[Note: This is a three part book review! Donna (at Heron There & Everywhere) and Deborah (at The Reading Chick) have also posted reviews of the book. Please go visit them, both because they are awesome bloggers and because they have different views of the book so you can see how three different people liked/didn’t like the book. Also, they are much better about getting blog posts done than me and both of them were all finished and had their posts scheduled while I was sitting on a boat and drinking wine. I am bad at responsibility some days.]
A few years ago, someone pointed out to me that over the course of a lifetime, we only get to read so many books. I read about 52 books each year. Let’s say I live another 40 years, that means I am only going to get to read 2,080 more books. If I only get so many books, I want to make sure I’m reading books I like. This means that if I don’t like a book, I stop reading it.
Which is why you’re about to get a review of a book I didn’t finish. Because I really, really did not like Kulti, the first book we’re doing for this Blog Book Club.
I’m pretty sure that if you’re in a blog book club like this, not finishing a book – especially the first ever book you’re reading for the club – is at the top of the list of “things not to do.” So I really gave it a chance – much more of a chance than I would have given had I picked it up on my own.
I had downloaded the Kindle version, so when I was about 10% of the way through and struggling mightily to read it, I downloaded the audiobook in the hopes that forced listening while walking Choppy would get me to the part of the book where it gets good. I got about 20% of the way through using that, and I gave up. The idea of reading over 400 MORE pages of a book I just immensely disliked from almost the first page was more than I could take.
Actually, that’s a good place to start. There are VERY few books which should be 570 pages long. One of my major pet peeves with books is that they are far too long for what they have to say. It’s the “Half as Long” theory of writing.
I mean, at least when you get to the end of The Old Man and the Sea and you go “that was dumb,” you’ve only wasted 108 pages of your life (and at least you wasted that time on a Pulitzer winning book that almost certainly led to the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Ernest Hemingway). [Note: As you can see from the length of this review, I need to take my own advice.]
I read more pages of Kulti than there are pages in The Old Man and the Sea, and for as little that happens in The Old Man and the Sea, even less was happening in Kulti. Ugh. To summarize everything that had happened up until that point in the book, let me give you a list:
1.
That’s it. Nothing. Nothing had happened. In over 100 pages of the book.
At least Santiago had caught a fish.
So, that about sums it up for plot.
As for the characters, I disliked both the main characters. Sal, the main character, is a professional soccer player. And that’s the Only. Thing. About. Her. The only thing worse than a one note character? A one note character whose one note happens to be a sport that I find incredibly boring. And clearly, she wasn’t being saved as a one note character by the plot, because as noted above, there wasn’t one. Or at least, there wasn’t one during the 100+ pages I read. I suspect a love story develops after that, but it wasn’t there in the pages I read.
Even supposing a love story developed, this Kulti character who was the other main character – a former professional soccer player who is the assistant coach of Sal’s team, which is an entirely unrealistic situation (don’t get me started on this) – wasn’t going to make me enjoy it. At least I knew Sal had a childhood crush on Kulti (because there were numerous, long passages telling me all about her childhood crush on the man – do NOT get me started on those either, because you know what? I only need to read something like this once, not the numerous times in the first 100 pages that I got to read about it, and I certainly don’t need to rehash it yet again here). Kulti himself had ZERO personality, unless “silent dude in the corner” is a personality. Ugh. He certainly wasn’t going to keep me interested in the book.
Eventually, I just couldn’t bring myself to read or listen to another page, and I put the book down. A few times, I considered picking it back up, but the idea of reading any more of it – even with two other people counting on me to do so – was more than I could stand.
And so, I guess I can’t give a real review. The book might get awesome – clearly, Deborah and Donna liked it, and it has zero 1 star reviews on Amazon – but I don’t know if it does. It was SOOOOO SLOW and the characters were so boring and uninteresting to me. I just couldn’t keep reading it.
Oh no!!!! The great thing about reading a book is that no one person feels the same way about it. It’s just like a fine wine or a piece of art. We all have that one note that either strikes a chord or doesn’t! I think growing up playing soccer was a Huge part of why it struck the right note with me. I like you more for even trying!
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It is always amazing to me how different people have such different tastes in books – or all sorts of things, for that matter!
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Too true!
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I agree on not finishing a book you really don’t like. I have a rule that I read 50 pages, which I think gives the author a fair chance. If I really can’t stand it after that, then tuff! 🙂
Some books you Can’t put down, as they are so riveting. Rather save your time for those you enjoy. 🙂
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Exactly! I gave this one more of a chance than I normally would because we were doing it for our Blog Book Club, but even with that, there was a point where I just couldn’t continue. On the plus side, the last few books I have picked up have been great. Perhaps it’s to make up for not liking this one!
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Oh that’s good to hear. 🙂
I have two new Bill Bryson books to take to UK on my trip in a few months – can’t wait! 🙂
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I LOVE Bill Bryson – he wrote one of my all time faves, A Walk in the Woods. I wasn’t a fan of his most recent book, but I downloaded what I think is the only book of his I haven’t read to listen to just an hour or two ago!
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Awesome. 🙂 I’ve also got lots of his books.
I hope you enjoy his audio book. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
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Thank you for the reblog!
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I WISH I could stop reading books I don’t like. Also, I wish I could stop rereading books I don’t mean to (I have a terrible memory, and I read about 25 books a month, so tend to pick up the same ones more often than I should).
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At that number, I would do much more accidental re-reading! I try for 52 a year, and it does happen (I once got about 300 pages into a 600+ page book before I realized it. At that point, I just re-read the thing entirely!).
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I’m with you, if I’m not grabbed in the first 3 chapters I’m out of it. Slow burn love stories not my thing anyway so won’t be getting this one 🙂
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I don’t think I’d ever read one before, or if I did, I clearly liked it more than this one and didn’t realize what it was!
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Oh, I’m so sorry you didn’t like it, Sarah! I liked it so much I read it twice!! Maybe the difference was Deb and I had read other books by this author before. Her books are all long, and they are all slow burn romances. I’m not a soccer fan either, but for some reason that didn’t bother me.
I can’t tell you the number of books I can’t finish that others rave about. I had to give up on a particularly smutty ARC that other early readers were giving 5 star reviews. I hated that book! Everyone else loved it. I agree with you that if it’s not working for you, it’s not worth wasting the time.
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I think perhaps I’m not one for the slow burn romances – I guess all those music videos I watched as a kid gave me a need for things to happen constantly!
I’m surprised to see how many people have commented that they stop reading books – in the past, I’ve sometimes felt bad for doing so, so it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who does so!
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I also don’t sit through movies I don’t like… there really is only so much time we have on the planet, why waste it?
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Exactly! I guess my method for movies is slightly different – I just fall asleep in front of ones that don’t hold any interest for me. I can always use the sleep!
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😉
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Best book review ever. Pointed and powerful. Not about the book in question, but about the whole idea of reading something you don’t like. I won’t do it anymore, hence no more book clubs for me. Said like a true introvert.
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Yes, don’t waste time on bad books – there are too many good ones out there and not enough time to read all of those!
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I can’t believe you manage to ready 52 books a year! I don’t have time to read even one in a year! I love to read too. Wish I could figure out how to make more time for that, but I have to get some long put-off to do’s done first. I’m working on that.
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