The agony and the ecstasy ..

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Me, too. I bogged down in the Fellowship and had to restart twice over a decade before finally finishing the trilogy. The thing I most remember about my first attempt was turning the page and there would be yet another elvish ditty. I thought it curiuos that these were all omitted from the movies.

What astonished me about the movies was how much they managed to leave in.

When I first read LoTR, many years ago, I had to push myself to get past the first 100 pages. Once I did, I devoured the rest of the books quite quickly.

One thing I've noted in rereading over the years is which parts I savor. For instance, I used to fast forward through the scenes in the Dead Marshes. More recently, I've been appreciating them.

And the Elvish ditties didn't bother me a bit. There was a time I could do fairly good Quenya calligraphy...
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Dennis

[Astropin]

Originally Posted by mcramer

It's very rare that I drop a book. The closest I have got in the last few years is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is the most depressing book I have read ever! Anything after the first 50 pages was a struggle and I still can't really figure out why I fininshed it (sheer bloody mindedness I guess )

Perfect example of individual preferences. I really enjoyed (that might not be the right word) that book. Although it made me want to buy a gun . Certainly it's a book that makes you appreciate what you have.....even if you have very little. It also gets you thinking.........what if?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What d you do if a book that catches your fancy at the start ends up dragging in the middle? Me, I stick it out. I remember a book like this very well. I read Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard on the recommendation of a friend. I got about 1/2 way through it and it really started to bog down. And then like 3/4 into it, it could have ended at a numbe rof places. It's like he ended it and then decided to tack more on to it in a number of places. Overall a dreadful book that started off with some promise.

Battlefield Earth bemused a number of folks. We couldn't decide if it was a manuscript Hubbard had lying in a drawer since before he created Dianetics which morphed into Scienetology, or whether it was a new book, but he hadn't learned anything new about writing in the 30 years since he'd last taken up the pen.

Hubbard was a competant hack who could write to order for the pulps, and did some nice Arabian Nights style fantasies for John W. Campbell in Unknown Worlds. If you expect anything more than that, you'll be disappointed.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kezza

It took my boyfriend months to slog through that. I think he was reading only a few pages at a time. He said it was worth it by the end, though.
He has a much higher tolerance for wading through slow or difficult reads than I do.

A suggestion on Joyce: try reading him aloud.

Everyone has a primary sense. Joyce's was hearing. He was attempting to reproduce the sort of things he heard on his famous walks through Dublin.

Read it aloud, and cadences and flavor of the work may come across more strongly.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Gideon

I did the same thing.. tried to read it in jr high/high school... could never get past the birthday scene.

Then an ex girlfriend of mine talked me into giving it another try and I enjoyed it a great deal, but... I don't quite place it as high as many do. I think a "Song of Ice and Fire" by Martin or Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are both better series, both as far as enjoyment and literary quality.

I haven't read Martin's series yet. I have read Donaldson. I liked it the first time around, largely because it wasn't Yet Another Tolkien Clone, and most fantasy back then was. I fear it hasn't held up as well on re-read. Among other things, if you are going to use unfamiliar words, it helps if you get them right.

Gene Wolfe, in "The Urth of the New Sun" series, is a master of that art.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by comtrjl

Does anyone else ever get a feeling of guilt at starting a book and then, after struggling for a bit, simply give it up? Or, having started, do you stick it to the bitter end without ever really getting into it? I recently began a novel by a highly respected English novelist - supposedly one of his masterpieces - but almost from the beginning just couldn't relate to it and eventually abandoned it. Fortunately he has long since passed away, so he'll never know ..

I have stopped books in the middle. I normally don't slog grimly through it unless it's a series that is dragging in parts.

But I don't toss a book I've dropped. It's been my experience that you must be in the right frame of mind to appreciate a book. If you aren't you may get nowhere. Sometimes, letting a book lie fallow will let me approach it with a different viewpoint and appreciate it the second time. Sometimes reading commentary about the book will give me a handle by which I can grasp it: "Oh! That's what the author is trying to do..."

And sometimes I have to learn to relax and let the book read itself to me, rather than actively trying to read it myself. A good example is E. R. Eddison's _The Worm Ouroboros_. Eddison was a Victorian gentleman who wrote Elizabethan prose. Once I learned to relax and let the book read itself to me on it's own terms, it went down like fine cognac, and it became a treasured favorite.
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Dennis

[Gideon]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Astra, your note about Gaiman's American Gods is interesting. To me it was one of the best books I read in recent years, better than Gene Wolfe's Knight/Wizard duo.

Ditto

[astra]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Astra, your note about Gaiman's American Gods is interesting. To me it was one of the best books I read in recent years, better than Gene Wolfe's Knight/Wizard duo.

It might be Gaiman's colloquial turns of phrase. They tickled me but perhaps they annoy others. I was delighted by the subtle portrayal of once-powerful gods living in modern America and how he handles an essentially passive protagonist. That took skill and restraint. I enjoyed it so much I'm right in the middle of his Anansi Boys, an additional book set in the same universe. Hmm, and a similar protagonist. Um... you probably won't like it either. Similar style.

