Quote:
Originally Posted by lumpynose
This is why I've adopted the strategy of analyzing whether or not a book "works" for me. I don't think I've ever been reading one where I could tell it wasn't working for me but I flogged myself to keep reading it and it ended up being a good read. If a book isn't working for me then I put it down and start the next one. We have a good library system in my county and that's where most of them come from; I usually have at least a dozen sitting on my book table. There are way too many books available so why should I waste my time reading books that I don't enjoy?
|
If I am not enjoying a story at all or enough, I stop.
Stories however can be liked for all sorts of reasons and to varying degrees. So I often keep reading, even though a story is not 100% great, just so long as there is enough redeeming factors.
This can be especially so for sequels, where yes the story is not as great as the original. However, just knowing about how things develop for characters or other elements, can be interesting or entertaining enough ... certainly for me. Not every story has to be an award winner to be worth reading ... and I question some award winners.
It can be a bit like music albums by a group or artist, where the next record gets canned because it is too much like the prior one. One cannot be endlessly inventive to the point of brilliance. In fact, more of the same, is just what many of us want, and makes a lot of sense really ... a bit like your partner or friends, who are great just as they are ... no need to always reinvent themselves.
I see that as a bit like the world of Middle Earth, that Tolkien created. What a wonderful world, steeped in all the background and history he gave it. Yet we only get two stories from such a rich world. I have never understood why the Tolkien family, Christopher especially, have not allowed more to surface by themselves or by other writers they could commission and have oversight with. Tolkien worked most of his life on that project, and most of the later works, brought to publication by his son Christopher, are not very approachable to most readers. They at least could be re-written more in the vein of The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings, and less like somewhat complex dry histories. I say that having read and enjoyed many of them. I still remain hopeful, that one day, one or more of the grandchildren, may deliver.