What do you do when someone you really like lends you their book, saying "it's really funny, you'll really like this" and it's boring and you can't bring yourself to finish it?
I was touched that he'd leant it to me. But I do need to give it back soon. I can't really say " I'm sorry but I can no longer associate with you, you have such dreadful taste in books." What do I say?
About Yoko Ono
1 day ago
"Sorry, not really my cup of tea. I prefer XYZ."
ReplyDeleteIt's quite possible to enjoy the company of such people, while at the same time retaining the awareness that they're utterly wrong and probably a bit thick.
That would be sensible, but will probably be craven and pretend to like it.
ReplyDeleteI just want to know what happens without reading it. Now I'm working at the library, which has a truly magnificent selection of stock, it's like being let loose in Waterstones, but for free, life seems too short to waste on indifferent books.
To Wikipedia, and hoping they've got one of those extremely detailed breakdowns of the plot.
The thing is, he's very bright and lovely. How can he enjoy this silly lazy book?
Very often one's response to a book (or film, or piece of music) depends on where you are in life at the time you read it. I once watched a film which had the theme of leaving your baggage behind about 24 hours after breaking up with someone who I liked enormously, but was also a huge drain on my emotional energy. I thought it was one of the best films I'd ever seen.
ReplyDeleteTwo years later, much happier and more settled in my life, I watched it again, and realised it was trite and obvious shite. It's just that it was the trite and obvious shite I needed at that point in my life.
Crap book? probably. But try and look at it from the angle he must have seen it from and try and work out why it had such an impact on him. You might learn something new and nice about him.
[this phenomenon is why I will never read The Catcher in the Rye again. I read it as an adolescent boy. I am terrified that my adult mind will hate it.]
Tim is right. Otherwise, nobody would ever have sex, ever.
ReplyDeleteMiscommunicant, I think he likes it because he likes a smoke, like the main character.
ReplyDeleteI did brave Catcher in the Rye as a grownup - it seemed much funnier to me as an adult than I'd perceived it as a teenager, and I felt much sorrier for Holden.
LC - sex? What is that?
Really? Cripes. Beyond salvation, maybe.
ReplyDelete