Have you ever read a must-read and thought, I don't get it?

[Samuel]

I just finished listening to an audiobook, which was a Nebula award winning classic--a book any self-respecting sci-fi or fantasy author should read lest he or she be considered an uneducated Cretin. When I finished Ringworld, I thought don't get it. Yes, it was creative and well written. As always, Larry Niven knows his stuff. But as far as the plot was concerned, not much happened. I didn't find the characters particularly interesting.

So, has that ever happened to you, or am I a Cretin?

Sam

[Carmen]

No, I read The Tiger's Wife, which the critics lauded and simply didn't get it. The setting was interesting, the writing was good, but there were too many blind alleys and extra stuff, enough to make me wonder if I would actually make it to the end. It could have been 20% shorter and much better.

It goes to show the power of the professional critics . . .

[Samuel]

It's good to know I'm not the only one.

[K.A.]

Sure, I've read a number of classics and felt that way. In the same genre as you are referring to, I read both The Hunger Games and A Song of Ice and Fire and could only manage a 'meh' for each of them. Good writing and all, but neither of them 'did it' for me, and I didn't continue with either series (I liked 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' WAY better, it's not that I don't like sci-fi/fantasy). I also usually really like Niven & Pournelle but I prefer the 'Magic Goes Away' books.

[S.R.]

All the time, I read books on the best seller list and those that are highly acclaimed, and often am left scratching my head, thinking WTF? And wondering if something is wrong with me that I don't like them, and the reverse is true, I often like books that others hated.

[Kayla]

I've actually joined the hype and read David Levithan's Every Day. I didn't get why everyone was raving about it since I thought that it was pretentious and mediocre. I was "meh" throughout the whole book. Nah, you're definitely not alone in feeling that way.

[Jay]

Samuel wrote: "I just finished listening to an audiobook, which was a Nebula award winning classic--a book any self-respecting sci-fi or fantasy author should read lest he or she be considered an uneducated Cret..."

My husband looked bemused after he'd recommended Ringworld to me and I gave up half way through. He said it really gets going in the later books, but why would I want to waste time with characters who I couldn't connect with? I really didn't care if they were all killed.

I can just imagine an agent's reaction if as an unknown author I submitted a MS and said, 'Don't worry, in book 2 the readers will get hooked.'

[Nicolas]

Yeah, I've had some of those. Case in point, I've been "reading" Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn for two years, and haven't gotten more than a hundred pages into the first book. It's supposed to be standout, but I just can't get through the slow opening and surplus of exposition.

[Wayland]

I've had this happen to me, too. One of my ongoing projects is working through the list from "1001 books you must read before you die" and several of them have been widely acclaimed as classics, and I've (barley) forced myself through them and thought "What was the deal with THAT?"

[K.A.]

Well, I never managed to make it through 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'.

[Candice]

Yes, I just picked up Brida by Paulo Coehlo. He is a highly regarded author on the NYT Bestseller list. I only made it one-third of the way through. The whole book seemed like telling not showing. It was also a strange allegorical form with personification of new age/alternative groups like Wicca. I am fine with Wicca, but the allegorical format just didn't do it for me. My husband also tried to read the book and had the same feelings I did. Neither of us got it.

[Jay]

Anyone tried reading Salman Rushdie? I've tried to get started on a couple of his and struggled. Perhaps I'm just too thick for the literary style, more Woman's Own than Blue Stocking.

[K.A.]

I've tried a couple of Coelhos, and never got into them either. They seem dispassionate and detached from the actual story. Never tried Rushdie.

[Mark]

Jay wrote: "Anyone tried reading Salman Rushdie? I've tried to get started on a couple of his and struggled. Perhaps I'm just too thick for the literary style, more Woman's Own than Blue Stocking."

Could not even finish Rushdie's autobiography much less his books.

[Jay]

I don't think I'd be interested in an autobiography unless I'd first been enthralled by the author's fiction.

[K.A.]

I dunno - there's an outside possibility my life has actually been more interesting than some of my fiction.

[Jay]

If I like the fiction I'd want to know more about how the author's mind works and the circumstances that led to the writing.
Maybe.
I've only read a few autobiographies, and whilst I enjoyed them it wouldn't be the first section of the library I visited.

[[deleted user]]

Swamplandia--I read the whole thing, but I wasn't bowled over as the critics were. I much prefer Jenni Fagan's THE PANOPTICON.

I see that I abandoned THE LUMINEERS. Guess I'd better try that one again since it won a Pulitzer (?)

[[deleted user]]

K.A. wrote: "I've tried a couple of Coelhos, and never got into them either. They seem dispassionate and detached from the actual story. Never tried Rushdie."

Yep. Not a Rushdie fan. Though I admire him, his stories just don't go anywhere I want to go with his characters.

[Candice]

I started Swamplandia this summer. Right on the first page, I was thrown off by "a leprosy of stars...". I pondered that for a day or so. What was she trying to say? Were the stars puckering up, shriveling and retracting into the sky? Finally, I decided she was thinking of leprosy as a type of chicken-pox. Sigh. This is where having a degree from a medical university clashes with literary aspirations. I still have my copy of the book and plan to go back at some point.

[[deleted user]]

Hi Candice,
Seriously, SWAMPLANDIA has so much weirdness in it. If you found "leprosy of stars" disconcerting, do not force yourself to read on. It doesn't get better--or not for me.

[[deleted user]]

Samuel wrote: "I just finished listening to an audiobook, which was a Nebula award winning classic--a book any self-respecting sci-fi or fantasy author should read lest he or she be considered an uneducated Cret..."

Reading tastes vary as much as color schemes. I like all shades of blue. My mom teased me all my life, "Oh, Eileen, you and your blue!"

So when we don't like a book, so be it. I have no interest in read any SHADE OF GRAY. Period.

I do like the Victorians. I think having taught many of the classics to high school kids helped me to love books I didn't like as much on first reading.

e

[J.C.]

I just read Breakfast at Tiffany's. I have to say...I'm not quite sure why this book is so popular. Is it the movie tie in because I think that Holly is much less 'adorable' in print.

[Sheela]

Jay wrote: "Anyone tried reading Salman Rushdie? I've tried to get started on a couple of his and struggled...."

Me too, although I like literary fiction and have family connections to India. Tried "Midnight's Children," but it daunted me early on.

Didn't get very far with "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace either.

I also don't appreciate Virginia Woolf as much as a lot of people do. I read "Orlando" and "To the Lighthouse," but found them hard to get through.

[K.A.]

Then there's James Joyce' 'Ulysses'...

[Melinda]

Several of the classics, when I was too young to appreciate them.

I remember reading The Old Man and the Sea in 7th grade and being like, "The fish got farther away. The fish got closer. The rope burned his hands. The fish got farther away. The fish got closer. The rope burned his hands. So what?" Later, when I was more mature, I read more Hemingway, and loved it. I think I'd better read The Old Man and the Sea again.

[Martyn]

I think there's a difference between taste, quality, and popularity.

Many current bestsellers I don't find interesting at all. In some cases (Hunger Games, Fifty Shades, Twilight) I read a few pages to see what the fuss was about. In some cases my inner editor refused to suspend disbelief, in other cases I was pulled out of the story because I'm stickler for verisimilitude and the author hadn't done their homework.

[Stan]

It's more like, "I got it, but who gives a...?"

[D.A.]

Oh yeah! I've read reviews with tons of four and five stars etc... purchased the book then, said, "What the?"