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bad books, book reviews, caitlin kittredge, crap books, elizabeth kostova, hell gate, life, linda fairstein, pretty book covers, the archived, the historian, the thorn, Twilight, victoria schwab, writing
I don’t mean to offend anyone with this post but it was just too funny not to share! 😀
There are so many books we pick up, ravish with our eyes and then put it away satisfied. Those are the books we search for. The ones we want to read. Sadly, there are plenty of books I’ve put down. More than ones I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. Why?
Rather than going into an in depth discussion about what makes or breaks a book…there’s one book I want to share with you that I tried to love. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I bought it because it had a beautiful cover (yes, I caved and am a terrible person :P). The story was about “Dracula” or more specifically Vlad the Impaler. It sounded cool. I bought it years ago (I might have been 15 or 16?) and I still can’t finish it (4 years later). I wanted to. But I just can’t.
It’s 900 pages long. Its got an interesting premise but it is so terribly boring. The author spends so much time showing off how impressive her research was that the story dies. Where’s the climax? Where is the thrill? I don’t like when authors rush through scenes just to keep the reader “engaged” but I also dislike trudging through descriptions and history. Hoping, that at the other end of this swamp of ornate sentences there’s something exciting.
The story is about VAMPIRES. Why is there no action? Where is the blood? Bah! Such disappointment. Now the novel just sits on my bookshelf, waiting for the second-hand bookstore. I don’t know if I can manage to give them the colossal book of boredom.
Other novels I have put down recently include The Archived by Victoria Schwab (great concept, but it didn’t grab me in the first chapter), The Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge (fantastic first chapter, terribly amateur plot afterward, very YA oriented), and Hell Gate by Linda Fairstein (all too graphic with the trafficking story, made me feel sick). I wanted to like them. But I just couldn’t finish them. What about you? What novels have you put down recently?
– Ermisenda Alvarez
Ermilia 
I actually gave up on The Historian too. I listen to audiobooks at work and after two days I just couldn’t get into it. I used to feel really guilty about abandoning books or even just skimming them but I’ve realized that there just isn’t enough time to waste on books I don’t enjoy.
Agreed! I don’t have enough time to waste on bad books, and why would I want to? Thanks for sharing! I’m not the only person who disliked The Historian.
Never could finish “Great Expectations”, read first two chapters and the last. Awful book. “Harry Potter” was another I picked up to read, very nice boxed set bought for me by my hubby, couldn’t get past the first two chapters. Sad to say I found the style of writing just not to my taste. There are many others which I have started and put down as I’ve found either the style or content not to my taste. Roald Dahl, love the movies made from his stories just can’t read the books, I’ve tried many times.
Even though I loved “Gone With the Wind” in the main, I still haven’t finished the last chapter. Got bored lol.
Harry Potter is one of those series that you either love it or you just can’t get into it. No shame in that. There was a series I tried reading awhile ago by Orson Scott Card that I couldn’t get into. I think it was the Homecoming saga, but it felt like I was reading an old relgious text, it was really dry. Even with it’s sci-fi elements.
I love the Harry Potter series but I don’t know if I’d be able to reread the first few novels in my adult age. There are books for us at different stages and for different reasons. I hate boring books that sound “like an old religious text”. Thanks for sharing the books you had to put down, Lee-Anne and Devin. 🙂
Most recently I put down a graphic novel – A Midnight Opera. The art and the story were just so confusing. It jumped timelines so much in 20 pages (of a manga, might I add) that I just couldn’t follow. Before that, the most notable book I put down was Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It was so incredibly dry.
I find it funny you mention The Historian. I just bought it at a used book sale!
Uh-oh! Well, give the book a try. You might like it. After all, no book can please EVERYONE. Just…be warned. 😛 Jumping timelines? That sounds like it could get confusing, fast! Thanks for sharing with us. 😀
War And Peace. Been trying to finish that darn thing for 20+ years. I will finish it before I die. Best cure for insomnia ever. 3 pages of that and out like a light.
(Eliabeth replying) Oh my gosh yes, I started in 6th grade. I believe I’m 14 pages in. The “out like a light” book for me is 1001 Arabian Nights.
Whenever I look at that book, it gives me the heeby-geebees. I don’t think I should ever bother reading it, I don’t have it in me to read those kind of LONG old books. Thanks for sharing, Papizilla!
I have actually read ‘Great Expectations’ (loved it) and ‘War and Peace’ (loved the overall story, endured the book). A notable book that I picked up and put down was ‘Oryx and Crake’ by Margaret Atwood’; I was surprised to find it pretentious, having thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’.
