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Original poster

Anyone read 'The rule of four'? Should I bother to carry on?

35 replies

dizzymama · 27/09/2005 21:23

Hi all,
Started reading this book ages ago and it just seems as if nothing is happening (I'm on page 164 now!) does it get any better??

OP posts:
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expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 23:10

Books are like people - some are just bad.

Gomez · 27/09/2005 23:08

lucky you!

lilibet · 27/09/2005 23:07

I have just started stopping reading bad books (does that make sense?)

I go along the 'life's too short to drink bad wine' line of thought!

Gave up on Cloud Atlas after about 50 pages, never finished The Little Friend, but loved Secret History.

Never even heard of The Rule of Four!

mummytosteven · 27/09/2005 22:56

gomez - i like name of the rose too - so there some common ground, even if I liked Secret History!!

Gomez · 27/09/2005 22:06

Ah b*llocks I can't recall. I devour books, read an obscene amount but hardly ever recall. For me they are complete 'here and now' entertainment and I have no space in my head to retain the detail.

I have on more than one occasion bought the same book twice and have not realised that I have read it before until I start reading it again .

expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:46

I revist them, but not front to back. 'Jane Eyre' in particular is the one I've most thumbed through.

'My Dream of You' is the ONLY 'fav' I have ever read cover to cover more than once.

I also have an extremely good memory when it comes to what I've read. Funny, it's crap when it comes to other things, but it's always been good w/regards to the written word. I could even bring up passages in my mind, as if they were right in front of me.

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:45

Interesting - I don't re-read either but have never 'met' another keen reader who doesn't.

expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:44

I used to be the same way. Then I had to read 'Ulysses' for an English class .

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:43

Have seen that before I think Expat and fo course it makes much sense.

I have no idea why I trudge through some seriously bad writing but find it really hard to give up on a book.

expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:42

No, I rarely re-read old favs from start to finish again, but I do revisit some parts. I keep them, though.

expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:41

The best philosophy I ever read about books was from a top Amazon reviewer. He called it his '50 pages rule'.

Here it goes, ripped off from the reviewer:

At various times over the years, I have mentioned the fifty-page rule. That rule is that you give a book fifty pages to get better. If it's still horrible after fifty pages, throw it against the wall, let it slide behind the couch to feed the dustbunnies (cf. last week's review of Museum), and start something else. I used to be the kind of person who would never let a book go until I'd strangled on every last word, so starting to use the fifty-page rule for truly bad novels seven or eight years ago was profoundly liberating. And, really, no matter how bad a book has been, and I've come across some stinkers (cf. last week's review of Museum), I've always held to that rule. If I give a book zero stars, with a few exceptions that truly transcend badness that I actually did finish (cf. review from a while ago of the worst book ever written, Sue Doro's Heart, Home, and Hard Hats), you can rest assured I've choked down fifty pages of it. Until now.

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:39

Expat - do you re-read old favourites?

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:38

Baudolino was the Eco novel - another middle-ages diatribe but good value.

expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:37

Books are like people, sometimes, they find you instead of the other way around. Harry Potter found me. Again, stuck w/nothing to read (horror!), late at night, libraries and bookshops closed. Phoned a mate in desperation. She gave me 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkiban'. I stayed up till 2AM reading!

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:36

Now I am another avid reader Expat and find it very difficult to NOT finish a book. Can walk out of films no problem however using the same rationale as you apply to books IYSWIM

Original poster
dizzymama · 27/09/2005 21:35

That is a very good point expat!
I haven't read Harry Potter yet so maybe....(or is that pushing it?!)

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:35

That would be Foucault's Pendulum probably, Gomez. And quite right, it goes well with being drunk .

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:35

I am on record on MN as saying Donna Tart & her Secret History was b*llocks too!

Did rather like in the Name of the Rose thou' expat. Also another Umberto Eco, the title of which has slipped my mind right now. Helped by the nice bottle of Chablis I am sipping.

expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:34

It was a pants book.

I read voraciously. Life is too short for pants' books.

I always think, when I start reading a book that turns out to be pants, 'What if this is the last book I ever read?'

That's usually enough to make me kick it to the kerb.

albert · 27/09/2005 21:34

No don't bother. I read it through to the end and kept thinking it must get better after such good write ups but sadly, no, a total waste of time.

Original poster
dizzymama · 27/09/2005 21:33

You feel that strongly about it expat?!!

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:32

I bought it in a hospital bookshop, as I found myself stuck in hospital w/NO read. It was advertised as an alternative to DaVinci Code. I thought, 'Cool! Nice, fast read. Engaging, but not too much.'

Couldn't have been more wrong.

Would have been better off w/'The Name of the Rose' or some other poncey piece of s*&t.

iota · 27/09/2005 21:32

so I give it back to my friend and say that I haven't read it because mumsnet told me not to

Original poster
dizzymama · 27/09/2005 21:32
Grin
OP posts:
mummytosteven · 27/09/2005 21:32

oh dear is now the place to confess I rather liked it - but I liked Secret History by Donna Tart and it's that sort of book really. can't say the Tom/Katy thing was a particular highlight of the book tho.

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