I should have paid attention to the words in my icon...

[deltamiss]

I have a policy about reading: Once I begin a book, I must read all of it.

Very few times in my life have I abandoned a book. In fact, the second time I can recall was just three years ago when I found a distant cousin's self-published book by accident. Pure drivel and so many grammatical errors I just couldn't get through it. The first was Candide by Voltaire.

A few weeks ago, Melanie bought a couple of books for me. One is by the author of Sex and the City...which should have been a clue to both of us. I'd read a load of Harlequin romances years ago as well as The Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries in recent years so I erroneously expected One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell to be a cross between them. Was I wrong!

Thank goodness I didn't die with this book in my hands.

Comments

[mummm.livejournal.com]

*Giggle*

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I'm going back to murder and mayhem! :D

[boodgieman.livejournal.com]

I've always had a similar policy, and like you, I've stuck to it pretty consistently. However, I may hold the world's record for number of times (8) starting and not finishing The Hobbit, just because someone told me I should start there if I wanted to move on to The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I can't stand Sex and the City as a TV show, so I can only imagine how insufferable anything Bushnell writes must be.

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

Oh, my! Eight times? Yep. That's a record. :D

Gratuitous sex IS insufferable...on TV or in books. :/

[boodgieman.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm fine with gratuitous sex. It's gratuitous inanity I can't stand. ;-)

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Gosh. I won't read it, either!

Have you tried Ahab's Wife? It's beautifully written.

But be careful: it's about a thousand pages long...

(Have a good school year!)

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I will put Ahab's Wife on my list. I've never heard of it!

Hopefully this will be another good year. I've had two in a row so far. ;)

[the-mom.livejournal.com]

This made me laugh. I am the same way about books, although there are a few I couldn't get through. I managed to get through Candide, but thought it was horrible. I also thought As I Lay Dying was awful, but I finished it. I COULD NOT get through The Way of All Flesh. I can't get through an older book of say the 50's, when there starts to be any kind of racism or predjudice, even tho the book is written for it's time and considered a great work. The last book I quit was by James Patterson. I like murder mysteries but his books are so graphic that I finally couldn't take anymore blood and guts and psychotic killers. Right now I'm reading a series of British Cozies. I think that's what they're called. Rather like Agatha Christie. I have so many craft things going on that I need something light that I can put down for a bit.
And I can't remember the last time I talked so much on LJ. :-)

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha! I can't remember the last time you talked so much on LJ either! :D

British Cozies, huh?

*off to google*

OH! I LOVE the titles - Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death!

Thanks for the rec. I'll put this on my list, too. :D

[jazzyglo.livejournal.com]

Hahaha!

I used to have that must-finish-every-book-I-start rule too. Now I figure like is too short to read a bad book. So if I just can't seem to get into it, I turn to the last couple pages and read them, then start something new. Works for me. :-)

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I need to adopt your attitude! :D

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

A librarian once suggested a book she thought I would enjoy. After reading it, how embarrassing that she thought the book was something suited to me!

I'll take the occasional kiss or caress, but if it's more than that, FADE TO BLACK, PLEASE!

I'm not a prude--I grew up in the era of free love--but there's a time and place for everything, and my literature is not the place anytime!

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I'm just going back to murders. At least the gore can be justified. ;)

[kattraks.livejournal.com]

Erica Spindler is one of my favorite murder-mystery writers, who are some of yours, if I may ask? Do you belong to goodreads.com? I do (kattraks) and it's a great place - saves me a lot of time reading useless stuff I wouldn't enjoy!

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I've never read Spindler, but I'll check her out. Thanks!

I read Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, Nevada Barr, Greg Iles, Jeffrey Deaver, and a host of others. I don't belong to goodreads, but I've heard of it.

[unblinkable.livejournal.com]

See? I couldn't finish it! I really was hoping for more of a Devil Wears Prada deal.

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't have. It only got worse. :(

[emorrison.livejournal.com]

I stand warned.

My book club recently read Bushnell's Lipstick Jungle, which sparked a great discussion. But yes, it, too, was filled with gratuitous sex (something that bothers me in real life, but not at all in my reading...)

I am also extremely compulsive about finishing the books I start. But I find, as I get older, that I am much more careful about the ones I start.

Enjoy your mysteries. I am currently in a Henry VIII craze. Talk about gratuitous sex... you've gotta love those Tudors!
:-)

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

Bushnell is just a tad too graphic for my tastes. I'm not a prude, but she just takes it too far.

Ah, good King Enery...what a guy. :D

[kattraks.livejournal.com]

So, I take it to mean this was a tad racy?

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

Um...more than a tad for my taste. :/