March 31, 2009

Tuesday Thingers

Today's question from Wendi's Book Corner: What is your least-favorite book(s)? Is your least-favorite book listed in your LT library? If it is listed, do you have anything special in the tags or comments section? How have others rated your least-favorite book? Well, my most recent least favourite book was Conceit by Mary Novik. I cannot deny that it was well-written and accurately portrayed the period she was writing about (1600s) but I just could not like all the descriptions about bodily functions. I like suspense books and do not grimace or skip over bloody, gross or gruesome scenes...but there was just something about the crudeness (of bodily humors) in Conceit that got to me...so much so that at one point I threw it across the room. I still rated the book three stars though and the average rating is 3.88 on LT. Looking through my LibraryThing Library I see that I gave Any Given Doomsday a DNF and no rating, which would be the only special tag I have used. Otherwise I do not use any tags to denote least favourite. Any Given Doomsday was rated 2.54 by LT members. Darcy's Story by Janet Alymer (rated 3.12 by LT members) and Austenland by Shannon Hale (rated 3.46 by LT members) were two Jane Austen fan fiction books that really disappointed by and I rated both two stars. Besides the Pamela Aiden series I suggest sticking with the real thing. In my experience the success of Jane Austen fan fiction novels are very much hit and miss. Further, I used to be dedicated to following the following authors but have been less than satisfied with their recent efforts and have struck from my favourites: Iris Johansen, Liz Carlyle, Julia Garwood, Shana Abe, Kasey Michaels, Jill Barnett, Lori Foster and Kathy Reichs. Are there any authors you have recently given up on?

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Sorry about the deleted post! I had a major typo. :) I pasted the wrong link.

    Anyway, I was just saying that I haven't had great experiences with Jane Austen fan fiction either, and that I'm glad I haven't bothered with Any Given Doomsday.

    Here's my post.

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  3. "I suggest sticking with the real thing" - exactly! There's such a huge industry that's grown up around Jane Austen, and most of it is pure drivel. I haven't read all her books yet, but even if I had, I think I'd rather just keep reading Jane herself, over and over and over.

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  4. another poor soul that tried to read Any Given Doomsday!

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  5. If you cannot get enough of Jane Austen I would suggest reading Georgette Heyer and skipping Jane Austen fan fiction altogether...the two authors have style, wit, turn of phrase and the ability to portray society of the time accurately in common.

    Thanks for all the comments.

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  6. You know, something you mentioned at the end really struck me. Isn't it amazing what one bad book from a favorite author can do to us? I used to love Julie Garwood, or at least her historical romances, but when she started writing contemporary, I lost interest and haven't picked up one of her books in years! I guess I did the same thing, and simply dropped her from my favorites.

    Thanks for stopping by and participating in Thingers last week! I've got the post up for this week, have you seen the new customizable widgets on LT? ~ Wendi

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