The Side Quest Book Club discussion

No spoilers please.

Whoops! Isn't this what we're reading for October?

Yes, October.

Fixed. Wish someone would've told me lol.

I having a pretty hard time getting into this book. I'm a little over 25% through and it's pretty boring.

Travis wrote: "I having a pretty hard time getting into this book. I'm a little over 25% through and it's pretty boring."

I made it a few pages in, before I gave up and moved onto Oryx and Crake (which I'm enjoying.)

Travis wrote: "I having a pretty hard time getting into this book. I'm a little over 25% through and it's pretty boring."

Agreed, but at least it's short. The audiobook on Hoopla is only 5.5 hours long.

If you think you're bored now, wait until you get to the pages and pages of descriptions of gemstones and tapestries!

Sounds riveting lol. I'm doing the audio book too. Otherwise I'd have given up already.

Lindsay wrote: "If you think you're bored now, wait until you get to the pages and pages of descriptions of gemstones and tapestries! "

Oof, you weren't kidding were you. Def got boring again. Musical instruments, gemstones, tapestries, oh my.

Travis wrote: "Oof, you weren't kidding were you."

I know, right?!? I mean, I don't want to seem prurient, but all his worst sins are alluded to rather than described. In some ways, it shouldn't matter, we can fill in the scandalous details from our own imaginations and social context, but another part of me wants to know, dammit, so I can decide if I think this book is a creakily outdated moralizing story.

I don't mind allusions to darkness, but I think it's creakily outdated regardless. Granted, I haven't read a huge number of "classics," but it never ceases to amaze me how they spend so much time and such huge word counts to say absolutely nothing that moves the plot forward, or is even interesting. I appreciate the language and plots; I don't regret reading them. But good lord, at some point it just makes the authors sound pretentious, like they're trying too hard with their prose. It's the same reason I can't get into Shakespeare. Yes, I know it's intended to be spoken rather than read, but it still feels too much like work to me. I want my reading to be fun, not homework.

Travis wrote: "I don't mind allusions to darkness, but I think it's creakily outdated regardless. Granted, I haven't read a huge number of "classics," but it never ceases to amaze me how they spend so much time a..."
I have actually read the entire works of Shakespeare (one-time theater major who took 2 Shakespeare courses in college) no problem. I am cool with ponderous writing. I can't read this book however.