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July 23
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New comment on amelia's review of
The Pillars of the Earth
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Jim
read and liked
amelia's
review of The Pillars of the Earth:
"This is seriously one of the worst books I've ever read. The only reason I finished the book is because I cannot put a book down once I start.
The writing is terrible. The plotting may be dramatic, but I had almost zero interest in any of the char...more
This is seriously one of the worst books I've ever read. The only reason I finished the book is because I cannot put a book down once I start.
The writing is terrible. The plotting may be dramatic, but I had almost zero interest in any of the characters; they seem to exist merely for events to happen to them, like actors in a disaster movie. Beyond that there seemed to be three characters in the book: Bad guy, good guy, and good victimized-yet-able-to -overcome girl.
What got me most was: Ken Follett seemed so proud of his historical research that he mentions every 40 pages, "_____ took out his/her eating knife" Really, they didn't have forks, how is constantly reminding the audience of this fact important to the story? There were other oft repeated throughout the novel as well. This seemed like an attempt to fool the audience into thinking they're immersed in the middle ages, when the rest of the book could have taken place anywhere in time. One fact does not a novel make (unless it's a really clever fact.) The bad characters keeping the amazing building from completion felt like a fountainhead rip-off, but that might just be me.
On the positive (?) side the book is an extremely easy read, I might have enjoyed it more were I laying in the sun half drunk on something sweet and rum-filled. Violent sex too if that sort of thing titillates you.
Thank you "Wait Wait" for warning me of Oprah's evil plan, if I can save one person from reading this book my work will done....less
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Jim
read and liked
Patricia's
review of The Pillars of the Earth:
"Hmmm... a family relation lent me this book. I was mostly interested in what kind of books my particular relation was into. I think you can learn a lot about a person by reading their favorite books. I am actually a little disturbed. Yes you may call...more
Hmmm... a family relation lent me this book. I was mostly interested in what kind of books my particular relation was into. I think you can learn a lot about a person by reading their favorite books. I am actually a little disturbed. Yes you may call me a prude, but there was sex in it. I know what your thinking... thats not a shocker. But its not just sex... it is violent sex. It has several graphic rape scenes. And I have to admit violence to women frightens me.
I don't need that graphic of an image of midevil history. I am sure events like that happened but I don't enjoy reading about them. And I was suprosed how frequently the topic came up within the book.
That being said, the plot was great but the antagonist got boring in the last third of the book. I liked the plot except for the antagonist waring on my patience. I do like complex plots such as this one... however the plot became fairly predictable at about page 600. The bad guy comes in terrorizes the good people and frustrates the building of the cathedral. then the good people rebuild and make a little progress. Then the bad guy comes again and the cycle continues. I think authors should quit while they are ahead. I love a thick book... however it should only be 1000 pages if you can be creative the whole time.
The setting provided and eye opening experience. It took a minute to get used to the midevil setting, but it I found it intriguing. I also liked how the book covered decades of time... I haven't read many books that do that. Well this is what I think. Sorry about the spelling errors. ...less
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Jim
gave
 
to:
The Pillars of the Earth (Paperback)
by Ken Follett
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
Jim said:
"Here we have 900-something pages of Days of Our Lives set in 10th Century England. This is the kind of book I will never understand. Here the author put so much effort into researching and writing such a major work...but to what end?
Pillars t...more
Here we have 900-something pages of Days of Our Lives set in 10th Century England. This is the kind of book I will never understand. Here the author put so much effort into researching and writing such a major work...but to what end?
Pillars tells the story of a cathedral, its history, construction and the people that surround the building. This is a soap opera of the highest degree. Rape, murder, political intrigue,starvation, adoption, sex in the forest, women dying in childbirth, evil men getting fat...good lord. You know you're in trouble when, in the opening pages, a woman dies in childbirth in the forest, during winter, leaving her two children and the father alone and then some golden-eyed hottie appears out of the forest and fucks the grieving father sensless for days on end while the baby is rescued from atop its mother's grave by a priest...no, seriously. Its in the book.
Follett is not a great writer. He is prolific and that is impressive but he ahs no style. His writing is simplistic and boring. While the overall story is a fascinating one, the way it is told is infuriating. It quickly becomes trite and repetative. Evil William who gets a "stirring in his loins" every time he thinks of raping a woman and bad boy Bishop Bigod try again and again to take down plucky Prior Philip and the family of Tom Builder and stop the cathedral from being built. They always fail.
Follett could have told the whole story in 300 pages, had someone else write it and then it might have been a decent book. To give him credit, his architectural research was very well done. The parts that describe how cathedrals were built and why is very educational. Sadly, they were few and far between.
Again, I wonder about these books. Why write something like this? I'll never understand.
...less
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June 26
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Jim
read and liked
Cindy's
review of The Other Boleyn Girl:
"I love anything that has to do with English History and really am kinda facinated by Henry the 8th. After reading so many good things on here and elsewhere about this book I was looking forward to it.
At about 100 pages into it I thought I really...more
I love anything that has to do with English History and really am kinda facinated by Henry the 8th. After reading so many good things on here and elsewhere about this book I was looking forward to it.
At about 100 pages into it I thought I really was enjoying it. Too bad the book didn't end at page 200. Because I hated this book with a passion. I don't even know where to start with it.
