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Nigel Tranter's 'James V Trilogy'. Took me six years to get from one end to the other across two continents. I hated it, but bloody hell, it wasn't going to defeat me! I've quit other books before, but for some reason, this became personal. I can still see it sitting smugly on the shelf. Just a quick nudge and the bastard will be in the recycling bin. One, two ...
For the first time ever I gave up reading a Stephen King book - Lisey's Story. I stuck with it longer than I would had anyone else written it simply because I have never been disappointed by him before. But in the end I gave up.
A long time ago I tried to read The Hobbit, but gave up, yet our daughter read it aged six and enjoyed it. I nearly gave up Captain Corelli's Mandolin after two pages but, having persevered, I loved it. Recently read one of the best books ever, but cannot remember the exact name, something like The Sixth Amendment (or something similar). It was so good I passed it on immediately to our son to read. Also enjoyed The Life of Pi and all Somerset Maugham's years ago and, of course, Pride and Prejudice.
Many years ago someone persuaded me to have her collection of Catherine Cookson books because she didn't want them anymore. She'd read them all and loved them. I read a couple but I couldn't get into them at all - although I liked the characters and story lines. Not sure what it was! I still have them. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood. Has anyone else read any of them?
I read Catherine Cookson in my teens and really enjoyed them because they're set in Northumberland where I spent my childhood (Cookson lived in Corbridge where I was born). But I don't think I would like them so much now. My mother has the entire dvd box set and is trying to palm them off on me. Yikes! Verica, I also loved Life of Pi. Mind you, I also liked the Hobbit. Gave up on the Twin Towers though.
I've given up trying to read anything written by Ian Ranken. I just find his writing style boring. Another boring writer, in my opinion, is John Harvey.
Hi James, I tend to agree with your agent. It is harder to write commerical fiction than so-called literary stuff! I like a book that goes somewhere, tells a good story. I don't really care about 'beautiful writing'. If a story is dull, it's dull. A lot of folks who claim to like literary stuff are just being pretentious! They probably read comics under the bed covers at night...Lol, I bet my agent does it!
I struggled through half of Ken Follett and then decided to give it up because it's style was awful. I think it was also influencing my writing because I could not write a single decent thing while I read it! There were too many "he did this. Then he did that." senarios. Very annoying and I found myself correcting his english and punctuation sometimes.
I enjoyed Lord of The Rings and have read it several times and the Hobbit was also good.
The only Catherine Cookson books I ever read and enjoyed were about Hamilton an imaginary horse (if I remember correctly - it was a long time ago). I can't get on with Ian Rankin either. I read the Hobbit when I was 9 - loved it. ANyway, that reminds me of another tenuous claim to fame . . .
The Bible? There is so much history in it. A lot of attempts have been made to rewrite it in a more readable form, but of course they get critised for doing this.
I've always struggled with books you might call "literary" - goodness knows why I did English lit. Was I the only student in the class who prefered Maeve Binchy and today Marian Keyes?
Although a huge fan of Stephen King, I have to admit defeat when it comes to his 'Towers' trilogy - soooo boring! I also had to give up on John Harvey's 'Wasted Years' and 'Still Water' - he jumped about in time so much I kept wondering what the hell I had missed and having to go back over stuff.
Have to agree with everyone who has said the main character has to be likeable, otherwise you just don't care enough to read on and see what became of them. Having said that, Ruth Rendell has a habit of writing about dire people, that, like viewing a car crash, you just have to watch even though you don't want to.
I have read and thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and War and Peace though!
Have just realised it looks as though I'm saying the Bible is dubious! Just in case, that's not what I meant, I was responding to cooper's comment. I noticed a book in a bookshop this morning called How to Read the Bible. Sounds like a good idea for anyone who wanted to tackle it. I think the modern readable versions can make the Bible readable for believers and non believers alike.
The Hobbit - I read that when I was ten and loved it.
Walter Wangerin (one of my favourite writers) did a re-telling of many of the Bible stories in modern language a few years ago. It's called "The Book of God" and may be a bit easier to tackle for those who've not been brought up with the Bible but still have interest or curiosity.
Back to Ken Follett for a second...I found a review by the Independent newspaper of his new book and they seem to agree with me on his style...
"Follett plainly has several aims. One is to recreate, in plain English and contemporary dialogue, what local life was like politics, agriculture, theology, law, medicine, food, sex, trade, property. Sometimes the language is so plain it's stilted."
" Style takes second place to structure and plot."
Another book I couldn't pick up again is a Sharon Penman novel When Christ and His Saints Slept. I have read quite a few of her books but this one seemed to be lacking something. I didn't get very far at all. But I did like The Sunne in Splendour (Wars of the Roses) where she paints Richard III in a good light, which I would like to recreate one day onto screen. Her Justin De Quincy novels are also brilliant.
McBemused, the Dark Tower series is the most amazing thing ever! I loved every book and could not wait for the next one to come out. Once you get hooked by Roland, the gunslinger, there is no way out!
Sharon Penman is an honorary member of the Richard III Foundation for writing that book, we, as in those of us who work to clear his name, love that book. I did not and do not like the Justin de Quincy stuff, though, I have given up on them. He's too stuffy and she spends too much time explaining what's going on.
