Tag: Read or Reject?

My New Year’s Resolution is to give up on books that aren’t outstanding. I don’t want to miss out on a gem that happens to have a poor beginning, so I hope that you can help me sort the wheat from the chaff. Should I continue reading any of these books?

Sorry by Gail Jones

I loved the beginning of this book. The writing was outstanding – perfectly capturing life in the Australian outback. But after about 80 pages it lost some of its initial momentum and I found that other books called to me more loudly. It has been two weeks since I last picked up this book and as time goes on I’m wondering if I should make the effort to get back into it. Does this book have more to offer than fantastic writing? Will I be surprised and gripped by the plot later in the book?

Pilcrow by Adam Mars-Jones

A few people have been suggesting that Adam Mars-Jones’ latest book, Cedilla, will make the Booker long list this year and so I thought I should try the first book in the series so that I’m not left with two enormous chunksters to get through before the short list is revealed. Once again I fell in love with the writing, but after about 150 pages without any hint of a plot I became frustrated. I need more than random observations about life to keep me entertained, but I suspect that this book isn’t going to provide me with any. Does this book change in style a bit further on?

When the Killing’s Done by TC Boyle

I had been looking forward to reading TC Boyle’s latest book, but I wonder if it is a victim of my high expectations. There were some great sections explaining how the introduction of species to non-native areas has caused havoc, but the fiction elements were disappointing. I didn’t connect with the characters and found the plot weak. I stopped after about 80 pages. Should I persevere?

Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis

I had heard amazing things about this book. The central character is a Nazi war criminal and the book tells his story backwards, so that whenever you see him healing someone you know that he actually killed them. Having a book that is able to be read both forwards and backwards is a very clever idea, but the problem was that this book often didn’t make sense when read forwards. I found myself having to read whole sections (especially the conversations) backwards in order to work out what was happening. I guess I’m just frustrated by all these books that try to make reading about the Holocaust palatable. I prefer to read something like The Kindly Ones that tells you exactly what happened without the use of fancy metaphors. Will reading to the end reduce my frustrations with this book?

Other books abandoned recently:

The Book of Human Skin – Michelle Lovric

Repeat it Today with Tears – Anne Peile

 

My New Year’s Resolution is to give up on books that aren’t outstanding. I don’t want to miss out on a gem that happens to have a poor beginning, so I hope that you can help me sort the wheat from the chaff.

Should I continue reading any of these books?

The World According to Garp by John Irving

This is a modern day classic and so I had high hopes for it. I loved the first few chapters describing Garp’s birth and childhood, but as he aged his life became less interesting. I didn’t enjoy the stories-within-the-story and the plot began to drag. I gave up after 245 pages (out of 570) but keep wondering if something exciting happens in the final section. Do you think it is worth persevering with this book? Does it return to the greatness of the opening chapters?

 

The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman

This book won the Arthur C Clarke Award in 1990. It is set in London in the near future and has a fascinating beginning. I loved the inventive predictions for the future, especially the way in which people are educated and controlled via viruses. Unfortunately the plot quickly became too complicated for me and I had no idea what was happening. The central character performs an opera based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, but I’m afraid the symbolism was lost on me. After reading 50 pages in a row in which I understood hardly anything I gave up. I’m passing this one on to my husband and hope he might be able to explain it to me. Does this book suddenly make sense after a certain number of pages?

The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith

I hadn’t heard heard of this book before watching Faulks on Fiction, but it was mentioned several times during the series and so I was intrigued enough to give it a try. Unfortunately I found it a tedious read. He lives a very dull life and I didn’t see the funny side of reading the diary of someone who does nothing noteworthy. I gave up after 70 pages. I assume that the rest of the book continues in the same vein?

Salvage by Robert Edric

I normally love predictions of what life will be like in the future, but although Salvage had a promising opening I quickly realised that this book provides a vision of what government bureaucracy might be like in 50 years time. Bureaucracy annoys me at the best of times and so it isn’t something I enjoy reading about. Does this book move away from the red tape?

Was I wrong to give up on any of these books?

Is there magic lurking in the final pages?

My New Year’s Resolution is to give up on books that aren’t outstanding. I don’t want to miss out on a gem that happens to have a poor beginning, so I hope that you can help me sort the wheat from the chaff.

Should I continue reading any of these books?

Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh 

I foolishly allowed myself to run out of audio books and so grabbed this one from the shelf without doing any research. I hadn’t read any Ngaio Marsh before, but wanted to experience one of her classic crime books. This one is a murder mystery set on a ship. It struggled to hold my attention from the beginning, but I can’t decide if this is due its unsuitability as an audio book or whether I’d have the same issues with the print version. It was slow, felt very dated and the characters were quite irritating. Do you think the print version would be any better?

