I haven’t been finishing
books lately. I bring it home, and I
discover that I truly dislike something in the book. Perhaps the hero isn’t an ok person. The character may be a good cop or inspector,
but being beaten or whipped gives them pleasure. This doesn’t give me pleasure no matter how
many rave reviews adorn the jacket.
Perhaps a personal friend
recommended a book with glowing enthusiasm.
I shan’t ever tell her that the book bored me to death. There’s now a pile of boring books just
waiting to go back to the shop. That’s
the bottom line…if the book is unreadable, I will quietly move on to something
else. Even if I have found other books
in a series truly exciting and one lacking, I don’t want to be the one to tell
that author the book is unreadable. How
sad that it is.
Why authors write words that
are essentially doom, gloom, or confusion, I do not know. Perhaps they are becoming senile. The home stress has grown and the author
cannot write coherently any longer, or Alzheimer’s. One of my very favorite mystery writers faded
away and eventually died of that horrible disease. Depression has taken another.
We don’t have to read
books that don’t work with our brains.
Perhaps we are becoming senile ourselves. Maybe we have undiagnosed Alzheimer’s of our
own. Of course we are depressed as we struggle
to read all these unreadable books. It
would be nice to know the ending tho.
Boring books are another person's treasure I guess. LOL!
ReplyDeleteI used to read everything to the end but no more. It's ok not to spend time on books that aren't giving you what you want.
ReplyDeleteI don't read everything any more either. Life is too short to waste that much time. Book club books are different though since I lead the group and feel I must read the whole book. Most of the time I can get into the book eventually though, out of necessity.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are feeling so well.
ReplyDeleteBooks that don't read well--yeah, been there a few times. I usually scan the book before actually buying it, but sometimes I order used books from Powells after reading reviews or recommendations, and those books may disappoint. Or, I may find a new author whom I really like. Found that to be true with Kate Morton.
I hate it when a good author fades off the deep end and the books aren't readable anymore.
ReplyDeleteLooks like we more elderly folk are all in agreement about moving on if a book doesn't satisfy.
ReplyDeleteI just read a book that started out fascinating and then fell apart. Too bad. As you say, life is too short to spend it on bad reads. Reviews help, but they can also lead you astray.
ReplyDeleteI just took a book back after reading 3 pages. :/ There were so many typos and garbled sentences that it pained me to continue reading it. I almost wanted to write the author and ask if she meant to write it in that 'style'. Part of me wanted to offer to proofread it for her, but it was over 300 pages!
ReplyDeleteArt would laugh at me because if a book was getting too boring I would read the end and let it go.
ReplyDeleteI can drop a book if it does not interest, excite or feed me. I am too old to read junk. I do think books with tons of characters are a real challenge for this old brain and therefore I am now struggling with "An Officer and a Spy" but it is a little easier than most.
ReplyDelete