The Books, You Have Defeated Me.
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Okay, I had posted earlier about books that have defeated me. By that, I mean that they had a great premise and had piqued my interest. But for some reason, I just... couldn't finish it. Something about it weighed me down to the point to where I just had to put it down.
The defeat part? Well, you keep trying to finish it, namely because you still want to finish it. So you try...
... and try ...
... and try ...
... and eventually, you just have to give up on it.
I've recently come across several books that have been like this. These are the two books that have defeated me, and I either truly gave up on it, or I downloaded the audio book in the hopes that someone reading it to me would help.
So let's start, shall we?
First up? The über-boring Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. Great time period, great real-life murder mystery (well, not so much mystery, since we know who the murderer is from the onset), and a great attention to detail. TOO great of an attention, however. Larson goes on and on and on about things like architecture, political environments, who married whom, etc.. All the stuff that you'd like to know, and then 10 tons more of it, until you suffocate on the detail.
Worse yet, when I grabbed the audio book, I bought the abridged version, and I still wanted to hit FF button several times.
And when you have a story that you know is about a serial killer, do you really need almost every section to end with something foreboding? Does Larson think we forgot that this was about a cold-blooded murderer?
And the ending? I realize that the ending is, well... the ending, as it happened, and maybe it's just me wanting the Hollywood climax -- chases, threats, kidnapping... something... anything. And it simply didn't happen in reality, but still, I don't see how anyone can find that ending satisfying, let alone the millions who apparently have.
Larson has two other real-life type books out.
I'll pass, thank you very much.
The other book (series, really) is considered by most a classic. I read some of Orson Scott Card's ENDER series and while reading Ender's Shadow, he mentions Isaac Asimov-specifically, the Foundation Series. He went on and on about Asimov's Hemingway-like writing style, which made me wonder how one could build a rich world without a lot of flashy adjectives or adverbial phrases. So I considered it homework.
I trudged through Foundation at a snail's pace... What I did find cool was the amount of detail in the little sections. I mean, he spans several centuries, several galactic sectors, several people, all in the course of 240 pages (paperback edition).
The bad thing (aside from the glaring plot hole of the premise) is that you're basically told everything via dialogue. I mean, really. Something happens on some planet? Some dude is telling another dude. Some revolution is taking place in some sector of the galaxy? Some dude is telling someone about it. Some planet attacks another? Well, you get the idea.
In the world of 'show vs tell', Asimov must have thought, well... since it's dialog, that's kinda showing, innit?
No, it's not. So you're left with the long-ass passages of explanatory dialog, and all you want is to SEE THE FUCKIN' FIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!
Now, before you say "but Gabe, the science that pushed the story forward...", I completely understand that the premise of the story was that it was about mob rule and how the world... and the galaxy... and the solar system... all of their fates are tied to mass-populace, so little things like a single battle or even a single revolution didn't matter. The only thing that did matter was that it happened.
That's all well and good. But come on. Throw me a bone!
And reading the dialog for these little 'reveals' is like reading a Gary Stu in fanfic.
Someone goes and gets arrested, and while being interrogated, there a Big Reveal about how they already knew what was going on and was able to set things in motion to counter it or something. And then we're told -- not shown -- that exactly what they told us would happen, happened. This happens over and over and over again.
By the time I checked out the sequel, Foundation and Empire, I had little patience for that style. Oh, and his crisp clear writing style apparently was thrown out the window for the sequel. Oh, Maybe-Spoiler-Prediction for F&E ending. Click to jump to the next section and bypass the maybe-spoiler.
AND THE CLOWN IS THE FUCKIN' MUTANT! And I hadn't even finished the book.
So you can chalk up Asimov's Foundation and Empire as another book that has defeated me.
The final book was something that had interested me to no end. Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel by Michio Kaku. It's non-fiction, but it's the greatest subject matter in the world! Basically, the physicist lecturer takes on super-powers, laser beams, psychic phenomenon, light sabers, and other comic-book/sci-fi concepts and says, "hey, if something like this could be made, this is probably how it would/could be done...".
Now, one would think that the lecturer would be either a sci-fi geek or comic nerd at heart, and would probably give great lectures, right?
Yeah, you'd be wrong.
This is a physics lesson, only without number crunching.
It's dry... and boring... and long...
It was another book that I kept putting down and then picking back up... then putting it back down...
I finally downloaded the audio book, much like I had done with Larson's monstrosity, only to be doubly bored out of my fuckin' skull. Seriously. I've had the download for about two weeks-and it's not very long, either-and I still haven't finished it.
There are other such similar books like Kaku's. Physics of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Physics of Superheroes, Physics of Super Villains, Science of Dr. Who. But I've been turned off by Kaku's dry-as-burnt-toast delivery and doubt I'll pick up those titles any time soon. Pity, too.
So... those are the three books that I've been defeated by recently.
I know some of you have already answered the question already, but for those who haven't, do you have any such books that have defeated you in a similar fashion?
Addendum: Oh, speaking of downloading books. I've downloaded Cassandra Claire's City of Bones audio-book for shits and giggles. I never read anything but a few paragraphs whilst in bookstores, but I never bought the book. I just recog'd the name from H/D fanfiction. Will report.
