Play Book Tag discussion

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
3 stars but I almost gave it 2 stars

Well, that took for freaking ever. I looked and I started reading this in May 2018. It took me over a year to finish it. I kept putting it down and really had no desire to pick it back up. But I kept it around and would read some pages here and there. A few days ago, I picked it up at 36% read and tried again. My interest was finally held and finished it fairly quickly. I'm finding that the writing styles that are full of details that may or may not have a point, is where I struggle. If there is to much detail and it's hard to for me to see the direction the story is going, I lose interest. And that was the case here for the last 18 months.

It was a really interesting story as I got further along. The first part of the book follows the story of the main character's grandparents, then parents. Occasionally the story flashes forward to current day and those flashes get long and longer as the story go on. The story goes on to follow the main character through childhood and puberty as a rare genetic condition comes to light.

I know a lot of people love this book and this author... although I enjoyed the end of the book and the overall story, I don't know if I could recommend it to anyone since it took me so long to consume it.

Well Charlotte, you deserve commendations for finishing it! I have had it on my real life book shelve for ages, and just cannot get in the mood for it. I have it on my "first quarter of 2020", but will see if that actually happens!

Joanne wrote: "Well Charlotte, you deserve commendations for finishing it! I have had it on my real life book shelve for ages, and just cannot get in the mood for it. I have it on my "first quarter of 2020", but ..."

If we do the long book challenge, maybe that'll give you motivation since it's a 500+ page book.

I just thank goodness I don't have a qualm about reading multiple books at once, so I was able to chip at it over the last 18 months.

Charlotte wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Well Charlotte, you deserve commendations for finishing it! I have had it on my real life book shelve for ages, and just cannot get in the mood for it. I have it on my "first quarter..."

I also read multiple books at one time-it gives me options for the mood I am in at the time.

Charlotte wrote: "Well, that took for freaking ever. I looked and I started reading this in May 2018. It took me over a year to finish it. I kept putting it down and really had no desire to pick it back up. ..."

This was me when I read "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell"!

I'm sorry you didn't like this one, though. :-(

LibraryCin wrote: "Charlotte wrote: "Well, that took for freaking ever. I looked and I started reading this in May 2018. It took me over a year to finish it. I kept putting it down and really had no desire to pick it..."

Me too! I struggled with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell as well!!

I liked this one very much but I know that if it took me too long to read, having to put it down, I wouldn't like it very much. Sometimes, I have a book that I would normally like but it's a slow reading period for me (too many outside distractions) and I just can't give it a positive review.