Books Read: December 2010

[crowinator]

Upcoming over this weekend are my Top 5 books in children's, young adult, and adult books, as well as Top 5 lists in TV, movies, music, and so on. I have great fun making lists, so we'll see what I come up with. Also upcoming is my typical end-of-year book review avalanche, in which I attempt to write short-to-medium reviews of all the books I've

Comments

[vanishdtwilight]

I was glancing through your goodreads profile and noticed that you started The Name of the Wind a long time ago but never finished it. I'm wondering... was it the really bad writing that turned you off, or was the lack of plot a problem? Obviously I have feelings about the book, but I'm wondering what yours are and how far you got into the book before you stopped reading.

[crowinator]

I wasn't totally hating it -- I had to quit reading it because I had deadlines on other books for review, and I just never got back into it after such a long delay. It's one of those books I enjoy while I'm reading, and it goes quickly, but if I quit for a while I don't have a burning desire to pick it back up again. I'm not sure why. I don't hate the writing, though it's overblown, but that's epic fantasy anyway. I think partly it's that I'm more interested in Kvothe in the present, when he's hiding out in the bar, and less interested in hearing every detail about his past, which is the bulk of the story, so I get impatient. I kept wanting to skip ahead. Kvothe also comes across as a bit too pretentious and pedantic for me to take, but maybe as I read I'll eventually lose that

[vanishdtwilight]

I'm about 22% into the book (whatever that equates to -- I have the kindle version as well), and like you I find that I'd rather hear about present Kvothe rather than his past. I kept getting impatient at the slow movement through his past, and it wasn't until I read the reviews that I realized WHY Rothfuss subtitles the book "Day 1" ... really?? Two more books to exemplify how "AWESOME" Kvothe is?

I continually hoped that the further I went into the story, the better everything would get -- plot, writing, substance. Unfortunately, it didn't. Many friends recommended it to me, so part of me wants to continue reading to see why they like it so much, but I find the writing just PAINFUL. I'm probably looking more at the trees than the forest, but REALLY. I can't help but notice the shove-it-down-your-throat approach the author has chosen to take.

I want to finish it out of pure sadomasochistic "enjoyment," but at the same time I fear for my sanity.