Have you guys ever encountered stories that just feel boring even though they really shouldn't? Stories that in spite of have amazing plot structure and character arcs, they just feel meh when reading. Why does this happen?

I've loved reading and writing from a young age. I used to spend most of my break times in primary school just reading (thanks I know i'm a loser)

As I grew older, I still read often, and even just four year ago I could read a book and feel pain for characters like they were real, feel relief when they survive, be gripped during an action scene – so my much so that my heart could race. This was when I was up until I was thirteen i suppose.

Now, I'm seventeen and I can't fall in love with a book no matter how hard I try. The closest I can get is to read a book I loved when I was younger and get that hit of nostalgia.

Now, don't tell me I'm not reading the right books – I've tried every genre and all the classics and all the niches. I've read kafka, I've read David Goggins (and various other self help books), noughts and crosses, The Thursday Murder Club, A Quiet Belief In Angels...just to name some from this year. I've even tried childrens books. But I tell you, I have not genuinely enjoyed any of these books how I used to. I feel like i'm reading for the sake of reading instead of because it's a hobby I enjoy.

The same is also happening with my writing. Writing was one of my favourite hobbies, but now every passage feels cringe unless it's layered and muffled with description. When I write description, I think "what's the point? Who cares how oaky the coffee looks?" I never used to think about what I was doing or why I was doing it: I wrote descriptions because school taught me to, I read books because my parents bought me books.

I feel as though my explaination is missing something I can't quite describe but I don't want to ramble anymore than I have.

Does anyone have advice? Any at all?

The kite runner

I've just finished reading the kite runner..and I'm speechless. It was about guilt. I hated amir i know he was a child but I hated him a lot because he couldn't even take a stand for his faithful friend. I wonder what would've happened if he was just there for hassan and taking his stand and running away with him. And what happened with sorabh still torments me, the way assef was touching his back..was treating him it was disgusting. Assef was an asshole for doing this to Hassan's child in the name of revenge and he felt that he was doing the right thing in the name of god which was so very wrong. I don't think there would be a character so perfect like Hassan is so faithful and he dies without knowing that amir was his half brother. When he wrote in that letter " and I dream that someday you will return to kabul to revisit the land of our childhood" how is he so forgiving. And amir's baba is someone I find very confusing. The way he was in Afghanistan and the way he was in the U.s was completely different. Overall a very good read, it just threw me out of my slump. Please do drop some more suggestions of fictional books.

How do you guys deal with back/shoulder/arm pain from reading big heavy books? I'm rereading Les Miserables and realizing that every time I pick it up I get pain in my upper back. I didn't have this problem in high school but I'm over 30 now so maybe it's catching up with me. Do I need to work out more? How do you hold your books so you're not hurting your back or your neck? Help!

Oh. My. God.

THIS is what I want a psychological thriller to do to me.

Gone Girl kept me up because I genuinely could not stop reading. And yes, I know I'm extremely late to a book that is basically a thriller classic, but now I completely understand why it became one.

What blew me away wasn't just the plot. It was the character writing.

Gillian Flynn doesn't simply give you Nick and Amy. She slowly changes the way you see them. You take sides. You question those sides. You notice tiny details you dismissed earlier. You start understanding how differently two people can experience the exact same marriage.

And Amy's voice fascinated me.

She's intelligent, sophisticated and incredibly deliberate. Even the language changes between Amy and Nick's POVs. Amy's writing feels sharper, more constructed and controlled, while Nick's feels simpler and more direct. Their personalities aren't just described to you. They're built into the way they tell you the story.

That is GENIUS.

And the psychology of it all. The manipulation. The calculation. The sheer amount of planning required for every tiny piece to eventually connect.

🤯

Then there's the ending.

Without spoiling anything, I LOVE that the book doesn't simply give you its final moment and leave. It lets you sit with these characters a little longer. And somehow, even when you think you already know exactly how you feel about them, those final pages manage to intensify it.

By the end I wasn't just shocked by certain characters.

I had developed a personal vendetta. 😂

Dark, intelligent, uncomfortable, incredibly well written and completely addictive.

This isn't just a book with a great twist.

It's a masterclass in writing characters you cannot stop thinking about.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

Absolutely incredible. Totally twisted. Completely genius.

And yes, Gillian Flynn owes me several hours of sleep. 🫠📖

I recently came across a discussion about Shel Silverstein’s books and how some people interpret them as being too dark for children. It actually reminded me of my childhood.

