Disappointed in a book...

[Babes]

I have recently begun reading "Perks of Being a Wallflower" and I got to say I am disappointed in it thus far. I really wanted to like the book since I had heard good things and I loved the movie.

So my question is has this ever happened to you? If so did you finish it or give up?

[Kirbi]

That's disappointing to hear - I loved the movie too.

There's probably a lot of books I've been disappointed by (though not that many in the grand scheme of the amount I read). The only ones that I can think of that I didn't finish are Titus Groan and The Silmarillion. I finished, but utterly reviled Wuthering Heights, and Wicked.

[Hanley!]

I have a bad habit of finishing books that I don't like, because I'm a bit weird in that respect. I feel guilty for giving up on a novel, even if I wasn't enjoying reading it. I'm trying to train myself out of that habit though. And I've had some success in that regard over the last year. For example, I really didn't enjoy the Virgin Suicides and I managed to put it down half way through.

The Lord of the Rings novels were disappointing to me, but I read all of them out of a weird sense of obligation. The movies were very enjoyable for the most part, but I just don't enjoy Tolkien's writing style at all. He had some good ideas, but I found his prose extremely dull.

College was probably the first time I managed to put down a book that I wasn't enjoying because I had to read so many for my English course that it was hard to find time. If a book felt like college work and not like leisure time half way through, it was easy to throw it away and just look at the cliff notes online. I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I must have done that at least 2 or 3 times. My grades remained good though.

[SortaCreative]

I just don't enjoy Tolkien's writing style at all. He had some good ideas, but I found his prose extremely dull.

I say that all the time to my friends and they think it's blasphemy.

Tolkien had some wonderful ideas and really made history but his writing just didn't work at times. Sometimes it could be really beautiful. Sometimes it could evoke such wonderful emotion but those moments come few and far between. It's unfortunately padded out by bad prose, exposition and weird narrative choices.

[prophet]

I really enjoyed reading TPOBAW book! Preferred it to the film tbh.

[JDD]

I loved the perks book. The film and the book are equal in my opinion.

[Hanley!]

Interestingly the film was written and directed by the author of the book. So obviously despite any differences between the two, the vision was ultimately the same. I guess it comes down to whether you think the guy is better as an author or a film maker. I haven't read the book yet, so I can't comment, but I did love the film.

[Babes]

I like to try to read to the end of a book in hopes that even the worst book will get better. I had great hopes as I mentioned because I liked the movie so much but I find they come across differently. The journal entry styled writing just gets under my skin. The "I was doing ____, then I did_____" I find hard to read because it was so choppy. The movie on the other hand had a different feel to it.