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Do You 'Give Up' On Books?

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barry1010 | 16:34 Thu 18th May 2023 | Arts & Literature
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I used to be very reluctant to give up on any novel but I find myself doing it more and more often, I totally lose patience.
I gave up on a book I had been looking forward to reading three quarters of the way through last night. I think my concentration is not what it was. It was translated from Norwegian and I couldn't remember if characters were male or female and kept mixing them up.

Or maybe it's because books are so easy to come by these days I always have a few queued up to read.
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While i usually enjoy fantasy novels, one i did give up on was the Bible. Too much begetting and not enough sex.
Ark at you.
Ken, the bible gets off to a flying start;

Genesis 2:24 reads, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
That's just the predicted results of a nuclear explosion, Khandro.
Khandro, 10:27.
"Ken, the bible gets off to a flying start;

Genesis 2:24 reads, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
"
What does that stuff mean? I'd really like to know what you make of it.
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Atheist, it means 'You will become a man, my son'
I stopped reading fiction many years ago. Biogs/autobiogs are much more engaging in my opinion.
I felt guilty the first time I gave up on a book. It was 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog' and I was doing my teaching course. In the end I read the 1st 3 chapters and the last 3 chapters, then wrote an essay on the evolution of the character! (I got an A).

I also enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club and its successors as light, escapist reading - which you need. Just to back up - I forget who else admitted to liking them. Not great lit., but fill a gap.

These days, with 'Time's winged chariot hurrying near' etc. I abandon books more easily, but I always try to give them a fair chance and have even found myself reading 'chick-lit'! I am appalled in many cases, but it makes sense to see what appeals to the younger generation. My opinion, for what it is worth, is that a subculture of literary expectation is alive and flourishing and that serious reading, or the capacity to cope with it, cannot be expected of the majority.

'We need to talk about Kevin', someone mentioned that, I persevered with it and was very glad I did so. Don't give up on it - oh! and 'The Lovely Bones' was another which was
well worth finishing.

I'm doing a creative writing course and the lecturer has done scripts for Dr. Who etc. - he's not over-enthusiastic about standards, but needs to pay the bills.
barry... I'm still lost.
I never gave up on the bible; it never meant anything credible to me. What does Khandro mean when he posts his stuff? PLease let me know, Kh...
Yep
I started the torah, the bible and the koran. And gave up on then before the end. Too preachy for me ;-)
jourdain. Re Creative Writing courses. I think we might do better with enjoyable reading courses. Creative Writing seems to be all about teaching wannabees to copy the latest successful stuff. Why can't creative writers be left to create, rather than be taught what omniscient narrators, and multiple first person narrators and (heaven-forbid) second person unreliable narrators might be.
We want stories, that grab us and hold on.
Atheist - no-one on this course is telling me what to write at all. Why I am sticking at it is that if forces me to DO something. I.e. A 'prompt' is thrown at you and you have 3 minutes to produce something. It is really making me search and write and face deep urges to produce.
It may be rather different from the ones you are thinking of as most of us are over 50 and are people with creativity why are yearning to express our thoughts.

This course shows us lots of different ways to approach that and explains the various forms and, quite frankly, forces us out of our comfort zones. I can't answer for such as uni. C.writing courses, other than that our lecturer is doing a PHD at Hull and says that the students he lectures there need their hands holding more than us and that we have got through three times as much of the course in one term than the kids have. We also challenge him and make him think.
I think I get what you are complaining about, but this isn't like that. It's enabling us to explore different forms, but appreciating the forms we choose. One of the prerogatives of age and experience, I suppose.
Atheist; //What does that stuff mean? I'd really like to know what you make of it.//

It's about bonking.
\\ It's about bonking.//
You'd think God would be more creative than to list all the bonkers in his best seller.
Gave up on The Seven Sisters, first in a series of novels by Lucinda Riley. Found it very boring and couldn't get interested in the characters
I do sometimes, and search "a book a minute", to see if its listed.
Like TTT i finish a book if i m stuck with it. One can get the gist of it if you speed read to the end of the book.

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