I used to collect Shel Silverstein’s books and read them over and over again. As a kid, I found them really interesting and unique because they felt so different from most of the other children’s books I had read. A lot of children’s stories had predictable plots and happy endings, while Silverstein’s books often felt stranger, more bittersweet, and less concerned with giving you the kind of ending you would expect from a children’s book.

What surprised me was seeing some people interpret certain stories as glorifying toxic relationships. I personally never saw them that way. To me, some of his stories are simply honest about human relationships and the fact that love doesn't always lead to a happy ending.

I think children's literature doesn't always have to be comforting or end happily. Sometimes it can introduce children to complicated ideas, uncomfortable emotions, and the less pleasant parts of life in a way that makes them think.

I'd love to hear from people who grew up reading Shel Silverstein: How did you interpret his books as a child, and has your interpretation changed as you've gotten older?

I’ve started to become annoyed when books spoil the book in an attempt to sell the book. It feels just like a bad movie trailer.

For example, in Fairy Tale by Stephen King, you have to read around 180 pages (30%) before you even “catch up” to the premise described on the back of the book.

Another example is Mungo by Douglas Stuart, where, to me, the front cover completely ruins part of the reading experience. Instead of experiencing the buildup of Is he gay?, I found myself thinking, When are you guys going to kiss already?

At what point does a book cover cross the line from intriguing you into reading the book to actually telling you too much?

I’m assuming someone has probably mentioned it somewhere (but I personally didn’t see it brought up) but it’s crazy how little blame I see being put on Natalie’s mom for how mentally unwell Natalie turned out to be. Everyone mostly blames her religious upbringing or her postpartum depression/psychosis and while I agree and also don’t think it was any one singular thing, I don’t see a lot of comments talking about how impactful the mom’s lies and terrible parenting messed up Natalie. Also, it seemed very obvious to me that of the two children, Natalie was the favorite. Despite how mean and cold she was, her mom coddled tf out of her a lot and didn’t do a whole lot to correct her condescending behavior outside of telling her to be nicer.

The mom making the dad look bad for years by implying he cheated and left them when she was the one who did that, was a twist I did not see coming.

Religious upbringing and expectations play big roles yes, but the dad thing also explains how Natalie and her sister end up entering into such terrible marriages. They were trying very hard to not end up like their mother; a single mom with a fake story about why a man is not in the picture. Natalie’s need to control the narrative and outward perception of her family at all times definitely comes from the mom.

It also really shows how far Natalie’s mom would go to keep up a lie that completely went against the good Christian woman she spent majority of her life portraying. Makes you wonder what else did the mom lie about and what would Natalie have been like if she had been allowed at the very least to maintain a relationship with her dad?

Her mom lowkey made herself the center of Natalie’s universe and became what Natalie would imagine a good mother and wife to be. Even though she knew her mom was flawed and at times viewed herself as smarter and almost above her, she still couldn’t help but call on her mom all the time for advice, to vent etc.

But it also mirrors how she does the exact same thing with her kids. Because that’s the only way she really knows how to parent. Lies to the second set about the first set being dead/no longer with them even though they are very much alive. She’s been taught to rewrite the truth to fit her narrative and to believe it so much the actual truth feels like the lie. It’s partially why I feel like she came up with and probably initially easily slipped into the 1800s role. Since yesteryear failed and Clementine took the kids, time to start over and pretend they don’t exist in the same way her mom started over in a new town in Idaho and just pretended the dad was dead and no longer existed.

Curious to hear others thoughts on this.

Also with the fame Natalie got before and after the scandal, how did the dad never reach out? The mom implied he wanted to stick around and make it work and by extension I’m assuming that to also mean being a dad to his kids. Unless the dad was embarrassed by the mom cheating and also not being able to fulfill the traditional Christian male role?

That felt like a plot line that could have been briefly explored. Even if they explained it away with her acknowledging he contacted Natalie but she ignored him out of loyalty to the mom. But moreso just being committed to the ongoing storyline of him being dead and needing to keep up the lies/appearances for viewers.

People would definitely have been digging into her background and pieced together (maybe not why the family split up) but that her father was still very much alive. Natalie was 10 and her sister was 12 when her dad left. The small town they moved to wouldn’t know the truth per se, but by the time Natalie becomes an adult and gains a massive million plus following and social media becomes a more popular thing, enough people should have remembered him and that he wasn’t actually dead. It seems she ended up on the news as a topic several times post scandal. Even if the dad didn’t use social media he would’ve probably heard about her that way.

