Books that oddly don't catch you

[Myth]

Anything by Jane Austen, I've tried reading all her books they have in the library and the only one I managed to fininsh [and like] was Northanger Abbey. I just don't like anything else.

His Dark Materials was all right, the first part of the first book anyway. I didn't finish it, tried several times but ended up ignoring it for weeks and I still haven't finished it [two years later]. I don't think I'll read the whole trilogy at all.

Silas Marner, surprisingly the only George Eliot book I just couldn't read. I might take it up again, if I can get past the first few pages.

 

[Gav]

For some reason China Mieville's stuff hasn't caught me. I really get what his books are trying to do but, for some odd reason, they just don't ... hook me in. He writes well, and in patches I found his writing totally absorbing, but on-the-whole they just feel flat for some reason. Wish I could explain it.

 

[Lenny]

I'm afriad to say that I'm having to add a second book to my list.

The first was Shadowmancer by GP Taylor - interesting idea, very badly done. Exceptionally bad.

This second one is The Historian by Elizabteh Kostova. Again, a very interesting idea (a completely different take on Dracula), but I just can't get into it at all. It's not as if it's written badly, on the contrary, it's just that it's not holding my attention. After two weeks I've only got through 150 pages.

Methinks I'll give it another go in a few months.

 

[soulsinging]

I always seem to get halfway through this and then lose steam. I've tried to read this twice and both times I've just stopped when I've reached the part where all the survivors start meeting up at Abagail's house. There's just something about that stops me from getting past it!

And another one that was previously mentioned: Catch-22. I started reading that while on holiday and I just couldn't get into it.

Catch-22 is my all-time favorite novel. It changed my life and I think it's a work of absolute genius. That said, I've never really met anyone else who was particularly impressed with it. I recommend it to everyone, but nobody seems able to get into it and they end up giving up. Only one person ever finished it and she claimed to enjoy it... but she was dating me at the time and maybe just didn't want to knock it. Shoulda married her

I felt this way about Clash of Kings by GRRM. I actually stopped about 300 pages in and was going to give up on the series. Eventually I picked it up again over a long weekend and devoured the whole thing.

I did feel this way about Scott Lynch's sequel to Locke Lamorra though.

 

[AE35Unit]

This isn't really a problem for me cos i rarely if ever buy new books. I rent from the library or get them free from bookmooch.com. If i don't like it i just re list it!

 

[Connavar]

This isn't really a problem for me cos i rarely if ever buy new books. I rent from the library or get them free from bookmooch.com. If i don't like it i just re list it!

What do with your favorite authors ?

Authors you really like to read,collect and have in your bookshelf. Do you use library and bookmooch for them too ?

I have the same policy as you library,bookmooch to save money on new authors i havent read before or authors im not sure on even after the first book.

 

[Stephen Aryan]

A friend lent be Bareback, which initially sounded very interesting. A great premise to do with Werewolves, and at the time I thought it would be original and unique. The idea is unique as far as I'm aware, but the story just fell so flat for me. I struggled with the words, despite the idea, and the story just didn't grip me. My friend raved to me about it, so I read it on the strength of that, and just didn't get on with it.

Another one is Bitten, by Kelly Armstrong. In theory, it sounded just like my kind of thing. In practice, I just couldn't get on with it. I didn't warm to any of the characters and so didn't care about their fate. I found the lead character weak and listless, and others were quite empty. I like it when some authors give you the broad strokes and allow you to fill in the rest yourself through their actions and dialogue, but some of them didn't feel £3D to me. I pressed on to the end of the book despite not enjoying it, to see if it changed or improved, but sadly it just put me off.

 

[Moonbat]

The Algebraist by Iain M Banks,

I love Banks, I have read all his sci-fi stuff (and some fiction) but I just couldn't get through this, it has everything his other books have, I liked the gas giant creatures, but I couldn't finish it.

I have recently started on Matter (the next Banks book) maybe I will re-try Algebraist.

I also had the problem with Lord of the Rings, I couldn't get through the first book, but then I watched the film and started on book two and raced through 2 and 3. But it is obvious that book 1 is slower than the other 2.

 

[AE35Unit]

What do with your favorite authors ?

Authors you really like to read,collect and have in your bookshelf. Do you use library and bookmooch for them too ?

I have the same policy as you library,bookmooch to save money on new authors i havent read before or authors im not sure on even after the first book.

Well if a new book comes out by a fave author then I will try to buy it, or at least borrow it from the library if I cant afford it. For example Arthur C Clarke's last published book. I dont have it yet nor do I have the money to get it but I'd certainly buy it if I could! But another fave author of mine is Stephen Baxter..I like his stuff but I only have one book of his bought new(Voyage)-I just dont have the money to buy books new,hence bookmooch! The problem is a lot of the time the library only has the latest books by a certain author, so while you'll find Baxter's newest stuff there you'd have a hard time finding his earlier books from the 90s,like 'Raft', so I'd have to hunt it down second hand.