A Clive Cusslar novel I was trying to read went straight on my 'slush pile' where it should have stayed in the first place. Ok it's old but the sexism of the main character was terrible. When I were young un' I used to love reading Dennis Wheatly, not sure if I could today.
I think Justin de Quincy is rather sweet - and he gets to meet Llewelyn the Great. (I like his dog, too).
I recently cleared my To Be Read shelf to about half its volume. I had books by Paul McAuley, Mark Chadbourn, Jonathan Wylie, Sheri Tepper, James White, CJ Cherryh and various other SF/Fantasy authors, all of whom had been recommended to me - and I finally made the decision that I wasn't going to get around to reading them in the forseeable future.
After all, there are five Dorothy Dunnett's waiting there, along with various books on medieval life, that I want to get on with.
Does anyone know the name of the discussion, from last year sometime, which listed the top ten "most often bought but never finished" books? I'm setting a quiz and want to crib a few questions from it.
Unfortunately I'm finding the new Talkback's search facility less than helpful...
Sorry to disappoint you Candy, but I don't own a single comic let alone read them.
I am currently reading A Banquet For The Damned by Adam L G Nevill. It is a debut novel, and it brilliantly echoes back to the classic novels of Gothic like Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I am also reading The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolfe (on my University reading list). I've heard interviews by her, and knowing she was one of the first Modernist writers I thought I would hate it, but I was one wrong and I am quite enjoying it.
Another book I gave up reading was Shatter by Michael Robotham. Every plot twist was predictable (I found myself thinking 'my first ever draft had more skill and imagination that this plot') and I could guess the killer would go after the psychologist's daughter and wife as the novel's climax. Which is a shame because he is brilliant at psychological suspense, and the only reason I kept on reading as far as I did (I abandoned it at page 250).
I'm giving up completely on Patricia Cornwell. Like forever. A friend has the whole set and recommended them to me, how I tel her they are rubbish I don't know ... I read the first one, Post Mortem, abandoned the second one, Body of Evidence. The writing is sloppy! As in, well, take the first line of the second book, Chapter 1, line 1.
Returning the Key West letters to their manila folder, I got out a packet of surgical gloves ...
I think Ms Cornwel needs to learn that there is a word, it's AFTER, and start a sentence, After returning the Key West letters to their manila folder ... as it is impossible to do two things simultaneously if it involves hands.
In book 1 she says 'if only we had blood samples' and the door crashes open at that moment to allow the stereotypical detective to charge in, clutching a jump suit a street person found in a dumpster ... and there is a lovely image, 'slipping on her jacket' and retaining her balance???? Clever Kay Scarpetta. OK I know it's how you read it but I read it that way and that means the writing could have been, should have been, better. (I came across this 'slipping' syndrome in a really bad erotic novel one time, 'he slipped off his helmet' - gave all sorts of images!)
in book 2 Kay Scarpetta has to stay over in a house to find another dead body. To do that Ms Cornwell contrives for her heroine's battery to be flat and the tow truck goes off without her (of course). But ... the car started first time when she left home to go to the first dead body. The line 'damn, I left my lights on! The battery was sure to be dead' would have helped. It wasn't there. We are asked to suspend belief in this badly written crime novel to the point when we have to accept that a perfectly good battery dies just because there is a bit of snow around.
The first book won FIVE international awards. Heaven knows why, unless the opposition was so dire she had to be the winner. I won't be reading the rest of the set.
I tried to read the Cornwall novel that was printed in The Times recently, and it was a dire first chapter that drove me away. Somehow she expected me, as a first time reader, to get hooked with just a boring chapter about the stereotypical detective, with no hint of a crime story to come. She didn't give any thought that (like me) some readers have never picked up one of her books before. Won't be going there again!
I bought The Shakespeare Secret (hooked in by the idea of The DaVinci Code, but using literature), I somehow thought it would have been superior in everyway. Then I read The Times slating it, and I have left it unread.
The reviewer could have just not liked it. If you start reading it and decide it is as bad as the Times said, well okay. If it's bad you'll know very quickly.
I read literary novels and fun stuff alike... read every comic going as a child, but also 'The Secret Garden' 'The Wrinkle in Time' John Wyndham, Harper Lee, Austen etc etc etc and I'd say that a good literary novel is as likely to contain a brilliant story as not...but I still enjoy Dick Francis and any number of other trashy things including, sorry D, Ian Rankin etc!!
It's a good thing we're all different isn't it, otherwise we writers would also all have to be the same...
LizB I love Ian Rankin, but personally I would put him closer to literary fiction. When he wrote his first book 'The Flood' he thought he was writing literary fiction, but Polygon published it under crime. I think it could be the literary style that puts others off. I think he is clever in the way he uses classic Gothic ideas, and the Edinburgh setting - even Rebus is a character you either love or you hate (I love him because he is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde character). I think I enjoy Rankin, because like me, he isn't so interested in the 'detection' element but in the actual crime (motive).
Comments
I enjoyed Lord of The Rings and have read it several times and the Hobbit was also good.
