Not talking politics

[nwhiker]

I am resolutely not talking politics this weekend. I'm sick to my stomach, and I don't want to make it worse.

So.

A comment on books and smoking.

I'm reading the second book in a series that I really really liked the first book of (First book was _Witchmark_. There is a change in perspective between the two books, and we "know" the principal narrator from the first book.

She smokes.

And blam. I'm out of the book. I'll still read it, but at this point in my life, after losing two men I loved to lung cancer, and believing that some of my mother's issues stem from her long term smoking? I get so disgusted that the book loses most of it's impact. I hate the main character.

What makes it worse in this book is that the character smoking is brought up in the context of seduction, and that grosses me out even more.

And I've lost all respect for the author.

There was a fanfic author that I used to love. Then she posted one day that there was truly nothing sexier than smoking in the context of sex and seduction and I haven't read a word of hers since.

This is different from people who smoke. Those annoy me, but I get the reality of addiction. This is people who glorify smoking, see it as sexy, and thus I see these authors, these characters as promoting something deadly.

I'm not good at explaining it, I guess, perhaps because it's a visceral reaction.

Off to unfollow the author on twitter. I don't know if I'll read the third book of the trilogy, though I'll probably finish this one.