Beaten by Hemingway!

Hasn't been a good week for the quest really.  If you've been following me on Twitter (@Girl_LovesBooks), you'll know that I decided to take on a book of Ernest Hemingway short stories, 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro'.  I love short stories and tales of exotic and interesting places, so this, combined with Hemingway's excellent reputation, made me think it was a good bet for me.

'The Snows of Kilmanjaro'
by Ernest Hemingway
(2004 Vintage Classics)

Unfortunately, as early as page six, I really wasn't doing very well with it at all.  It wasn't engaging me and the story wasn't even sinking in, so that I wasn't able to recount anything that happened after I'd read about it.  It was also taking me a horribly long time to get through, which wasn't very helpful when I have so much to get through!  By page ten, I'd decided to give up on the first story and try the second, but pretty much the same thing happened.

I'm incredibly disappointed to have completely failed on this one, particularly with such a reputable writer.  I usually have a rule about finishing the first couple of chapters of something before I decide whether to keep going or not, but I didn't even manage to do that this time round.  The shame!

I'm happy to say, though, that there aren't that many books that I haven't managed to finish.  Off the top of my head, the only ones I can think of are 'Jennie' by Paul Gallico (quite liked it, but found it lacked enough pace to keep me interested), 'Ratcatcher' by James McGee (From what I remember, even though I love this sort of historical fiction, I felt is was a bit too cliched for me sadly) and 'The Gallow's Curse' by Karen Maitland (again, I just didn't connect with the story and unfortunately it became a drag for me to read).  I also found 'The Anatomy of Ghosts' by Andrew Taylor hard going, but I did get through it.  It was a good story, but again lacked pace in places.

The fact I've not finished any of these books is certainly no reflection on their quality though.  I find there are a lot of things which influence what I read, ranging from mood to time of year, never mind the quality of the book or the writing!  I've always found Philippa Gregory's work to be hard to get into, but once you've orientated yourself to the time, place and key characters, the books are fantastic and I consider her one of my favourite authors.  Daphne Du Maurier can be difficult sometimes too.  It took me three or four attempts to read 'The King's General', but I'm extremely glad I did it in the end.

So, for the first time I'm crossing a title off my list that I haven't managed to read.  With 474 books to go, I'm sure it won't be the last time this happens either.  I think I'll go for a safer bet next time to cheer me up.  Have narrowed it down to six already...