Struggling to continue The Book Thief in Back entries: 2013 - 2015
- April 3, 2014, 4 a.m.
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- Public
I’m really struggling with The Book Thief. Although I like the concept, the writing comes across as very stilted. I’m not sure how I feel about Death narrating, but the asides and “observations” come across as a bit much at times. Kind of makes it difficult to really get into the story properly. I’ve given it 195 pages so far, out of 578. I really want to like this book, I really do. The problem is that I can’t get into it.
A bit of a shame, I was in one of the bookstores recently with someone and I noticed a stand for a certain promotion this chain does every year. “The most popular books as voted by our customers online”. The bookstore is doing a “3 books for the price of 2” on all the “popular” books, and I picked up Rebecca and The Poisonwood Bible and was stuck trying to decide on the third. I saw a few titles I could see myself reading. This person pointed to The Book Thief and said “did you want to get that one? I don’t think you’ve read it” I figured I may as well. What a mistake. When I got home, A (one of the couch surfers mentioned in a previous entry) reckoned it was “such a good book” - I’m sorry but I really can’t see it.
This is going in a small pile of books and it’s going either to a book exchange or donated to the Salvos or Good Samaritans. I’ve not decided yet…
A good book for me is one that I’m glad to have read, a book that I feel is enriching. An excellent book is one that I will find myself re-reading, and still find something that strikes a cord. I’m sure there’s other books that cover the subject matter a whole lot better. I don’t mind “easy reads” in terms of writing style (loved the Harry Potter series), but the writing needs to flow a lot better and there’s got to be more character development. I have to be able to care for the characters.
This is the first book in a long time I’ve put down and couldn’t be bothered picking back up to read “just one more sentence, one more paragraph”. I won’t be putting a review of The Book Thief in my book journal - I never do with books I do not finish. It feels like cheating.
Last updated January 01, 2015
Sharee ⋅ April 03, 2014
The Book Thief is on my 'to read' list...but I've heard such mixed reviews that I have it pretty low on the list. Maybe I'll check it out from the library so at least I won't have wasted money if I actually get to it and don't like it!
On the other hand, I love Rebecca. I may have to reread that soon, it's been ages since the last time.
TudorRose Sharee ⋅ April 10, 2014
Re: the library, I wish I'd done that now. I'm debating whether to read Rebecca or Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Marquez is a safe choice for me - I've enjoyed a few of his other books). :)
An'yai ⋅ June 26, 2014
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's sort of on the fence when it comes to the Book Thief. I got it on my kindle and I think I like the thought of Death narrating more than I like the actuality of it. Although, there were a few of his observations that I understood completely -- like assigning a color to important events. Well, to be honest, his whole fascination with colors.
I just couldn't get into it. And everyone I talked to said that it was so amazing.