Okay, I had posted earlier about books that have defeated me. By that, I mean that they had a great premise and had piqued my interest. But for some reason, I just... couldn't finish it. Something about it weighed me down to the point to where I just had to put it down.
The defeat part? Well, you keep trying to finish it, namely because you still want to finish it. So you try...
... and try ...
... and try ...
... and eventually, you just have to give up on it.
I've recently come across several books that have been like this. These are the two books that have defeated me, and I either truly gave up on it, or I downloaded the audio book in the hopes that someone reading it to me would help.
So let's start, shall we?
First up? The über-boring Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. Great time period, great real-life murder mystery (well, not so much mystery, since we know who the murderer is from the onset), and a great attention to detail. TOO great of an attention, however. Larson goes on and on and on about things like architecture, political environments, who married whom, etc.. All the stuff that you'd like to know, and then 10 tons more of it, until you suffocate on the detail.
Worse yet, when I grabbed the audio book, I bought the abridged version, and I still wanted to hit FF button several times.
And when you have a story that you know is about a serial killer, do you really need almost every section to end with something foreboding? Does Larson think we forgot that this was about a cold-blooded murderer?
And the ending? I realize that the ending is, well... the ending, as it happened, and maybe it's just me wanting the Hollywood climax -- chases, threats, kidnapping... something... anything. And it simply didn't happen in reality, but still, I don't see how anyone can find that ending satisfying, let alone the millions who apparently have.
Larson has two other real-life type books out.
I'll pass, thank you very much.
The other book (series, really) is considered by most a classic. I read some of Orson Scott Card's ENDER series and while reading Ender's Shadow, he mentions Isaac Asimov-specifically, the Foundation Series. He went on and on about Asimov's Hemingway-like writing style, which made me wonder how one could build a rich world without a lot of flashy adjectives or adverbial phrases. So I considered it homework.
I trudged through Foundation at a snail's pace... What I did find cool was the amount of detail in the little sections. I mean, he spans several centuries, several galactic sectors, several people, all in the course of 240 pages (paperback edition).
The bad thing (aside from the glaring plot hole of the premise) is that you're basically told everything via dialogue. I mean, really. Something happens on some planet? Some dude is telling another dude. Some revolution is taking place in some sector of the galaxy? Some dude is telling someone about it. Some planet attacks another? Well, you get the idea.
In the world of 'show vs tell', Asimov must have thought, well... since it's dialog, that's kinda showing, innit?
No, it's not. So you're left with the long-ass passages of explanatory dialog, and all you want is to SEE THE FUCKIN' FIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!
Now, before you say "but Gabe, the science that pushed the story forward...", I completely understand that the premise of the story was that it was about mob rule and how the world... and the galaxy... and the solar system... all of their fates are tied to mass-populace, so little things like a single battle or even a single revolution didn't matter. The only thing that did matter was that it happened.
That's all well and good. But come on. Throw me a bone!
And reading the dialog for these little 'reveals' is like reading a Gary Stu in fanfic.
Someone goes and gets arrested, and while being interrogated, there a Big Reveal about how they already knew what was going on and was able to set things in motion to counter it or something. And then we're told -- not shown -- that exactly what they told us would happen, happened. This happens over and over and over again.
By the time I checked out the sequel, Foundation and Empire, I had little patience for that style. Oh, and his crisp clear writing style apparently was thrown out the window for the sequel. Oh, Maybe-Spoiler-Prediction for F&E ending. Click to jump to the next section and bypass the maybe-spoiler.
AND THE CLOWN IS THE FUCKIN' MUTANT! And I hadn't even finished the book.
So you can chalk up Asimov's Foundation and Empire as another book that has defeated me.
The final book was something that had interested me to no end. Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel by Michio Kaku. It's non-fiction, but it's the greatest subject matter in the world! Basically, the physicist lecturer takes on super-powers, laser beams, psychic phenomenon, light sabers, and other comic-book/sci-fi concepts and says, "hey, if something like this could be made, this is probably how it would/could be done...".
Now, one would think that the lecturer would be either a sci-fi geek or comic nerd at heart, and would probably give great lectures, right?
Yeah, you'd be wrong.
This is a physics lesson, only without number crunching.
It's dry... and boring... and long...
It was another book that I kept putting down and then picking back up... then putting it back down...
I finally downloaded the audio book, much like I had done with Larson's monstrosity, only to be doubly bored out of my fuckin' skull. Seriously. I've had the download for about two weeks-and it's not very long, either-and I still haven't finished it.
There are other such similar books like Kaku's. Physics of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Physics of Superheroes, Physics of Super Villains, Science of Dr. Who. But I've been turned off by Kaku's dry-as-burnt-toast delivery and doubt I'll pick up those titles any time soon. Pity, too.
So... those are the three books that I've been defeated by recently.
I know some of you have already answered the question already, but for those who haven't, do you have any such books that have defeated you in a similar fashion?
Addendum: Oh, speaking of downloading books. I've downloaded Cassandra Claire's City of Bones audio-book for shits and giggles. I never read anything but a few paragraphs whilst in bookstores, but I never bought the book. I just recog'd the name from H/D fanfiction. Will report.