Book Issues [3] - Book Comparisons

Hiya!
My first posts of Book Issues was some time ago, not because I didn't have anything to talk, but because I didn't have too many time. I have a little the time now, so why not use it well.. As you may know, this meme was created by me and basically is me talking about some problems related to books that I have and that maybe you do too. Be free to use this meme whenever you want and with the whichever problem you have. Please, link back to my blog. Thanks and hope you like reading the following issue.

Book Issue #3 - Book Comparisons

Sounds a very strange issue, right? Well, let me explain a little. From some time I have been seeing this kind of announcement in some books, example:

 "Think of a heart-racing chase of The Hunger Games, but a giant mall is your arena."

- Seventeen.com talking about No Safety in Numbers.

"The Testing is a chilling and devious dystopian thriller that all fans of The Hunger Games will simply devour."

- Jonathan Maberry talking about The Testing.

Those are the most common to hear, but there are others like comments that your friends make. I have heard or read so many comments saying: "It's like The Hunger Games, but better/worse." And so many others that it angers me.

I know that comparisons are made, sometimes, without meaning to or even without having in mind what you are actually saying. I, too, understand the bussiness benefit of saying that your book is compare to a best-seller, but still angers me. I mean, authors make a book to entertain people and to "rise" into your bookshelf. They do not meant to be compare with other book. It is like you being compared with your brother or other person. When I was little, I hated to be compared with my siblings and I still do. I always try to make things better than them, without realizing that I was perfect the way I was, same is with books. They are perfect as they are, excluding plot twists and character deads.

Authors cannot unmade what they published or how they wrote the book. Neither, maybe, can not write some parts that can be compare with other books. But, people, if you are trying to recommend a book or giving your opinion about it... try not to compare it with other book. Sometimes we cannot stop ourselves of doing so, because I have made some reviews comparing two books, but still kind of wrong.

Other kind of comparison is between the books of the same author. The other day I was reading this post that was saying that J.K. Rowling should stop publishing what she writes. The person talking said that after her worldwide best-seller Harry Potter, her other books were not that good and they shouldn't have been published. I quote what the person said about The Casual Vacancy:

"That book sucked the oxygen from the entire publishing and reading atmosphere."

That is not very professional of someone, to my understanding. I know that books cannot be of your like, but that doesn't give you the right to put it in those words.

Oh, but the person continues critizing the other book of J.K. Rowling, The Cuckoo's Calling. From what I understand the person doesn't say if it was bad or not, perse, but it critizies the way the author use to published the book. We all know that Rowling used a pseudonym, but we all know too that the secret of who really wrote was out in a short time after. The book was a crime hit in the libraries and it selled a lot of copies. The person says that doing that Rowling deleted the chance of other authors to selled their better wrote novels at the same time.

I'm NOT saying that the person who wrote that post shouldn't have done it, because we all have the right to say whatever we want. But maybe the person didn't used the correct way. Telling an author that if you care about writting, you should stop it is not a smooth way. She shouldn't have compared her Harry Potter books with the ones she published not long ago. They are different genres, there is no space in comparing them.

My spanish professor says something very particular: "There's nothing new written in Earth." And if you analize it, its true. But that doesn't give us the right to keep comparing every single book we read or want to read, but we shouldn't. Comparisons may be good, sometimes, but others are plain cruel.