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 Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 10:38 am
I have to say, I'm finding it really hard to get into this story. I'm only at part two right now, and I'm just finding it hard to care about anything that he [the character] is recounting. The only other time I've had this much trouble reading a book, it was Bag of Bones by Stephen King. Literally the only other book I've ever just not been able to find any will to care about the story.
I'm slogging through it though. I'll get it done. But in the meantime, I'm getting the poll and discussion threads up early so I don't forget or not have time or whatever.
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 11:53 am
Tommy Dionysus I have to say, I'm finding it really hard to get into this story. I'm only at part two right now, and I'm just finding it hard to care about anything that he [the character] is recounting. The only other time I've had this much trouble reading a book, it was Bag of Bones by Stephen King. Literally the only other book I've ever just not been able to find any will to care about the story. I'm slogging through it though. I'll get it done. But in the meantime, I'm getting the poll and discussion threads up early so I don't forget or not have time or whatever. You are far more determined than I am, Tommy, because I gave up at 10%. I just could not get into it, at all, and that has only happened with one or two books. It's not even like I think its badly written, because it isn't, but it's just that it is so hard to follow. The fact that there are no chapters, and no discernible direction is just hard to slog through. Don't get me wrong, I know some books ive read didn't have chapters, but there was some fluidity to the writing. It reminds me of something my dad said when he finished his business course at Uni. 'They taught me to use 10 words instead of one." Thats all i can really say about it. Kinda dissappointed in myself, but I just can't read books that don't grab my interest.
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 5:23 pm
Yeah, that's basically it. I didn't get too far, I just couldn't do it. I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one who couldn't do it.
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Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 10:18 am
Tommy Dionysus Yeah, that's basically it. I didn't get too far, I just couldn't do it. I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one who couldn't do it. Thank the Gods! I'm not alone in this. I felt really disappointed in myself.
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Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:25 pm
Haha, I wasn't so much feeling disappointed as guilty. Here I am, reading 2-3 pages at a time and being like "I can't keep reading this." I felt bad, like I should have tried harder to get through it. But I read out three pages to my boyfriend one day, and he was like "that's not so bad." Until I told him those three pages were literally one run-on sentence. Then he was like, "how can you even deal with that?" lol The answer? I couldn't.
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Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 7:36 am
Now I almost regret suggesting this book. sweatdrop Sorry guys. I knew Proust wrote run-on sentences often, but I didn't know just how weird and difficult to follow the syntax was, and I'm going to take a guess that it's even worse in the English translation.
First I'll admit I have yet to finish it. I started late in the month and have yet to read the third section. This is definitely not a book you read for the intrigue, especially not the first part (ugh, was I tired of him repeating that he wanted to give his mom a kiss and be with her for a while more before going to sleep.) I didn't get sucked in and it was sometimes difficult to get back into it if I didn't have ideal reading conditions.
It was mostly just a very long and complex reflection upon the way we perceive and remember the world around us and the events of our life. I did get lost sometimes and have to go back to the beginning of a sentence and reread it to make sure I had understood properly (or just to remember what he was talking about before his parenthesis...)
There was one thing I absolutely loved about the book, and it was when the descriptions turned to painting or various forms of art to describe and compare scenes and characters, like when he describes the three bell towers and their silhouettes on the evening sky and the whole description makes it seem like an impressionist painting, or when he compares Odette to the characters in Botticelli's paintings in the Sistine Chapel. Those I thought were absolutely beautiful.
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FindingJackie Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 9:20 am
Ah, no worries. Not all the suggestions are going to be books everyone ends up loving, right? The whole point is to get us reading in general. But yeah, in English, the run-on sentences are nightmarish. A three page run-on sentence is common in the ebook version.When reading a book threatens to give you a headache, its time to put it down. It's not that he is a bad writer, the writing was good, it was just hard for me to find a reason to care about or connect with the main character. Which makes reading it all the more difficult considering how its written and how it translated. I'm sure some of what he was saying would make more sense in the original language, but I don't speak it, so hello English translation. It was worth trying though. At least I tried to read it. lol
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