Constant Reader discussion
Constant Reader
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Slow Starters or no-starters
The very first one that comes to mind is Crooked Hearts by Robert Boswell, sadly, I think, out of print. I was non-committal for the first 50 pages, but kept going because I was off to a summer writing workshop that he was teaching. I wound up staying up all night finishing it. A thrilling experience.But I will say that it's pretty rare that I decide to discard a read. It might get back-burnered, but in general, I pick books that I'm pretty sure I'll want to finish. The exception is library books--there was some thriller a couple of months ago that was getting buzz, and I brought it home and knew in three pages that it would go back unread. It was the writing, but also the whole woman-in-jep thing.
Sometimes, a book is so bad that I actually speed-read it, so I can base my bad opinion on evidence. Shutter Island and We Need To Talk About Kevin come to mind. :)
I've won a couple FirstReads that start slow. My only incentive for finishing it is I feel I can't post an honest & fair review if I don't.As for library books, I'll give it a 50-page chance. If it doesn't grab me by then, I set it aside.
A few months ago, I read The Dogs Of Rome, which was a Wow! for the first 10 pages or so and then fizzled for a while. But in the end, it was a good police procedural and I look forward to the next book in the series. Also off to a slow start but a great book was In the Shadow of Gotham. I had backburnered it once, but the second time I tried it, I really liked it. And luckily Pintoff's second book was already available, so I whizzed through that one on my Kindle.
Lonesome Dove was a slow starter for me. I almost bailed, but was encouraged to go on by my mom (who loaned it to me and who has similar reading tastes) and it ended up being a favorite.Love it when that happens. Hate it when a book sizzles, then fizzles.
I put aside The Good Soldier, it didn't interest me for some reason. I also put aside Freedom. The Brothers Karamazov has totally captivated me. Figure that one out.
I think I bail on a lot of books that I shouldn't have started in the first place--I know from the start it's not my kind of thing, but I want to have read it because everyone's talking about it, or CR is reading it or my face-to-face book group is reading it, so I make an effort. Once in awhile it pays off--I think LOST CITY RADIO, by Daniel Alarcon, came into that category. But I'm not sure slow/fast is the terminology I'd use.I didn't like the opening to Allegra Goodman's INTUITION. She had a large cast of characters and getting them all introduced seemed awkward--I was still not impressed by p. 42, acc. to my notes. But once all the characters were established it picked up for me and I ended up raving about it.
Interesting to hear about everyone's experiences. Sometimes I think I am just not in the "mood" for a certain type of book so even though I send it back to the library I will eventually try it again. Lonesome Dove is one I have been meaning to read for years and plan to in 2011 so I will be warned.
One book I really couldn't get interested in, but I mean to try again someday is Special Topics in Calamity Physics. I hate to give up on a book that I bought. Books from the library or Booksfree I don't feel obligated to read if they don't interest me at that point in time.
Initially, I considered bailing on The Surrendered. The first section had me engrossed but then the author dropped that first character. I got bored with the info about the other characters and their flashbacks. I didn't really become invested in the story until about 40% through. I only stuck with it because CR was reading it and I wanted to participate in the discussion. In this case, I'm glad I did because I wound up liking the book very much.Sometimes I will persevere, not enjoy the book, but enjoy the opportunity to share my thoughts. However, there have been other CR selections that even the promise of group talk about it could not motivate me to finish. Hunger and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter come to mind. I think if the combination of lack of connection to the main character, disjointed timelines and uncompelling writing style can be enough for me to throw in the towel.
There was another book that comes to mind (which I prefer not to name) I just could not push myself to finish. In that book, the author related similar experiences again, and again, and again, and again. The author may not have learned from past lessons, but after the first couple of tales I got the point.
A book I did finish, but wish I didn't have to, involved one I read in the capacity as a judge. The author employed every trick possible to make it seem there was more content than there was, things like making a new chapter every couple of pages which left lots of blank paper where "chapters" ended with a sentence or two at the top of a page. Tricks to puff up a book insult my intelligence.
