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Original poster

Why is it so hard to read a book when you dislike the main character?

110 replies

Swedes2Turnips1 · 09/12/2007 18:28

In spite of really lovely writing I am struggling. Any advice?

OP posts:
Original poster
Swedes2Turnips1 · 12/12/2007 15:06

Do I get a refund?

OP posts:
UnquietDad · 12/12/2007 15:02

Bastard copy-editors

Original poster
Swedes2Turnips1 · 12/12/2007 14:51

an extract from p32 of UQD's novel.

'She swivelled, plumped up her breasts a little. And then she allowed herself a broad, lovavle white grin - albeit, she noticed ruefully, with that one damned wonky incisor, the bastard almost at forty-five degrees these days.'

OP posts:
CatIsSleepy · 12/12/2007 12:24

well fat lot of use you are

aWorminaManger · 12/12/2007 12:22

I found his identity once, as a reusult of one of his postings. But now I have forgotten it.

CatIsSleepy · 12/12/2007 12:21

hated Atomised by Michel wotsit too

so what's this typo then?
and when is UqD going to stop teasing us and reveal his identity?

CatIsSleepy · 12/12/2007 12:19

I definitely find it hard to enjoy a book when I don't like the main character

agree re Amsterdam and Saturday- found them both pointless and dull...

disagree re Billy in Regeneration

I really disliked We need to talk about Kevin- apart from the fact that the subject matter is pretty unpleasant, I found the narrator really irritating...and actually all the characters are fairly unbelievable

aWorminaManger · 12/12/2007 12:10

Go on! Dish the dirt on the typo!

Original poster
Swedes2Turnips1 · 12/12/2007 12:06

Have now abandoned Agayev's Novel With Cocaine to concentrate on UQD.

OP posts:
Original poster
Swedes2Turnips1 · 12/12/2007 12:04

I now have a copy of UQD's new book. I felt a bit voyeuristic reading his personal dedication to his wife and named children. So I read that bit very very quickly. There is (what I hope is) a typographical error on page 32. If it is not a typo then it needs examination in pedants' corner.

OP posts:
Elasticwoman · 11/12/2007 21:38

Yeah yeah yeah, that's what they said to me in the bookshop. I want to buy it in paperback, cheaply. They didn't have it in stock by the way. But I hope you're impressed that I looked for it.

UnquietDad · 11/12/2007 21:20

elastic - but it's a "trade paperback", a halfway house between hardback and paperback. It's not an expensive paperback, it's a cheap hardback!

Elasticwoman · 11/12/2007 21:14

UQD - I didn't assume; it was a random guess.
Perhaps even a little tease. I have every intention of reading your latest but it's a bit expensive: £10.99 for paperback fiction? What is the world coming to? I shall put it on my Christmas list and report back (perhaps on an Amazon customer review).

Fanny Price passive and simpering? You have SO missed the point about her, Fennel. Fanny is quiet and unassuming, but then has the strength of character to resist the most enormous pressure to marry some one who seems outwardly desirable, but whom she sees for what he is. She is her own person, not going along with what every one else expects, even though she is in the most socially disadvantaged position in her circle.

I didn't dislike the consultant in Saturday, but I thought the denouement a little far fetched.

pollywollybauble · 11/12/2007 20:35

liking or disliking characters doesn't put me off at all....being indifferent to them does

Heated · 11/12/2007 20:01

Yep, can't get beyond the first few chpt of Enduring Love - really dislike the character.

Not keen on Billy Prior in Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy either.

Richardson's Pamela.

Kathyate6mincepies · 11/12/2007 19:58

UQD did you see the thread about 'I don't know how...'? Interestingly at least one City person came to exactly that conclusion - she wasn't convincing as a someone who had done that well in the City because she was too wimpy to assert herself at home and you would have to basically not be wimpy to succeed in the City.

ScottishMummy · 11/12/2007 19:36

i enjoyed that book, paddy doyle kinda liked him

zippitippitoes · 11/12/2007 18:59

how late it was how late..he is a lovely chap

zippitippitoes · 11/12/2007 18:58

i can't he's a man lol

UnquietDad · 11/12/2007 18:58

I didn't like that woman in "I Don't Know How..." either. She wasn't convincing as a high-flyer - I think the author had just "projected" her journalistic lifestyle on to her.

The Rachel Johnson novel DW has read - I was put off it by a) the cover, b) the blurb, and c) her.

zippi - I didn't tell, they guessed.

Nightynight · 11/12/2007 18:57

oh leave him alone zippi! (but if you prise the secret from him, then contact me pleaaaase)

zippitippitoes · 11/12/2007 18:57

yes the narrator in saturday is a twat

i liked bedroom secrets of master chefs tho although the main character was nox

zippitippitoes · 11/12/2007 18:56

or who even

Nightynight · 11/12/2007 18:55

this is such an interesting thread. I read a light novel recently where I loathed all the characters, even though the book itself was well written. (Notting Hell, by Rachel Johnson)

I wont read it again, and I wont buy another book by her, but not liking the characters isnt a reason on its own to stop reading the book
I will stop reading a book if the plot takes a turn that I think is ludicrously unlikely, or if the author shows their blatant lack of scientific understanding, or if the prose is just too boring.

confession - I have never read jane eyre I will read it with interest now...

zippitippitoes · 11/12/2007 18:55

oh not if even i kno that..whom obvs and why hav u told sum pple