Books you stopped reading (for whatever reason)

Me too. The thing is, I love Ford's short stories, especially Rock Springs. But even though there were some great scenes in The Sportswriter, I kept not wanting to pick it back up and finally didn't. I just wasn't interested. On the other hand, I saw him give a reading earlier this year of an excerpt from the forthcoming third book in that series (I guess he's making it into his own Rabbit chronicles), and at least the part he read was really good and surprisingly funny (since I don't think of him as a "funny" writer).

Two other notables I quit on: Kavalier and Clay (is it just me or is Chabon a little on the expository side? I was kind of enjoying, though; maybe I'll take it back up) and Cold Mountain (overwritten, overreaching, overrripe). I did finish Infinite Jest and mostly liked it all the way through, but I still think DFW writes better nonfiction than fiction.

So Frolic's the one I quit on, half through. Had to.

Finnegan's Wake also seems like an obvious book to stop during, one of those cases where the book seems to demonstrate its point far too soon, then crank, and crank, and crank, until the valve or the gasket breaks. You end up feeling a bit like Chaplin through the gears, or a victim of Rube Goldberg.

And for whatever reason I can't read Mann for the life of me, nor Eliot. Both just seem thudding and awful.

M.

I'll still say to read the Recognitions first-- people make the same mistake with Pynchon, reading Crying of Lot 49 first because it fits in your ass pocket, and then thinking that Pynchon's much more pop or cutesy than he eventually turns out to be (although I'd make the argument that 49 rehabilitates itself not once but three different times over the course of the book, an odd and unlikely feat for such a little thing).

Anyway, Carpenter's Gothic is a good, extremely claustrophobic elaboration for Gaddis, but _very_ dry, and a bit slight, in comparison to The Recognitions--it's wonderful in the company of JR and The Recognitions, but by itself doesn't really do what the other two were able.

The Recognitions contains, IMO, the main kernel of what Gaddis does for the rest of his career, and is the only one I'd feel comfortable saying that one could read and then forgo the others. It may be his most readable, as well, excepting maybe the 200 pages after the halfway point. Stick it through. It's one of the few books where I can honestly say I felt palpably _changed_ after having read it. Although, granted, that could have been a sign of age: I've grown prematurely crotchety about this sort of thing. But nonetheless, there was a time when it slipped right through the bobwire and downed a calf or two. It happened. I bled.

Best,

M.

Another nonfiction book I had long meant to read and gave up on was Common Ground, about desegregation violence in Boston in the 1970s. In order to provide sufficient background, the author seemed to have started in about the 1400s.

And The Museum Guard by Canadian novelist Howard Norman. Too repetitious, material stretched too thin. I know it was a style thing, but still.

I bought Fingersmith after two tremendous reviews, and was thoroughly annoyed by the book. Prurient piffle.

Surprised to see Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 (a wonderful tale) and Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and The Island of the Day Before (both of which I thought were significant fun) in this mix.

thats all i seem to do at the moment.

I recently found myself fighting though some of Flaubert's Parrot, but eventually stuck it out (and I think that I am glad that I did so). And I was ready to toss An Instance of the Fingerpost with the middle two narrators - but someone coaxed me through that, too.

Lauren, you're right on the money. The book does not change. If you don't like cutesy magic realism, I'd advise you to bail now. Back away from the book.

So what is so excellent about A Suitable Boy and what can you tell me that might get me to the point of pulling it down and replacing its current employment as a bookend with Stephenson's Quicksilver?

The author of Pride & Prejudice, Emma etc is Jane AustEn. AustIn is a city in Texas with a lesser literary reputation.

Improbably romantic names + long descriptions of trees and flowers x Menacing Weir = Hardy in his prime.

It's all about man vs nature, with nature influencing all the major characters in various ways. Particularly the Dorset maiden who gets drowned in the weir.

A gloomy affair, but worth perserverence.

I used to have a stance that when I'd first started a book, I'd finish it. Alas, a few Stephen King books killed that idea for me, as there was no way in hell I'd finish "The Tommyknockers" and "Needful Things".*

Oh, I also stopped reading Gormenghast, but that was because it was a library book that had to be returned; I had been dumb enough to keep it lying about for far too long before flipping it open. Very enjoyable, both easily read and highly evocative. THIS is what I want fantasy to be like - in fact, it's the first fantasy type book I've read that I can truly say I've enjoyed. I figure I'll just buy the trilogy omnibus eventually.

Jack Vance - The Demon Princes.
Yes, that might be just about the worst title ever. It took a friend's constant bugging to finally convince me to give it a shot, but I didn't get much past chapter two of book one before I said "ehh, go to hell!"
It might just be because I've not had any urge to read any science fiction in a long time though, as I didn't mind his writing, and the story seemed like it could go interesting places, despite the distinctly western-story opening.

The best statement on God of Small Things was from a friend who said "She wrote a conventional novel and then hit the Randomize button on her computer."

