Slow Starters or no-starters

[Monica]

They often call the Civil War the War Between the States in VA. Never heard it called that very often up north. Southern food is lovely. Sorry to be off topic but that's what's on my mind!

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

They call it both in Ohio, Monica. Southern food is gooooood, but it is very fattening.

[K.B.]

One book that I shelved and will have to try again some day is Cloudsplitter. I thought the writing was amazing, and Banks did a great job getting into the minds of the characters. So much so, that I had to stop reading it because one character disgusted me so much.

[Cateline]

Monica wrote: "They often call the Civil War the War Between the States in VA. Never heard it called that very often up north. Southern food is lovely. Sorry to be off topic but that's what's on my mind!"

Then some down here call it the Northern War of Aggression..... :)

For some reason I found The Untouchable by John Banville to be a slow starter, in fact put it down the first time. About a year later I picked it up again and devoured it.

[Sue]

K.B. wrote: "One book that I shelved and will have to try again some day is Cloudsplitter. I thought the writing was amazing, and Banks did a great job getting into the minds of the characters. So ..."


Cloudsplitter has intrigued me for some time. I've never actually started it but did take it out of the library once. Never got a chance to start it before it was due. I have a feeling it's one I would need to find a cheap copy and own so I could "come and go".

[Monica]

The recipe I followed for creamed onions must have been Southern because it included a cup of heavy whipping cream. Not the way my mom made it, but lovely. I went to my first hunt "breakfast" the afternoon before Thanksgiving and had some creamed/whipped sweet potatoes that were like nothing I've ever tasted. The barn had a brick facade with columned portico, circular drive, gravel pathways and a fountain in front! I'm muddling through my books getting prepared for The History of Beauty but had not had heat since Nov. 25th until late last night. It did a real number on my psyche and I'm very grateful for Consumers Energy who found a gas leak where the plumber connected flex tubing to the main gas line for my new tankless water heater and got my gas fireplace operating so I had a spot with a little heat until the furnace was repaired.

[Alan]

Edgar Sawtelle. I read it, frankly, hoping for more about the dogs. Fortunately I got the book at sale for $1. Retelling of Shakespeare stories in novels hasn't ever thrilled me; seems like just a trick.

Cold Mountain. I liked it as Sherry said for the period, actually kept my first edition. I also liked the more recent Frazier book although it didn't seem to go anywhere.

Surrendered. I started and didn't finish. Keep looking at it on the shelf and wondering about another try. Will look at the comments by readers.

Dogs of Riga. I started this in hardcover, couldn't get into it. Later, after listening to White Lioness, I listened to an audio version and it was quite good.

Cloudsplitter. I find there are two copies on my shelf, neither read.

[Mary Ellen]

I wasn't much of a fan of The Dogs of Riga. I went through a short Wallander phase after seeing a couple of the Branagh versions on PBS (which I enjoyed). Dogs was my least favorite, but I liked the others well enough to have more of Wallander in my mental TBR pile.

[Al]

Mary Ellen:

I have not read any of the Wallander series but I really liked Italian Shoes: A Novel - you should check it out.

[Badly Drawn Girl]

I have a bit of a ritual when it comes to this topic. First of all, I don't buy a book until I've read a bit of it. So I am culling the herd from the beginning. I don't think a book has to grab me within the first X number of pages to be a great book, but I can judge an author's style in a page or two.

I pause around page 25 and evaluate the experience thus far. For some reason, that's the number I've latched on to. If I'm not sold by 25 pages, it gets harder to keep me interested. I have no qualms about putting it down and moving on. Life is too short to read books you don't like. Sometimes I know that I will never like it and I donate it to someone else. Other times I have a suspicion that it just doesn't fit my present mood or that it isn't the right time for me to read it. Those books go back on the shelf, with a book mark so I can pick up where I left off if I so choose. Usually I end up starting over from the beginning. The Stand by Stephen King is a book I must have started and stopped twenty different times. When I finally read it, it became my favorite SK book of all time.

So at that point... why do I sometimes continue on? It could be that I love the author and I feel obligated by that love to keep on reading. Example... The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood which I just finished. If it wasn't her name on the front cover, I would have tossed the book by page 25 but it was so I didn't. (And I'm glad I didn't although I didn't love the book.) Another reason is because I'm reading for a specific reason... like this book group. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai is a book I've started and stopped many times. I was thrilled when it came up on our reading list because that would motivate me to get past page 25. I'm almost finished and I really really enjoyed this book. Another example of that would be 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, the first book I read for Constant Reader. I would have NEVER finished it without the added incentive of a book club. Sometimes it's because of the reviews, either personal or perhaps it's an award winning book, or maybe a book I feel like I should have read in my past but didn't. An example of that would be Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser... which was slow going for awhile but I forced myself to stick with it.

