The Next Best Book Club discussion
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Spinoff of "When to stop" thread..
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I have found that some things I read for school in junior/senior high (MacBeth, A Separate Peace, Of Mice & Men) that didn't grab me then have become favorites as an adult. I think the forced due dates (read 5 chapters by Tuesday), and the over-analyzation (on page 42, what do you think the author meant by the phrase, "how are you?") pushed me over the edge.
I can't think of any right now, however that could be because I've only put down 3 books in the whole of my reading life... 2 of them I will never piCk up again, but the other one is still on my shelf, and I will return to it one day... just that there's too many other good books to pick up first!
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hee hee
I read She's Come Undone in the early 90's, long before Oprah ever heard of it. I was in college at the time and had read a review that called Dolores "fat, funny, and fierce" so I was expecting a MUCH different book than what I got. I hated it the first time, hated it (and I know there are a lot of you here who still hate it!) After it became and Oprah book all my friends were talking about it and I was all "yeah, yeah, read it already, hated it." One friend in particular couldn't get over the fact that I hated it and kept pushing me to read it again so I did and I really liked it.I think time of life has a lot to do with it but also expectation. Sometimes a book has been so hyped up that I go into it with such high expectations and then I feel really let down. Sometimes it's better when you go into a book blind.
I read "She's Come Undone" and I didn't care for it either.Oprah thrives on sad, depressioning, victim type books. So not into Oprah books anymore.
Joanie, I totally agree with you about the expectation aspect. That is one reason why I try to steer clear of reviews/comments on books until after I've read the book, so as not to be influenced in one direction over another.
I first picked up Jane Eyre when I was 12 and couldn't get past the first chapter. I don't even know what provoked me to read it in the first place but I remember being bummed out that I couldn't get into it because it was a classic. Well good old Jane Eyre was required reading for my senior year AP English class in high school and I loved it then.
Usually when I stop reading a book it takes awhile before I will try again.Usually at least a year or two.But i think alot of books i found to hard years ago now that i'm older i may enjoy.I never liked Historical fiction much because i hated History in school.I picked up the Historian and really enjoyed it.Since then i have wanted to go back and read some other stuff but have been to distracted by my series books are really good comtemperary fiction.When i'm older and the kids are out of the house I will go back and read some good long books.
There are a few books that I have put down that I would eventually like to pick up and give a second chance. I think it was definitely not the right time to read them, for one reason or another (or at least that's what I'm hoping). It's also the reason that I'm trying to reconnect with the classics and include them more in my selections. I hated that I was forced to read them in school (although I did enjoy some of them). Like April says, the force of so many chapters by a certain date just didn't work for me.
Good question, Rose Ann.I am actually the Queen of abandoning books and coming back to them at a later date. I have done this quite a few times.
I did this with Atonement. I hated it the first time I picked it up and shelved it after about 2/3 chapters. About a year later something made me pick it up again and I loved it. I have done this with classics and chick-lit alike.
I'm not sure why, sometimes I can read a few chapters and just don't want to go on, but yet something draws me back to it later.
I think maybe I'm just easily bored which is why I have a fear of massive long books as I worry about not being able to get through it incase something else catches my eye half way through (mind you I did read The Count of Monte Cristo earlier this year and loved it).
With my favorite author, John Irving, there are 3 books that I had to start over again after getting stuck and not getting back to them soon enough and I loved all 3 books.
I wonder how much our own life experience comes into play when we like a book later in life.
I wonder how much our own life experience comes into play when we like a book later in life.
I enjoyed She's Come Undone. I didn't know what to expect. I knew that I liked that song. It was good. Rather depressing at times but well writtn.
I have done it with quite a few One of which I already mentioned being The Lies of Locke Lamora which I just finished a few days ago,another being A Darkness more than Night By Michael Connelly. And 1 other by Greg Iles but I can not think of the name right now.
I tried The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe four times. I never did like it. I stopped in the same place all four times. I tried to like it; I just couldn't.
I can not like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel , I have trie it like 5 times and just can't do it.
Scott, I could not get into it either. I forced myself through it but was so relieved when it was finally over. The story just never went anywhere.
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Yeah, that's the one. Two magicians with opposite styles and a huge rivalry...blah blah blah...evil faerie king...blah blah blah...Byron plays a cameo near the end. That's about it.
I thought She's Come Undone was really depressing, and yes, Oprah does like her DRAMA.I enjoyed all the books assigned in school, that is, I enjoyed them before we dissected them into little pieces in class and put them under magnifying glass. Then the books became something other than what I enjoyed, and well, to this day I can't bring myself to re-read any of 'em!
I still shudder when I recall reading Silas Marner in 10th grade. First we read it (bad) - then we dissected it (worse) - finally we DIAGRAMMED SENTENCES from it (the worst!).I am still afraid of George Eliot. Adam Bede is sitting on my tbr pile, taunting me.
Susanna, that sounds frightening. That sounds like a sure-fire way to kill any possibility of enjoying literature. So very very wrong.
Diagramming sentences? That's strange. But, I just had to say that kids nowadays don't even know what diagramming entails. My husband & I made our kids aware of that structuring a few years ago. LOL.
I will say that when I transferred schools in my senior year in high school, I was the ONLY student in my entire class who knew how to diagram a sentence - as I was the only one who had ever been taught the said black art. That year our AP English teacher got annoyed and gave us a diagramming assignment. I completed it; the rest of the class looked really, really puzzled at the basic concept!I don't think I've used the "talent" since then, though!
And like I said, I've never gone near George Eliot again, after that perfectly dreadful experience in tenth grade.
Ken, I'd be interested. I've never read any George Eliot and would be very interested in giving her a try (I have a soft spot for women named George). I'm pretty sure I don't own a copy yet so it'll have to wait until I can swing by the 2nd hand store on Friday, but you could definitely count me in.
I was supposed to read Middlemarch for a literature class in college but I had a hard time keeping up with the reading. It is on my shelf now just waiting to be read. She must have written it in installments because that was the basis of the class. Is anyone else aware of how some books used to be written and published in installments and that was such a huge form of entertainment for families?
Yes, many of the great (and that goes for reputation and physical size) Victorian novels were first published as serials, both in periodicals and as stand-alone published installments. Dickens, Eliot, and Thackeray, among others, had their novels first published this way.Great topic, btw, Rose Ann. It's interesting to me as I am in the process of this very topic at the moment. I made it halfway through Anna Karenina a couple years ago and stopped for whatever reason and have started over again in the last couple weeks. Middlemarch is another one I've started/stopped but want to revisit in the future.
I would love to join in a reading of Silas with y'all. I read some of Middlemarch (more than half) but gave up on it because I just didn't care. I will revisit it again though. My friend said I should read Silas though. Let me know when y'all are ready.
I'll read Silas - it's on my list, and I have a copy already. Let me know when the group begins!
Didn't see this Silas Marner discussion until right now, but funnily enough, I placed an order for it on Amazon over an hour ago. It must be fate! :-)
OK, OK, I won't make y'all diagram sentences from it!
For me I think it was The Catcher In the Rye, I hated it the first time I read it in ninth grade. Couldnt get into it, couldnt understand it. Then senior year it was required reading in my literature class and I love it some much. Holden resonates with me on certain levels which I know is a bit cliche but ehh. Tis true.
Sometimes I wonder if I dont enjoy a book, because it wasnt the right genre for me at that time. or didnt fit my mood. For example, maybe too many things on my mind, stress, pre-occupied....
What do you think? Does that make sense? LOL