First you have the writing style which is written by Mary Boylen's POV. Which is fine. But every character in this book is one sided. Mary hasn't a brain for herself, Henry is a lustfilled king (that may be true), the Queen is soooooo smart but doesn't know what is going on. And Anne Boleyn is this hateful person that makes the reader want to kill her before she even is sent to the axe. There was also the same use of phrases over and over again. "You're just the other Bolyn Girl, we don't like you"...."I am Queen", "You are a whore" it's almost like the author has a limited vocabulary and wanted us to know it.
Second thing I hated was that there wasn't one ounce of family love, or loyalty about anyone. I know there is the family games going on in England, but not one guy thought about his daughter as anything more then a piece of old meat. That really really bothered me.
Third, this book had more details about sex then porn. I really wanted to hope the movie would be good and people have complained the movie is nothing like the book, which is obvious because if it was like the book it would be in the XXX section of the video stores.
Fourth, There were parts that focused on things that didn't matter. 5 pages about a tennis tournament that made you say "Why do I care about this". It's like the author had a goal page amount and she was going to go above and beyond it.
Lastly, the topic of Homosexuality and incest. Yes this is a theory out there about Anne but did the WHOLE book have to focus on it. Anne's brother was this neck kissing, french kissing sister lover the whole entire book. Anne was this girl that was always hot for her brother regardless of anything. Great way to branch out there!
Overall I hated this book. ...less
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Jim
read and liked
Sally's
review of The Other Boleyn Girl:
"I picked this one up at work because I want to see the movie (hello, Scarlett Johansen and Natalie Portman? Yes please), and because I know I'll have thousands of people asking me about it, like with Atonement, which I never read. In short, this book...more
I picked this one up at work because I want to see the movie (hello, Scarlett Johansen and Natalie Portman? Yes please), and because I know I'll have thousands of people asking me about it, like with Atonement, which I never read. In short, this book sucks. It's the worst kind of historical fiction - light on the history, and not fun or well written to make up for it. The characters are one dimensional, the writing is trite and full of cliches. Complete trash, but I'm not putting it on my enjoyable trash shelf, because it's not particularly enjoyable.
The worst thing about this book was how blatantly obvious it was that Gregory hates Anne Boleyn. Mary may have been the narrator, but Anne was without doubt the main character, and it is impossible to enjoy a book where the author goes all out to make you hate the main character. Especially a badly written main character. Anyone who has done any literary criticism, or any writing, will know that good characterisation involves showing, not telling. We're told how charming and witty Anne is to the King, but we're shown her being a bitch and arguing with Mary. Anne would have been a much more effective character if she'd been written like her brother George (the only likeable character in the whole book), who IS charming and witty, will stab you in the back if it suits him, but then admit to it with a disarming honesty. If she'd been charming but manipulative to everyone, including Mary, her seduction of the King would have been much more plausible, but as it was I just couldn't see it.
Then there's the way Gregory manipulates historical fact in order to make Anne seem worse. Anne was clever, and well educated, all we got from that was that she spoke French and read a lot, but in reality her education and ability to discuss politics and serious issues with Henry was a significant attraction. And there was the love affair with Henry Percy. Anne admits to her sworn enemy that she has slept with her betrothed, and he says, no you didn't because it isn't politically convenient for you to marry him and later doesn't tell the king even when he's in a precarious political position because of Anne. WTF plothole??
Next we have the incest and the witchcraft, both of which Gregory paints as true. No, seriously. As far as incest goes, well, who the hell would sleep with their own brother? Apart from the fact that it's generally acknowledged that it was just a means of getting rid of them. As for witchcraft, well she was a devout Christian, and again, it's generally thought to be a convenient pretext.
The whole enmity between sisters thing is a creation, which would be fair enough, poetic license, dramatic tension, etc etc. Except Mary hates Anne, and yet she's always doing what she's told, helping Anne out, blah blah. She'll occasionally say that of course she loves her she's her sister, but we're told far more often and with far more vehemence how much she hates her, and all we're shown is the fights and the vindictiveness. Again, this is mostly because Gregory hates Anne. She seems to like Mary, although if the real Mary was anything like the characterisation then I can't see why. Gregory's Mary is insipid, whiny and spineless, and pretty much irritates the hell out of me. And then we get the whole "wanting to marry for love and not power as a feminist statement" thing that Gregory does with Mary, while we are told Anne, who had power and intelligence in her own right, is a spineless pawn in a man's game of politics. She couldn't possibly have been regent of England without her uncle's help, we are told. This of the woman who split the church, dethroned a queen, and was mother to Queen Elizabeth.
In the Author's note Gregory cites Retha Warnicke's The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn as one of her main sources, which according to Wikipedia (I know, Wikipedia, but still), is generally considered to be unsubstantiated which explains some of this. She also expresses admiration for Queen Elizabeth I, which I found rather ironic considering she is Anne's daughter and Anne and Elizabeth seem to me to have been very similar in character as well as ability. ...less
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Jim
read and liked
Nina's
review of The Other Boleyn Girl:
"blaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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New comment on Nina's review of
The Other Boleyn Girl
(see all 4 comments)
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June 24
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Jim
marked as to-read:
The Yellow Admiral (Book 18)
by Patrick O'Brian
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Jim
marked as to-read:
The Truelove (Book 15)
by Patrick O'Brian
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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When I grow up I want to be a WRITER!
— 146 members
— last activity 1 day ago, 03:36AM
Uh.Ya. "shut up and leave me alone" is not a valid response. Sheesh. What a weird 'discussion' that was!
Wow, didn't want to comment back on that girl's Anne Frank thread...she was a little grumpy and illiterate.
