Unfinished Reading

A gloomy rainy day is the perfect time to confess which books I have recently not finished:

Hunger Games – wonderfully exciting and scary, but I watched the movie and             finishing the book seemed unnecessary

Fifty Shades of Grey – I wanted to correct the grammatical errors with a red pen

Goldberg Variations – I usually love Susan Isaacs, but I didn’t trust her and             Gloria Goldberg Goldberg Garrison to return me safely from Santa Fe to Long             Island

Gone Girl – if I wouldn’t eat lunch with these two psychopaths (using the term             loosely), why would I finish the book?  I do look forward to Gillian Flynn’s next             book because I admire her writing even though the characters made me squirm

Please feel free to share your recently unfinished books.

posted by S. Bakos

2012 must be the year of the unfinished book. I have finished fewer books this year than ever before. Here is my list on GoodReads of unfinished books from the past few years.

Some, I ran out of time, because the book was due. Some were just too slow, not bad, but just dragged, so I started something else and never returned to the slow-going book. Some were recommended by people whose reading tastes never coincide with mine, so I don't know why I bothered. And so, for each book there was a different reason for not finishing.

I am currently reading Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon; this spy thriller is going very slowly, so much so, that the I am losing the plot. Maybe I should give up? I borrowed the paperback copy from the library's freebie shelf, so I wouldn't have to worry about a due date. If you want my copy, let me know.

I was trying to read Anna Quindlen's Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake in which the popular journalist/novelist writes about turning 60, the empty nest and having too much stuff. There was not much original here and her 'hey, girlfriend' tone is just annoying to me. This is just a personal, gut feeling, not a true objective critique. She is hugely popular with women readers, so just ignore me. I have an empty nest, too much stuff, and no second house to put the stuff in. It's just a boring topic, isn't it? But I have some kitschy old mugs I could give you. Any takers?

And finally, I like to read American and British humorists, but two books that didn't make me laugh were:

Laurie Notaro's Autobiography of a Fat Bride and

Sloan Crosley's How Did You Get this Number?

The best thing about these collections of essays, or loosely related chapters, were the titles. I think some humor is generational and perhaps that's why these young-ish authors just don't work for me. Humor is perhaps the trickiest kind of writing and what tickles one funny bone, will leave another person's fb totally untickled. It's a puzzle. Generally, I don't find substance abuse amusing though, so that knocks a lot of contemporary humor off my bookshelf.

So there you have it, let me know if I should give any of these books a second chance. And now you know why I don't usually give bad reviews on this blog, I just get too harsh and cannot be objective about books I don't like. It's easier to write a good review.

posted by Anne