Abandoned Tomes

Every now and then, I start to read a book, but I don't finish. Maybe the book failed to interest me. Maybe the writing style didn't fit my tastes. Maybe a character annoyed me too much and I had to move on. For whatever reason, I hate to waste time reading something I don't like, there is just too much other good stuff out there. When such cases arise, I'll write about them here, and give my reason for putting them down, and the odds I'll pick the book back up again in the future.

Here are three such books for Starters:


Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

This one I really wanted to like, well, I want to like every book I read, but this one in particular. This is a pretty popular title, it is a bestseller, and sometimes I guess I want to read books lots of other people like. I knew from previous encounters that Jane Austen isn't my favorite flavor, but the back blurb promised zombie hordes, bloody battlefields, and there was even mention of Satan, so I thought I would really like it. However, I was wrong. The zombies weren't enough to keep me interested, and while I appreciate what Grahame-Smith did - twisting up a classic of literature, an idea I wish I had thought of first - I couldn't find it in me to finish the book.

Chance of giving it another go: nil






The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt

I bought this book a few months ago when I went on a Steampunk kick and was buying up Steampunk titles as fast as I could. The synopses I read had me excited, and I had read good things about it on the internets. I will say, this was a pretty good book, the ideas it bought out were cool, it was creative and different from other fantasy I had read, but one little thing got under my skin, and made me chuck the book across the room. There was a character in the book named Stave, he was meant to be a bit of a sketchy dude, and whenever Hunt mentioned him in the text it was like this: "the disreputable Stave..." Always with the "disreputable", but never did Hunt show that he was disreputable. I kept waiting for some proof of this, for some dishonest moment to arise, but it didn't, and it got under my skin, and I had to give this one the hook. So, Mr. Hunt if you ever read this, I'm sorry, I liked your book, but I like for the author to show me things not tell me.

Chance of giving it another go: slim




Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon

Do I sometimes judge a book by its cover? Do the Yankees suck? The answer to both is YES. So I'm not perfect. I fully admit that one of the reasons I purchased this book was for the absolutely beautiful and freaky cover done by Stephen Martiniere. That isn't the only reason though. I had heard lots of good things about this book, and lots of folks whose opinions I trust and respect really enjoy this series. I however, couldn't get into it. It is a little bit sci-fi and a little bit fantasy, but I read about 250 pages of it and I just was not into it. I wish I had a better reason than that, but there just wasn't that little something that hooked me in and got me really into the book. Maybe the timing just wasn't right, and someday I'll be able to enjoy this one.

Chance of giving it another go: moderate