tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767816.post114083907493706973..comments2024-02-20T03:18:43.590-05:00Comments on Magnificent Octopus: Days gone byIsabella Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10735198478395875257noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767816.post-1141446234324331362006-03-03T23:23:00.000-05:002006-03-03T23:23:00.000-05:00The way you speak of slogging through the end-port...The way you speak of slogging through the end-portions of Byatt "to be done with it" is sort of how I have felt, reading a few things by Iris Murdoch.<BR/>It is a sad thing to WANT books to end, and worse when they have been things you really anticipated reading. Forever I have wanted to read Ayn Rand's <I>The Fountainhead.</I> And Eliot's <I>Middlemarch.</I> For one reason or another, both have eluded my diving into them, and when I finally do, I already feel I will be disappointed, because of having built them both up so much in my mind. <BR/>And then, as is being discussed here, occasionally, a reader will slip into a book unexpectedly (a real sleeper, something you would not EXPECT to be good) and voila! The miracle happens. The thing is unforgettable. This has happened with me, with books by Sarah Willis [who? <I>Exactly!</I> Read her.] Or Emma Donoghue's <I>Slammerkin.</I> Fabulous book. Who has ever <I>heard</I> of it though? Dennis Bock's <I>The Ash Garden</I>, same thing. Amazing book. Or, the thing I just finished tonight, Rupert Thomson's <I>The Book of Revelation.</I> Amazing stuff.<BR/>Sleeper books.<BR/>Books that don't put you to sleep!Ciprianohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00254338542624853230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767816.post-1141231264831868302006-03-01T11:41:00.000-05:002006-03-01T11:41:00.000-05:00You are right to question why some books you have ...You are right to question why some books you have waited to read all your life fall flat (too much expectation?) while others, unexpectedly, find their way into your heart. <BR/><BR/>I have learned that there is a time and a place for certain books. I have books that I've excitedly purchased with the intent of reading them at once. Yet, when I crack the pages open...they don't do a thing for me. This used to frustrate me a great deal. Surely I know what I like to read...right?<BR/><BR/>Eventually, I pick up something else and move on. Then, one day...months down the road...I will think "I should try that book again." For whatever reason, those same opening lines have a new meaning, they grip me, interest me and I'm off and reading. Sometimes months are not enough. I have a few that were immediately chucked to the back of the shelves, only to seek them out years later and find a perfect kinship. Others are still waiting.<BR/><BR/>I've come to believe that I have to be ready for a particular book. I need certain life experiences, insights and interests to make a book now-fascinating that only a year ago seemed pure drudgery. I'm not quite sure what that is - perhaps something to do with our subconscious mind and the many things we are always trying to work out, connect, illuminate and so on. While I've not figured that out, I've learned to trust the process insofar as I don't toss the books out upon first realization that I'm not ready yet. Or the second. Or the third.<BR/><BR/>Then of course, there are the books that seem to have no time or place for me. I just don't like them. :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767816.post-1141156093583690752006-02-28T14:48:00.000-05:002006-02-28T14:48:00.000-05:00So glad you are enjoying Ami's 'The Birth House'. ...So glad you are enjoying Ami's 'The Birth House'. I was quite surprised too, to be so engrossed in the story. The author truly is a gifted storyteller (though truth be told, I found the first 3/4 of the novel to be much stronger overall than the last 1/4. But still a big thumbs up for me).<BR/><BR/>I'm also very pleased to help you out of your reading slump. It was actually Ami's book that got me out of mine, and I'm really getting back into my reading groove, enjoying the deliciously creepy 'Perfum' (thank you for mentioning the book on your blog!)<BR/><BR/>I think sometimes it's good for us to read books (or start them, at least) that we don't like. It is just another great avenue for self-descovery, really. I don't think it's good enough to just know what constitutes good writing and good storytelling – one must also be very aware of what is not so good. Can't have sunshine without some shadow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767816.post-1141155204033153272006-02-28T14:33:00.000-05:002006-02-28T14:33:00.000-05:00I think reading is a strange and ephemeral thing. ...I think reading is a strange and ephemeral thing. Part of it is expectation-- I'm often drawn to the books I read because of a buzz around them, but sometimes it makes me expect too much. I can't just take the book for what it is. Sometimes a book I haven't heard of will take me by surprise, and there's a real pleasure in the discovery. <BR/><BR/>I was also disappointed by Smilla's Sense of Snow; I remember that, though it's been years since I read it, I remember thinking, what is all the fuss about? One thing I did like was the fact that it left me with a strange, pervasive mood. Chilly. And I have to respect a book that affects me physically in some way, that lingers.<BR/><BR/>I'm one of the lazy readers, I'm afraid, who often doesn't finish books. I find myself reading several at a time, and inevitably don't get back to some of them. And the ones that don't interest me I just put aside. Why bother? There are too many wonderful stories out there just waiting for me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com