[Manabi]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Most of the people who finish LOTR are not average readers, but above average readers. It is a difficult to read book. I could never read James Michener's books. By the third chapter, I simply could no longer plow through his excessive description. Which may be why LOTR was an issue. Lots of description - not very action oriented.

I have tried multiple times to read LOTR and never managed to get very far in the first book. I have read The Hobbit, and that was one of the most difficult reads ever for me. LOTR book one is just too freaking dense and boring for me to get into. I will note that I'm not a big fantasy fan, my tastes run more to sci-fi. Still, I do read and enjoy quite a few fantasies, just not that one.

Originally Posted by Hitch

What about any book that uses fantastical creatures as allegory for ANY concept? Dunno, Gregg, I think you are limiting yourself UNbelievably by deciding, without actually experincing, that a certain type or genre of book is unsuited for reading. I wouldn't have missed the Chronicles of Narnia, as a child, for ANYTHING, even though its allegory today doesn't fit with my own beliefs.

I enjoyed those as a child myself, but will never reread them now because the allegories are just too blatant. I don't really mind allegories in general, but I feel that C. S. Lewis went too far and it detracts from the story itself badly. That's something you don't notice as much as a child. (Although I disliked most of the novels where the allegories are particularly heavy even as a child. Probably because the story suffered because of it.)

I think Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain are a good example of how to do allegories well. They're obviously there (especially the big one of good vs. evil), but the story takes precedence and the allegories don't detract from it. And I'm willing to reread them even as an adult.

Originally Posted by Katsunami

A movie such as Transformers is just a two hour long explosion that never seems to end. As a Star Trek The Next Generation fan (because of episodes such as The Measure of a Man and The Inner Light), I have problems watching the new, action-oriented and explosion-filled reincarnation.

I enjoy both myself. TNG was great all around, but it's a different type of Star Trek. The new movies are both a lot of fun, although the latest one got carried away with the homages to past Star Trek. Some of that actually started detracting from my enjoyment because it was way too blatant. (The whole reactor scene I could have done without.) I doubt we'll see any less-action-oriented stories in the movies, but maybe they'll do another TV series eventually and it'll have a balance of stories as well.

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Some people I'm around with are not there by my choice. It seems that having the attention span of a goldfish is quite common nowadays. Many of the people I know complain LOUDLY and EXPANSIVELY if they have to read something that is longer than... oh... half an A4 or so.

I actually find that there are quite some people nowadays who are not interested in anything except the very latest craze regarding brain-dead games and smartphones.... how can anyone play Flappy Bird for hours on end? You must have infinite patience and a huge attention span, but still someone like that probably can't read Clavell

Well, I can't speak to that game specifically, but if a game really hits the spot for you, it's not hard to spend hours and hours playing it. It's much like how a reader can get engrossed in a good book and suddenly find that several hours have passed while they were reading. I've done it with other games (mostly on the PC or consoles) plenty of times.

As for books I couldn't finish, I couldn't stand to finish Rama Revealed from the Gentry Lee/Arthur C. Clarke trilogy continuation of Rendezvous with Rama. Book one of that was so-so, book two was hideously depressing and bad, and book three started out just as depressing and bad as book two and actually got continuously worse. I made it near the halfway point, couldn't take any more and skimmed through to see if it got better and how it ended. It never got better and the ending sucked too.