27th Street

Now that I’ve abandoned the current novel I’m reading, I’m open for some fiction suggestions. I have some non-fiction here that I’ll likely read concurrently but I’d like to bite into a novel.  I might just grab one from the book box out front. There are some interesting possibilities out there. On the other hand, if anyone wants to make a strong recommendation, speak up.

Do you ever start a book and abandon it at some point along the way? I don’t like doing that but I confess it has happened from time to time. In fact it happened today when I abandoned 2666 by Roberto Bolano. This is a novel that has enjoyed tremendously positive critical response. Friends of mine whose opinion I respect greatly have told me what a great book it is. It may in fact be a great book, and at some point I may regret abandoning it. Or perhaps I’ll pick it up again to give it another go. Maybe I’m just not in the right frame of mind to tackle this one right now. At over 900 pages, it’s quite a commitment, and the first 100-odd pages did not capture my imagination. I found I was avoiding reading opportunities and I didn’t like that one bit. so for now, I’m putting 2666 aside.

It isn’t the first book I’ve abandoned and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I tried 3 times to read Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. For some reason I thought I’d like this one or I should like this one or something like that. Each time I got to about the same spot before giving up the ghost.

I only tried to read Moby Dick once. I suggested it for a book club I was part of for a while and it ended the book club. Nobody finished the book. My fellow readers were not very happy with me. I know people who claim to have actually read this one to the end but I’m suspicious they’re just funning me, knowing there isn’t anyone around to challenge them on it.

I abandoned Kenneth J. Harvey’s Blackstrap Hawco after hardly giving it a chance. I know it was unfair of me but life isn’t always fair. Sorry about that Kenneth J. I don’t even remember why I abandoned ship and in fact I don’t even remember anything of the book.

And yet there are other books I have read two or three times, books I can’t seem to get enough of. I suppose all of us relate to some works of literature or art or music more than other works. That’s likely a good thing.

So, what books have you abandoned?