Sport of Kings
When I first heard about Sport of Kings I was so excited to read it. I heard Lisa Lucas give a very dynamic presentation at the Loft Literary Center and she said it was one of her favorite books of 2017. It was also a runner up for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize Award for fiction. (Underground Railroad was the actual winner).
While I was reading I felt like there was absolutely nothing wrong with the writing. My dilemma was more that there were always books that seemed more interesting than this particular book. I made this realization when I finally hit the halfway point in this book.
Abandoning books is something I allow myself to do if I have a hard time completing them. I have way too many books that I WANT to read to spend too much time reading a book that is not engaging me. The most common reasons that I abandon a book are 1) Being completely offended by something I read. 2) Finding the writing unbearable 3) Not feeling engaged with what I read.
Abandoned reads are handled on a case by case basis. A lot of times if I am almost done with a book (over the halfway point) I will stick with it even if I am considering abandoning it to see if it will redeem itself in the final pages. If someone wants to discuss a book with me (typically at the Loft but occasionally a friend will want to discuss a book with me). I have never received any monetary compensation for reviewing a book however I would stick with a book I wanted to abandon if I was paid to write a review. However advanced reader copies of books are pretty cool incentives as well. (See "Only Child")
The only rule I have for myself is that when I abandon a book I make a note in my reading journal why I felt inclined to abandon the book. This is in hopes of learning something about the bad writing that I read as well.
The majority of what I read has the primary purpose of fulfilling my own pleasure. I have a LONG list of books I want to read. I have cut back on buying books while I am between jobs but my husband knows better than anyone else that I love searching amazon for used books and that I have a shelf full of books that I am committed to reading. (See "My OWN Reading Challenge").
However this book surprised me that I wanted to abandon it with the kind of acclaim that it received. But this is not the first time I just did not feel engaged with a book that everyone else seemed to love. Wintering and La Rose were other books that I heard a lot of great things about but struggled to finish. However with those two books I made the commitment to finish them as they are more local authors who I wanted to support. Both of those books had beautiful prose and nothing technically wrong with them. They just weren't really the types of books that I personally like to read.
Not every book is for everyone. Just because a book gets a lot of critical acclaim does not mean that I should read it. But frankly if it is getting a lot of acclaim I do try to pay attention to it. However that does not mean that I will necessarily come to the same conclusions on my own. And I had to not listen to what the critics have to say and put this book aside. I thought that Underground Railroad which was the book that won the Pulitzer for 2017 is a superior book.
While I was reading I felt like there was absolutely nothing wrong with the writing. My dilemma was more that there were always books that seemed more interesting than this particular book. I made this realization when I finally hit the halfway point in this book.
Abandoning books is something I allow myself to do if I have a hard time completing them. I have way too many books that I WANT to read to spend too much time reading a book that is not engaging me. The most common reasons that I abandon a book are 1) Being completely offended by something I read. 2) Finding the writing unbearable 3) Not feeling engaged with what I read.
Abandoned reads are handled on a case by case basis. A lot of times if I am almost done with a book (over the halfway point) I will stick with it even if I am considering abandoning it to see if it will redeem itself in the final pages. If someone wants to discuss a book with me (typically at the Loft but occasionally a friend will want to discuss a book with me). I have never received any monetary compensation for reviewing a book however I would stick with a book I wanted to abandon if I was paid to write a review. However advanced reader copies of books are pretty cool incentives as well. (See "Only Child")
The only rule I have for myself is that when I abandon a book I make a note in my reading journal why I felt inclined to abandon the book. This is in hopes of learning something about the bad writing that I read as well.
The majority of what I read has the primary purpose of fulfilling my own pleasure. I have a LONG list of books I want to read. I have cut back on buying books while I am between jobs but my husband knows better than anyone else that I love searching amazon for used books and that I have a shelf full of books that I am committed to reading. (See "My OWN Reading Challenge").
However this book surprised me that I wanted to abandon it with the kind of acclaim that it received. But this is not the first time I just did not feel engaged with a book that everyone else seemed to love. Wintering and La Rose were other books that I heard a lot of great things about but struggled to finish. However with those two books I made the commitment to finish them as they are more local authors who I wanted to support. Both of those books had beautiful prose and nothing technically wrong with them. They just weren't really the types of books that I personally like to read.
Not every book is for everyone. Just because a book gets a lot of critical acclaim does not mean that I should read it. But frankly if it is getting a lot of acclaim I do try to pay attention to it. However that does not mean that I will necessarily come to the same conclusions on my own. And I had to not listen to what the critics have to say and put this book aside. I thought that Underground Railroad which was the book that won the Pulitzer for 2017 is a superior book.
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