Sunday, January 15, 2012

Is It Worth Reading?

I'm slogging through Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. This book had been recommended to me by several people whose tastes I respect. It's also been lauded by strangers: a lady in the doctor's waiting room saw me with it and said, "You're going to love that book."

Well. I don't.

I'm in the second part, and I find the book mildly entertaining at best. So what to do? If you find yourself in the same boat, what do you do? Do you hang in there, hoping that you'll end up agreeing with the book's admirers? Or do you throw in the towel and move on to something else. After all, life is short.

Thoughts? Ideas?

8 comments:

  1. Ditch it and opt for something prettier, I reckon. Have you read The Housekeeper and the Professor?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't remember who made this up, but there's something like a "rule of 50" about such situations. The rule goes: if you're not happy with a book by the time you reach page 50, stop reading. If you are over 50 years old, subtract the number of years over 50 from the number of pages that you give yourself to decide, i.e. if you're 60, give yourself until page 40 of the book. Because life is just too short...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I give it a few chapters (in case the first one or two are just slow), but if it still doesn't have me, I don't waste my time reading the rest.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nowdays when I start a book I don't like, I just move on to another. I have too many waiting in the wings!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sometimes I skim through the rest, real quickly, to see if anything 'picks up' and if it doesn't...out it goes!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Since I'm normally reviewing the book, I read the entire thing. It helps that I read fast (a 120 page book takes me less than two hours).

    However, if I was reading for pleasure? I'm not sure. I'd probably still read the entire thing because I would otherwise always wonder if it got any better!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Stick w/it! I have read it, and enjoyed the creativity. There's only been one time I've given up on a book. No, it won't be your favorite but you'll still get something from it.

    Miss you! Glad girls are doing better. Our love to all of you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have had that happen several times with our chosen book club books (well, somebody chose them). I had so little interest that I just didn't want to spend the money on the book of the month. I like the book club and the people - but I have found for the past three months the chosen book did not appeal to me at all. I loved the book for November and, although I was not able to attend at the last minute, I did write to other member with my opinion of the book and how good I thought it was, etc. (GARDEN OF THE BEASTS, if anyone wants to know).

    I am not a huge fan of Gregory Maguire. WICKED was ok- my son is a big fan so I usually give him the new releases ( and try to read them first). There was a good one a couple of years ago that was a Christmas book- probably a children's story.

    LindaC

    ReplyDelete

I love reading comments! And I appreciate the time you take to leave them. Thanks!