Banging on the Plexiglass: Books You Ought to Like But Don't

[fictional]

Have you ever had the following experience? You are reading a book, and you think, "I really should like this!" Suppose your favorite thing in the whole world is tea, followed closely by magical adventures, and then you discover, Lo & Behold, someone has written a book about Enchanted Lapsang Souchong, and it even has an interlude in a cabbage patch, and cabbage just happens to be your favorite vegetable. In addition, it features a feisty heroine, and a stuttering hero (and you hate to admit it, but stutters make shivers crawl up and down your spine) - and you like to think of yourself as fairly fiesty, and admiring of fiesty-ness, so that should be all right....

...and then you sit down to read, and for some reason... it's just not doing it! But...you want it to work! You ought to like it. You are rooting for the author, in fact you are the exact opposite of the traditional hostile and suspicious audience. They had you at Enchanted Tea, for God's sake!

You keep reading as hard as you can, till the taste of ashes filles your mouth, and you can no longer battle the despair.

What does this? Why does it happen? Sometimes all the ingredients are right, but the dish just didn't fly. This feeling is even worse when you can tell that the book is well written. It's a bit like having really bad insomnia - wanting to rest so very badly, feeling the tiredness wash over you, but unable to break through the glass window that's separating you and sleep. You can see sleep from there. You just can't get to it.

What throws you out of books? Thoughts?

Comments

[magnetgirl.livejournal.com]

I do this much more with movies than with books. I invest so much in books that I like them most of the time, even if I don't LOVE them, even when they don't click for me.

Actually, that's a lie, you know who this happens for me with? DAVID FUCKING SEDARIS. I try to so hard to be impressed, and passages he writes can be quite funny, but, overall-I'm just BLAH about him.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. I've never been able to get into him.

I have this weird mood thing, where if things don't stroke me just right, i can't open. that ended up way more sexual than I meant, but you know what I mean? I think I do it more for books than movies. Maybe it has to do with amount of exposure?

[magnetgirl.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is we have to tape the book to your hands, force your eyes open and MAKE you read before you'll enjoy it?