What have you read because you felt obligated to?

Hehe just don't read it and say you did.

I have probably tried reading a few things because I was obligating MYSELF to, in that 'everyone else has read it, very important book' sort of way. Don't usually persevere though.

The last thing I read out of a sense of duty to someone ELSE was... I can't even quite remember the title... Bookends? anyway the very worst kind of pastel-coloured chick-lit, by Jane Green. It was about some neurotic London girl with a gay best friend and man trouble following her dream to open a bookshop/cafe, and one of my boyfriend's coworkers lent it to me 'because you like books. And cafes.' (nb those may not have been her exact words). Arrgh. I read it all the way through though. Noble.

ha. bookends. i was doing some work for a small bookshop when the advance copy came in, and we would read passages aloud in the kitchen.

All my life have been particularly prickly about feeling obligated to read anything, including school assignments. If the book is shite, I'm on strike.

Margaret Weiss without Tracy Hickman is like Morrissey without Marr. Read Dragonlance Chronicles or Legends instead. I once felt obliged by a friend to read Tarantula by Bob Dylan. I'm still puzzled.

one of my college friends was obsessed with farina's down so long it looks like up to me. i slogged through it, but i thought it was pretentious, rugged-individualist garbage.

I felt obligated to read "1984" before 1984 actually came around. But I liked it. Then I had to re-read it for a proofreading assignment. Even then, it wasn't bad. In fact, I'm glad I read it twice, because there are so many things about the current political situation that remind me of it. And I don't mean just Big Brother.

A friend of mine often feels obligated to read best-sellers and then he complains to me about how bad they are. Well duh.

The only things, outside of textbooks, that I've felt obliged to read were friends' manuscripts or books bought for me as presents. With the manuscripts I'm usually pretty positive about them since they're finished by the time I get to read them and the writer is looking for a little ego-stroking. Books that people buy me are a little trickier, because I feel obliged to tell the truth about them, but in a nice way. My Mam bought me some dreadful book about the secrets of the pyramids a few years ago, and I had to physically resist the urge to shout "what on earth made you think I would read this crap?" at her. Then I read it and it was crap and I told her so. She hasn't bought me a book since. I feel bad about that.

haha i loved those books in high school

Vermont Girl, I am, like, a total loser and you would never go to bed with me unless I threatened you. Good thing I'm, like, a total bruiser too. Back in Wisconsin I used to go to a huge, beautiful state park twice a year for a live reenactment of the Lord of the Rings. We would get filthy and sweaty all afternoon, then good or evil would win and we'd all go get pifflicated. It was actually quite the kick if you got into it -- stereotypes aside, there were plenty of fen in good enough shape to chase you around the woods for hours without giving up. And yes, I kept a point sheet on my person. I am not ashamed and I am not proud, I just like fun so nyah nyah pbbbt pbbbt.

(By the way, I haven't gone to this thing for years, since I moved to Chicago and pissed off the guy who always gave me a ride [we became roommates, big mistake], so if anyone wants to drive me up to Governor Dodge State Park this fall I'll try to remember the rules and show ya the ropes...)

atwood's surfacing

geh, come on now, Atwood is perfectly acceptable reading for ten-year-olds...

(don't you hate authors who should have been children's-books writers but wanted to be considered more 'important'? Amy Tan comes to mind...)

(I'm waiting on the illustrator of my children's book and I'm proud, dammit!)

Ann, when you say 'waiting on', do you mean you have one and you're waiting for them to turn up, or you don't have one yet and you're waiting for one to come along, or your illustrator has just ordered waffles from you?

I've always wanted to be able to write a children's book, because good children's books are the most beloved books of all. But I don't think I could do it. I'm v. impressed by children's writers and, like you, don't see why people can't just let themselves be that if that's their true calling.

Uh, the spectre of Attwood's Surfacing. A book so awful it made me want to hunt down all existing copies and burn them. At which point I would start for Attwood herself. I would bash her over the head with a copy of the Blind Assassin.

I like Ann's involvement with the LOTR people. I wonder if she wore her famous dress?

I am delighted to hear that I'm not alone in my hatred of Atwood's surfacing. I am sure there are countless counter examples within my own list of favorites, but as a general rule of thumb, I have trouble with novels written by poets. Or perhaps it would be better to say that Surfacing illustrates what can go wrong when a poet writes a novel. Narrative, character, and even coherence are all shoved aside to make way for...figurative language.

Heh I mean I'm waiting FOR the illustrator, whom I have picked and who has responded favorably to the picking, to get the illustrations done. It may be a while -- she's a busy girl. But I knew she was going to take a while to get to it when I asked her; I, like many others, wanted her 'cos she's good. Also, the characters are rodents, and she and I share a sort of obsessive passion for the little fellers. Well, technically one of the characters is a lagomorph, but YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN...

Someone sent me "She's Come Undone" in a bookswap. I read it. It wasn't hard, but I was amazed at how very Oprah it was. And how crap.