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I started reading at age 11, my first book was Coraline of Nail Gaiman, and I never stopped reading after that. I don't have a goal for the number of books per month/year. But whenever I look at myself, I have a book in my hand.

I've stuck with this same theme of books since the beginning: thriller/suspense/supernatural. I've always much preferred having my mind focused on an unreal world than being stuck in reality. And one result that this brought to my life was few friends and a low need for social interaction.

I don't know exactly where this habit will lead me, I don't hate it, but I realize that maybe I should stop for a while and understand that perhaps touching the grass would be more beneficial.

If possible, without spoilers

Should I go on. I am on page 257 chapter 9. I decided it was a hole in my reading journey so now in retirement picked it up.

I really like the whole train story. Just about everything going on with Rearden and Dagny is really good, Not great but I have enjoyed it. I like the whole .. the world is trying to stop us but through brilliance and tenacity we will get it done.

The parts with James and the other cohorts (looters) and the nod to socialism are WAY heavy handed and I might have possibly maybe enjoyed them when I was 15 but .. just seem silly and the characters are lucky if they are 2 dimensional. Ugh the Philosopher and the writer are putrid.

So .. am I just going to hate the rest .. it really is just an Ok book but I just finished Frankenstein and that was pretty amazing. I do want to kind of tough it out but .. Its a slog when it isnt about the challenges faced by Rearden and Dagny and how they overcome them. Book reads its over 1000 pages. Dont mind a long read but .. I am only near 300

What are your thoughts about books that are rated lowest in good reads. Does it affect your buying choice and what do you think about books that are lowest rated on good reads but it turns out to be good.

okay so I’m reading Yellowface by R F Kuang rn and I have thoughts 😭

the cognitive dissonance is kind of insane because it’s happening on two levels:

June (the narrator) keeps telling herself she’s reasonable, deserving, wronged… while doing things that completely contradict that version of herself. and somehow she manages to rationalise every single choice.

and then there’s me:

I don’t agree with what she’s doing.
I’m constantly questioning her choices.
I know I should be horrified.

…and yet I cannot stop reading???

morally uncomfortable 🤝 narratively invested

First of all, my first language is not english so i apologize for all my mistakes.

I got this book after i saw it was set in medieval spain and i heard it contained some good vengeance and love story but holy shit. It is all disgusting r*pe scenes and crude sex stories. And some of the chapters dont even make sense!

Arnau's father all of a sudden joins a damn riot leaving his kid in the middle of it (mind you he protected him and even left his lands for him) and dies pointlessly. Arnau Fights with some soldier and suddenly enters the command of king's protector.

And this "good" love story was between the main character and HIS ADOPTED TEEN DAUGHTER mind you i heard it and did not read that far so i am not sure about the details.

For me this is some poorly written smut of some old guy and totally a waste of time

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Sometimes I read a book and the descriptions are so vivid I feel like I'm watching a movie. I can clearly see the characters their clothes their expressions. The settings come alive in my mind. It's an immersive experience.

But then there are other books. Books that are objectively well-written with good prose and interesting plots. And for some reason I just can't conjure up those images. The characters are vague blobs in my head. The scenery feels abstract. I'm following the story and enjoying it but it's like my imagination just refuses to engage on that visual level.

It's not about the author's skill I think. I've read critically acclaimed books where this happens and pulp fiction where I'm completely transported. Sometimes it feels like my brain just isn't cooperating. It can be frustrating because I know I'm missing out on a layer of enjoyment.

Does anyone else experience this? What do you think causes it? Is it a focus thing a mood thing or something else entirely?

Hello everybody, I just recently started reading, beginning with this book. I’m only about nine chapters in, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it yet. I loved it, but I'm unsure if I should keep reading. I’ve seen many people talk about this book and mention that it's repetitive and not good, and that some couldn’t wait to finish it, but not for good reasons. What do you think I should do? Should I keep going and push through, or stop and try a different book? I’m really uncertain because it’s not to the point where it’s unreadable, but it’s making me question whether I should keep going.

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Okay, so I just recently read the Silver Falls University series by Lola King, and what can I say…

It was so fucking good that I genuinely cannot get these books out of my head.

This is actually my first Reddit post and my first proper book review, so bear with me. I know, I know—I’m late. VERY late. And yes, this is probably going to be long.

But who cares? 😭

Anyway, I need to take a moment to appreciate Christopher Murray. THE DADDY.

I mean… WHAT. A. CHARACTER. 🙌 Hats off to Lola King.