Sometimes I put aside an excellent book because I just can't give it the attention it deserves at that particular time. This happened to me with The Children's Book. I was over 100 pages in and loving it when I got selected as a juror for a two-week trial. So between spending all day at the courthouse and trying to work and take care of my family at night, I had to put it down. After the holidays when my world is a saner place, I will start it again.
I felt the same way about Special Topics, K.B. I will probably try again someday, primarily because I bought the darn thing in hardback. Now I feel obligated.I will persevere or try multiple times when others whose reading taste is similar and whom I trust really loved the book. Life of Pi, Confederacy of Dunces, and Corelli's Mandolin are three that others have loved--I tried them multiple times. I haven't given up completely, but they are still non-starters for me.
If I wore a hat, it would be off to you, Sarah. Two tries for the no-starter is my limit.
The funny thing about Special Topics is that it was an impulse buy for me. I liked the title and the cover. And when I mentioned it to a friend, she was the one who told me that there was a lot of buzz about the book. I was completely clueless.
K.B. and Sarah:I really enjoyed Special Topics in Calamity Physics. However, I think it has to grab you at the get go - if you weren't sucked in right away then I am not sure that is the right book for you.
Janet: I agree that sometimes I stick with something longer in anticipation of the discussion here.
I read Life of Pi for a reading group and really didn't like it. I felt like the only one in the room who missed the point somehow. I think I definitely would have pulled the plug on that one if not for the group. I think The Children's Book was the opposite experience for me. While parts of the beginning were tedious as she set the ground, I kept finding it getting more and more interesting. And it turned into probably my favorite book of the year.I also remember being put off when I started The Reluctant Fundamentalist but so glad I stuck with it. This is another example when reading for a group can pull me out of my comfort zone sometimes and I find enjoyable new reads.
Interesting about Intuition, that's on my long list to read.
Captain Correlli's Mandolin - a very slow start, but I ended it with a very enjoyable few hours crying on the lounge telling my children that I was actually okay but I just had to finish my book.
Ah, there's another: I started Confederacy of Dunces several times (I felt insulted by the beginning, which makes no sense, but there you go) before I finished it. I didn't find it as revelatory as many I knew did, but still, a worthwhile experience, definitely.Also, I've been recommending books to my brother for the last year and a half and have pretty much hit a home run with all of them until . . . Blindness, which he just isn't taken with. Shocking to me, because I was enthralled from the very first page.
So, the moral of the story is: you never know. :)
Sara, I only tried to read Confederacy of Dunces once, didn't like it (can't remember why) and never went back. So many people whose taste I respect loved it and I planned to try again, but there are so many books, etc.
Barb, there was a man involved when I finally finished it. :) It was his favorite book, but the fact that he missed the self-loathing, homophobe nature of some it gave me pause.No, it didn't work out. :)
K.B. said, "One book I really couldn't get interested in, but I mean to try again someday is Special Topics in Calamity Physics."I didn't finish this 500-plus book either. The first half was interesting and in parts very funny, but after awhile her writing began to wear on me and got rather old, as if she were trying too hard to be clever. It isn't a book I'll go back and finish.
Marge
Sara wrote: "Barb, there was a man involved when I finally finished it. :) It was his favorite book, but the fact that he missed the self-loathing, homophobe nature of some it gave me pause.No, it didn't wo..."
Ah yes, Sara, I definitely understand.
I put aside the following books:- Paradise Lost: I can't read poetry well, I guess.
- The 120 Days of Sodom: boring
- Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There: boring
- -Running with Scissors: boring
I tried to put aside but forced myself to read these till the end:
- On War (but this one get 4 stars at the end)
- Robinson Crusoe: 1 star
- Rob Roy: 1 star
The Day After Tomorrow: 1 star
and there are several others.
I think I can judge a book by its first two-three chapters. The ones that I forced myself to read till the end mostly turned out to be books that I dislike anyway. I used to be a book-masochist (kept on reading no matter what) but I don't have much time anymore. Better to spend my time reading the books I enjoy, life's too precious.
I never finished Cold Mountain, Eat, Pray, Love, and recently The Inheritance of Loss. I know there are more but those come to mind quickly. I just couldn't get into them inspite of hearing much good about them. I decided to move on to things I'd rather read and enjoy.
I finished Inheritance and will open the discussion , I will wait until then to express Slow or no start. Cold Mountain was so boring , I finally slogged through it but was drained when I finished. Right now The Good Soldier is a slow start and it has not picked up for me.
Great topic for a discussion! I have a pile of unfinished books waiting for me right now, and everytime I start my commute for work I seem to grab a new book. Pfff...I do find that some books are slow starters for me because the time wasn't right when I started them. Usually, I can grasp pretty well after a few pages if it will be worth it to try and reread it later. And later can be a lot later - on average 3 years. There are a few slow burners I've had on hiatus for years, that turned out to be pretty good or even favorites:
- Specimen Days (five stars!)
- Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
- Lord of the Rings
Susan wrote: "I never finished Cold Mountain, Eat, Pray, Love, and recently The Inheritance of Loss. I know there are more but those come to mind quickly. I just couldn't g..."My issue with EPL was that I disliked the Italian section, but stuck with it to find that the Indian one was more my thing. The final Indonesian part was a mixed bag.
Yes, I quit COLD MOUNTAIN after about ten pages. I knew I wasn't giving it a fair trial but I just could not make myself read it, even though it was for a book group.
Jantien wrote: "Great topic for a discussion! I have a pile of unfinished books waiting for me right now, and everytime I start my commute for work I seem to grab a new book. Pfff...I do find that some books ar..."
I had to read Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard for my non-western lit class and out of everything that we read that semester I hated that the most. I would never have finished it if I hadn't had a test on it. And even then I think I skipped some parts.
I tried reading Bedlam: A Novel of Love and Madness and I stopped. It seemed like it would be interesting but I just couldn't keep reading it.
Now I'm reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and I'm having a really hard time getting through it, despite everything I've heard.
I usually try and make myself finish books, but sometimes I just can't do it!
A recent book I could not finish was LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN by Colum McCann. I thought it was very boring and could not find any interest in the characters or his writing.Marge
A book this year that started slow for me and I put it down but picked up later to finish was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And it was worth it.
I used to finish all "slow starters," but now I don't. A book should grip the reader from the very first page, the very first sentence even, and if it doesn't, the writer is deficient in craft.I finished Cold Mountain, but I read it when it came out and that was when I'd finish any book.
I've tried to read A Plague of Doves several times, but it's just not working out for me.
I did plough through The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo even though that first part was terribly boring. I care about social causes, but I don't want them inserted in a suspense/thriller book. There was an excellent book in there, but the social causes muddied the waters.
I didn't even give Freedom a try because I don't care for the writing of Jonathan Franzen.
I didn't find The Surrendered slow or clumsy in any way, but as people here know, I did not like it at all.
Kat, I had the same problem with Cold Mountain and I attempted it twice. I also throughly disliked Edgar Sawtelle, but what can you expect of a story based on Hamlet?
I didn't like Edgar Sawtelle . Cold Mountain was a total disappointment. I was yelling at the character to get on with the journey and quite lolly gagging around. Maybe that was the response the author wanted.
Marjorie, I had to finish LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN because I was the one who proposed it to my book group, but I couldn't stand it. However, everyone else in my book group loved it, and of course it got raves, critically speaking. I prefer more in depth characterization. Years ago I used to read a lot of Iris Murdoch. While I was traveling in Europe I bought her NUNS AND SOLDIERS at a train station. It was a very slow starter--background, background, background, very little forward movement. I was terribly disappointed, as I'd found her other books engrossing and compelling. Just when I was about to give up--around page 100--the story finally took off, and I finished it happily and loved it. But if I were recommending just one Murdoch title to others it wouldn't be that one. (Try A FAIRLY HONORABLE DEFEAT.)
Jean wrote: "Kat, I had the same problem with Cold Mountain and I attempted it twice. I also throughly disliked Edgar Sawtelle, but what can you expect of a story based on Hamlet?"
You know, I had no idea that it was based on Hamlet.