I also put down Jeanette Winterson’s ‘Written on the Body’, not because it was unreadable, but because it has such a killer opening line, and I felt that it simply said everything: ‘Why is the measure of love loss?’
What a beautiful opening line. It’s inspiring… Thanks for sharing the books you just couldn’t read, Marie. 🙂
That is a killer opener line!
Life is too short to read ‘crappy’ books 🙂
Agreed! 😀
None recently. I’m very careful about what I read.
I made a discovery back when I was still cramming for (meaningless) exams… other people with less discretion will weed out the bad books for me… like waiting for a film to come out on Netflix. It’s been a long time since I read anything bad. 🙂
…in a book. Most of what I read on blogs is bad.
That’s also a smart choice. Being careful about what you read. That would definitely eliminate putting down books. But sometimes it’s exciting to find that beautiful gem that you had never heard of before, like The Unit for me. 😀 Thanks for sharing, Anne!
It’s a wonderful feeling to go out on a limb, and I did that regularly as a child just reading anything I could put my hands on. I once ran out of things that interested me and came across a book that had been kind of screaming at me to read it, but I couldn’t get myself to read it because I had heard nothing about it. Once I read it, it opened up a whole new world of books for me and it’s really when I got obssessed with Science Fiction Novels. That book was Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card; I had pretty much stuck to fantasy as a kid, and saw that it had good reviews but the cover looked a bit old and each time for about 6 months I went into my schools library picked it up and was like “I don’t think i’ll like it” and by the 500th time I looked at it I had nothing to read and needed more books to fill my time and decided to give it a go whether or not anyone had told me it was good or bad. It’s also not good to run on other people’s opinions. I almost missed some very good books because people told me they were bad or boring, but to each their own!
As much as I’d hate to say it,’The Ringworld Engineers’ was the first book I’ve put down in a long time which makes me sad. I loved the first installment in the series but the second wasn’t nearly as engaging.
A true pain it is when a sequel doesn’t deliver. Such a shame… That’s why I hope for the Blind Sight sequel that we make sure it’s as worthwhile (if not more!). Thanks for sharing with us, Kyllan!
That’s not something I think you two will have to worry about.
Fingers crossed! 😀
The highwayman’s footsteps by Nicola Morgan. I love her blog so I realllly wanted to love her books. I didn’t get the inter cultural reference to the poem but it ticked all the boxes is terms of what we are told books should have: a first chapter with high jeopardy (the guy is about the be shot), cliffhangers at every chapter, a strong setting. But it was lifeless and as much as I tried I never remotely cared about the characters. I gave up halfway through. I hated giving up but I just have too many other books to read.
It’s funny how sometimes a book can have everything right technically, but the life of the story/characters just isn’t being communicated. There needs to be that spark of life that no amount of editing can electrocute into a novel. I think that’s where the writers come most important. You have to channel the lives of these characters that live in your head to the best of your ability. If you can’t, the readers definitely won’t care. Thanks for sharing, Soizic, your recent experiences with books you had to put down. 🙂
I recently picked up The Holy Bullet, by Luis Miguel Rocha. It sounded very interesting and I love a good conspiracy. This however started out with too much detail and too many characters to keep track of. At least for me. I felt like I should have had a program to keep track. I might pick it up at a later date when I have more time, or maybe I’ll just bring it to work and leave it for someone else to trudge through.
Atlas Shrugged, too long even though I could kinda see it happening today. Throughout the years, I find that wasting my time on bad books takes every minute away from a good book. Too little time, too many bad books. For a great book read ‘Still Alice’
So true! I heard about ‘Still Alice’, I might have to go and check it out now. Thanks Judy for sharing your thoughts. 🙂
Pride and Prejudice. I finished it, but only just. It took WEEKS where normally I can finish a novel in a day or slightly more if I’m busy.
It made me sad, because I love the story and I loved the movie (only the Colin Firth version thankyouverymuch).
But good gods the book just put me to sleep!
I have yet to finish the Historian. I keep trying, lol. And also The Dragonbone Chair, which also makes me sad, cause I love me some high fantasy. *sigh*
It’s a shame when we are trying to love the book but we just can’t, isn’t it? Lol, I gave up trying to finish The Historian. There are too many other things I should be doing like doing assignments (…or procrastinating doing them). Thanks for sharing your thoughts, A Spoonful of Snarky! 🙂
I started Kalevala (in translation, sadly), thirty years ago, getting about 90% of the way through. I really must make the effort to see how it ends before I die.
There are so many books on my TBR list. I hope I read them all before I die. But I also have a whole list of movies, games, poetry…etc. 😛 We live in a world with so much information available. It’s fantastic but also overwhelming. Thanks for sharing, Raimo!