I'm loving the lightning and the Christmassy cosiness! 🎄 This is so funny. My Year of Rest and Relaxation and A Little Life have been four and five star reads for me.
Oooh you bailed on Sparsholt! 🤪🤪🤪 (I can see why) - The Female Persuasion, me too 👏👏 (but do give The Interestings a try some day) But don’t you think you should give Franzen’s BIRDER book a try? 🤔🤔😂😂 Greg’s hate-read bouquet! 🥰🥰😂😂
I loved The Interestings, which is probably why The Female Persuasion was such a disappointment. I am still shuddering over the phrase "Franzen's BIRDER book" and may never stop.
I like your “Greg Logic”! I’ve looked at A Little Life so many times and thought about reading it. Now you have finally convinced me I need to run far away!
You and I have the same philosophy regarding DNFs, Greg. Some of my famous DNFs include: The Overstory by Richard Powers (I bailed on that after 50 pages) The Sellout by Paul Beatty (A book only white hipsters seem to love) The Ambassadors by Henry James (I hope to get back to it at some point) The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (The most overrated novel in American literature) Pym by Mat Johnson (A textbook that pretends to be satire) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Why exactly do people find this book funny? Forty pages and I was done)
I did a DNF for now of The Overstory because I will have to revisit it as part of my Pulitzer Project. Not really looking forward to that. I actually remember loving Catch-22 and thinking it was very funny, but I read it when I was about 20 years old.
"The Corrections" had about four run-ups in The New Yorker prior to publication, most of which I read while my mother was dying with melanoma (just as the hero's father was dying in the book). And then 9/11 happened, so maybe Franzen gets a bit too much heft/credit which he promptly blew by rejecting Oprah. Anyway, his earlier thriller "The 27th City" is still my favorite and maybe you'll get around to that someday...
I had the same sort of bad plane trip experience with Master and Margherita. I believe my ticket is still bookmarking it and it's been probably a decade, but I know I'm going to have to start it over whenever I do pick it up just to cleanse the experience of pushing myself to keep reading on the plane when I was having a terrible time of it.
My dog Rory heard your dog asking to go out (scratching on glass?) and thought it was my other dog, Darcy asking to be let in. Rory proceeded to bark at me to go to the door to let Darcy in. 🙃
He tackles a lot of big topics and handles them in a really off-putting way. Like he talks about the Penn State controversy from a few years ago and gives all the people who didn't investigate the molestation that was taking place a pass. Then he talks about sexual assault cases like the Brock Turner one and gives the people committing assault a pass as well. It's gross.
This isn't really in defense of Franzen, but I bailed very early in The Corrections and then started listening to it. I was completely missing the humor in my reading.
@@SupposedlyFun It's highly acclaimed but I maybe never read it for long enough to find out why. Frantzen as a person puts me off his books too. That maybe isn't a good reason not to read him however!
@@SupposedlyFun I got Cloudstreet but watched your review of it and I'm put off a bit. I hate investing time in a book for the ending to be bad. So thanks for sparing me!
I'm loving the lightning and the Christmassy cosiness! 🎄
This is so funny. My Year of Rest and Relaxation and A Little Life have been four and five star reads for me.
DNFing Cloud Street with 100 pages to go is almost optimum timing, Winton struggles with his endings.
This was a fantastic video. 🙂
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for creating the tag!
Oooh you bailed on Sparsholt! 🤪🤪🤪 (I can see why) - The Female Persuasion, me too 👏👏 (but do give The Interestings a try some day)
But don’t you think you should give Franzen’s BIRDER book a try? 🤔🤔😂😂
Greg’s hate-read bouquet! 🥰🥰😂😂
I loved The Interestings, which is probably why The Female Persuasion was such a disappointment. I am still shuddering over the phrase "Franzen's BIRDER book" and may never stop.
“A Little Life” is The Passion of the Christ in book form. I could not and will not read it.
I love this because that is a movie I absolutely refuse to ever watch. I also support your decision wholeheartedly.
I like your “Greg Logic”! I’ve looked at A Little Life so many times and thought about reading it. Now you have finally convinced me I need to run far away!
I know a lot of good people love A Little Life but I am definitely not one of them.
