Still one question nags, though: If you know in your gut a book is good and you can't put it down, how would you know that would have the same reaction with someone else? Conversely, if a book is so-so and others things pull you away from it–e-mail, Blackberrys, kids, dinner–who can say for certain this would be the same reaction in anyone else?

It is a comfort to know a read I'd devise would be one I couldn't put down . . . but I think to add to this, would be another read that you're still thinking about long after you'ce put it down–or while you're making dinner, Blackberry-ing, changing dirty diapers, homeschooling. . . .

~Missye

As far as reading books goes, I used to read lots of books all the time. However, since I went back to teaching in 2002 and really learned how to use computers, most of my reading is shorter stuff. For me to read a book now, the writing has to draw me in.

Thanks for this post. It was great to hear from the agent side of things.

As for going with the gut and basing a decision on how willing we are to put a book down, I can see problems with that. When I was a kid, there were books that I loved slipping off into. I would reach the end of the book, turn back to page one and start reading it all over again. I’m not as thrilled about them now, but kids might be. But I also consider some of the stories I either wrote or considered writing a few years ago and though I found it easy to slip into that world then, I have no interest in the story now. The story is no less of a good story now than it was then, but because I’m stressed out about different things now, my choice of worlds to slip into is different. To rely on the gut to know which world readers will want to slip into is to assume that readers are stressed about the same things as one’s self, when in fact some readers are, but others are stressed about other things.