Possession's neither that good nor that bad. My sister rereads it once a year. I made it through for a book group, but did so by saying "Oh -- clever pastiche of Robert Browning for the next fifteen pages -- duly noted. I'll come back if I've got time." All the old English majors did the same thing and finished. Dutiful people of other backgrounds tried to read the poems as they appeared and didn't finish.

"and pickwick papers."
This is one of the few times you need to stick it out -- Sam Weller doesn't show up until Chapter Five or so, and that's when it takes off. Huck Finn's got the same problem, of course -- the great book starts late and ends early, with dumb chapters in both directions. But then, he didn't know he was writing a Great Book.

Is this true? Did he have a cocaine addiction in the 80s?

in pynchon's defense, i tried to read "v" when i got back & made it only about 40 pages in before quitting because i had no idea what he was talking about (literally).

Yeah I had an American pomo phase in my early 20s where I picked up everything I could find by Barth, Barthelme (Donald) and Coover at the used stores. I don’t think I finished anything by Barth in the end. Love the other two tho

i think i tried pomo people and quickly realized i didn't have what it took to read them. i was going to buy some barthleme the other day though. because he was funny and his shorts were often very short. my kinda pomo. i went to a new new/used bookstore down the road from me - the guy also has a store in brooklyn and please don't let this mean that we are going to be the new brooklyn - and his used fiction was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 80s gen x bookish grad student dude and it made me itchy. so much barth/coover/hawkes and also bellow/roth/updike/etc. so much of it was stuff that was happening in 1986. nothing old or creaky enough for me. it gets harder and harder for me to find a store that sells 50s/60s/70s hardcover OOP fiction. or obscure 19th/early 20th century stuff. the section had to have been 90% dudes. and i read probably 75% laydeez when it comes to fiction. i couldn't help but think that anyone under 50 would just fall asleep looking at all of that on shelves. his new book section was MUCH happier and hipper and i got some great stuff over there. he also had about 10 huge shelves of used poetry and i thought this was admirable because they will no doubt sit there for people to read in the store long after my death.

"Barthelme"

(Donald)

My copy of Coover’s “Universal Baseball Assoc.” sits neatly on my shelf right next to Darnielle’s “Wolf In White Van”, sorted alphabetically by author, but it’s also a topically appropriate adjacency

Also D Barthelme’s 60 Stories is kinda the ne plus ultra of easy pomo reading, I love it

I read Barth's The End of the Road and some Coover and Barthelme over the years but my brain lacks the dendrites or whatever to absorb them.

i have been enjoying diane williams and gary lutz collections of stories. they are inspiring to me in a pomo way. i read a couple here and there for a boost.

I'll tell you who I've been rereading with pleasure: Joy Williams. What a story writer.

Ya she rules. My favourite Carver collection is Cathedral, whereby Gordon Lish had free rein to posthumously divorce the late Raymond from his Hemingway affectations. I found out about Williams via the Lish connection

i've been reading her since breaking and entering came out and been a huge fan ever since. she has truly inspired me over the years. she has always been big with other writers and i think she is finally better known with regular folks as well. partly because of her environmental stances. (i'm sure you will find me raving about her years ago on ILB and wondering why more people don't read her and now i feel like people really are.)

Yeah her early stories and first novel, State of Grace---Florida girl clouds ov imagery around crisis lines, narrative third and other rails---were revelatory to me, though haven't followed her very well since. A relatively recent New Yorker story seemed unfollowable, and interviews can incl. some Joyce-Carol-Oates-on-Twitter-level snobbery, but the early stuff, at least, is fine as wine.

she's 79 and still doing stuff. god bless. i think she's always been a little cranky.

I know that I've heard some of her stories read on "Selected Shorts," and I've loved them, but I can't think of what they were.

I didn't discover her until 2021, and the rhythm, brevity, and its gnomic virtues gripped me from the start

"Marabou" was definitely one.

love that joy williams and gary lutz have come up, they are the greatest

a friend of mine once compared my writing to gary lutz which is an amazing (and undeserved) compliment

ada was one of my favorite books forever ago! reckon these days it'd make my eyes roll so hard they corkscrew out the back of my skull

+1 to the bible-giver-uppers: i was never a believer but in my teens decided i should read it for its literary and cultural value (and also to brag) but within the first few pages god cursed eve and all womankind so i ripped it up and set it on fire because i absolutely do not play that

more recently i tried frederik pohl's beyond the blue event horizon and it was like chapter 1: "no young man, do not commit rape. there is only a 1 in 6 chance you will enjoy it enough for it to be worth the effort lololol" chapter 2: "dear diary, it sure is tiresome to be a forty year old dude on a cramped spaceship with my bitchy wife and her bitchy 14 year old sister who keeps trying to seduce me, guess there's nothing to do but keep beating the ship's (female) computer at chess lololol" and there were some promising sci-fi concepts to begin with but a writer has to be way more entertaining to get me to power through that much hatred