Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.
I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a couple of weeks now. I really wanted to do the lunch table one from a few weeks ago but I got busy and then it was suddenly Friday and not Tuesday anymore. I'm thinking maybe I'll do that anyway as a separate post. I really need to get up on the blog scheduling thing but... Queen of Procrastination here. Yup it's my unofficial title and I tend to do a good job at keeping it. I keep telling myself that I'll stop procrastinating so much and start planning ahead but guess what? I procrastinated with that too. Oops.
Anyway, this week's topic is books that were hard for me to read. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that I didn't like the books (though for some of these I really didn't). They were just hard to read, for various reasons.
Top Ten Books that were Hard for Me to Read
The Ones with the Weird Language
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein - So technically, I'm not done reading this book. I haven't DNF'ed it yet though. I started it for a book club in August but only got up to like page 60 or so. It's not really a bad book, it's just not my norm and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. It's historical fiction and it definitely read as such. What's really getting me though is all the plane vocabulary. My interest in planes and my general knowledge of them reached just about 0% so to have a character who explains in detail the ins and outs of planes, their types, and how she's directing air traffic is making it very difficult for me to read.
The Maze Runner by James Dashner - What with the movie out (which I still haven't seen) I figured I'd read this book. In short, I didn't not like it, I just didn't love it and it took me a long time to get into it. The characters seemed a little flat to me and it took me a long time to get used to their slang. I get that the slang was supposed to help immerse the reader into the secluded world these boys have been living in but, honestly, just say it. Their lives were shit not "klunk."
The Ones that were Epically Long-Winded
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - I really, really, really want to finish this! I've started it so many times but it's just such a large book! I watched the mini-series when it first came on TV and I loved it. I was also in the middle of an Arthurian legends obsession that I haven't completely gotten over but that's beside the point. Every time I start this, I can't get past the first chapter. Morgaine's narration is just so long-winded. I will finish this though... eventually.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire - Now, I only read this once and it was a long time ago. My memory of reading this being bored through a lot of it but wanting to finish it just because it's related to The Wizard of Oz which has always been one of my favorite movies. (I should really read the book too, oops.) There was just a lot of politics going on in this book which I wasn't expecting when I started it.
Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull - This was the first book of Brandon Mull's that I've ever read and I got it as an ARC copy from work. Technically, I liked this book. There was a lot of really interesting world building and concepts that I found really cool. My only problem with it was book was about 500 pages when it really didn't need to be. It was wordy and overly-detailed to the point where I started skimming pages just to get back to what was important.
The Ones that had Horribly Annoying Characters
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare - If you've frequented my blog before, you might know of my dislike for this book already. I realize I'm definitely in the minority when it comes to this one. After reading The Infernal Devices and absolutely loving it, I couldn't wait to start on The Mortal Instruments. Saying I got through this book, is saying a lot. I just, I couldn't with the characters. Some of the choices they made were just so dumb I really wanted to knock some sense into them.
Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple - This is not a book I would have picked up if it hadn't been chosen for a book club I was a part of. It was interesting to read since the first part of it was made up emails and letters and other correspondence of Bernadette. However, the problems that surrounded Bernadette just seemed too upper class suburbia for me to relate to. Like really, there was a whole part complaining about blackberry bushes ruining the view or a garden or some silly thing like that. If blackberry bushes are your biggest concern, go pick them and make blackberry pies. Just stop whining about it.
The Ones that Just Needed to End
Seeing Redd and Archenemy by Frank Beddor - I really loved The Looking Glass Wars which is the first book of this trilogy. But the second two, just seemed unnecessary. Yes, there were plot holes from the first book that needed to be filled but Seeing Redd and ArchEnemy just didn't do the first book proper justice.
Something Blue by Emily Giffin - Okay so I'll admit that the only reason I read Something Borrowed was because I liked the movie. (It had Snow White from Once Upon a Time in it and Jim from The Office how could I not like it?) Something Borrowed was pretty okay but Something Blue, not so much. I didn't really like Darcy as a character to begin with when I read the first book. So reading a whole book all about her pretty difficult. It took a lot of redeeming just to get me to sort of like her.
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke - I didn't finish this one. There was a lot going on but none of it was particularly interesting. I feel like this whole book could have been edited down to about 200 pages and readers would have gotten the gist of it. I was down to the last hundred pages when I gave up and stop caring about what was going to happen to the characters. I'm hoping something was just lost in translation since this was originally written in German because the concept of the book is really cool. I just couldn't get myself to finish it.
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