Enjoying a book, but can't get into it?

[HoopyFrood]

I think I started reading "Catch 22" at least 4 times before the hook was set and I couldn't put it down. I've since re-read it a couple of times and am just amazed that it took me so long to really get into it. Maybe a person just has to be "ready" for a particular book for it to grab hold of you.

I was in the Army in 1969 when I finally settled in and finished "Catch 22" so maybe the atmosphere had something to do with it. Dunno, but I do know that I am grateful that I finally finished it.

[silasgreenback]

I'm about a week into Portnoy's Complaint and only around 50 pages in. It's funny enough and even makes me feel a bit like a prude, but I've been juggling other things and haven't read more than a few pages at a time. Oy Vey!

[tdonline]

Originally Posted by JDK1962

I'm having EXACTLY the same experience with this book. Started on December 31, presently about a third of the way through. I can see why The Sense of an Ending beat this out for the Man Booker.

A couple of days later and I'm only 25 page further! Oh now, I want to read this book to compare. God I hope it's a faster read.

[Polarpenguin]

Had this problem with Sebastian Faulks A Week in December. There are pages & pages explaining, banking, hedge funds & the financial crisis, which almost put me off, but I enjoyed the rest of the book.

[JDK1962]

Originally Posted by tdonline

A couple of days later and I'm only 25 page further! Oh now, I want to read this book to compare. God I hope it's a faster read.

Much faster read, IMHO, both in terms of page count (~175 pages vs. 500-plus), and in terms of pulling you along. I think it's also a book you're likely to think about afterwards.

But as someone else mentioned in this thread, a lot of it has to do whether you relate to the characters. I could connect to the main character in Barnes' book, whereas I've had no such luck with The Stranger's Child.

I actually stopped reading The Corrections about 100 pages in because I passed indifference and moved into actual dislike of every single character in the book and didn't want to spend another second in their company. Regardless of how good Franzen is as a writer (and technically, he is very, very good).

(Apologies to those for whom The Corrections is all that. It just didn't work for me.)

[tompe]

Also, beeing a page turner usually do not imply that the book is very good but usually it is just good.

My trick for these kind of books is to minimize distractions. For me sitting in a coffee shop with just a paper book or an eink reader is enough to get some reading done.

[apbschmitz]

Originally Posted by JDK1962

I actually stopped reading The Corrections about 100 pages in because I passed indifference and moved into actual dislike of every single character in the book and didn't want to spend another second in their company. Regardless of how good Franzen is as a writer (and technically, he is very, very good).

A second on that one. It's another candidate for the no-accounting-for-taste file. So many people loved it, while I was hoping all the characters would disappear in a multi-car pile-up about a third of the way through.

But on the subject of a slow-opening for powerful books, both Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks, and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell fit into that category for me. Great novels, but I had to bull through the first 50 pages.

[JDK1962]

Originally Posted by apbschmitz

A second on that one. It's another candidate for the no-accounting-for-taste file. So many people loved it, while I was hoping all the characters would disappear in a multi-car pile-up about a third of the way through.

Yeah, there are just some books that make you feel like Commodus, in the movie Gladiator, where you're thinking about the characters and muttering "You simply...won't...die."

Either that or "It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed."

[DianNC]

Originally Posted by Polarpenguin

Had this problem with Sebastian Faulks A Week in December. There are pages & pages explaining, banking, hedge funds & the financial crisis, which almost put me off, but I enjoyed the rest of the book.

That's on my TBR list, but right now I'm zipping through his Birdsong, which I'm finding hard to put down. Just love it when that happens.

[Polarpenguin]

Originally Posted by DianNC

That's on my TBR list, but right now I'm zipping through his Birdsong, which I'm finding hard to put down. Just love it when that happens.

Birdsongs on my TBR list. The BBC are showing it as a two part drama. The 2nd part this week end. Am holding out on watching until I read the book.

A week in December is a good book. enjoy it

[sgraffwriter]

I've had that "problem" with a great number of books. Most of those I'd label as page turners didn't stay with me after I'd read them. The more difficult to read books--that were still enthralling in their own way--did linger in the mind and made me think back on them. Not sure why that is. One such novel that fits that bill is: THE ROAD.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by sgraffwriter

I've had that "problem" with a great number of books. Most of those I'd label as page turners didn't stay with me after I'd read them. The more difficult to read books--that were still enthralling in their own way--did linger in the mind and made me think back on them. Not sure why that is. One such novel that fits that bill is: THE ROAD.

Interesting point. A followup question that I was thinking of asking was how many people find that they read a book, then two months later can't remember anything that happened in the book. I can vividly remember scenes from 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Black Boy, Uncle Tom's Cabin, etc, but other books that I read just recently completely escape me.