 

[Sadie Sin]

Twilight. I hate it. Tried so very hard to read it but I can't take that much whinning. She puts herself willingly in to postions like spending the school year with her dad and then complains the whole time and who is supposed to know to call her Bella not Isabella if they don't know her?
Lord of the Rings
Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite I really do like it but I've just never finished it.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I just couldn't get into Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I finished the book, but it took me something like 4 months to do it, because I would get bored and then pick up another book and read that one instead. I did always come back to it because I wanted to know how it would end though.

 

[Connavar]

Well if a new book comes out by a fave author then I will try to buy it, or at least borrow it from the library if I cant afford it. For example Arthur C Clarke's last published book. I dont have it yet nor do I have the money to get it but I'd certainly buy it if I could! But another fave author of mine is Stephen Baxter..I like his stuff but I only have one book of his bought new(Voyage)-I just dont have the money to buy books new,hence bookmooch! The problem is a lot of the time the library only has the latest books by a certain author, so while you'll find Baxter's newest stuff there you'd have a hard time finding his earlier books from the 90s,like 'Raft', so I'd have to hunt it down second hand.

For me its even harder cause when i buy old books of my favorites i have to go for second hand sales on the internet. Hope people arent too gready. Cause there arent any good second hand stores in this town, stockholm maybe but not here. When i dont have the money i just wait for my favorites until i can afford it. Usually there are some nice souls in Amazon,abebooks etc who sells their old books for the price of a cheap paperback around $7.

I cant go and buy 10 sf classics for pennies like some members in these forums can in their bigger countries,cities.

Bookmooch is my second hand store and i use it to find rare books that i will never found in a real second hand bookstore. I dont use it to get authors that are already on my book hauls list.

It sucks though to find new books in second hand stores,street sales cuz i dont want to find a Hobb or GRRM. I want to find RAH,Vance,Bester and co

Also everytime i go the two second hand stores in my town i only see some mysteries or SFF by Wells,Verne,Tolkien in fricking swedish and go home frustrated and jealous of the second hand book hauls i see in the book hauls !!

That has made my new motto to buy as many books as i can of my favorites while im young enough,free to spend hobby money on myself and dont have others to support !

Next month i will get alot more extra time salary,dont have to pay 2K in student loan like in this month. So i will take away my frustration on atleast 10-15 brand new books by the best of the best of my favorites

 

[dask]

"The Merman's Children" by Poul Anderson in FLASHING SWORDS #1. Slick, professional, probably a very good story but it took all my will power to finish it and I don't have a clue why. All I know is instead of getting excited when reading time came around I got more and more quasi-depressed as I realized if I wanted to finish this book I had to trudge through more of this stuff. I've thought about this a lot and can't figure out why this story bugged me so much.

 

[Reading_fanatic]

I guess I am also gonna have to put a hand up for The lord of the Rings trilogy. I read the Hobbit and thought it was awesome but when i got to the Lord of the Rings I found myself giving up about halfway through the second book. That isn't to say that I disliked the books in fact it was the opposite, but i simply couldn't keep reading them.
Anouther one is Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot. It seemed good but for some reason I just never got into it. By the time I reached the end I pretty much forgot everything I read in the book straight away.

 

[Frozeninja]

Strange enough, I tried the much revered Fifth Head of Cerberus but I really just couldn't take it. Stayed with it for the first hundred or so pages but just got bored.

 

[soulsinging]

And another one that was previously mentioned: Catch-22. I started reading that while on holiday and I just couldn't get into it.

Catch-22 is possibly my all-time fav novel and I think it's one of the best ever written, but I've recommended it to a lot of people and almost none of them have even been able to finish it. Only my brother and an old gf seemed to enjoy it, and neither really loved it like I do. Maybe I'm the weird one, hehe.

 

[Vladd67]

The House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski
I started this and really enjoyed it, but I guess the novelty of the format of the book wore off and one day I put the book down and just haven't picked it up again.

 

[Nikitta]

Catch-22 is possibly my all-time fav novel and I think it's one of the best ever written, but I've recommended it to a lot of people and almost none of them have even been able to finish it. Only my brother and an old gf seemed to enjoy it, and neither really loved it like I do. Maybe I'm the weird one, hehe.

I enjoyed it enough that I'm thinking of rereading it at some point, which I rarely do with any books, but I wouldn't say I loved it. I just thought it was really great.

 

[soulsinging]

I enjoyed it enough that I'm thinking of rereading it at some point, which I rarely do with any books, but I wouldn't say I loved it. I just thought it was really great.

I've read it 3-4 times actually. It's kind of the basis of my entire life philosophy, so I have an unusually intense connection to it.

 

[Rodders]

I really cannot get to grips with the Lord of the Rings. I even found the films to be uninteresting to me, which is a shame because i really want to watch them.

I didn't subscribe to the whole Harry Potter phenomenon either.