FAQ
How come you recommend that book and I do not like it?
If you are familiar with Amazon, you often see that if 500 people recommend a book, there is always somebody who says : I don't understand this, I hated the book. How does that happen? It happens for four main reasons.
1. The culture problem
Suppose you have only read bestsellers mystery writers like Baldacci or Margolin and you suddenly want to read Shakespeare or Tolstoy, it is seldom going to work well for you because what you did read before does not give you a good platform to appreciate these authors. If you are familiar with the themes, or with the historical period, it makes it easier for you. So if you want to read more serious books, give yourself a better platform first: I mix easy and more challenging books on every page.
Related to this is the matter of style: not every writer uses short sentences and a straightforward story: you got to be ready to keep an open mind.
Then there is the matter of size.
Some people do not want to read anything larger than 200 pages. It is their right. If you want it short, get to the classics in abridged editions and don't worry about it. One day, you will be so interested by a book that you will want to read more pages.
2. The emotional problem
There are a lot of great books that I do not read, and I am not ashamed of it at all. For instance I get no pleasure of books where children are killed.
I am overly sensitive to forms of autism: some people have a good storyline, a good style, and great character descriptions, but their characters sail like boats and do not really communicate with each other. It saddens me, so I prefer to avoid such authors. More generally, I fail to appreciate great books if the author is self-absorbed and narcissistic (but I recognize it is my fault, not the author's fault).
Authors do what they have to do, and I am free. So should you: make a list of what you don't like and don't worry about it.
3. The age factor
Some books lose their charm if you are too old. It is the case of a book like The Wanderer which was written by a young author. Check the comments on amazon: readers who go back to it in adult life are stunned that they did not see the flaws when they were young. The reverse is true: there are things that you do not understand before, for instance, you fell in love for the first time. Between the ages of 18 and 50, I read all of Ibsen's theater several times. And now it lost its luster for me, and I don't even know why. I might be too happy!
4. Knowing too much
Sometimes, what you learn gives you more prejudice than useful information and instead of communicating yourself with a book, you read what you have been told about it. For instance, look at the debates about the movie Charlie Wilson's war. There is a consensus amongst Republicans that the movie is anti-Republican and diminishes the role of president Reagan. That is because they know that the scriptwriter is a Democrat. Frankly, to me, who did not know anything about the authors, the movie appeared violently pro-anarchy and anti-American, because I mostly saw the disorganization and randomness of government, with big decisions left to dangerous fools. I thought that if Tom Hanks had seen it with my eyes, he woud not have done it, but he saw it as the story of David vs Goliath. The mistake of Hanks probably is that he thinks that anything anti-communist has to be patriotic, so he did not pay attention to the vitriol in the movie. I could demonstrate my view line by line, but what it the point?
The point here is that no eye will replace your eye.
Buy anything from Amazon here, it does not cost you more, and it helps me.