B&A: What's a book you're surprised you enjoyed, and a book that let you down?

A book that I really enjoyed was "The Book Thief." I am still talking about it and have been telling people about it. It takes place during the Holocaust in Warsaw, Poland. What is so interesting is that the book is narrated by "Death." Very well written.

Several years ago I read the book "White Oleander." I remember how much people raved about. It had been made into a movie so I figured it had to be good. It was not a good book. I was so bored by it, but I swore to myself I would finish it. I did finish it eventually, but I would have to say that is a book I was surprised I didn't enjoy.

I'm not sure I've ever been properly surprised by liking a novel, but two come to mind. The first would be The Odyssey, which was assigned summer reading in high school. When I tried reading the first several pages, it seemed boring, or okay at best. But then I ended up listening to it all on an audiobook on a road trip up the West Coast, and I became enraptured by it. I think listening to it made a difference, since it's an epic and was originally told verbally. I was certainly the only one in my class who was jazzed about it.

I also loved Lolita way more than I anticipated. I knew it was considered a classic, but I was utterly endeared and vastly impressed with the eloquent language, the way the subject matter was handled, and the intricacies of the characters. It's definitely in my top five. I didn't have a negative expectation or impression of it, though, so I suppose it doesn't count as much of a surprise. So I think it comes to mind as a surprise of sorts just because I had decided to read it on a whim.

A book that let me down was The Hunger Games. I'm such a brat in the way I always complain about it, but I was just so disappointed. Everyone raved about it, I thought the story premise was intriguing, and then it turned out to be predictable and boring. I fester my immature, bitter feelings towards the book largely because of my disappointment. Never buy into the hype! What a let down!

Loved the link -- thanks!

I was surprised how much I enjoyed and loved "Gone with the Wind" by Margarett Mitchell. It's well over a thousand pages and I had no idea what the book was about, just that it was popular and a romance novel. It was difficult to get into the first 50 pages or so, but after pages 80 I was invested and couldn't put it down. I feared it would be boring filled with flat, out-dated characters. "Gone with the Wind" sent on a roller coaster of emotions and I actually enjoyed the romance aspects to the novel. (typically, I'm annoyed by it) I appreciated the fact that it could offer more than romance, it was historically accurate and the themes are interesting. Most of all, as a history-bug, I liked reading from the perspective of someone from the South during the Civil War. Growing up I had only bias views and readings, it was a different change in pace

The book that let me down the most this year was "Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Rings" by J.R.R Tolkien and "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. I adored the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, I own all the movies on DVD with the Director's Cut along with several posters and T-Shirts, after years of putting it off, I decided to reading "Lord of the Rings." I thought the book, although well written, was difficult to follow and dull for extended periods of time. I had such high exceptions that I was let down. "Jane Eyre" is a classic, however, I found the main character --- Jane Eyre -- to be nothing extraordinary. It wasn't because she wasn't beautiful or exceptional in the silly ways, I felt like I read her character a million times and her story told in other, more fascinating, ways.

I honestly wasn't expecting a very interesting read out of Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, but I read it for my uncle's sake and have just about fallen in love with it. What I was apprehensive about to begin with was the fact that the main character is such a young child, but it's actually believable for the futuristic society that it is.

I also thought that the famed To Kill a Mockingbird was going to be a boring read (In the ninth grade when it was required for a school project). I really liked it, though. I started caring about Jem and Scout and Boo, and I was absolutely taken with Atticus's parenting methods, and hope to be like him someday. I felt connected with the characters and thoroughly pissed off when Francis called Atticus a n****r-lover and Scout beat him up to defend her father, and she was beaten for it. I was also extremely happy when he learned to hear both sides of an argument, but was still angry because that's what I do with books.

A book that honestly REALLY let me down was Crossed (sequel to Matched), by Allie Condie. I loved Matched and I thought it was amazing, but there was basically no climax WHATSOEVER in Crossed. I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did. It was really frustrating, because there may as well never have been the second one at all. Reached was better but not by much.

