Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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:
iota · 27/09/2005 21:26

someone loaned this to me about 3 months ago and I haven't started it yet...perhaps I won't bother

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:27

No - absolute tosh!

Original poster
dizzymama · 27/09/2005 21:29

Hmmm Gomez, I'm beginning to think you are right! 164 pages and all that's happened is a paintball game and lots of mentions of a daft book with an unpronouncable name!

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:29

OH NO! I'm so sorry I didn't warn you in time. Put it down NOW.

It's rubbish.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I found Tom's 'relationship' w/Katy so far beyond annoying.

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:30

Don't just pit it down burn the damm thing to save some other poor unsuspecting fool !

(Not suggesting you ae a fool you understand.)

sammac · 27/09/2005 21:30

Bought this during the summer and although I got a wee bit further, I'm afraid it's been put away. Life's too short to plough through it

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:31

or you could put it down instead.

expatinscotland · 27/09/2005 21:31

YES! Burn it!

I actually had to do this to one book to spare others the misery.

NO, it does NOT get better. It gets worse.

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:32

There's you answer dizzymama!

Original poster
dizzymama · 27/09/2005 21:32

So the vibe I'm picking up is > then??? . Think I'll go on to one of my murder mysteries then!!

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.

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

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.

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

You feel that strongly about it expat?!!

OP posts:
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.

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.

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 21:35

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

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:
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

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 21:38

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

Gomez · 27/09/2005 21:39

Expat - do you re-read old favourites?

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.