The best thing about the book blogging world is that you get to see a lot of people's opinions about books. What bothers me, however, is when I read review after glowing review about a book that I could not even finish! There was a recent blog tour I had to drop out of because I didn't like the book (and could not finish it). Blog books are meant to celebrate a book and I just didn't feel I could be positive enough about it for the tour.
But, EVERYONE else loved this book. LOVED it. Even on GoodReads it's averaging four stars. What did I miss? I will admit I didn't get very far into it. Maybe I needed to ride it out to see what everyone else loved about it. I just could not suspend disbelief enough to give it a chance. And I have too many books to read to spend a lot of time reading a book I am not loving!
Has this happened to you? Have you ever felt like you were missing something with a book you didn't like and everyone else loved? Tell me about it!
Oh yeah. I had that issue with Wither. Talk about being in the minority. The thing is, I'm of the opinion that if you have to suffer through a book, then you're suffering through a book. IF it's not enjoyable from the beginning why am I going to pain myself to keep reading? To see if maybe it gets better? If it sucks now, isn't it, by law of probability, going to suck later too? Everyone has different opinions about something like this but I'm not going to torture myself with a bad book simply to appease those that feel I should read to the end to get a "real feel" for it. In that same vein, shouldn't one read an entire series of books before reviewing to get a feel for it? It's silly. I'm not under an obligation to keep reading if I think it sucks. But being in a blog tour for a crappy book really sucks. Did that one. Never again. Talk about awkward.
ReplyDeleteI was set up with this blog tour and then the contact left the company. I emailed the new person that I was going to drop out but I never heard a word back from them. I doubt I will be asked by that company again, but better that than a negative review for their tour I think!
DeleteI have that issue with a lot of older literature... I can 'appreciate' work like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre but that doesn't mean I enjoy them. A university tutor of mine once told me that when you're in the middle of a really awful book, try to think about the fact that someone felt so strongly about this, that they took the time and effort to get it all down on paper. That's helped me to get through a few books in my time, but if a book's not good, it's not good!
ReplyDeleteOh me too!!
DeleteI have friends with an 8th grade girl who reads a TON. But her parents are always trying to make her read "classics." I just want to say STOP! She will read them later, if she wants. Just let her read!
I always give books 100 pages, unless I can tell within 20 that there is just no way.
That's how I felt about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I did not like it, but it was supposed to be so awesome.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even finish that one either! Sometimes I bet people think they are supposed to like a book so they gush but they didn't get it either...
DeleteDefinitely! I remember receiving a book from a publisher for review and I just didn't enjoy it as much as i thought i would. I was very hesitant about posting my review, but I posted it anyway because i believe its always better to be honest than fake.
ReplyDeleteIf I finish a book I am usually able to find some good things about it, because it kept me interested enough to finish it. Once though I had some students review a book I got for review because I couldn't finish it and it was the early days of my blogging. They had a better viewpoint than I!
DeleteO totally. Happens to me all the time. Sometimes I do love what everyone else loved and sometimes I really don't. I find I don't really love contemporary stories no matter how good the other bloggers say it is.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, sometimes I will really LOVE a book then go to the reviews on GoodReads to make sure other people are loving it too.
DeleteBecause when I love a book I want everyone to know about it and love it too!
DeleteContemporary YA that is.
ReplyDeletePopular adult contemporaries I usually do well with.
Yup, that happens to me a lot. Sometimes reading a well-written positive review can help me see a book in a new light, but more often than not the book just isn't the right fit for me. I feel a little sad (and, ok, a little envious—I want to feel that "Ohmygosh I adore this book!" feeling!), but that's pretty much it. Reading is so subjective, and you're absolutely right—there are way too many books on our TBRs to force yourself to read something you're not feeling.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm curious about what book you're talking about :)