Books that oddly don't catch you

[Nikitta]

Have you had this happen to you?

You find a book which seems interesting. The idea behind the book really appeals to you and reading the first pages, it seems promising - so you buy it.

However, you never get very far into it because, for some unknown reason, it just doesn't catch you. You don't know why, but it just doesn't. You read for a bit more to give it a decent chance, since you can't put your finger on anything specifically wrong with the book, but you find yourself thinking the words "I don't care what happenes next. I don't care about these characters" which is pretty much the death sentence for a book as far as you reading it goes.

I'm not talking about books that don't appeal to you for obvious reasons or books which introduce easily recognisable "deal breakers", but books that appeal to you and you find no reason not to like, but they just don't catch you and you can't put your finger on why.

 

[Pyan]

Tried to read it umpteen times, but just can't get to care about the characters, as Nikitta aptly puts it.
Rather odd, because it's the only book I've tried by her that had this result. Loved Ash, a secret history, the Golden Witchbreed books, and even Grunts ; just not this one.

 

[Locksmith]

Lord of the Rings - I just can't get into it. I always make the mistake of starting at book one, and never really get much further than halfway through book 2. Love the films (although the first one is slow, reflecting what I think puts me off the book), desperately want to get into the book, but it just isn't happening.

I'm having serious problems with Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionnavar Tapestry trilogy at the moment. I'm not certain what has but me off, but I think it's the writing style: it seems to leap perspective and time (followed by an explanation of what happened between the last explained event and the one which has just appeared from nowhere, so that you can work out what's going on). I also couldn't care less about any of the characters; they're too thinly formed. The series is short though, and inventive fantasy in terms of concepts, so I've pressed on and almost finished book 2. Book 3 is still sitting on my bookcase though, mocking me.

To be honest this tends to happen more often when I try and read books which are mainstream/classics rather than SFF - Moby Dick, Catch 22 and Satanic Verses (maybe not a classic) spring immediately to mind as books I made no progress through.

 

[Nesacat]

Had that problem with the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It seemed interesting and I liked other things Donaldson had done but just could not get through Thomas Covenant. I think it was probably to do with how I began to feel about Covenant. I found myself being greatly repulsed by the character and that does not really make sense since I've read books that are much more violent and horrific. There's something about Thomas Covenant that turns me off and it's something I really can't out my finger on. I've tried several times to read the book, usually after friends whose judgement I trust have told me they loved it, but I can't do it.

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Oh yeah . . . . The last big one was Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer. Fascinating concept - excruciatingly boring execution. It made my eyelids curl like dried papyrus. An agony in any format, the fate best suited for its trangressions of the storyteller's art is for it to be used as landfill to help reclaim the Nile Delta.

 

[Lenny]

Never had it with books I buy (I very rarely buy books myself, usually get them from the library), but I've had it happen with a book I got from the library:

The Shadowmancer by G. P. Taylor

Priest turned author... and it really is dire. It's a damn good idea for a book, but he can't write to save his life from toffee.

 

[Pyan]

he can't write to save his life from toffee.

Sorry, Lenny ?- run that past me again........?

 

[j d worthington]

Sorry, Lenny ?- run that past me again........?

Actually, Pyan... I rather like that image....

Oddly, I can't recall the last time this happened to me. I seem to have an almost uncanny ability to avoid those books which would have that effect, and I can only recall 2-3 times in my life when I've had the experience. Downright weird, when you think about it, considering the number of books I've read....

 

[Lenny]

Sorry, Lenny ?- run that past me again........?

It's a figure of speech... surely you've heard:

He can't do such and such to save his life.

And:

She can't do such and such for toffee.

It's just a combination of the two:

I can't do such and such to save my life from toffee.

 

[Allegra]

Lord of the Rings - I just can't get into it. I always make the mistake of starting at book one, and never really get much further than halfway through book 2. Love the films (although the first one is slow, reflecting what I think puts me off the book), desperately want to get into the book, but it just isn't happening.

Same here! And I thought I was the odd one.

 

[Pyan]

Far from it, judging from this forum!
Mind you - LotR is almost unique as being possibly the most-recommended-to-read book ever - it's not surprising that a greater number of people don't like it, merely because of the huge number of people that have tried.
I'm also surprised at the number of people that say "I'm sorry, but I don't like it", as if they should be ashamed of the fact!

 

[Allegra]

I guess that's because many people talking about LotR like talking about the Bible of fantasy. And I also happened to be an atheist.

 

[Taltos]

Yes I've had such things happening - for example I've tried 3-4 times to get into GRRM's Thrones - as many people have suggested it - but I just can't get past page 50

 

[Karsa Orlong]

I *almost* put down A Game of Thrones more than once, but I ended up sticking with it to the end. It picks up around the halfway point, but even then it did very little for me. I don't feel like it's odd that it didn't catch me so much that it's odd how many other people it did catch, but that might just be arrogance talking.

 

[Frozeninja]

That happened to me with Tad Williams War of the Flowers. Everyone I've seen on this forum says it's a great book, but I just can't get into it. I got to half way through and then gave up.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time, but halfway through I just did not care for any of the characters. I think this was possibly the first book I didn't finish (usually I'll just plough on the end because there is at least some tiny shred that will keep me interested, but with this book I just hated it.)
Oh, and I also never finished The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I know, shocking, a Stephen King book that I don't actually like! I read it a few years ago, though, so perhaps I'd actually like it (or at least finish it) if I read it again.

 

[that old guy]

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series - Though I admit I did finish it, it was like a death march through the last book.

R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series - I was impressed for about 100 pages and then it just ceased to hold my attention. I think my biggest complaint here is that it just stopped being entertaining. Or maybe never started.

Neal Stephenson's Baroque series - The author of Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon wrote this? Huh? Got the first book from the library and forced myself to finish it. But I can't bring myself to pick up the next one, now and probably never. Self-indulgent, tedious, long-winded, gah. All I can say is I'm glad he wrote the other stuff first. Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are two of my favorites. Not sure what happened.

And these are three series I thought I was going to love.

 

[Dr. Atomic]

The Hobbit and the LOTR books... tried, failed. Just couldn't get past ol' J.R.R.'s writing, which, in my opnion, drags like stone. I thought they made wonderful movies, and I think the stories are really interesting, and I like the ideas behind all the characters... I just wish someone else had written them.

I also couldn't get into Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series -- I've tried three times, and keep stalling about 75% of the way in to the first book, Red Mars. I can't even work up the enthusiasm to see how it ends... Wonderful ideas, but the books come off like melodramatic soap operas. Every character is a petty, unsypathetic, emotional wreck. What could have been an amazing series about the colonization of another planet is instead transformed into the worst episode of As The Red Planet Turns.

Apparently, though, I'm one of the only people who feels this way... the books are wildly popular, with loads of both fan and critical acclaim. What's wrong with me?! ...Heh heh...

 

[Stenevor]

City of Saints and Madmen - Jeff Vandermeer. Im probably in a minority but I just dont get it, Dradin in Love was sort of OK but I quickly lost interest in the Early History of Ambergris. I might try the Martin Lake story sometime though.

 

[BookStop]

I usually push through, even if the book isn't my favorite. Game of Thrones wa slike that, I didn't really enjoy it, but I read the whole thing anyways. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon as well. THe only books I can think of that I just didn't get through were Pullman's Golden Compass King's Lisey's Story I know, they're briliant books, but man, they are just not holding me...