Giving up at the start

It’s only in recent years that I’ve been able to put a book down and agree not to waste any more time on it if it fails to engage me. In the past, if I’d invested any time in a book, I was bound to finish it. No longer is this the case. Without cheek or insouciance, these are books which have recently failed to catch my interest, and I’ve failed to make it any further than five pages into.

book-cover-super-sadSuper Sad True Love Story
Gary Shteyngart

I know it’s popular. I know it’s getting stellar reviews. I found it to be a patronizing and self-aware take on 1984. The absolutely over-the-top, absurd way the book begins left me feeling as if it were trying far too hard to prove itself. The concept of immersing one’s reader immediately in the story’s locale and society is an absolutely wonderful one, but overwhelming amounts of details and description aren’t the same as developing one’s character. By the point I had a joke explained to me (the instrumental version of “Little Pink Houses”), I was done. While I’m certain that for some, this sense of whimsy is just too adorable for words, it does nothing but put me off my lunch.

book-cover-lousiana-rocksLouisiana Rocks: The True Genesis of Rock and Roll
Tom Aswell

While I’m always up for another book that pontificates as to where rock ‘n’ roll truly had its roots (the blues, spirituals, jazz, et al), Aswell’s book makes the assertion that Louisiana is the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll through stats. Lots and lots of stats, to be precise. The introduction makes counts of the number of artists who were born in Louisiana, the ones who lived in the Louisiana, the songs about Louisiana, the songs recorded in Louisiana…dear lord. It’s lists and numbers, and upon a flip through the remainder of the book, it seemed that the chapters were lists of musicians, writers, producers, and the like, with their achievements listed in their biographies. Relentlessly dull.