IDIOT PLOT

Closeup portrait of scared woman lost in forest lighting up the way with lantern

I like paper books. But I also like ebooks. They each have their place.

An ebook weighs less, has variable type size, is backlit. You can store hundreds of them in a space no bigger than a piece of toast. But I have just discovered one thing that ebooks really suck at. You can’t wing them off the nearest wall.

Roger Ebert called it the idiot plot. You know the type. For instance, a young woman decides to change into her nightie before going to the woods, alone at midnight, to investigate that demonic noise she just heard.

In the case of the ebook I was reading, the plot involved a graduate instructor inviting a female student (whom he didn’t much like) into his apartment not once, but three times, without thinking that there might be repercussions. Come on. I rarely criticize other writers, but come on. I’m supposed to care about this guy after that unforgivable brain fart? Burn him at the stake, I say.

A paper book could have been drop kicked across the room in a fit of irritation. But you really don’t want to do that with an ebook. So now I have to find something else to toss, pitch, kick or slap. I may be my own idiot plot today depending on who or what crosses me.

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3 comments

    • Don Edmunds on February 19, 2016 at 9:19 am
    • Reply

    Well, but Linda might like that. She’s a fan of zombies, after all.

    • Linda on January 9, 2016 at 5:00 pm
    • Reply

    This plot may take the cake in the idiot department. I guess all I can say is that if you’re going to lust after a serial killer, you better hope he’s dead, dead, dead.

  1. Lord, I’m having the same feeling. Only I’m listening to the book on tape. The heroine is supposedly in love with a ghost or at least romantically/sexually wanting said ghost. I don’t have a problem with that. What has me not liking this heroine at all is that the ghost was a serial killer when alive. Don’t care that he saved her life by losing his. Don’t think he’s sexy or even likable and the heroine’s obsession with him is a real turn off. But apparently others don’t have a problem with this as it’s a series. SMH.

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