be incredibly mind-blowing fantastic in every other way.


How are my principles useful to you?

While we will not all agree on whether or not a particular piece of fiction is worth reading, literature can be evaluated judged, and compared to standards, and rated as to value. In the end, you may not agree with my judgment, but if you know the criteria that I judge by, then you should have a reasonable likelihood of finding my evaluations useful to you; whether as a guide because you agree with me, or as a guide because you think I am an idiot, and you decide to follow the opposite of what I recommend.