3 posts tagged “books”

I was tagged by Farfaraway!

 

For me, this year has been all about the short stories.  I didn't really seek them out, but this year, I kept stumbling across collections of them and was really impressed with what I read.  Although most of my reading time is reserved for novels and other works, these are the collections I did read and enthusiastically recommend:

 

 

 

 

 

 

For stories no more than a few pages long, each one really packs a punch.  Kim Edwards has a wonderfully descriptive style of writing that grabs the reader at the first sentence.  Each of these stories was independent from the others, shared no theme, and were all unique.  Even though they weren't the "happy ending" types, I found myself enjoying them very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glimpses of poignant moments in the human experience, these stories speak of the bittersweet and defining moments in a life.  The author is a skilled storyteller. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delightfully funny, wittily observant, and quintessentially British.  These are just samplings of the original books, as I understand (being new to the Wodehouse catalogue of works), so I will probably be reading the full works soon, but this was a great place to get started. 

Here's a bit of a dilemma...

A dear friend of mine from work lent me a book.  Not just any book, but a book that's much beloved by my friend...a book she was so anxious for me to read that she almost ran across the street to the bookstore on her lunch break to buy me a copy.  She didn't, because she was able to find hers quickly and let me borrow it.  But she totally would have.  She wants to share this story THAT MUCH. 

I haven't seen her in a week, but I know she's going to be brimming with excitement to know what I thought about this book, and if I loved it as much as she did, in which case, we could spend the majority of our shift at work this evening discussing this book. 

The problem?

I didn't like the book.

Not even a little.

*blushes and looks sheepish*

I feel horrible!  I want to be able to tell my friend "It was great!", but the truth is, I don't think it was.   So the question is, what do I say to my friend?  If I give her a "meh" sort of answer, she's going to be disappointed.  I don't want to flat out say that I didn't like it at all, because that would seem to imply that I don't care for her tastes in literature (which isn't true)...doesn't it?  Or I could just point out the "good" parts of the book (the imagery was okay, etc.) and hope that is satisfactory.  Or I could just say that I prefer slightly more ______ (fill in the blank here) reading material. 

Has anyone else had this happen?  What's the proper etiquette here?   Is there a tactful way to do this?