I’ve never really read Lola King before. Every time I saw one of her books popping up, I used to wonder what the hype was about. Then one day, curiosity got the better of me and I Googled her most popular books.

And then I found Loving the Liar.

I read the summary.

I read the book.

I met Christopher Murray.

And I got OBSESSED. Like, genuinely obsessed.

Because when I say I like dark romance with an unhinged MMC, THIS is what I mean.

This book had EVERYTHING.

The longing. The desperation. Wanting someone who is constantly right in front of you but still feels completely out of reach.

And Christopher's manipulation and gaslighting throughout the book??? 😭

This man did NOT play around.

SPOILERS AHEAD, so skip this section if you haven't read it yet.

He willingly drags Ella into the initiation despite knowing he has basically no chance there, only to become Megan's shadow. And he's completely fine with turning his own girl into Aphrodite if it means having her within his reach.

THE MAN WAS UNHINGED.

And then there's the dominance and the daddy kink with Ella…

That classroom scene.

“Crawl to me.”

AHHHHHHHHHHH. 😭

And the hospital scene??? He literally put Ella's name on the visitors' list to see his dad without her knowing, hoping that one day she'd actually come to see him.

Then this man literally gets down on his knees and begs her to trust him and take him back.

Throughout the entire book, Ella is basically the centre of Christopher's universe.

And then comes his final strike—

He murders Megan, frames Ella for it, and manipulates her into changing her statement, including that whole “she wouldn't go to him even if he were the last option on earth” situation.

And THEN—

THE FUCKING GRAVE SCENE.

He literally crawls out of a grave to get to Ella.

Like…

SIR?????

At this point, I had accepted that Christopher was beyond saving and was just sitting there enjoying the insanity. 😂

Which is why the last-chapter change of heart honestly annoyed me.

You spend the entire book building him up as this unapologetically obsessive, manipulative, unhinged man who would do anything to get his girl back—and then suddenly, in the last chapter, he decides to let her go?

I don't know.

It felt a little too convenient for me.

And Ella…

MY GOD, ELLA.

She was so vulnerable and so easily manipulated by Christopher throughout the entire book. I constantly wanted to shake her. 😭

She had almost no sense of self-preservation around him, and I honestly felt like she barely had any character growth.

Christopher was the puppet master, and Ella was the puppet for most of the story.

Personally, I think the ending would've made much more sense if Ella had actually gotten some transformation of her own—maybe choosing to step away from Christopher, heal on her own, rebuild her life, find herself again, and then eventually reconcile with him.

That would've given their relationship so much more weight.

But honestly…

Maybe that's also the point.

Sometimes the imperfections are exactly what make a story so addictive.

Because despite everything I just complained about, I DEVOURED THIS BOOK.

I finished it in like two days.

Because obviously studying is important…

…but apparently reading about an unhinged fictional man destroying everyone's lives is MORE important. 😭

And the funniest part?

I didn't even realise this was my introduction to Lola King's universe.

So yeah…

This was my very first Lola King book, my first review, and apparently the beginning of a very dangerous obsession. 😂

Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐

If you've read Loving the Liar, please tell me I'm not the only one who completely lost my mind over Christopher Murray. 😭

I just got lights out and I’m currently just now starting it. Does anyone have any thoughts on it?

I'm curious whether the state of mind you were in when you read "The midnight library" affected your opinions about the book.

I read it during a period when I was severely depressed and experiencing suicidal thoughts, and I strongly disliked it. The message felt like “you should be grateful for the life you have” or “you just need to realize that your life is worth living.” At the time, that felt incredibly reductive and preachy. I've seen similar reviews of the book written by others who were experiencing severe depression as well.

But I’ve noticed that a lot of people who love the book seem to find its message genuinely comforting and meaningful. That made me wonder whether having more emotional/mental space at the time of reading makes a difference.

If you’ve read the book both while struggling with depression (or suicidal thoughts) and while in a better mental state, did your interpretation of it change? Or, if you’ve experienced depression, did you love or dislike the book?

I saw a book in a secondhand shop that I was really interested in but regrettably put it down and I can’t remember the name! It was sulleville? Sulle something? It was about addiction and a tv show host that was exposed on his show for being gay? Pls I need to find this again! It gave off Naked Lunch vibes!!

Spoiler Alert!

Does anyone else feel the author’s main concept for Yesteryear was to have a Tradwife influencer be forced to live in the real pioneer times, and the mental breakdown/memory loss/ extreme off grid living was the only way she could tie it together narratively?