Hands down one of the more trying books I've read, that I really had to force myself to stick with was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I was proud of myself for staying the course and thankfully I also ended up loving the book.

[John]

Re: Murakami

I really liked the two of his I've finished: After Dark and Dance, Dance, Dance (both audiobooks), but I couldn't stand Kafka on the Shore, giving up early on.

I'm more stubborn with books I've paid for than library or swap-acquired ones.

[Monica]

Beautiful post, Badly Drawn Girl. Your experience is probably a lot like lots of ours. It's like mine, though I get distracted, misplace the books and drift a bit, like I've been doing the last few months. Some reviews here are so satisfying I'm pleased and don't feel pressured to read the book, but, on the whole, there are way more books I find out about here to read than I'll ever have time for. Evelyn Wood speed reading techniques are good, but for me, I miss too much and enjoy reading every word if I like a book, so it takes me quite some time.

[Sue]

Yes Monica. Speed reading has nothing to do with enjoyment. I marvel at someone who ploughs through multiple books in very short time. As if it's some sort of life challenge. The only ones that move that quickly for me are mysteries or a thriller that I MUST know the ending.

[Sarah]

Susan, I'm one of those fast readers, but it's not for the challenge. I think I have read so much, for so long, that speed is the natural byproduct and I catch myself speeding when I don't mean to. I have to pay attention to my speed and slow down when I'm aware of racing...I like to savor the writing.

[Sue]

Sarah wrote: "Susan, I'm one of those fast readers, but it's not for the challenge. I think I have read so much, for so long, that speed is the natural byproduct and I catch myself speeding when I don't mean to..."

I know what you mean Sarah. I do read fast with some of my mysteries but I really try to read more slowly and carefully with other books that have more layers of meaning and where the language is such a major part of the work. You don't sound like one of the speedy types I'm thinking of, the type who are almost accumulating points with everything read.

[Ruth]

I'm a natural speedy one, too, Sarah. I can't help myself. When I was in college I sometimes used to try to slow myself down by reading aloud. Plowing through a trigonometry at 90 miles an hour is not productive.

[Sue]

Ah trigonometry. That one really lost me. I couldn't get through it fast or slow.

[Sarah]

Not that I've done much of it lately, but reading a book with CR helps me slow down. I know ahead of time that I want to take time to let the meaning sink into me, question character development and motivation, and remember key passages. All those things force me to take things more slowly. I don't know why I have been reluctant to read a CR selection lately--it's partly because none have been particularly compelling given my mood at the time of the reading, and partly because i have wanted complete freedom to pick what I want, when I want! I'm sure I'll be back in the ring at some point.

[Sue]

I'm going to read David Mitchell's book and Dr Zhivago. Of the other's, I'm going to decide when the time comes. There are so many other books I want to read and I would like to start some of them too. I'm picking and choosing. I have found that CR has led me to books that I might never have read so I'm going to continue with some of the list books (and some of the ones I voted for that didn't make the cut).

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

Jayne Anne Phillips' Lark and Termite is a beautifully written book, structurally sophisticated, and filled with symbolism, but the story has no tension. Much of it describes the baking of a cake. How many ways can one describe baking a cake and who really cares? I finished it, but I can see many, many people giving up on this one because it just goes no where.

[Sue]

Thanks for that info Gabrielle. I've read many reviews of Lark and Termite but something has kept me from reading it.

[Al]

I too have read positive reviews of Lark and Termite but have also not been persuaded to pick it up - now it is off my list for good.

[Sara]

Gabrielle,

That completely describes my experience of Jayne Anne Phillips' writing on the whole. Some years back she taught at a summer writing workshop I attended (I was in a different class) and on the last night she had a reading--a section of a novel, all (and I mean ALL)about breastfeeding. She said, "I'm going to read the shorter version" for which I'm still thankful. The longer version? We'd still be sitting there.

I'll never even attempt her work again.

[Sue]

Thank you for saving me (and possibly others) the experience.

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

You're welcome. Sara, that book was probably Motherkind. I thought it was awful.

[Sara]

Yep, that's the one. I'd blocked the title from my memory files.

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

I liked Lark and Termite better when it was called The Sound and the Fury, Sara and was written by Faulkner. ;)