Author Topic: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book  (Read 708 times)

Offline Morrigan

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #15 on: June 01, 2018, 07:41:49 pm »
Corgiqueen - I hear you on the older authors stuff. I find the more recent books from Robin Cook, Dean Koontz and even Stephen King have been hit or miss in the last couple of years.

Offline whiterose

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #16 on: June 06, 2018, 05:22:11 pm »
I did not finish the audiobooks of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Watership Down, or Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

I do not really remember why. Reasons may be different for each one.
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Offline cayenne

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #17 on: June 06, 2018, 05:48:57 pm »
I have never listened to an audiobook, I imagine whether I liked the voice would be a possible factor.

Offline Kiwi Cupcake

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #18 on: June 06, 2018, 06:03:33 pm »
The Princess Bride. I love the movie but the book just didn't have the same humor and magic. I'd probably like it more if I didn't see the movie first.

Offline whiterose

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #19 on: June 06, 2018, 08:31:55 pm »
Now that I think about it, I did not finish My Sister's Keeper or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil either. Lost interest in both.
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Offline GloryAndCrumpets

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #20 on: June 06, 2018, 09:30:10 pm »

I was actually going to post that I've quit audio book specifically if the reader's voice bothers me. I normally love audio books "read by the author. So I checked out a book by Amy Tan (whose books that I have read are very good) that was read by the author.

Oh boy. Her voice was sort of high pitched squeaky and I couldn't make it past about half way through the first disc. The reader can really make or  break an audio book for me.

I have absolutel quit audiobooks because of the narrator. I listened to audiobooks all the time as a kid (I would spend hours up in my room, doing jigsaw puzzles and listening to books-on-tape) and didn't care too much about narrators then, but I don't listen to them as much now and I've become a lot pickier. I tried listening to Tom Jones, and while I was really enjoying the book itself, I had to stop because the narrator did the worst voices for the female characters. When he was just narrating he was fine, and the male voices were okay, but the women (even the ones who were supposed to be teenagers) all sounded like seventy-year-old fishwives. I have a physical copy somewhere, so I'll have to dig it out and finish the book that way.
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Offline Morrigan

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #21 on: June 08, 2018, 07:16:47 pm »
I don't think I could listen to Shakespeare on audiobook - we had to listen to the Shakespeare plays on cassette tape in high school, and follow along in the book. I'd feel like I was going back and trying to figure out what the lines meant.

Offline GloryAndCrumpets

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #22 on: June 08, 2018, 09:03:51 pm »
I don't think I could listen to Shakespeare on audiobook - we had to listen to the Shakespeare plays on cassette tape in high school, and follow along in the book. I'd feel like I was going back and trying to figure out what the lines meant.

Yes, I've listened to some audio productions of Shakespeare and while I really enjoyed most of them, I definitely had to be following along with the text to make sure I had all the characters straight. Which was enjoyable in its own way, but sort of defeated the purpose of an audiobook!

Offline Amara

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #23 on: June 10, 2018, 12:18:08 pm »
I have never listened to an audiobook, I imagine whether I liked the voice would be a possible factor.

You are right! It makes a huge difference. The best one (out of many excellent ones) was the recording of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde read by (of all things) a British actor named Jonathan Hyde. Dear god, this reader made this story come so alive that I have listened to it at least 100 times. I listen in the car. And I heard that actor's voice exactly as I read the book and had to read the words in the same cadence he spoke them.

The worst was the reader chosen for The Bounty by Caroline Alexander. I loved, loved, loved this book--and the audio version was so terrible I couldn't get even halfway through the first CD. I have never gone back and reread the book, though I'd like to at some point, because the reader spoiled it so badly.

Offline PeasInQueues

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #24 on: June 11, 2018, 01:29:31 pm »
I word FT and go to school FT and I'm a new mother, so I rely almost exclusively on audiobooks for my "reading" pleasure.

My sisters love the Jim Butcher books The Dresden Files.

The narrator was TERRIBLE. He sighed and mumbled through half of it. He legitimately sounded bored! I think he was trying to do a "character" but it was so hard to understand him, I just stopped.

Offline Free Range Hippy Chick

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #25 on: June 11, 2018, 01:40:08 pm »
Oh, I liked those!

On the other hand, I had some Sherlock Holmes short stories read by Christopher Lee, that I had to get rid of. Fabulous actor, couldn't read aloud. They were dreadful.

Derek Jacobi, on the other hand, can read me an MOT certificate and his shopping list, and I'll listen.
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Offline cayenne

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #26 on: June 11, 2018, 03:12:12 pm »
Oh, I liked those!

On the other hand, I had some Sherlock Holmes short stories read by Christopher Lee, that I had to get rid of. Fabulous actor, couldn't read aloud. They were dreadful.

Derek Jacobi, on the other hand, can read me an MOT certificate and his shopping list, and I'll listen.

I would pay good money just to hear Derek Jacobi read the phone book out loud.  ;D

Offline VorFemme

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #27 on: June 12, 2018, 10:43:41 am »
Yes - Derek Jacobi did a wonderful job as an actor with I, Claudius when younger and again as Brother Cadfael…I don't know about listening to him read his grocery list or the phone book - but I can't imagine him mumbling his way through a reading...like a few others.  I only get audio books from the library because, well, some of those people shouldn't have been trying to read a whole book out loud.  Mumbling, monotone, and an inappropriately "sexy" voice for the subject matter come to mind (if it's a romance - fine - but Jane Eyre really shouldn't sound sexy and no scenes with a dead body play well that way in my ears).

I borrowed one audio book from the library and I swear I had to turn it in and find a print copy to read - the way the female voice reader sounded, everything sounded lascivious - bad enough in the "heavy romance scenes" - but there was a scene that didn't work in her voice (there was a murder or two in the book) and...well, I couldn't listen to that audio book after that.

Offline Morrigan

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #28 on: June 27, 2018, 09:06:00 pm »
I had to stop reading The Child Finder, as they described the little five year old sleeping in the same bed as the man who found her, and the man sleeps naked. The author goes on to describe what the guy looks like naked, in the words of the little girl. Now, the male adult doesn't do anything to the kid, but it grossed me out, and I haven't been able to pick the book back up.

Offline DragonKitty

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Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #29 on: June 29, 2018, 02:23:32 pm »
 I don’t know whether I will get a lot of grief about this or not, but one of the books I had to put down was “Game of Thrones“. I put it down because I was about a third of the way through, and realize I was not interested in finding out the fate of ANY of the characters.  I was just bored with the book.

 Now if I find if I am bored with a book, or dislike reading it further, I will go to the end of the book and read the last five pages or so, so that I have a conclusion for the book and don’t need to worry about it anymore.  What is sad is that sometimes I can’t even get through those last five pages. 

 Oh, and just remembered the book “practical magic“, the movie was great so I tried reading the book, and the book was horrid and I was not able to finish it.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2018, 02:33:08 pm by DragonKitty »
Look, the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense   -Hawkeye
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