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Running out of steam

Has this ever happened to you?
You pick up a book, it turns out to be very gripping but you can’t finish it in one sitting so you put it aside and get on with whatever you have to get on with. Then the next time you have time to pick up the book – say the next day – you just can’t get into it. It doesn’t grab you the way it did when you started to read it and although you want to know how the plot resolves itself you no longer feel like reading it all the way through.

I’m sure this happens to many readers.

Right now, it is happening to me. I started reading Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian three days ago and expected to finish it in four sessions (it’s a large format book and 600 pages long), but when I came home last night and picked it up to start reading, I could not get into it. It sometimes takes me a chapter or two to get back into a book, but after five chapters I gave up and started reading a crime mystery instead. I’m still interested in the book, but last night when I was trying to read it I found myself distracted by the constant, nagging thought “I whish I was finished reading this”. I’m wondering if maybe it a case of overanticipation, that I was simply so eager to continue reading that it stopped me from being able to read. I guess I will find out tonight...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Opinions on The Historian are about evenly divided. Many thought it too long and drawn out. I really enjoyed it and liked being able to pick up the similarities to Bram Stoker's Dracula, but it is long and most suited for a time when nothing else is pressing.

I often find the need when reading a really long book to stick in a quick read. There is something so satisfying about sitting down and flying through a quick mystery!
November 08, 2006 1:03 pm
Anonymous said…
I'm having the exact same problem. I think it's because there is no reason why the entire story isn't told in one sitting. I have no idea why we're following her and her dad around for weeks waiting to get to the real meat -- Dracula!! I want a synopsis from someone, I'm about to give up on it.
November 15, 2006 1:28 am
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