Books I have read and loved

I've had enough. There are a couple of laugh out loud funny parts in the first 100 or so pages of The Instructions, but they're not enough to make me feel anything but blasé about the rest of it. I’m 200 or so pages in and there’s so much to go that it’s just daunting, and the list of books I can’t wait to read is starting to glow with appeal.

I don't know if it's me or a case of the emperor's new clothes. I can't be bothered reading 1000 pages to tick a box, and I'm not so far in that I now can't turn back. I really don’t know what I think of this book, though. It has some funny bits, and some clever bits, and there are interesting tidbits about Jewish.. things. But every character annoys me, the dialogue is convoluted and affectatious, and there is just so MUCH of it. There's no real story, that I can discern. Certainly not enough to pull me in and make me plough through any more of it.

I don’t even dislike this book, as much as feel completely apathetic toward it. Being partway into it feels like a weight on my shoulders, and that’s not what I look for in a book. Maybe I don’t get it, though often when I “don’t get” things, it becomes obvious that I get them as much as anyone else, just don’t feel the same sense of enlightenment, humour or joy in them. I don’t know, but I’ve had enough with this arsehole of a book. 2 stars, because I think it's probably me.