That's why I wanted to read it. Too many people liked it so much!
After I finished it I posted a question on one forum asking whether I was completely alone when I said it was the dumbest book(that's how I described it, don't take it personally please) I have read in 2007/2006 and few more years back to The Redemption of Althalus in 2003 0r 2004. I was very surprised that many people didn't like it at all. Just like me.
Probably very personal issue

[Nate the great]

When I got my Kindle, I decided think of it as an opportunity to try fantasy. As a rule, I don't read fantasy. I've since learned why. Much of it is not worth reading, even stuff by sf authors I liked.

One particularly bad example was a series by Harry Turtledove, I think called Sentry Peak. It's based on the American Civil War. I gave up on the series when the author introduced a character called Bed of the Forrest. He was a cavalry general, and before the war had been a slave trader and gambler. Hmmm, I wonder who that could be.

Originally Posted by Hadrien

It's not paragraphs. He's got the longest sentences ever.

Can you provide an example?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

When I got my Kindle, I decided think of it as an opportunity to try fantasy. As a rule, I don't read fantasy. I've since learned why. Much of it is not worth reading, even stuff by sf authors I liked.

One particularly bad example was a series by Harry Turtledove, I think called Sentry Peak. It's based on the American Civil War. I gave up on the series when the author introduced a character called Bed of the Forrest. He was a cavalry general, and before the war had been a slave trader and gambler. Hmmm, I wonder who that could be.

Well, it's suppsoed to be the start of a series. We'll see if the rest gets published.

Harry has almost single handedly made Alternate History a separate genre of it's own, but he's quite prolific, and they aren't all winners. This one seems to be Harry largely going through the motions, but not much more.

Can you provide an example?

Start at any random place in "Rememberance of Things Past"...
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Dennis

[grimo1re]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

American Gods by Neil Gaiman...they are the worst books I have read in 2007.

Eeeek! Shock, horror! I love that book to bits (I read it as an e-book, does this count as a bad pun? I love bad puns...). Seriously, I wanted to marry that book and make babies with it. On the other hand, and I'll probably be flamed by the entire forum for this, but I absolutely hate Shakespeare.

There I said it. Feel much better

[Penforhire]

Astra, I never ever take it personally if someone hates my favorites because it cuts both ways. People seem to appreciate different literature and it does not always have any bearing on intellect or other definable characteristics. I do try to listen more to critics whose tastes match mine but I can only learn that by trial and error. Sometimes excruciating error.

Okay, curiousity question. Did you ever read Tim Powers' "Last Call?" Did you like it? I ask because it felt a lot (to me) like American Gods.

[kezza]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

A suggestion on Joyce: try reading him aloud.

Everyone has a primary sense. Joyce's was hearing. He was attempting to reproduce the sort of things he heard on his famous walks through Dublin.

Read it aloud, and a cadences and flavor of the work may come across more strongly.
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Dennis

Good thought. I've done the reading aloud for Irvine Welsh and D.H. Lawrence. Helps immensely with passages written in phonetic brogue, at least until you get the hang of how it should sound in your head. Goodness, took me days to figure out that "gel" meant "girl."

[AnemicOak]

Speaking of popular series. I got talked into reading the first book of Jordan's Wheel of Time series (because I like Martin, Erikson, Etc.) & it took me three different tries before I was able to stick it out to the end. Now I keep thinking I must have missed something because everyone seems to think they're some of the best Fantasy out there. Same thing with Eddings & Goodkind. Some of what I read of theirs I thought was OK, but nothing all that great.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Speaking of popular series. I got talked into reading the first book of Jordan's Wheel of Time series (because I like Martin, Erikson, Etc.) & it took me three different tries before I was able to stick it out to the end. Now I keep thinking I must have missed something because everyone seems to think they're some of the best Fantasy out there. Same thing with Eddings & Goodkind. Some of what I read of theirs I thought was OK, but nothing all that great.

The Wheel of Time is one of those edge cases where you can debate whether it's fantasy or SF. There are hints in the series that our world exists in the age before the legendary "Age of Miracles" that preceeds the age depicted in the books. (Other examples of edge cases are Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, and the late Randall Garret's "Lord Darcy" stories.)

I enjoy the WoT books, but they take a bit of getting into. I resisted them for a while, but Tor released the first half of the first book as a giveaway promo PB, I read it on a slow afternoon, and I liked it well enough to continue to find out what would happen next. The big problem is that they are bricks, and there were folks wondering if the series would ever actually finish.

I believe WoT was planned initially as a trilogy, but like like Tolkien's LoTR, which he described as "a tale that grew n the telling", Jordan discovered that the more he wrote, the more he had to write to tell the story he was trying to tell.

I haven't read Goodkind, but have read Eddings. I gave up on him after the Malloreon. He appears to have only one story to tell, with one cast of characters, and each new series is the same tale with the names changed and the serial numbers filed off.
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Dennis