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Monday, December 12, 2011

Forgettable

I'm reading a book that I want to like by an author I want to respect.  I just don't though.  There's nothing wrong with the book.  It's fairly well written, the characters are well drawn, there is plot and voice aplenty, but I just can't get into it.  I read about 70 of the 400+ pages, put it down for some reason and haven't picked it back up.  In fact I keep forgetting it's there and am surprised all over again each time I see it. 

I almost returned it to the library but felt too guilty.  I want to like it and I keep thinking I should finish to see if I can get into it, but I just have no urge to read further.

I'll probably give it another 50-100 pages using the deadline of the library due date as motivation.  I'm hoping I can like it as much as I wanted to but it's not looking good.  This makes it so much easier to understand when agents say they just didn't feel passionate enough about a book to take it on. 

18 comments:

  1. It's definitely hard to get into books sometimes, even when you can't see anything wrong with it. But I never thought about that in a way that agents would understand. Nice insight.

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  2. Thanks, I'm glad I got the book for no other reason than it helped me understand agents and the query process a little more.

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  3. I read somewhere that in all our reading, we should read both good and bad to give us insight into the spectrum of quality. Fortunately, I get to grade high school papers so I see the not so good enough that I just try to read good :)

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  4. Its true. Not everything can grab everyone. That's why writing is so subjectional. It is aggravating at times, but you're right - understandable too.

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  5. What an interesting position to be in. One of my high school teachers really helped me to become a better writer and gave me the courage to believe I could do it. While I'm sure grading papers gets tedious you will make a difference to some of them.

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  6. Leigh, yea, it's just frustrating when you WANTED to like the book.

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  7. Sara, Whew for a second I thought you were talking about one of my books. LOL I agree with Leigh. Sometimes no matter how much we want to read the book and wanted to like it sometimes you just can't.

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  8. Life's too short.

    Just because their book doesn't turn your crank doesn't mean you can't still respect them in the morning! ... waaaay too many negatives there, but you get my drift?

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  9. J.L. Of course not yours! Not anybody that might actually read my poor little blog.

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  10. Widdershins, you're right. Life is short. If it's that hard for me to read I'm going to call it quits. I have other books I'm so excited to read on my kindle. We'll go with those.

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  11. Hi, me again. I just wanted to let you know that I've given you an award over on my blog. :)
    http://findingthewriteway.blogspot.com/2011/12/major-blog-award-catch-up.html

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  12. If I can't get into it, I quit, too many great books out there.
    I'm your new follower.

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  13. Thanks Jaye, do you have a blog? I couldn't find it by clicking on you.

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  14. Sara you're driving me crazy! Which book is it??

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