You and I have the same philosophy regarding DNFs, Greg. Some of my famous DNFs include:
The Overstory by Richard Powers (I bailed on that after 50 pages)
The Sellout by Paul Beatty (A book only white hipsters seem to love)
The Ambassadors by Henry James (I hope to get back to it at some point)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (The most overrated novel in American literature)
Pym by Mat Johnson (A textbook that pretends to be satire)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Why exactly do people find this book funny? Forty pages and I was done)
I did a DNF for now of The Overstory because I will have to revisit it as part of my Pulitzer Project. Not really looking forward to that. I actually remember loving Catch-22 and thinking it was very funny, but I read it when I was about 20 years old.
I nearly DNF'd The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing. It was our book group choice and only 1 person out 8 people actually enjoyed reading it.
I've never read Lessing but I've heard her writing is pretty dense.
"The Corrections" had about four run-ups in The New Yorker prior to publication, most of which I read while my mother was dying with melanoma (just as the hero's father was dying in the book). And then 9/11 happened, so maybe Franzen gets a bit too much heft/credit which he promptly blew by rejecting Oprah. Anyway, his earlier thriller "The 27th City" is still my favorite and maybe you'll get around to that someday...
I'm now intrigued as to what you didn't like about A Little Life. Don't worry about causing offence...I gave it 1 star on GR.
"I dnf-ed that book really hard." Love it. Henceforth, 'normal' books will be dnf-ed, books I hate will be dnf-ed really hard. LoL.
I love this new classification!
I cant read on a plane at all. I don't know why. It makes flying kind of a nightmare for me.
I can't sleep on planes so not being able to read would be disaster.
I had the same sort of bad plane trip experience with Master and Margherita. I believe my ticket is still bookmarking it and it's been probably a decade, but I know I'm going to have to start it over whenever I do pick it up just to cleanse the experience of pushing myself to keep reading on the plane when I was having a terrible time of it.
I'm glad I'm not the only person this happens to! I love Master and Margarita--I hope you do, too, if you ever get back to it!
I'm fairly confident I'm going to love it from all I have heard, I just have to shake off the original experience with it.
@@rebeccar9764 It's one of my favorites.
Oh yes, hate reading a book with Shawn is the BEST!
My dog Rory heard your dog asking to go out (scratching on glass?) and thought it was my other dog, Darcy asking to be let in. Rory proceeded to bark at me to go to the door to let Darcy in. 🙃
That is so funny! Yes, they usually scratch at the porch door if they need to go out.
@@SupposedlyFun sounded exactly the same. Fooled me and Rory.
There’s no shame in not finishing a Hollinghurst book 😂
Phew! I usually feel like such a disappointment to the community. ;-)
@@SupposedlyFun yeah same, but I’m content being a disappointment if it means I can avoid reading rich white man narratives ☺️
@@JentheLibrarianreads Amen to that!
“DNF for now” makes sense to me!
Why did the Gladwell book Talking to Strangers make you mad? Never read it...
He tackles a lot of big topics and handles them in a really off-putting way. Like he talks about the Penn State controversy from a few years ago and gives all the people who didn't investigate the molestation that was taking place a pass. Then he talks about sexual assault cases like the Brock Turner one and gives the people committing assault a pass as well. It's gross.
That Shawn is always a delight. 🎄❤️
He sure is!
This isn't really in defense of Franzen, but I bailed very early in The Corrections and then started listening to it. I was completely missing the humor in my reading.
Corrections was hard going. Did not get by 100 pages
I think I got the humor, but if I were ever going to try again I probably would look for the audio. I just don't think that's likely anytime soon.
@@SupposedlyFun It's highly acclaimed but I maybe never read it for long enough to find out why. Frantzen as a person puts me off his books too. That maybe isn't a good reason not to read him however!
@@SupposedlyFun it's not that great IMO. So many better books out there.
The Shepher's Hut and Breathe, both by Tim Winton, are good books
I may try another Winton at some point, but I definitely need a breather first.
@@SupposedlyFun I got Cloudstreet but watched your review of it and I'm put off a bit. I hate investing time in a book for the ending to be bad. So thanks for sparing me!
@@irena7777777 :-)