Books that oddly don't catch you

[nixie]

Rhaspsody, I finished the book, and there are bits I liked, but it seemed one big hard slog.Shame cause I want to finish the series but I keep putting off starting the next one.

 

[Wocket]

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.

The problem in reading the Hobbit is that is was designed to be listened to, not read. If you ever manage to get your hands on the CD of Tolkin reading it you will be amazed at the difference in the pace of the story.

I have two books that I had trouble with recently. One was Rosa and the Veil of Gold, which is odd, since I adore her other books with a passion. i just found all of the characters really annoying. If I met them and was faced spending any amount of time with them I'd have to follow Londo Mollari's (Bab 5) example and "intend to have other plans"

The other was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Nothing actually happens for about four fifths of the book, which is a shame because the opening couple of chapters promise great things.

 

[Chrystelia]

Lots of people recommended Susanna Clarke's mr something and and mr. something... sorry can't remember the names... tried it but just couldn't get through. The other book that couldn't hold my interest was the Time Traveler's wife.

As for LOTR, I actually got the audio book version, same with the Silmarilion. Love it, it really helps if the reader is excellent. Then I reread the book. Maybe those of you should also try A Game of Throne on audio book, excellent narration!

off topic: Narration of Jim dale of the Harry Potter series is also very good!

 

[Dr. Atomic]

The problem in reading the Hobbit is that is was designed to be listened to, not read. If you ever manage to get your hands on the CD of Tolkin reading it you will be amazed at the difference in the pace of the story.

That may be the case, but it sort of defeats the purpose of writing a book, not a play or something... A book should work as a book, in that I should be able to sit down and read the darn thing. Or, rather, someone should be able to sit down and read it -- I figure he pulled it off, since so many people have loved the book over the years. For me, it just never worked.

 

[shadow9d9]

Books I had to give up on:

Stranger in a Strange land-plot was dropped 50% through and turned into monologues about the author's views on everything.

Discworld's Small Gods- slow pace, unmemorable characters.

Anne Mccaffrey's Crystal Singer- character had no motive for her actions, nothing ever happened.

Ursula Le Guin's Lathe of Heaven-too similar to left hand of darkness(stopped 50 pages in), City of Illusions, too average, and Wizard of Earthsea, average again.

Dan Simmon's Ilium- I forced myself through every page up to round 80.

Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksennarion- typical fantasy




And a side note to one of the first posters having a problem with the Tapestry series of Guy Gavriel Kay's... i skipped that trilogy because it was criticized as being amateurish compared to his other works... try Tigana, his next book(not a trilogy). I just finished it and it was great(first book of his I've read).

 

[Chrystelia]

That may be the case, but it sort of defeats the purpose of writing a book, not a play or something... A book should work as a book, in that I should be able to sit down and read the darn thing. Or, rather, someone should be able to sit down and read it -- I figure he pulled it off, since so many people have loved the book over the years. For me, it just never worked.

Individual preference.
A book should work as a book only if a person could read the book.

 

[Nikitta]

I'm glad I'm not the only one

Recently I've been unable to finish the following books:

Road to Mars by Eric Idle.
No, I don't have the faintest clue why that didn't catch me, but it just didn't.

Velocity by Dean Koontz.
It started out with some great humour, but that was soon gone and it's limited how detailed a desciption I want of someone's kitchen. Just stop descibing the kitchen and send in the killer already! *grins*

Dark Moon by David Gemmel.
I'm not entirely sure why that didn't catch because it seemed good at first. Maybe it has to do with how he started to move the characters to different locations without telling that they had moved, let alone descibring the new place they had gotten to. Maybe you're suppoed to read other books taking place in that world first to know the places or something. It just made it impossible for me to visualise the story.

The first book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
Seems very promising at first, but had completely lost my interest after about 50 pages. Reading on to see if it caught my interest again didn't help at all.

 

[Nesacat]

I was alright with the first few Wheel of Time books and then I started having to force myself to keep going. It's as if all the characters have taken off to do their own thing beyond the writer's control and the whole of Crossroads of Twilight felt like one very long chapter leading to nowehere at all.

I could not get into The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon either. Finally skipped and skimmed and just read the ending and then gave the book away. This was pretty odd for me since I like Stephen King's books but I've been finding it diffficult to get into many of his newer novels. The others I could not get into were Lisey's Story and Gerald's Game.

 

[Allegra]

I can't get over 20 pages of Stephen King's Gunslinger, tried 3 times. So I can only sigh to The Dark Tower.

 

[Chrystelia]

I had no problem with The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Gerald's game but Gunslinger was excruciatingly draggy. I forced myself to finish it. The second book was slightly better but after that I gave up un the Dark Tower series.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I love the Dark Tower series, but I have to say that I don't like the Gunslinger either. I certainly recommend pushing yourself through it if you can bear it. The Drawing of the Three is much better, and The Wastelands is my personal favourite, it's great. The Wizard and the Glass goes off on a bit of a tangent, but then the last three are great.

 

[jackokent]

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.

I know what you mean about this book Nescat. I started reading it about 10 years ago and the character really put me off. It's probably the only book I've ever not finished.

Then seeing so many people on this site love it I went out and bought the series again the other day. I am going to give it another go and see if I can get past the initial repulsion.

I really struggled with the Broken Goddess by Hans Bemmann. I loved his Stone and the Flute and really looked forward to reading the Broken Goddess but it must have taken me about 6 months to get through and I probably skimmed read it even then. His style is fantastic though I just didn't care for the plot.

 

[dsmith]

I had this happen with the Door Within Trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson. The books looked very interesting, and I forced myself to read all the way through the first one, hoping I would start to like it. I couldn't even attempt to read the next two books.

 

[Somebloke]

The Alliance of Light series....should have grabbed me. It was certainly well-written...but a chore to get through.

 

[Talysia]

I found it really difficult to get into Tad Williams' Memory, Thorn and Sorrow. I haven't tried to read it for a while,though, so maybe I'd be able to enjoy it now.

 

[Quokka]

This is turning into an interesting thread as much for other peoples opinion on the books that did catch me as for those that didnt...

I very rarely can bring myself not to finish a book.

For example I loved the first 4 Jordan's books but after that they may as well have fallen off the cliffs of Moher, I'm sure alot of other people feel the same... but with the cut off at a different place.

There's some books Ive put down the first time and come back to, including Catch 22 and Dune (both of which have become favourites since) as well as the first Thomas Convent Trilogy and The Dante Club.

I can respect LOTR for what it is but my god did I struggle with the second book

But a few I havent been able to finish include the second Thomas Convent series ( I kind of half enjoyed the first ones), Harry Potter and, so far, Ursula Le Guin's The left hand of darkness.

 

[K. Riehl]

I remember having trouble with certain titles and setting them aside. Then 10 years later giving them another go and finding that either I was too young when I first read them or my worldview had changed to the point where I had a better connection with the author.
I know that the opposite happens as well. Picking up a favorite title from my youth and having it fall apart in front my eyes.

 

[sci-fi girl]

I had this happened with "Dawnthief" by James Barclay. This book contained everything that I like, magic, dragoon, warrior, danger... and nothing... I couldn't even attempt to read the next two books.

 

[aarti]

I really couldn't get into Illusion, by Paula Volsky. And I didn't particularly like Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay, though I like most of his other work.

 

[Kitera]

I gave up reading 'the soddit' today =S