Please share a book or two you had trouble getting into, but ended up loving.
Please share a book or two you had trouble getting into, but ended up loving. Mine are Time Traveler’s Wife and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Thanks!
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The Historian
Thats one I started but never picked up again. Maybe I will try again.
I never could get into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!
Me neither.
It took soooo long to get the names worked out but really worth it. And the 2nd and 3rd books just got better and better.
Me either
One of very few on my “What a waste of time” list. Still don’t understand all the hoopla.
The Stand
Gold Finch
Me too!
A Man Called Ove and The Shining
The Curious Dog in the Nighttime
Too Like the Lightning (sf)
Gentleman from Moscow
Jewel in the Crown.
Outlander
Anything James Michener
Yes. Once you get past the forming of the molecules, they’re great.
I was told the first 100 pages of all of his books are like that. Lol.
That’s ri9ght.
Cutting for Stone.
I had much trouble getting into Cutting for Stone. It took about 50% of the book. I did get into it, but can’t say I loved it.
Same for me.
The Host
‘And Ladies of the Club’ I read it one summer over 30 years ago when I was recuperating from an illness at my famiy’s vacation cabin. It was the only book I had with me for a time so it was either read it or stare at the trees. It took awhile to get into it and at first I had to force myself to read a certain number of pages a day. I just checked and the paperback version I have now is almost 1200 pages long so if you can get into it you’re set for days. By the time I finished it I felt like I lived in the town with all these women and each one of them was a friend. I missed them for weeks after.
I loved that book. I even looked for it recently. I couldn’t find which is just as well. I think my tastes have changed.
Rosanne Dibartolo Bushnell that’s exactly what happened to me. I loaned my hardcopy original version I never saw it again. Maybe about a year ago I found a used paperback copy and bought it thinking that I would be able to immerse myself in the story again but I can’t do it.
One of my favorite book. I, too, missed those women.
Sounds like a Good book.
Bel Canto
I do find that many of Patchett’s books start slowly and I’ve always been rewarded….well, until Commonwealth, anyway.
Listened to Bel Canto with my husband and we both loved it. I also read it and liked it just as well.
The Girl With Dragon Tattoo..
A Man Called Ove
I agree with on both books. After I figured out what was happening in Time Travelers Wife, I loved it. Once Girl with a Dragon Tattoo got past all the business stuff and moved on to the mystery I couldn’t put it down.
With Time Travelers Wife, I conquered it when I finally let go of trying to understand it.
I have no idea how this GIF got posted. Ignore, please!
@Nancy , letting go of trying to understand sounds like me with college calculus! I never did really get it but passed the course with a D! LOL.
Dust
Commonwealth
Outlander. I started it 3 times… I’m on the 4th one now. So good!
So glad you said this…I did, too.
One of the costume designers for the show bought a knitwear piece from my Etsy shop, so I’ve had friends with the right cable access obsessively keeping an eye out for it (alas no sightings yet… oh, well…), but I still have to read the book. Glad it grew on you! It’s in my evergrowing pile of to-reads.
I had trouble with the first 1/4 or so of the girl with the dragon tattoo. It got SO much better once it started getting into the mystery part of the plot
The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay
Discovery of Witches and The Thirteenth Tale
It took me starting The Thirteenth Tale twice before I actually got into it.
Ditto!
Red Tent. I kept thinking I would stop reading it because it was slow but then would read a bit more and, then it became great.
Good to know. Red Tent is on my book club’s upcoming to read list.
Kushiel’s Dart
RIGHT????
I now recommend it to everyone. It’s one of my favorite fantasy novels!
Possession! And then I got the audiobook through Overdrive and I found myself taking the longest way home from work.
Lol
The Known World. I almost quit after 50 pages. Then I decided to give it one more chapter….. now, I have re-read it 3 more times! https://www.amazon.com/Known-World-Edward-P-Jones-ebook/dp/B000FC12GO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505099327&sr=8-1&keywords=Known+world
Bringing up the bones
Middlesex.
I couldn’t finish that. ?
I listened to this one. Loved it but it was slow start. It was a book club book and interesting to see different perspectives from readers and listeners.
It took me a long time to get into it, and I’m so grateful that I did. 🙂
Fish I listened to this one as well
*Glad
Trinity – Leon Uris
Poisonwood Bible was the toughest book I ever stuck with. War and Peace was really hard, too.
War and Peace is on my list
Passage to India.
The name of the wind, by Patrick Rothfuss… Sticking with it was hard at first, but it turned out to be one of the best books I’ve ever read.
The Lovely Bones and The Gunslinger.
Bel Canto
Finally finished and overall liked it. I guess.
Most of the Russian authors. Glad I stuck through.
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
None, none at all.
Girl. Unequivocally.
The Stargazers Sister…well worth the wait.
Frankenstein
Surprised no one mentioned Wolf Hall. I never could get into it, so guess maybe no one had a similar experience and felt it worthy. I know some just love it.
I mentioned Bringing up the bones–also by Hillary Mantel — she received prestigious literary awards in Britain…but they were challenging reads
I believe it’s Bring up the Bodies.
@Gail oops my bad…that is what you get when you attempt to retrieve from an aging brain ?
Names very complicated and history confusing. I gave up, sad to say.
Possession. I tried to read it several times and utterly failed. Attempt #4, I stayed up all night reading it.
Cold Mountain. Never. Again.
I read the girl with the dragon tattoo. its awsome ??
Wolf Winter
My daughter always called those “walnut books” -tough on the outside, but really good when you get to the middle.
Mine so far is only The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
What a writer Sebold is….incredible book, I thought.
Game of Thrones
Cutting For Stone. Glad I stuck with it. So good!
One of my favorite. My husband really liked it, too.
Handmaid’s Tale
So, should I give All the Light We Cannot See another try?
Yes!
Yes. I swore not to read any more WWII books. But I’m glad I stuck with it.
@Rosalie I think being over dosed on WWII books is part of my issue as well
I thought that it was amazing! But, there are lots of books. Try again only if you really want to!!
Try the audio version…listen while driving.
loved all of those
Bonds That Make Us Free – Warner (Had to really push my way through some spots, but I tend to do that with introspective non-fiction.)
A Man called Ove
“The Poisonwood Bible” I had such a difficult time with it and a friend of mine who recommended it said just keep going don’t stop, then around page 120 I was a goner. It was so good.
Cloud Atlas
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier