Sometimes I have a Reading Disconnect

Connection. It’s one of the reasons I love reading. I need that thread that pulls me into a story. I have to have that one character who it’s essential that they make it out alive once the series is done and dust. Or I really need these two characters to fall in love. Or sometimes, especially in dark fantasy books, I might, just need that character to be eliminated. Painfully or excruciatingly. What is it with me and needing authors to not be afraid to kill characters off? Maybe it says something about my reading tastes. So let's look at a few books that I disconnected from and some of the reasons why certain books haven't quite worked for me.

Sorry in advance as I know some of the Wenches have enjoyed a few of the books and series below.

All My Friends Love It.

If I don’t have that connection though, the book may very well end up being a DNF (Did Not Finish) or you might find I’ve read the first couple of in a series, but have no desire to carry on. This is not to say I won’t persevere if a friend has told me I have to read the book. You guys don’t know how much I wanted to love Chicagoland Vampires. I really, really did! I wanted to be able to gush and pour out the love. But I didn’t like Merit. I couldn’t connect with her and as you know she is the main character, so while a teeny bit of me envies the love I see for this series, it isn’t for me. I wish I could fangirl too.

I wanna be a fangirl too!

It's Insanely Amazing. Anyone who Reads it Loves it.

The wildly popular The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I tried three times to read that book. Was there something wrong with me that I couldn’t enjoy it? After all so many fantasy lovers adore the book. A friend of mine thinks Rothfuss’s work is amazing! The main character, Kvothe, I didn’t care if he lived or died. I couldn’t feel myself being pulled into the story to become so invested that I wanted to see how the story unfolded. I think three times is definitely a very solid effort to try to read a book. Really I should have DNF’d that book the first time, but you know I have read books where I’ve had to push myself through the first 100-200 pages and suddenly I’m in love with how a book is progressing. But even when I’ve pushed myself on there has been some small factor that hooked me in. With The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton it was simply that it opened with the words, “A man walked into a bar.” I was intrigued. So much so, that even now I tell friends you have to get past the first two hundred pages and then you will be invested in the outcome. As I’ve stated previously it’s probably the best book I’ve ever read and I had to persevere. What I’m trying to say is that I really felt like I gave The Name of the Wind a fair chance to be a book I could enjoy. It just wasn’t to be. I even had the odd comment on Goodreads in some of the discussion groups saying that a lover of the series can’t understand how anyone could dislike the book. Please, I can dislike the book and we ain't all the same.  Okay, or maybe it is just me that couldn't find the will to carry on with the book.

Seriously, I tried three times.

Eventually I Got Bored.

Then there are the DNF’s of series you’ve loved for a long time. Hello Cut & Run by Abigail Roux. Loved the first four books. Steady decline in the series from book 5 onwards. Sometimes you just fall out of love with a series. Maybe it’s the characters no longer connect to you. Maybe you’ve just moved on to other obsessions. Maybe the hype wore off and you realise you had rose tinted glasses on. Sometimes it’s a hell of a lot fun to be involved in a fandom. You might have thought I had learnt my lesson with The Book Series That Shall not be Named. Alas I didn’t learn my lesson. In the heady days of fandom though, your love of a series can be consuming, but when you look back and DNF a series, you sometimes realise that you don’t miss it at all. Isn’t it funny, as if you had asked me that question a when I was in the height of fandom, I never would have thought so. But once the connection is lost, it’s lost forever with me. 

Next book please.

You're Trying to Make Money Off Me.

Then there is the DNF’s that clearly are just a way to try to make more money out of the reader. Disconnected! Hello the waste of time that was The Book Series That Shall not be Named 13.5 edition. Although I have to say some of my favourite reviews of all time come from books I’ve DNF’d and other people haven’t enjoyed as well. The wit and humour of some people amazes me when they haven’t enjoyed something as well, but are able to find humour. Best one liner from a quote from my great friend Olga in regards to 13.5, "Kill me. Kill me now with a fork." I laughed so hard. Plus the review has monkeys in it. Read it here. Also those reviewers that manage to turn a negative into a positive from pbl. (who also happens to be a friend of mine). "...the hardcover makes an excellent serving tray to serve drinks to my on-line friends who found AD hard to digest (I suggest buying the Haribo Gummy Candy, Sugarless Gummy Bears, 5-Pound Bag)"Read it here. I adore funny reviews. Sometimes it makes the trauma of reading a book so much easier.

Money, money, money.

I Don't Like the Characters. Wake Me When it's Over.

A Discovery of Witches By Deborah Harkness. Yes I couldn’t finish it. I just didn’t like the characters. Diana and Matthew I just didn’t feel the romance or any investment in where your story was going. Plus I’m putting my hand up saying I tend to like vampire stories. I do. Seriously. No, don’t recall that I already stated I couldn’t get into another popular vampire series. Maybe I need to eat my words when it comes to vampire stories. Okay, I get it. I need to admit I don’t always like vampire stories. In this confession perhaps I need to state I only like some vampire stories. Plus my vampires you know are only allowed to sustain themselves on blood.

I know. I'm lying I guess I don't like vampire stories.

Anyway funny review of A Discovery of Witches on Goodreads. Tickled my funny bone.

My Friend Made Me Read It. 

It was recommended to me. Insert a crying emoji of your choice.  I can't let them down. You've worn me down. Against my better judgment I start to read the series. I've already known the odds of me liking it are virtual zero, but I want to love what you love. I love talking books with you. Sometimes we do like the same books. I know it's occasional, but I don't want to let you down. Why oh why did you make me read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer? Although the better question might be how come I read as far as halfway through Breaking Dawn? A fool for punishment perhaps. See sometimes I read, thinking it has to get better. My friend loved me. What the hell is wrong with me that I can't see why she loves this book so much? Why on this green earth, did I not have the strength to stop myself. The trouble is sometimes you read and read through a series trying to glimpse that magic that another reader has felt. However that magic isn't always there for everyone. Sometimes it just takes a bit longer to realise you are never going to find it. No matter how hard you try.

I don't know why. It was a moment of insanity.

It's Just My Opinion. 

Let me add the above is all merely one person's view on a couple of books and series. Other people I know love and adore some of these books and that's wonderful. The world is a diverse place and we don't love all the same things. Plus I do love it when friends love the same book or series as me, but I also respect that we don't always see eye to eye. Plus different aspects of a story are going to connect with each individual based on life experience, the things we enjoy and what we get out of novel. It's never going to be exactly the same. Perhaps that is the beauty of sites like Goodreads in that we will connect and find those readers who feel the same about a book as we do. Yet on the next book we are miles apart. So well all books aren't the same for everyone, there is sure to be a book or a series out there that you will connect with. Good luck on your reading travels.

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Do you sometimes experience a reading disconnect?