Also, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Ugh. I had to read it for a book club. I hated it!

I could not read the books. I did watch the films — and found them entertaining so at least I didn’t entirely miss the phenom of LOTR!

Must agree mostly — it was one of those books that I wanted to throw at the wall and sell to Half-Price Books.

Why did I read the whole thing?

I do not remember…maybe because it was on the bedside table and I didn’t have the energy to go look for something else?

At anyrate, at some point well into the book, the editing changes.

It reads like it had three editors. The first one did not manage the relationships between antecedents and anaphors — so the text abounded with unclear references to characters — one simply didn’t know who was being pointed at as the subject of any given sentence or thought.

The second editor cleaned up a lot of the confusion by making it clear who was being talked about.

The third editor apparently said, “enough,” and began following the basic rules of English: noun, verb, object.

It still puzzles me though. Why did that book, so poorly edited, win the Man-Booker Prize?

I loved Frank Herbert’s original book, Dune, and the several that followed.

But, the books written by others after his death are mostly boring and/ior unreadable.

One of my favorite high school reads was “The Mouse That Roared.” Looking back I recall being entertained, laughing and now, as an old woman, I realize that my 16-year-old-self was in the place of seeing the adult as ridiculous. Of course that book takes the same satirical theme — only it ridicules international politics. Sadly, we are ridiculous at both the person and international level — being 16 is more fun. It’s an age of being all knowing and all seeing before lifting the ridiculous burdens of grown-ups onto one’s back.

Recently I read, John Grisholm’s, “The Confession.” Now I can’t even remember what it was about — his books shoot up to Number One Bestsellers because of fans like me who purchase them as soon as they hit the shelves — but lately the stories are not memorable. I loved “The Client,” and have read it and reread it.

I liked this topic — good questions!

Massive, epic scope? Check
Blend of Sci-fi and fantasy? Check
Massive giant beasts capable fo devouring tower blocks? Check
Evocotive, otherwordly setting? Check
Book is thick enough to be used as amunition for siege artillery? Check
Complex, multi-character plot? Check

…….I have a very mild OCD trait. I can’t NOT finish a book I’ve started – I mean it took Terry Goodkind to break me out of reading a series to completion even if I didn’t like it (I got to book six having trudged miserablely through the previous 4 it was either stop reading the series or play russian roulette with all six chambers filled). I got the dune trilogy in 1 giant omnibus edition. I was always going to finish it…

…..By the end of Children of Dune I was basically dreading lunchtime at work when I always read for an hour. I didn’t even take the book in the house, just left it in the car. If it wasn’t for the fact that the last 100 pages or so was actually bearable, bordering on ‘OK’ I don’t think I’d be here today…

Even today, everything I read about the book and the universe and everything surrounding it makes me accept it as the masterpiece it is. I just can’t stand to read the damn thing, which unfortunately is the prime use of a book.

(Second runner up for book I thought was overrated? Wolf Hall.)