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Snowdrops by A D Miller

I ordered this book from my library after seeing several people raving about it on the Booker forum. It had been described as a Russian thriller similar to Child 44, but apart from the fact they are both set in Russia I couldn’t see any similarities. Snowdrops has a strange writing style where things are written in Russian (and then translated into English in brackets). It had a very slow pace and nothing had happened when I gave up at about the 80 page mark. My problems with the book probably only indicate its suitability for the Booker. Perhaps I’ll re-read it when it makes the shortlist?

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

I know that a lot of people really loved this one and so I’m quite sad to be going against the grain. It started off well, but after a gripping first chapter I began to lose interest. I failed to warm to the characters and the plot didn’t do enough to grab my attention. I’m afraid this is another victim of my harsh new rejection policy.

Other books I dipped into, but failed to finish:

The Still Point by Amy Sackville

The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman

Tony and Susan by Austin M. Wright

Was I wrong to give up on any of these books?

Is there magic lurking in the final pages?

My New Year’s Resolution is to give up on books that aren’t outstanding. I don’t want to miss out on a gem that happens to have a poor beginning, so I hope that you can help me sort the wheat from the chaff.

Should I continue reading any of these books?

Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville

Five words from the blurb: Thames, Australia, memoir, writing, generations

I loved The Secret River and so was excited about reading this little book in which Kate Grenville explains the research that she did before writing that amazing piece of historical fiction.

Searching for the Secret River was easy to read and quite interesting, but I found that all the particularly interesting facts had been included in The Secret River and so I felt I was reading things I already knew. The process of research doesn’t really interest me – I much prefer to have all the detail coated in a fantastic plot and acted out by wonderful characters. I suspect that this book might to useful to anyone wanting to learn about researching historical fiction, but I am far more interested in reading the finished product. I gave up after about 70 pages.

And This is True by Emily Mackie

Five words from the blurb: van, father, kiss, unpredictable, love

This book is different! It begins with a son kissing his sleeping father. The sexual desire of a son for his father is something I haven’t read about before, but for some reason this book didn’t quite ring true. I never felt any emotional connection to the characters and although it was packed with graphic descriptions of naked men they didn’t feel realistic. Perhaps I’ve just read too many extreme examples of the male mind recently (eg. The Slap, A Life Apart), but this felt too gentle. My mind kept wandering from the page and so I gave up after around 100 pages.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Five words from the blurb: women, marriage, motherhood, shocking, elegant

I know a lot of people love this book, but I’m afraid that I have a lot of issues with it and thought I’d better stop reading it before it wound me up too much. The flowery language annoyed me straight away and the whinging women quickly drove me mad. I don’t know why I have such a problem reading about these privileged people, but I’m quite pleased that I now have the power to banish them from my reading life. If you enjoy books like The Victorian Chaise-longue or The Yellow Wallpaper then I know you’ll love The Awakening, but I struggled to get through 20 pages of it.

Was I wrong to give up on any of these books?

Is there magic lurking in the final pages?

My New Year’s Resolution is to give up on books that aren’t outstanding. I don’t want to miss out on a gem that happens to have a poor beginning, so I hope that you can help me sort the wheat from the chaff.

Should I continue reading any of these books?

South Riding by Winifred Holtby

I love BBC adaptations of books, but prefer to have read the book before I watch them on TV. When I discovered that South Riding would be the next book to receive the period drama makeover I decided to give it a try.

South Riding is a snapshot of an English community after the First World War. We see the relationships between the villagers and the little things they have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. It was easy to read and “charming”…… aaarrrgghhhh….. *runs away*.  I actually read about 250 pages of this book before deciding it wasn’t for me. I’m looking forward to watching the BBC adaptation, but I prefer my books to have a darker element and a stronger narrative drive.  

You’ll have to do a lot to convince me to read the last half of this one!

The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn

The News Where You Are is the first real casualty of my New Year’s Resolution. I suspect that if I’d have finished this book I’d have given it 3.5 stars. I loved What Was Lost and was hoping that this one would be even better, but unfortunately it didn’t deliver.

Catherine O’Flynn has a special talent for writing modern dialogue – she makes it seem so realistic. I loved the first few chapters of this book – the characters came alive on the page and were both amusing and insightful. We get to meet a regional new presenter and learn a bit about some of the seemingly mundane stories he broadcasts. Unfortunately the plot didn’t seem to go anywhere and I found it increasingly difficult to motivate myself to continue reading.  I gave up after about 100 pages.

Am I missing out on some amazing plot twists?

The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi

I started reading this book last Summer. I can’t remember anything being particularly wrong with it; all I know is that other books kept calling to me more loudly and so this one accidentally fell by the wayside. My book mark is only in page 27 so I didn’t give it much of a chance, but I’m not sure it is for me.

Should I start it again?

 

Was I wrong to give up on any of these books?

Is there magic lurking in the final pages?