I’m back! Sorry for the lack of posts for a couple of days. I’ve just had a few days where life (and a particularly stubborn book!) have got in the way! For the first time in a long time we had a nice weather day on Friday and I treated myself and the Kids to a day outside. The fresh air did us all the world of good but did nothing for me finishing my current read!
I will be posting a review later but wanted to quickly touch again on the subject of Did Not Finish (DNF) among other random thoughts.
It’s no often that I read a book on a strong recommendation (of not just one friend but several friends) and find that I am not gelling with the story at all. This book has been an amazon bestseller for a while and at least four of my friends have separately recommended it to me so I gave it a go. The synopsis looked good and I was quite intrigued as to how the story would go!
By 10, 20 and even 40% in I was getting more and more disillusioned and frustrated with the story (I won’t say why just yet – read the review!) but as I said before I ploughed on. And do you know what I am very glad I did. Mainly because I would have driven myself to distraction wondering what happened if I hadn’t but also because the story improved a lot after 44% or so. I also felt that I would disappoint others if I didn’t and thought that there must have been something about the book that got others so engaged!
I feel that in order to effectively give any book and author a chance you do need to finish the story. It has happened to me a few times and in every case I am glad I have gone on to finish. Sometimes the stories have disappointed me but others, once I had really got down to them really surprised me!
People DNF a book for many reasons. They don’t like the story, they don’t gel with the characters or they simply object to the style in which it is written. If you don’t like the story or the direction it is heading then fine and to some extent you need to either gel or at least identify with the characters on some level but I’d always say give it a go, give it a chance!
Every book is written in a different style, some in first person, others in dual aspect and some in third person narrative. Now I don’t have a particular favourite mode of narration but firmly believe that it depends on the story and characters as to which way works best. I know that often readers prefer a specific narrative but again I think the there have been some amazing books written in all types. I don’t think you can dismiss any book just because not written in third person or dual aspect, but you’d be surprised that some people do and will put a DNF review and 1 star review just because of that!
There are other people who also have preferences as to how the time perspective is written. Some jump about from past to present and back again, almost backfilling the story if you like. Others read as if in the present and thats ok too. And again I am a firm believer that it depends on the particular story and the characters as to which way works best! Again it all comes down to personal preference but I personally would never turn down a book down because of when and on what timescale it was written. But again some people do and can be very critical because of it.
Anyhow whether rightly or wrongly that is the way the cookie crumbles. Life would be boring if everyone thought the same I guess! And on that bombshell……. (And yes Mr Bookbabe is watching TopGear in the background…!) goodnight!
