Giving a book another chance

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Have you ever encountered a book that folks had praised to the skies and you tried it but couldn't get into it?

Then, a year or two later, you pick it up and WOW WHAT A GREAT BOOK?

That happened with me with The Hobbit. ...

Everyone was The Hobbit this and The Hobbit that and I tried it; actually read it (don't remember if I made it all the way through ...) and it wasn't very interesting!

Then I picked it up a year or so later and -- WOW WHAT A GREAT BOOK. Read it. Devoured it! Then started Lord of the Rings books. Oh my.

Just total oh my. And I laugh that I hadn't even liked The Hobbit the first time around. I'm SO glad that I gave it another go.
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What books or series, have you encountered, where you tried it and it just didn't work. Then, a week, a month, a year later you picked it up and were captivated?

[Prof. Maxim Trevelyan]

Gosh, is it bad if they are the SAME books as yours Tarma?

Anyway, I have never read Lord of the Rings, when the craze was alive during the movies. Nor did I particularly wished to read The Hobbit after Jackson's another venture to Middle Earth. Everybody was talking about the movie and the books. It was just too much and that kind of turned me away from them. I took one look at LOTR and was horrified at the page range and I thought The Hobbit was the same. It is Tolkien we are talking about.

But then, Tarma happened. Or more precisely, The Hobbit: From Tolkien to Jackson happened. After utterly failing to be my very best last term, I decided (with Tarma's permission) to take the class again to repair my class ego a little. For one of the assignments, I had to read The Hobbit book. However, I finished it before Winter Reading Challenge, so it sadly does not count toward my five book pledge.

But, for one part of the assignment, I had to read a chapter from any Lord of the Rings books and compare the writing styles. I chose a random chapter in the middle of the Fellowship of the Ring and BOY WAS I WRONG BEFORE. The story, even though I had no idea what it was about (starting in the middle of the book does that), but it totally drew me in. I had no idea why I did not even gave it a chance all those years ago. Because I had other things to do in RL, I did not starting reading the book until a few days ago, officially finishing it this morning. I will borrow Tarma's exclamation. Oh my. I loved it! I am so glad there are two other books and although I am pretty familiar with the movie story, I cannot wait to re-experience it in the book world. At this rate, all my pledge books will be Tolkien's.

[Katya Snow]

Wow! mine was actually the LOTR series too! i read The Fellowship of the Ring a long time ago and i got to the Counsel of Elrond part, and i just couldn't keep going! i abandoned it because i hadn't been too interested in it to begin with. i picked up the Hobbit just before the movie came out because i wanted to read the book before i saw the movie (its a thing) and i was blown away by how good it was! curious but skeptical i decided to read the LOTR series as well ad was astonished at how amazing it was, when i had hated it so much ago! i'm waiting to borrow a copy of the simmillarion(SP?) when my tiny library finally orders it... probobly next year XP

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Well. I just finished American Gods (by Neil Gaiman). I gave it another chance.

I probably need to go write up a 'book report' on it, too. But I saw this topic and ... ah ha.

Ages ago, okay, a year or so ago, I finally checked it out from the library. Again. I was going to read it! Oh, yes, I was. Neil Gaiman is a favourite author of mine, and I usually love most of his books. I particularly love the Sandman 'books' (comics?) and others (NEVERWHERE!!!!!!) are also particular favourites of mine.

So I check out American Gods. Actually read a chapter or two. Then ... put it aside. Nope. Certain HOL persons, the Fluffy Pink Slipper and the Butterfly, hassled me. 'You gotta read it!' but nope. Then I found a relatively inexpensive copy of the book just sitting there, saying 'buy me'. So I bought it. Brought it home August 15, 2016, and didn't read it. Nope. I tried! I read up to maybe 1/3 of the way. And put it aside. (I also refused to read it at night, which is the main time I read. While it's not as terrifying as The Ocean at the End of the Lane, it has it's moments of terror floating in the stream of continual unease and fright.)(Yes, I have a very vivid imagination, why do you ask?)

