Yesterday, Word Nerd started the Push to get done with one of the books she's reading, "A Feast for Crows" by George R.R. Martin.
The Push regularly happens for Word Nerd while reading. It's like the make or break point ... either that she's read enough to make not-finishing not worth it so why not just get it over with, or if she picks the book up now, there's no way she'll put it back down until it's done because not knowing what happens is going to make her crazy.
Sadly, for Martin's book, it's the former. Yesterday, Word Nerd was at page 460 in this massive 694 page tome. 460 pages read though is like two-thirds, so Word Nerd decided she'd better just start making a concerted effort to read the rest of it. (Plus, the library wants its copy back on 5-19...)
As of this morning, Word Nerd's at least 60 pages ahead of where she was, somewhere in the 520-540 page range.
By early next week, hopefully she'll be done all together and can pick up the kind of book where the better kind of push happens at the end.
Does this happen to anybody else while reading? What novels have you either raced to the end of or slogged word-after-word to finish? Have you ever been surprised by what you find when you get there?
Share your thoughts...
6 comments:
I'm actually in a Jane Austen book club. I've listened to three in book-on-CD fashion, and I've read two of them. The two I actually had to read I only managed to finish by sitting down somewhere with NOTHING else to do and forcing myself to finish them.
JGDP -- are you for real? Which five Austen books?
Want to join my Count of Monte Cristo book club instead?
I have certain authors that I only start their books on Fridays, knowing that I'm going to want to read non-stop.
Actually, Rachel Caine is one of those, now that I think about it.
I had troubles with Don Quxiote. Loved the plot, but the writing style taxed me. I pushed to get through the first half, and someday I'll read the second half.
I'm a firm believer that not all books deserve to be read entirely, so I will often pack it in before I'm finished. If you have to force yourself to read it, why do it at all? You might be giving the book more attention than it deserves.
I did force myself to finish Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for a Romantic Lit class, and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. The writing was still sub-par, but the ideas were interesting enough that I actually joined the class discussion.
The five where the girl gets married to the guy at the end... oh, wait!
Northanger Abbey
Sense and Sensibility
Mansfield Park
Emma
Persuasion
As for the good count, uh, I'm taking a break from trying to improve my mind. Sometime next month I'm going to have to tackle Pride, and frankly, that's plenty... Perhaps another time.
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