Just wondering…Have you ever gotten involved with a book like for instance
← this one and the book was good and everything but it weighed about 40 pounds and had over a thousand pages and it was taking you a long time to get through it because you are so tired after work every day that you can barely read at all and then also you sort of regretted even beginning the book because it is one that your reading partner is not reading along with you and so therefore you are lacking the discussion-factor you have become accustomed to and so as I said it’s not that the book is unpleasant or anything but it just seems it is going on and on world without end and it is taking you so long to read it that you sometimes wish you were on the verge of turning the last page but you look ahead and realize oh my GOD I am not even at all very close to turning that last page and stuff?
Just wondering….
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Okay, that kind of book situation is where I call it quits! Until I've got the gumption and interest to really sit down and read it leisurely. Tiredness and long, long books do not go well together (I fall asleep).
ReplyDeleteI have experienced similar heart-wrenching situations, cipriano.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should compare notes over a coffee on this dilemma.
Hurry up, will you?
Hearing you Jeane, as much as I love Follett, I am wondering if I will get through. Feels like there's tunnel at the end of the light.
ReplyDeleteClementine:
I think I would love nothing better than a [hopefully] hetero-coffee with you.
Umm, yeah, I experienced that recently with Atonement. I finally had to pick up something else. :-) There's definitely something about the discussion factor that can make a so-so book waaay better.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful run on sentence!
ReplyDeleteWhether a book is 40 lbs./1000 pages or 1 lb./200pages - if I love it, my only regret is that the end is eventually coming. If I don't love it, the "relationship" is over.
Yup. Clarissa. Nothing wrong with the book. Enjoying it very much. It's just soooo loooonnnngggg and I am so very tired. But I want to finish it, I don't want to give up on it. I just need to go away, me and the book, for a week or two without interruptions which is not going to happen anytime soon, if ever.
ReplyDeleteI've recently come to the frame of mind where if a book doesn't please me, I'm not going to waste my life. The last 3 (of 4) Rama books by Arthur C. Clarke (whose middle initial must be included by law) taught me this lesson. By the end of the fourth book, I wished I'd stopped after the first.
ReplyDeleteDon't let this happen to you. Just say no. Then go., and tell someone you love.
I'm having this promblem, oddly, with This Side of Paradise and the book isn't even 300 pages long. It's not that it is a terrible book or anything, but I just can't get into it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comments, all.
ReplyDeleteI feel I was a bit harsh with my comments re: Follett.
["tunnel at the end of the light" and all]. It is actually getting better as I go along.... it's a great book, really.
I just wish I had more time to read, that's my beef!
I tried reading it 10 years ago when it first came out. My mother gave it to me, to everyone, she loved it so much. I've always felt guilty that I couldn't finish it - I got barely past page 40 and I put it down. I hated it! uh oh, it WAS one of those books I abandoned! and it's haunted me ever since! no wonder I try not to abandon them!! She still raves about it, and now the sequel is out and she was asking if I read it the first time and I hemmed and hawed....so it looks like I'll be picking it up again soon....I'll let you know if I try to read it again.
ReplyDeleteby the way, I loved your description back in your Abandonment blog about the aerial view of Parliament Buildings! I work over the river in Hull (for the federal government) so I get the river view of the buildings every day. and....do you ever hear Alannis sing in her apartment? sorry, just had to ask!! My claim to fame is seeing Rita Chiarelli on the bus one day, and Kurt Stoodley in the market....he's shorter than he looks on CHRO! About 5'10, not the 6 feet he seems to be...