Comments | beelikej: Should I or shouldn't I?

beelikej

Should I or shouldn't I?

Sep 29, 2015 23:31

First addition to my bookpile arrived today; I found a second hand copy of Naked Came The Stranger by Penelope Ashe (1969) - author's name is a pseudonym for a group of -male- journalists who were appalled at the poor writing in the then-current best-sellers, so they decided to have a contest to see who could write the best/worst smut/pulp. Can't ( Read more... )

i love to read, mmmbooks

Comments 7

angelus2hot September 30 2015, 00:37:05 UTC

This happened to me with The Serious Game by Hjalmar Söderberg.

It was billed as Sweden's most enduring love story. I was expecting, well not what I got. If I'm to enjoy a book I have to like at least one of the main characters. In this book there was nothing to like, nothing at all in any of the characters to make me want to cheer for them. But I forced myself to continue reading in the hopes it would get better but no such luck. It went from bad to worse.

I did the "hateread" thing with the rest of the Southern Vampire Mysteries(Sookie Stackhouse books) after I read the second one and honestly wished I hadn't. Once you've read it you can't unread.

If you're dying to see how it ends then by all means finish it but honestly if it's that bad already the chances are it's as good as it's going to get.

beelikej October 1 2015, 07:43:37 UTC

Thanks for sharing your experiences with disappointing books, I especially needed to be reminded of the "can't be unread" advice.

I don't even have to like a character, but I should at least be fascinated by them or their motivations and I just can't care about this woman, bleech. And typing this I realize that means I also don't care how the story ends. Problem solved!

tripperfunster September 30 2015, 01:32:30 UTC

Life is too short to read shitty books, watch shitty movies and eat shitty food.

Unless said things are GLORIOUSLY bad, in which case embrace them!

Mediocre shit? Nope. Move on.

beelikej October 1 2015, 07:45:24 UTC

Life is too short to read shitty books, watch shitty movies and eat shitty food.

True, so true, thanks for reminding me. This book is definitely not delightfully bad, just frustrating. I'm moving on \o/

(The comment has been removed)

beelikej October 1 2015, 07:46:24 UTC

Yep, yep, I needed to hear that again. I'll just leave this book to look pretty on my shelf;) Thank you!

riyku December 23 2015, 00:57:18 UTC

ambling on over from twitter. hi hi hi ( ... )

beelikej December 24 2015, 15:09:13 UTC

Hiiiii! Thanks for commenting, I love to talk about books especially when people challenge me to look at the story from their point of view:)

I absolutely understand what you mean with the comparison to fanfic authors, because I thought the same: imagine what one of those could have done with this subject! This narrator's language just felt so distant and sort of unattached to her (non existant?) feelings. It just made me squirm for the wrong reasons.

Nice to know some people liked the book for more than its cover though *grins* You never know, I might try finishing it again some day...