The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[ownedbycats]

I was reading a book. It was going pretty interestingly until about halfway through suddenly all the characters are talking about God and Jesus all the time. Then I looked at the publisher and... yup, a Christian publisher.

I've never seen a Christian book that doesn't end up using a sledgehammer with its message, lol.

[maddz]

About the only books I skim are non-fiction where I may be interested in some sections but not others. A while back I got a couple of Data Science bundles from Humble Bundle. I skimmed the first couple of chapters in most to see if they were relevant for work. By and large, they weren't.

Fiction, I'm more likely to DNF rather than skim. If the author can't write well with an engaging storyline and relatable characters, then I'm not wasting my time to bother skimming.

The only book I recall skimming was War and Peace; I had it from the library on a 2-week loan and really couldn't get through the umpteen pages of turgid descriptions of landscapes any other way. It's given me a lasting dislike of Russian literature especially when translated by a Victorian.

[andyh2000]

I skim the poetry and songs in Lord of the Rings - no-one's got time to read five pages of elves singing about gold.

Andrew

[John F]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I was reading a book. It was going pretty interestingly until about halfway through suddenly all the characters are talking about God and Jesus all the time. Then I looked at the publisher and... yup, a Christian publisher.

I've never seen a Christian book that doesn't end up using a sledgehammer with its message, lol.

yup. Like the declared atheists using a jackhammer. Or the Republicans pounding their fists and turning red. Or the Democrats holding their breath and throwing a tantrum. ...

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

I skim the poetry and songs in Lord of the Rings - no-one's got time to read five pages of elves singing about gold.

Andrew

Dwarves sang about gold, not elves.

And it's not true no one's got the time to read the songs in LoTR; I sure did, and I don't think I'm the only person in the world to do so.

That said, I do sometimes skim the ending of a book when I have a chapter or less left, and then go back and read it properly. Not always. Otherwise I never skim anything; I may DNF if the book is boring enough for me. It's also not unusual for me to finish the first book of a series and decide not to continue with the rest, because it just was not good and/or interesting enough.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Dwarves sang about gold, not elves.

And it's not true no one's got the time to read the songs in LoTR; I sure did, and I don't think I'm the only person in the world to do so.

That said, I do sometimes skim the ending of a book when I have a chapter or less left, and then go back and read it properly. Not always. Otherwise I never skim anything; I may DNF if the book is boring enough for me. It's also not unusual for me to finish the first book of a series and decide not to continue with the rest, because it just was not good and/or interesting enough.

Hell, if I could have nuked the entire Tom Bombadil section, I would happily have done so. It nearly put me off LOTR very early on. Granted, I was 13 or so, but still. To me, to this day, it's torture.

Hitch

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hell, if I could have nuked the entire Tom Bombadil section, I would happily have done so. It nearly put me off LOTR very early on. Granted, I was 13 or so, but still. To me, to this day, it's torture.

Hitch

Yep, that's another bit I skip completely. I figure I'm still reading the equivalent of at least two normal books.

Andrew

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hell, if I could have nuked the entire Tom Bombadil section, I would happily have done so. It nearly put me off LOTR very early on. Granted, I was 13 or so, but still. To me, to this day, it's torture.

Hitch

I'd like to nuke most battle scenes in SF, fantasy and historical novels. They're usually boring. Still, I don't skim them, or very little.

I agree the Bombadil sequence was pretty pointless, but so are many other things in many other books. Not everything in books is straightforward plot, and I wouldn't want it to be. If all I wanted was the plot, I'd watch TV, not read.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I'd like to nuke most battle scenes in SF, fantasy and historical novels. They're usually boring. Still, I don't skim them, or very little.

I agree the Bombadil sequence was pretty pointless, but so are many other things in many other books. Not everything in books is straightforward plot, and I wouldn't want it to be. If all I wanted was the plot, I'd watch TV, not read.

I don't find battle scenes boring per se, but I usually end up wincing at the author's grasp of tactics... And don't get me started on descriptions of sword fighting.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by maddz

I don't find battle scenes boring per se, but I usually end up wincing at the author's grasp of tactics...

Well, my grasp on tactics is nonexistent, so I'm not bothered by the same lack in the author - no matter how bad the author's grasp is, it can't be worse than mine . But that's probably also the reason I regularly fall asleep during battle scenes. They just do nothing for me, either emotionally or intellectually. Duels and single combat scenes are more interesting, not that I know anything about that either, but I usually can root for a character during them.

[Renate]

I don't like the fantasy or super hero stuff much.
I'm amazed how much it has taken over American movies.
The problem I see it is that the hero has to be powerful but not omnipotent.
So you get somebody who has the power to turn people into newts but not on weekends.
This stuff goes back to Achilles.

I've never read LotR, but I listened to a dramatization from the German SWR.
I really liked the voices, especially Aragorn.
And yeah, even the abbreviated Bombadil was too long.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hell, if I could have nuked the entire Tom Bombadil section, I would happily have done so. It nearly put me off LOTR very early on. Granted, I was 13 or so, but still. To me, to this day, it's torture.

Hitch

But you don't know if you need to read that section or not the first time so you read it.

[ownedbycats]

When I was reading Lord of the Rings, I mentioned to some friends on a Discord server (which has a lot of Tolkien fans) that the Tom Bombadil section felt like it would've better fit into the Hobbit. Somehow this ended up in a huge discussion that might or might not have been an argument, lol.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by maddz

I don't find battle scenes boring per se, but I usually end up wincing at the author's grasp of tactics... And don't get me started on descriptions of sword fighting.

I feel the same. I read the first in a series called The Death Merchant back around 1972. I remember the main character was a "martial arts master". (a much over used term). Every fight scene description used Japanese to describe each move the character made. For example, the character throws a mawashi geri. Unless you studied traditional Japanese karate or spoke Japanese, you would not know what they were doing. It was also very boring even knowing what techniques they were supposedly throwing. I remember thinking that the author had just picked up a martial arts book and was choosing each technique, regardless of whether you would actually use them in the combinations described. I never read another of his books. If you are going to describe something and you do not know anything about it, ask an expert to proofread that section.
Apache

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I'd like to nuke most battle scenes in SF, fantasy and historical novels. They're usually boring. Still, I don't skim them, or very little.

Have you read ack Campbell's Lost Fleet series? I'm not a big space opera fan, but I really enjoyed the battle scenes in the first few of the series for their detailed description of battles fought at relativistic speeds. The physics, and its impact on the planning and execution of space 'naval' encounters was fascinating for me.