This one is pretty hard. I'm not fickle about what I love so I'm trying to think about a book I loved and now merely like (rather than hate seeing as 'don't love' could be taken either way).
... still thinking...
... still thinking...
... still thinking...
I'm going to say Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. It was 1997 (or was it 1998?) and my brother had kindly bought tickets to the musical for my birthday because one of my best friends at the time was in a choir and practising the songs and we both enjoyed the music.
So I decided to read the book first. It was a massive struggle because apart from being quite long, the prose (or at least translation) is very wordy as well. At last I finished it and thought it was worth forcing myself through the boring bits. I only keep books I want to read again and this one made it onto the shelf so it must have passed the test.
I went to see the musical and found it to be a really insightful and quite accurate version of the 500+ page book. In less than two hours.
Now when I think about reading it again I can't bear the thought of wading through 40 pages of a description of a field that Jean Valjean passes through in about 10 seconds during one of the opening songs. In fact, his 100-page encounter with the bishop gets told in one song.
So in retrospect I think the golden glow of past reads has faded and I'll say Les Miserables is no longer a book I love. If it was ever love at all. That's *so* Eponine...
(I'm now listening to the soundtrack, which I still enjoy and sing along to occasionally. I think my favourite songs are 'Stars', 'On my own' and 'Empty Chairs at Empty Tables' - yeah, I like the forlorn ones.)
Day 13 – Your favourite writer
Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer
Day 15 – Favourite male character
Day 16 – Favourite female character
Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favourite romance book
Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favourite book you own
Day 23 – A book you've wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time
I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.
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