I tried to read more of it yesterday and its just not happening. I think that I'm just going to put it down, maybe one day I'll come back to it.
I thought ES was a thoroughly silly book. I did, however, finish it for the discussion here.
Kitty wrote: "I didn't like Edgar Sawtelle . Cold Mountain was a total disappointment. I was yelling at the character to get on with the journey and quite lolly gagging around. Maybe that was the response the a..."I liked The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, but I think a lot of it could have been cut.
With Cold Mountain, it wasn't the slowness of Inman's journey, but the problems in craft again that really bothered me.
"Shall we tell pa?" Ruby said.
"I don't know," Ada said.
"You know what he'll do," Ruby said.
"I know," Ada said.
"Well," Ruby said.
"I just don't know," Ada said.
Cold Mountain was littered with dialogue like that.
See that was why I was yelling at the characters.
Kitty wrote: "See that was why I was yelling at the characters."The dialogue, at times, was maddening, Kitty. I thought the movie was better, but I wondered how Nicole Kidman's Ada kept her hair nice and bleached and curled during the Civil War.
Kitty wrote: "cinematic magic"I wish my hair would stay all colored and styled like that even when I'm so bad off I don't even have soap for a bath! LOL
Gabrielle wrote: "Kitty wrote: "I didn't like Edgar Sawtelle . Cold Mountain was a total disappointment. I was yelling at the character to get on with the journey and quite lolly gagging around. Maybe that was the ..."Your quotes are hilarious. Cold Mountain was a book that I just couldn't get into. I stopped after 1/3 into it and never went back to it. I disliked it so much that I didn't want to see the movie either.
MG wrote: "Gabrielle wrote: "Kitty wrote: "I didn't like Edgar Sawtelle . Cold Mountain was a total disappointment. I was yelling at the character to get on with the journey and quite lolly gagging around. M..."Oh, the whole book suffers from dialogue like that. And for some reason, Frazier felt the need to put "Ruby said" and "Ada said" after every bit of dialogue. He was addicted to dialogue tags. It was maddening. I will give him credit for understatement when writing about Inman's death. I had to read it twice to realize the man had died.
The cinematography in the movie was gorgeous and the dialogue was better than in the book, but I know people who still found the movie painfully slow.
After reading all your comments, I'm so glad I didn't read any further in Cold Mountain. I actually tried but found it impossible. It was on my bookcase for a while with my marker still in it. Then I finally gave it away to the library (without the marker).
This thread has made me consider everything on my "Currently Reading" shelf which is more of a "Books I Started Since Joining Goodreads" shelf.I decided they are all books I haven't given up on even though I haven't touched a couple of them(except to move) since 2008. I did throw the one that was a collection of previously published magazine articles into the bathroom so I probably will finish that one eventually.
I know that I have carried around books for years until, for whatever reason, the timing was right for them; but the only one I remember specifically was Ken Kesey's Sometimes A Great Notion.
Susan wrote: "After reading all your comments, I'm so glad I didn't read any further in Cold Mountain. I actually tried but found it impossible. It was on my bookcase for a while with my marker still in it. Then..."The funny thing is, the people who liked Cold Mountain are complaining because they say Frazier's second book is slow! If I recall correctly, he was paid close to fourteen million for it.
I am one who loved Cold Mountain; in fact, I read it a second time when the movie came out. (I thought NK's hair & dress -- always perfect, IIRC -- were ridiculous. What were they thinking? But otherwise a good movie.) One thing I loved was the author's use of 19th century terms for things. I thought the book gave a great sense of time and place. But maybe I just fall easily for works based on The Odyssey. (I loved the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, too.) I did not like Frazier's next book nearly as much. As I recall, I just didn't care for the story.
I liked Cold Mountain, too, Mary Ellen. It really placed me perfectly in the period. I even liked his second book, but not nearly as much.
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The issue is how/why decide to stick with a book that starts slow.
I'm interested in examples where this has paid off.
I have become someone who gives up on a book quickly if it does not grab me on some level early on. I don't mind if nothing happens right away - but the writing has to be great or excellent character development or something to pique my interest. Otherwise I toss it over for something else.