I've always struggled with books you might call "literary" - goodness knows why I did English lit. Was I the only student in the class who prefered Maeve Binchy and today Marian Keyes?
Have to agree with everyone who has said the main character has to be likeable, otherwise you just don't care enough to read on and see what became of them. Having said that, Ruth Rendell has a habit of writing about dire people, that, like viewing a car crash, you just have to watch even though you don't want to.
I have read and thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and War and Peace though!
The Hobbit - I read that when I was ten and loved it.
Hello Jemma.
"Follett plainly has several aims. One is to recreate, in plain English and contemporary dialogue, what local life was like politics, agriculture, theology, law, medicine, food, sex, trade, property. Sometimes the language is so plain it's stilted."
" Style takes second place to structure and plot."
Another book I couldn't pick up again is a Sharon Penman novel When Christ and His Saints Slept. I have read quite a few of her books but this one seemed to be lacking something. I didn't get very far at all. But I did like The Sunne in Splendour (Wars of the Roses) where she paints Richard III in a good light, which I would like to recreate one day onto screen. Her Justin De Quincy novels are also brilliant.
Sharon Penman is an honorary member of the Richard III Foundation for writing that book, we, as in those of us who work to clear his name, love that book. I did not and do not like the Justin de Quincy stuff, though, I have given up on them. He's too stuffy and she spends too much time explaining what's going on.
I dunno if its just me or the books I'm chosing at the moment but nothing really inspires me to read past the end of chapter two.
I recently cleared my To Be Read shelf to about half its volume. I had books by Paul McAuley, Mark Chadbourn, Jonathan Wylie, Sheri Tepper, James White, CJ Cherryh and various other SF/Fantasy authors, all of whom had been recommended to me - and I finally made the decision that I wasn't going to get around to reading them in the forseeable future.
After all, there are five Dorothy Dunnett's waiting there, along with various books on medieval life, that I want to get on with.
Unfortunately I'm finding the new Talkback's search facility less than helpful...
Books you really hate.
Sorry to disappoint you Candy, but I don't own a single comic let alone read them.
I am currently reading A Banquet For The Damned by Adam L G Nevill. It is a debut novel, and it brilliantly echoes back to the classic novels of Gothic like Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I am also reading The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolfe (on my University reading list). I've heard interviews by her, and knowing she was one of the first Modernist writers I thought I would hate it, but I was one wrong and I am quite enjoying it.
Another book I gave up reading was Shatter by Michael Robotham. Every plot twist was predictable (I found myself thinking 'my first ever draft had more skill and imagination that this plot') and I could guess the killer would go after the psychologist's daughter and wife as the novel's climax. Which is a shame because he is brilliant at psychological suspense, and the only reason I kept on reading as far as I did (I abandoned it at page 250).
Returning the Key West letters to their manila folder, I got out a packet of surgical gloves ...
I think Ms Cornwel needs to learn that there is a word, it's AFTER, and start a sentence, After returning the Key West letters to their manila folder ... as it is impossible to do two things simultaneously if it involves hands.
In book 1 she says 'if only we had blood samples' and the door crashes open at that moment to allow the stereotypical detective to charge in, clutching a jump suit a street person found in a dumpster ... and there is a lovely image, 'slipping on her jacket' and retaining her balance???? Clever Kay Scarpetta. OK I know it's how you read it but I read it that way and that means the writing could have been, should have been, better. (I came across this 'slipping' syndrome in a really bad erotic novel one time, 'he slipped off his helmet' - gave all sorts of images!)
in book 2 Kay Scarpetta has to stay over in a house to find another dead body. To do that Ms Cornwell contrives for her heroine's battery to be flat and the tow truck goes off without her (of course). But ... the car started first time when she left home to go to the first dead body. The line 'damn, I left my lights on! The battery was sure to be dead' would have helped. It wasn't there. We are asked to suspend belief in this badly written crime novel to the point when we have to accept that a perfectly good battery dies just because there is a bit of snow around.
The first book won FIVE international awards. Heaven knows why, unless the opposition was so dire she had to be the winner. I won't be reading the rest of the set.
I tried to read the Cornwall novel that was printed in The Times recently, and it was a dire first chapter that drove me away. Somehow she expected me, as a first time reader, to get hooked with just a boring chapter about the stereotypical detective, with no hint of a crime story to come. She didn't give any thought that (like me) some readers have never picked up one of her books before. Won't be going there again!
I bought The Shakespeare Secret (hooked in by the idea of The DaVinci Code, but using literature), I somehow thought it would have been superior in everyway. Then I read The Times slating it, and I have left it unread.
It's a good thing we're all different isn't it, otherwise we writers would also all have to be the same...
Can't see me trying to write horror or modern crime!
LizB I love Ian Rankin, but personally I would put him closer to literary fiction. When he wrote his first book 'The Flood' he thought he was writing literary fiction, but Polygon published it under crime. I think it could be the literary style that puts others off. I think he is clever in the way he uses classic Gothic ideas, and the Edinburgh setting - even Rebus is a character you either love or you hate (I love him because he is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde character). I think I enjoy Rankin, because like me, he isn't so interested in the 'detection' element but in the actual crime (motive).