Books that surprised you

[Bastet]

Have you ever started a book that didn't seem very good in the beginning but you kept reading after all and ended up loving it?

Or the other way around: have you ever started reading a book thinking it'd be good and it disappointed you?

I thought it'd be interesting to share these reading experiences with the rest of the forum members and visitors...

[Bastet]

Well, one of the books it happened to me with was Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. I started reading it because many people recommended it to me, but it took me a long time to really get into the story, because I thought the beginning was too slow. However, I kept reading and I ended up turning pages like crazy one the action really started. A great book, and a good reason to finish a book even if in the beginning it might not look like something you would like

[PeterL]

I haven't read many books that really surprised me like that, because I don't have much patience with books that aren't very good, but pacing, as you cite with respect to the Name of the Rose, is a completely different matter. I have read some that started out well written then deteriorated, but I can't think of any titles now.

[slipperyyoke]

"To the Lighthouse", by Virginia Woolf was a slow starter for me, but it got better and I'm glad I sticked with it.

[Bastet]

I haven't read "To the LightHouse", but I'll remember it might be slow in the beginning to go on reading! ;) Well, PeterL, I gave an example of a book that was slow in the beginning as a book that to me wasn't good because I am not very keen on long descriptions. But it can be about characters or any other thing about a book that doesn't really apply to your reading preferences. It would be great if you could come up with some titles that 'deteriorated in the end.

[holdencaulfield]

as you can guess from my id "the catcher in the rye" was the one for me.its a Bible.to the lighthouse was indeed another shocker. more recently da vinci code probably...

[Bastet]

Were The Da Vinci Code and To the Lighthouse surprises on the good or on the disappointing sense?

[Geoffrey]

Well, one of the books it happened to me with was Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. I started reading it because many people recommended it to me, but it took me a long time to really get into the story, because I thought the beginning was too slow. However, I kept reading and I ended up turning pages like crazy one the action really started. A great book, and a good reason to finish a book even if in the beginning it might not look like something you would like


Would you recommend this book to a person who absolutely loved Island of the Day Before and Foucault's Pendulum? I don't want my experience with Eco to be tainted and I have heard strange things about The Name of the Rose that have caused me to not read it. Plus mel gibson stars in a film version of it I have heard, which I think is a nervous idea.

[Geoffrey]

The last book that I can recall starting and thinking that it would be a great marathon to finish was The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. My opinion though quickly changed as the story progressed and the characters developed - It turned out to be a wonderful experience.

[Bastet]

Would you recommend this book to a person who absolutely loved Island of the Day Before and Foucault's Pendulum? I don't want my experience with Eco to be tainted and I have heard strange things about The Name of the Rose that have caused me to not read it. Plus mel gibson stars in a film version of it I have heard, which I think is a nervous idea.

hahaha! I didn't see the movie because I didn't want to get prejudiced by it.. and you know many movies change what happens in books, and it bothers me a lot, so I never watch a movie based on a book until I've read the book.

As far as Name of the Rose, I would recommend it to anybody who likes a good thriller and who can deal with pages and pages of careful descriptions... I must admit it got me hooked though!

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Plus mel gibson stars in a film version of it I have heard, which I think is a nervous idea.

Nope - Sean Connery and Christian Slater, which is much more reassuring and comfortable. :D

[Sami]

"To the Lighthouse", by Virginia Woolf was a slow starter for me, but it got better and I'm glad I sticked with it.
I had the opposite experience with this book. I don’t know that I was surprised by it exactly…it’s a very sad book really. I agree with you that you have to stick with it – it’s not an easy read!

[popy]

A long ago I was given Typhoon by Joseph Conrad for my birthday and I couldn't go through it as it felt a rather slow read. I came across it again few months ago and this time I greatly enjoyed it. Such a hilarious stuff. MacWhirr is such a great character. I don't think that anyone surpassed Conrad in his depiction of one dim-witted person who wasn't that incompetent after all.

"The skipper remarked to me the other day, 'There are
things you find nothing about in books.' I think that he got out of it
very well for such a stupid man.'"

[Elmer Babbitt]

To the Lighthouse is brilliant, even if slightly shady. I think "The Window" section is incredible; I don't like "Time Passes" aside from a few pieces here and there; and "The Lighthouse" is the most confusing of the three sections, and definitely not the most satisfying. Granted, I still like "The Lighthouse," as I can relate with Lily on several instances, but the novel starts off in high fashion and form, and loses its momentum a bit halfway through.

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (one of my favorite authors, as you perhaps may be able to tell) starts off reeeeeaaaaaally slow. But it gets interesting soon enough, thank God.

[Sami]

To the Lighthouse is brilliant, even if slightly shady. I think "The Window" section is incredible; I don't like "Time Passes" aside from a few pieces here and there; and "The Lighthouse" is the most confusing of the three sections, and definitely not the most satisfying. Granted, I still like "The Lighthouse," as I can relate with Lily on several instances, but the novel starts off in high fashion and form, and loses its momentum a bit halfway through.
I agree, Elmer, that it sort of loses momentum in terms of the focus on certain characters, but I sort of thought that was intentional wasn’t it? The book seemed to be saying that nothing really lasts forever because there’s always the momentum of time passing – everything fades, or is washed away by the tides of the sea/time? I think you're right that it gets harder to focus on as it goes along.

[Dark Lady]

I think I'm setting myself up to be shouted at here because I know people often feel very passionately about the novels I'm about to mention. Two novels that I was dissappointed by were 'The Catcher in the Rye' and 'The Great Gatsby'. The main reason was because with both I'd had them built up so much and was expecting to be completely blown away...and then wasn't.
I quite liked 'The Great Gatsby' but it just wasn't as amazing as I was expecting and I didn't really get into 'The Catcher in the Rye'.

