So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the
30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.
Day Six: A book that you either couldn't finish or struggled to
There are several books that I could pick for this, but I'm going to choose a series rather than one book: Anne Rice's
The Vampire Chronicles.
For some strange reason, I read
The Tale of the Body Thief first...which is the last book in the series. I don't remember how that happened but it may have been that that was the only book available at the library at the time. Regardless, I wasn't super impressed with it (in fact, I was kind of tempted to mail Anne Rice a thesaurus because of her overuse of the word "preternatural") but I decided to try to read the whole series. I think I got through half of
Interview with the Vampire before I gave up. I'm not sure why it didn't appeal to me, but I just couldn't seem to get into it.
I'm picking this series because I've decided that one of my goals this year is to read as many short book series as I can, about one a month. This is going to be one of those series. It's been years since I've made the attempt to finish one of these books and it's about time that I tried again.
So, even though I didn't get through them the first time around, perhaps this time I can do it. I'm not sure which month I'll get around to it, but you can look forward to (or dread) my reviews later this year.
-Gabe
I don't know if this will put you off but there is actually ten books in the Vampire Chronicles. "Memnoch the Devil" which comes after "The Body Thief" is probably the worst one. Although I gave up not long after that.
ReplyDeleteMost recent book I gave up on was "Vanity Fair". I disliked all of the characters and decided life was too short to keep going.
Here's a link to the vampire books.
http://www.annerice.com/bookshelf-vampirechronicles.html
I really liked the film of Interview with a Vampire however I've never really wanted to read her books. I think I prefer my fantasy in the present day with flashbacks if nessecary (or even time travel like in the Cassie Palmer series).
ReplyDeleteKaren: O.o You gave up Vanity Fair??? Why? lol. I'm just kidding. It was a challenge for me at first, especially because of the characters, but once I got into it I loved it.
ReplyDeleteGabriel: Have you read Of Love and Evil by Anne Rice? I heard it was really good. I haven't read it myself though, so I can't really recommend it.
Karen: Thanks for the heads-up! If I end up reading them, I'll probably just pretend there are four unless I end up really liking them and decide to keep reading them. :)
ReplyDeleteEllie: I'm really weird about fantasy. I'm picky with it even though I don't really have preferences (urban, paranormal, historical, etc). I think it's because fantasy is such a grab bag--it's either really good or it's really really bad--and the type of fantasy novel is usually not an indicator of quality. It all depends on the author.
I have a few friends who really like her books so I thought I'd give them a whirl so that I'd know what the heck they were talking about. :)
Nonners: I haven't read any of her books except for The Tale of the Body Thief. If I come across it and it seems interesting, I'll read it and let you know what I think about it.
Heya, it's Emily.
ReplyDeleteSo I never noticed "preternatural" in Interview with the Vampire and I could only get halfway through Vampire Lestat. (I wanted to read Queen of the Damned for what I can assume is sexy sex, but without finishing Vampire Lestat... I just couldn't do it.)
I love the movie though. Tom Cruise still scares the shit outta me at the end.
Hey Emily!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen that movie, although I did watch Queen of the Damned. A couple of times. LOL