So the television show starts up and my 'friends' are hassling me again. READ IT. So I picked it up last Wednesday (May 3rd); started reading. Guess who experiences a huge lightning and thunder storm Thursday afternoon and evening? Yes, me. The power was flickering continually, the house would shake. I refused to read it that day. (And when have we had a lightning storm of this strength and duration? NEVER.)

So Friday I picked it up to read again. I read when I could read. Then at 1:58 am Sunday (May 7th) I finished it. And was awake for maybe another hour or so. Hmmm.

[Kaitlyn Nightingale]

Well, I haven't read The Hobbit. Sorry I won't be joining your little club. But it is pretty likely that if I read it, I would dislike it at first as well.

But ever since I was little I disliked The Little Prince. I tried reading it once, but first of all, I was to young to appreciate the deep meaning of the book. Everybody kept saying how brilliant it was and I was like:
As I got older and I kept hearing about the book, I realised that the actual reason why I hated to read it wasn't the story or the meaning, it was the awful translation. In my native language (Czech) it's written in an endearing way that's a bit too similar to children's stories and I, who have desperately wanted to be treated as an adult since I was about nine, couldn't take it seriously.

So recently I bought The Little Prince in English (well, I let my grandma buy if for me for Christmas a year and half ago) and it's waiting for me on the shelf with the other books I've enthusiastically bought and didn't find the time to read yet. And eventually, I might... I SHOULD read it in French as well to practice before my exams...
I'm sure I'll like it, I just need a little time before I get to it

[Shiloh Adlar]

I'm doing this with the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristen Cast. I finally finished Burned, the seventh novel in the series, but it took an entire year for me to come back to it. The series started off really good but then it seemed to drag.

However, this book was slightly more interesting and maybe it's because I listened to the audio book this time instead. Whatever reason, I found myself more in tune with the plot and the new "relationship" Stevie Rae develops. Stark also makes an interesting discovery in his blood line and new characters are introduced, and I really liked them. I feel like this book ended a part of the story and something new is about to begin in the next, a new challenge. We'll see.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

I read (and have) many of the House of Night books, Shiloh. An HOL person, Professor Opal Curare, recommended them to me when I was looking for something to read. She knew I'd read the Twilight books, and thought that another 'vampire' series might interest me.

I really liked how the first book (Marked) started out and then, somehow, after the third or fourth one, it seemed like it was being contrived. Something like them writing a sequel to a series because it is popular (and sells well) rather than having something more to say about that story. So I stopped reading them.

Then, later on, I started again with book 1 and this time continued through to book six, enjoying them enough to add them to my library. But that 7th book of the series that you mention was just ... no. I didn't even feel like finishing it because, again, it seemed that the plot was dragging along, and was, in feel, contrived. Who knows. Maybe I'll try it again, because of what you wrote, and get to the 7th book and find out that they managed to revive the story in a 'real' sort of way.

[Shiloh Adlar]

I finished the next book in the series Awakened and while I did give it three stars, I went back and forth with it. The plot seemed a little better, but there was still a lot of "oh no...not this again" going on for me. However I think I liked this book a lot more because of the message it sends throughout it, though I wonder if they tried a little too hard at times for it being in novel form.

A couple MAJOR events happen in this book, and I did go "OH MY GODDESS NO!!!" when they came up or "Woohoo!" for one of them. I'm looking forward to the next read but not before reading some more classic literature to make me feel intelligence coursing through my brain again. All of the teenage drama was cute in the beginning, but the books are really making me feel kind of brainless when I read it now.

[Shiloh Adlar]

I keep coming back to the House of Night series and while I have been disappointed with the last few books I read, Dragon's Oath, a House of Night novella set between Awakened and Destined was quite good. I was intrigued to learn more about Anastasia's and Dragon's relationship and honestly with this background information, I'm looking more forward to reading the next book. However, my heart wept knowing what is to come, and I truly hope a change takes place so Dragon can be with his mate once more in the Otherworld. I do wish all the House of Night novels were such as this one, getting to the point without all the teenage angst.