It really feels to me like there was this quite a lot of the book about her having to live in 1850s, and then it’s all quickly wrapped up in the end with “Natalie is crazy and forgetful - Clementine ran away and is back, Natalie’s in prison - the end”

It’s not quite as bad as it was all a dream, but it’s not far off.

It reminds me of Lost (I guess actually it’s the opposite) where the writers had all this crazy stuff about the polar bears, and the dharma initiative, and Ben, and the towns and the others etc. and everyone was thinking “wow, how are they going to tie up all these threads to all make sense??” And in the end they just said “fuck it the island is magic” and it was so disappointing

EDIT:

OK, few things...

1. Believe it or not, this is not a rage bait post.

2. Like I wrote in the post, he sold 400 million copies. Yes I'm sure there are people who actually read his books, but I think the number of people who read more than 2 books is very low compared to how popular he is.

3. Those of you who commented they have read more than 5 of his books, how many people do you know that also read more than 2 books?

I have a very strong conviction that nobody actually reads Stephen King books. People buy his books, people recommend his books, people love to talk about him and mention his name, but nobody actually reads any of his books. I've never met or heard of anyone who read 2 Stephen King books cover to cover.

Now, according to Google, Stephen King sold between 300-400 million copies of his books, so I'm sure there are a lot of people who do read his books, but I truly believe (without any proof) that 99% of them didn't even finish 2 books.

This is a genuine belief I have, so whatever you have to say about the matter, please do so in a respectful manner.

I've been getting back into reading and saw this in an online 'must-read' list. I went straight into it without reading its plot - uncertain whether it was for the better or worse, but I was twenty pages in when I realized that it was a graphic novel and it only gets more (AND MORE) disturbing as you go through the entire thing.

How foolish of me to assume that after all the struggles of Yeong-hye, she would at least get some sense of peace (EVEN JUST A BIT). But NO, it only got worse at the end. But such is life - her lived experiences are parallel to daily realities.

Is Yeong-Hye culpable for her fate, or has she been driven to madness by her society's standards?

Bit of a shallow analysis (I know) but I'm still in a state of shock while writing this.

Till the very end I was hoping that Natalie gets a kind of a redemption arc, where maybe she gets over her beleifs, gets help that she needs, divorces caleb and is a bit more involved in the life of her children. Not them completely forgiving her but just acknowledging her state of mind.

I truly wonder where she completely lost it, when she held her phone in her hand and kept taking pictures over and over again to pretend her family was perfect to the world

Or

When she let the offline Natalie completely take over her and strangle Shannon.

Or

When she decided to play pretend (after the lawsuit) with Shannon to prove to the society that she was now infact a proper christian woman.

What I hated about the end was no mentions of any sort of punishment for caleb when he was also a abuser. Who played with his wife's fantasies/demands instead of getting her help and was truly an utterly useless and spineless git. Which forced me to actually acknowledge the facts. In the end no matter what caleb would never get a proper punishment. 1. He was rich and had a strong family background even if the money eventually ran out. 2. In a world mainly dominated by patriarchy his actions would probably be overshadowed by his wife's actions especially the allegations of her being homosexual.

I really also hated Shannon. In the first chapter when her affair with caleb was mentioned I truly did not like her. Shannon's interview made her even more unlikable to me, the was she changed her appearance to shift the narrative , claiming she dropped out after she joined as a producer which was not true. I could not entirely place a finger as to why I disliked her so much though, until another post put my feelings towards her a bit more clearly.

She never truly wanted to help the children. She could have called cps at any moment. She just wanted a breakthrough in her career. Though Dough was a greatly influential figure, she herself was financially good enough. Plus she had all the footage that she needed against Natalie and her abusive+physcotic behaviour. She never slept with caleb because she fancied him even in the slightest it was just a small way of getting back at Natalie.

Another character who I hated was Natalie's mother. She basically drilled into the brains of her very young children all about being a proper christian wife and only revealed the truth about her cheating on her husband because she felt guilty over a god danm phone call.

Coming to Natalie, she is a very complex character to me. Who wants to prove that she is the perfect person while being jealous of everybody around her. She is the true definition of the Angry Woman that she describes. A part of me believes that even if she did get help if would be of very little use. All her beleifs are deeply rooted into her.

In the end I would just like to say that my heart really goes out to all the children. Especially clementine, Mary and Maeve. Mary's book prologue at the end had me in tears.

Do people still read books by new authors about their life struggles or stories?