The sequels to Witch and Wizard also really disappointed me. I was expecting books as high-emotional, as well as funny, as the first one, but all I got was a series events that were, even for fantasy, unbelievable and, I hate to say it, stupid ideas. I finally gave James Patterson a second chance (after The Postcard Killers) and it blew.

Really loved the link, by the way. I'd seen J.K. Rowling's and James Salter's notes somewhere before but not the rest.

Hi!

A book that's let me down... Hmm, this one's hard because I don't buy books that I think will let me down. Lol. Delirium by Lauren Oliver. The concept grabbed my attention instantly, but the characters were so annoying! I hated the book, and that's a shame because the notion of love being a disease is so interesting, but what she created was so... flat.

A book that I was surprised I enjoyed is Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne. I bought it thinking that it was just going to be another failed attempt at a survival story, but I really liked it, liked the plot twists, liked the characters enough. It also was quite funny.

Ooh! Yeah, I've seen that link. I was trying to decipher the writing lol, I like how it explicitly shows that published authors are just as unorganised as the unpublished, lol.

I was only hoping for "tolerable", but Pauline Collins' "Letter to Louise" was far better than I expected. I bought it because I'm a fan and got a good deal on a signed copy. But since she's an actress, not an author, I had low expectations. I was very pleased to find it was quite good.

I'm pretty good at avoiding bad books, but I felt let down by Walter Nicolai's "The German Secret Service". I was hoping for something about German code-breaking efforts, along the lines of Britain's Room 40, but was I got was a book full of excuses for the German loss in WWI.

This year (considering it's too hard to remember every book I've ever read lol), "White Fang" surprised me. I couldn't hate it more in the beginning if I tried, but ended up reading it all the way through, because it was too much of a page turner to not finish it. Ends up? I liked it. (Pretty interesting since the main character--White Fang--didn't even get born until a quarter way through the book. lol)

The let down is "The Wind and The Willows." I'm still reading it. I must admit (if you can't tell), I have a thing about books about animals. I love how "The Wind and the Willows" is written--the narrative style--but I'm 3/4ths the way through and still don't see the point of any of it. No real stories, lots of "tell, don't show," lots of "what was that all about," and lots of "is there really any kind of connection between the characters to make any of them all that important," but I really like how the narration hums along like walking down a tree-covered lane on a warm summer morning and just having that desire to hum a "Feeling Gorovy" to it. lol

"Ghostwritten" by David Mitchell. I always found his writing style a bit too simplistic and spare on the descriptive side and never gave his work more than a cursory glance. But I decided to give him a shot and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed the read.

3 books I was disappointed in were all literary fiction. I read these looking for substance and to lose myself in the lyrical prose. They failed on all accounts.

1) "The Language of Flowers" by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (it tried to capture the emotional impact that a loveless childhood has on an orphan pushed through the foster care system, but ended up boring me with an opaque plot line and character inconsistencies)

2) Claire Messud's "The Women Upstairs" (one of the most unlikable-yet-transparent female protagonists in literary fiction and virtually plot-less story that reads like one of my angry diary rants)

3) Gregory David Roberts "Shantaram" which is filled to the brim (900 pages worth) with such syrupy figurative language and Gary Stu characters that I couldn't overlook it to appreciate the setting (which is what attracted me in the first place).

The Casual Vacancy let me down a lot. I still read it all the way through but it wasn't very good, and basically gave me the impression that either JK Rowling can't write outside her zone or her editors were so overwhelmed with her stardom and so desperate to get her work out there, that they just didn't bother with taking out all the useless adverbs, etc. Could be both.

Lord of the Flies. I didn't think I'd like it, but I did. It's one of my favourite books now.

A book that I was surprised that I enjoyed it was "The Hunger Games", which I read a few years back. It was because it was before it was well known and I thought it was about cannabilism for some reason. It turned out to be one of my favourite book series ever.

A book that let me down was "Gone" It was really popular at school but when I read it I wasn't into it.