These two books have made it into my Did Not Finish (and will not pick up again) Pile. I attempted to listen to them both and couldn't make it past 3 CDs for either of them, although for slightly different reasons.
Edited By: James Patterson
Personal Rating: DNF
Thriller (edited by James Patterson) is a collection of short stories that were meant to thrill, hence the title, however; they missed the mark. I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to get a taste of some new authors, while enjoying some great thrill writing. Not so. I only enjoyed the first one and the rest went downhill from there. Especially after listening to Twisted by Jeffery Deaver, this was not worth my listening time.
ARTHUR AND GEORGE
Julian Barnes
Personal Rating: DNF
I chose Arthur and George by Julian Barnes for the New York Times Notable Book Challenge thinking with its great ratings I might enjoy it. Not so, again. I am just not a reader of slow, boring, drawn-out storylines. I found myself trying to encourage the reader on, so we could get to something of interest. There were a few parts that I thought I would finally get engaged and connect with the story, but poof, they were gone as quickly as they appeared. This style and genre of writing is just not for me, all the power of enjoyment to those that it is.
I'm just so stinkin' proud of you right now I could just about explode!!
ReplyDeleteLOL * LOL * LOL
ReplyDeleteI couldn't have done it without your help and support!!! :)
Hey, I just realized ... if I don't finish them, I don't rate them, therefore, a better rating average develops. Wow, another benefit emerges after implementing advice from Suzi! Woo Hoo!
I'm about 100 pages from the end of Arthur and George, and I'm absolutely loving it! Just goes to show, different strokes for different folks!
ReplyDeleteLaura ~ That is so true! I really wanted to like it, but just didn't. I really am glad you (and others) do.
ReplyDeleteI think it's such a bummer when I don't like particular books. I want to like them all!!! :)
Must be something in the air, I've had a few DNF's this month too. I feel so bad not finishing a book but then there are so many books I want to read that I don't want to waste my time with a book I'm not enjoying.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious---what about Thriller made it so uninteresting for you? (It sounds like an interesting concept, so I'm wondering whether it's something I'd be likely to enjoy or not.)
ReplyDeleteNicola ~ Not finishing books has been very difficult for me to do. I'm so afraid it'll get better and I'll miss out. However, with both of these, I was getting annoyed. That's when I decided to call them quits. Why would I waste my time and allow them to annoy me when I, like you, have so many books I want to read (in this case listen to) instead.
ReplyDeleteHeather ~ The concept of the book is fabulous, that's why I wanted to listen to it. I think I listened to 5 or 6 stories, only liking 1 for sure and I think there was another one that was just okay. I couldn't bare to listen to them anymore.
What I did like was that before each story James Patterson talks about the author and gives a little background of how the story came to be. However, some of the stories feel like plugs for their next book or they are trying out a new style of writing (so that would defeat my purpose for listening) or the stories were just not that good.
As I said in my post, I recently listened to Twisted by Jeffery Deaver and those were very good. So, once again, in comparison to JD, they weren't worth my time.
Bummer. I'm compulsive; once I start it and make it to X page, I have to continue (unless its 800 pages like Vanity Fair!).
ReplyDeleteTrish ~ Suzi (from the first post) has been encouraging me to give up books when I don't like them for approximately 5 years! It's a very hard pattern to break, but one that I think has its merits. The older I get, the more I realize how true this statement is:
ReplyDeleteLife is too short to read books you aren't enjoying!
Also, I have long lists of books that I want to read and the authors keep writing, so I don't see a shortage any time soon.
I very rarely don't finish a book but I did give up on "The Journeyer" earlier this year. Even then, I read 150 pages. But mostly, I just drag myself through them.
ReplyDeleteI was encouraged to read a comment by someone else that loved "Arthur and George" because I have a brand new copy sitting on the shelf. I hope I like it better than you did. If not, I know you can commiserate with me.
Framed ~ There are many, many people that love ARTHUR AND GEORGE. Please don't just take my word for it. I keep trying, but it's just not my genre. I wish it were, but it's not.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry to hear that you didn't like THRILLER! I have it on my shelf, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I was so excited when I bought it though. The preface says that this book is the first time short thriller pieces have been made into an anthology. Based upon your feelings of the book, maybe there's a reason for that. Perhaps thrillers need a format longer than the short story to develop properly.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see how it goes when I finally pick it up. One can only hope...
J. S. Peyton ~ The Deaver short thriller stories worked for me, so I was very excited to read more by other authors. They turned out to be nothing that I was interested in continuing. I do hope that you find some enjoyment out of them though. :)
ReplyDelete