[Bastet]

Well, I haven't read The Catcher in the Rye, so I can't talk about that one. However, I read The Great Gatsby. It actually surprised me but the other way around. I didn't expect anything from it and that's why I liked it so much. I think the thing with many so called "classics" is that sometimes one feels obligated to like them only because people we've always considered intellectually gifted think they're the best. However, I think many times that works against these books because of the expectation built around them and because of the tension one feels thinking that if you don't like them that might mean you don't know about literature.... obviously, this is not true, so I understand that you don't really enjoyed those two books so much, regardless of what most people might say

[holdencaulfield]

i read a short story called "the death of a clerk" whose ending really shocked me.can anybody tell me what the last line of the story means?

[Schokokeks]

When reading Paradise Lost by John Milton, about which I had heard a great deal of praises before starting it myself, I at first found it very hard to follow, partly due to the language, being a non-native English speaker, and partly because there were so many lines that I had to reread over and over as I couldn't quite decode the actual content... But I definetely wanted to complete it, so I continued to work my way through and being about half way through, I really began to enjoy it thoroughly, somehow having got familiar with the language unconsciously. The plot also became denser and thus more intriguing towards the end, I found.

It was the reverse case with Middlemarch by George Elliot, which I quite liked at the beginning because the story sounded promising and I enjoyed the writing style. After a few chapters, however, I felt the imperative urge to put it down again, as I began to lose interest in the characters and I was forced to detect too many resemblances regarding my own village and was thus quite disgusted. Maybe I'll finish it some other day...

[Idril]

It was the reverse case with Middlemarch by George Elliot, which I quite liked at the beginning because the story sounded promising and I enjoyed the writing style. After a few chapters, however, I felt the imperative urge to put it down again, as I began to lose interest in the characters and I was forced to detect too many resemblances regarding my own village and was thus quite disgusted. Maybe I'll finish it some other day...

Oh my heavens I hated that book and that was a quite a surprise because I'm usually a sucker for anything Victorian. I found it so horrendously dull and for the life of me, I can't really explain how it was different from, say, any Trollope novel and I adore those but Middlemarch was excruitating. I did finally finish it but I had to take a couple month break after about 400 pages.

On the opposite side, The Brothers K by David James Duncan was one that pleasantly surprised me. It was recommended to me by someone who's opinion, regarding books, I respect so at first I was surprised by how boring and plodding it was and how little interest it held for me and then about half way through, it suddenly became one of the greatest books I'd ever read. Lord of the Rings was a little like that as well, the first half of Fellowship of the Ring was so hard for me to get through, I just couldn't get into it, the Hobbits, while being sweet just weren't that fascinating for me but once they get to Bree and meet Strider, I was hooked and so glad I persevered.

[Scheherazade]

As far as Name of the Rose, I would recommend it to anybody who likes a good thriller and who can deal with pages and pages of careful descriptions... I must admit it got me hooked though!The Name of the Rose is the next book I will be reading when I finish The Sound and the Fury. Have seen the movie but I am still looking forward to reading it.

The books surprised me pleasantly:

Orlando by Woolf: It was much better than Mrs D. I was very unwilling to read it but once I started, I realised it was not as dreadful as I thought it would be and remotely interesting! :p Though it will never make it to my 'liked books' list.

Hours by Michael Cunningham: I am not sure how a book based on Mrs D can turn out so nicely but, in my opinion, Cunningham manages to do the impossible. Hours is surely Mrs D's only redeeming quality! :p

Master and Margarita by Bulgakov: Before starting this book, I thought it would be a love story between a nobleman and his maid or something along those lines so I was not very keen but, boy, was I wrong! It is one of the best books I have read and, even though a love story does run through the book to thread it together, it is only one of its aspects. A clever, funny, thought provoking book. Highly recommended by no other than yours truly!

As I Lay Dying by Faulkner: This is the hardest one to confess for me. I read AILD about 14 years ago for the first time and I am not sure how I managed to get through it. I was bored to tears and since than it was on my 'Bad, bad, bad books' list and never hesitated to say so whenever I had the chance. However, a few weeks ago, before the Book Club started on its The Sound and The Fury experience (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16592), I read it again only to realise I actually like the book. Its humour, which was lost on me earlier, is priceless and so is its tragedy.

At the moment, the only book I can think of that suprised me not-so-pleasantly is The catcher in the Rye. I really wish I had read when I was 20 years younger but today it gets a mere 'meh!' from me even though it is funny at times. All the teen angst and dictions and contradictions are bygones and water under the bridge; does anyone know any books about mid-life crises? :p

[Kop_Princess]

Anything by Virginia Woolf is a surprising read. People often judge her books too quickly and dismiss them as 'boring'. A closer reading reveals just how much depth a book can really have. I'm glad to see alot of people have mentioned her writings in this thread.

[Scheherazade]

Anything by Virginia Woolf is a surprising read. Yes, they are surprisingly boring and self-involved!

:p

[Kop_Princess]

I told you people dismiss them as boring. Cheers for proving my point. lol. To be honest, I thought that too until I started studying V.Woolf at uni. She's a bit like Marmite tho - people either love her or hate her.

[Scheherazade]

I studied Woolf at university too (unfortunately), however, studying something does not necessarily mean we like them more (sometimes it just gives us more reasons to dislike! :p) Woolf's subject matters and stream of consciousness style are not my cup of tea.

(I don't like marmite either! :p)