Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Meanwhile

I never want to hate a book. Never. I know how hard it is to write one. And I know how it feels when people say unkind things about your work. BUT.

I am reading something I truly dislike right now: THE GATHERING by Anne Enright. It's a Booker prize winner and really it's very accomplished. But I'm not enjoying myself, which is hard, because right now I'm kind of committed to the philosophy that you should enjoy what you read.

However, I have to give a presentation (i.e. oral book report) on this novel for my book group.

Anne Enright, if you're in my cyber-neighborhood, please forgive me for being negative. Bad blog reviews of my own novels always hurt my heart a little. But still. I wish I liked these characters I'm reading about . . .

2 comments:

Louise Plummer said...

She won the damn Booker Prize. She doesn't need more applause.

Lisa B. said...

Good point, Louise Plummer! Book groups are, on the one hand, wonderful, because you get to talk about books with people; but they can be on the other hand awful, because you feel obligated to finish a book that you would have otherwise tossed aside with a "boring! you don't deserve any more of my time!" If a book does not do its job of making me want to read it, why should I? Unless of course, I am responsible for the book report. In which case, there is the internet and the Google, which has I believe replaced Cliff's Notes.