Thoughts on books and reading habits.
Feb. 6th, 2006 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieOi, Fushigi Yuugi! I should have a running counter with "Times Tamahome has seen Miaka's breasts." Because? This is a show in love with that concept. So far, at 8 episodes, the tally is at 3 (not to mention the nekkid scene in the credits). No wonder he is so devoted.
I was thinking about the reading/watching habits of people on my friendslist. Let me explain what I mean. Basically, I will finish a book or a movie even if I don’t care for it. I will keep on going hoping it will get better, or just to complete it, out of sheer doggedness (this applies to shows like Escaflowne or Farscape which have one story arc, but not to shows like Veronica Mars which are a variety of stories, yearly (or less) and which aren’t available all at once).
The only times I’ve ever stopped reading or watching is either when I found the book offensive (I tried to get through Leopard’s Spots, a book on which Birth of a Nation is partially based, and I couldn’t and finally stopped reading in disgust) or when it does a psycho number on me (I stopped reading a book about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising because it was giving me nightmares). But other than that, I guess I am a hopeless optimist. The thing is, it does pay off sometimes (with Hana Yori Dango, I kept persevering, and about 19 episodes in, my liking for the thing finally kicked in and I am quite enjoying myself. Of course, I wouldn’t have tried so hard if I didn’t know![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aliterati and katranna liked it so, so there had to have been something there). This late blooming love doesn’t happen often, but enough to keep me doing it. But how about you? Do you try a book and if it doesn’t grab you within the first 20 pages you are done? Or if a show doesn’t appeal after a couple of episodes? How does it work?
In semi-related topic, I am in love with Jude Morgan’s Passion, a novel about the four women important to the romantic poets: Augusta Leigh, Byron’s half-sister, Mary Shelley, Shelley’s wife, Caroline Lamb, Byron’s mistress who dressed as a boy to follow him, and Fanny Brawne, Keats’ fiancee. It’s an amazing book, a series of vignettes about the lives of these women, and somehow it manages to tie four not too connected narratives into one beautiful book (quite impressive considering the women themselves are so different: the placid optimist that is Augusta, the passionate, overindulged Caroline, the intellectual uncompromising fierce Mary, and (my favorite) the vivid joy and common-sense courage of Fanny Brawne). Somehow the book works and it actually reads like a beautiful poem itself. Sample:
Samuel continually weeps, confronting the simple outrage: ‘Where is Papa?’ But Fanny notices, cumulatively, other absences. The applelike shine on the end of the windsor arm-chair where he would sit, his thin hand rubbing meditatively, begins to fade to dullness. The books he was reading-always two at a time, as if mistrusting that one might mislead him-are put away, their marker spills used to light the candles. The sound of male footsteps on the path outside empties of meaning, becomes an inexpectancy. Mr. Brawne, the light-boned, well-mannered, unremarkable five foot six of him, makes a great substraction from the world.
I was thinking about the reading/watching habits of people on my friendslist. Let me explain what I mean. Basically, I will finish a book or a movie even if I don’t care for it. I will keep on going hoping it will get better, or just to complete it, out of sheer doggedness (this applies to shows like Escaflowne or Farscape which have one story arc, but not to shows like Veronica Mars which are a variety of stories, yearly (or less) and which aren’t available all at once).
The only times I’ve ever stopped reading or watching is either when I found the book offensive (I tried to get through Leopard’s Spots, a book on which Birth of a Nation is partially based, and I couldn’t and finally stopped reading in disgust) or when it does a psycho number on me (I stopped reading a book about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising because it was giving me nightmares). But other than that, I guess I am a hopeless optimist. The thing is, it does pay off sometimes (with Hana Yori Dango, I kept persevering, and about 19 episodes in, my liking for the thing finally kicked in and I am quite enjoying myself. Of course, I wouldn’t have tried so hard if I didn’t know
aliterati and katranna liked it so, so there had to have been something there). This late blooming love doesn’t happen often, but enough to keep me doing it. But how about you? Do you try a book and if it doesn’t grab you within the first 20 pages you are done? Or if a show doesn’t appeal after a couple of episodes? How does it work? In semi-related topic, I am in love with Jude Morgan’s Passion, a novel about the four women important to the romantic poets: Augusta Leigh, Byron’s half-sister, Mary Shelley, Shelley’s wife, Caroline Lamb, Byron’s mistress who dressed as a boy to follow him, and Fanny Brawne, Keats’ fiancee. It’s an amazing book, a series of vignettes about the lives of these women, and somehow it manages to tie four not too connected narratives into one beautiful book (quite impressive considering the women themselves are so different: the placid optimist that is Augusta, the passionate, overindulged Caroline, the intellectual uncompromising fierce Mary, and (my favorite) the vivid joy and common-sense courage of Fanny Brawne). Somehow the book works and it actually reads like a beautiful poem itself. Sample:
Samuel continually weeps, confronting the simple outrage: ‘Where is Papa?’ But Fanny notices, cumulatively, other absences. The applelike shine on the end of the windsor arm-chair where he would sit, his thin hand rubbing meditatively, begins to fade to dullness. The books he was reading-always two at a time, as if mistrusting that one might mislead him-are put away, their marker spills used to light the candles. The sound of male footsteps on the path outside empties of meaning, becomes an inexpectancy. Mr. Brawne, the light-boned, well-mannered, unremarkable five foot six of him, makes a great substraction from the world.
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 11:33 pm (UTC)Television shows are much more disposable to me. There are only two I watch with regularity (Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives) and one I watch with semi-regularity (ER, but only because I used to really like it and I'm still curious about what happens from time to time). I used to watch shows like Lost but I have a hard time picking up where I left off, and I can't get involved again after missing a few episodes.
Although when I can afford all of them on DVD... :-P
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 02:44 am (UTC)But yeah, TV shows are something I generally can't track, unlike with books most of which I finish even with huge intervals.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 02:57 am (UTC)TV shows.... It depends but usually two or three episodes that are really awful will do it for me especially if they seem to upset the basic premise of the show. Actually I am more tolerate of mediocrity or just plain awfulness than I am of shows suddenly morphing into new directions which just make me boggle.
This also brings up the delicate art of recommendations. I am terrified often to recommend things for fear that someone will read/watch them and think 'what a load of bollocks.' That's more the case with novels than with films and tv shows, as there is something very personal in one's love of certain books.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 06:46 pm (UTC)Yeah, I skim if I am bored.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 06:45 pm (UTC)