Wednesday, May 6, 2009
*sad face*
Still not ready for the classics yet. Alex recommended Love in the Time of Cholera.
Okay.
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Time Traveler's Wife
I forgot about my love/hate relationship with this book. It's an amazing and refreshing idea; it has a great plot, fun characters ((for the most part)), and I really do enjoy it. But I hate Niffenegger's writing style. I abhor it, really. She's way too in love with run-on sentences, fragments, and semi-colons ((though, I am trying to fall in love with semi-colons myself...but too many of them I find distracting)). The semi-colons and run-on especially grind my gears. Okay, so it's cute when Clare is twelve and is talking in run-on sentences. It's a characteristic. I get it. But when she's twenty years old, and a college graduate...it's time to stop. And yes, I know people do not think in perfect English, but you know what...that is what's so great about a novel. I don't have to sift through a person's jack rabbit-paced mind trying to comprehend.
Furthermore, "I hate it when she doesn't use tags after dialogue." "When it reads like this, it's just stupid. And wrong. I hate that." I'm all for creative license and liberties and what not, but honestly now....
Unfortunately, what I've listed are not things I can overlook. The mistakes are glaringly obvious ((just who in the hell was her editor?!)), which makes for a slow read. Not to mention, it's written in first person point of view, which I hate. Not only that, but it switches between the two characters - excessively. It's not just switching POVs as a new chapter begins ((which would be tolerable)); it's right in the middle of the chapter, or a scene, or a conversation. It's unnecassary and annoying.
This book makes me absurdly positive that it's going to be twice as hard to get a novel published than I had originally thought. Apparently, you can suck at all things structurally and grammatically correct, but you need a wicked story idea. I fall short in the second category.
But really, I do like the book...I just don't like the author...or how it's written.
Excited for the movie to come out though. Should be better.
Anyway. I feel accomplished. Yay.
" "
I have about fifty pages left to read of Three Weeks with My Brother. I've practically devoured that book; it's so awesome. I'll definitely have it finished by tomorrow - probably while I'm at work. With that said, I need to figure out what I'm going to read next. I want something contemporary. Not quite ready to jump back into the classics yet - so Bronte, and Hawthorne, and Tolskoy are going to have to wait.
I'm thinking I should probably finish reading The Time Traveler's Wife, being as I started that ages ago - and had to stop once the semester started. I'm not quite halfway finished with it. It makes sense to start that book, but I kind of want to start something new, too. I want to give my library card a workout.
To choose from, I have:
The Time Traveler's Wife - again, this would be ideal to finish.
A Northern Light - which Sarah swears is amazing. I don't know when I'll see her again to borrow it from her, so...I guess I can get it from the library, though.
The Host - I should really save this for the summer...It looks to be an epic.
Marley & Me - totally random, and heard-tell it's a tear-jeaker, but whatthehell.
Hmm...decisions, decisions. Oh, well, I'll figure something.
...in unrelated news, I need a freakin' title.
And that is all.
