Friday, June 22, 2012

Friday Fancies

I feel the need to 'fess up. Earlier this week, I did something I rarely do--I abandoned a book.

The book in question was Lauren Groff's Arcadia, and the fact that I abandoned it came as a bit of a surprise to me as I really enjoyed her first novel, The Monsters of Templeton. I can't say that I even have any logical or well formed reasons for abandoning it other than personal preference. Arcadia follows a hippie commune from the 1970's onward, and from the first pages I just knew it wasn't my cup of tea. Although the writing itself seemed good, the setting and the characters were so off putting to me that I knew it would be a struggle to get through the entire book. I cut my losses around page 60.

What was the last book you abandoned? Do you get annoyed with yourself for doing that?


(image via here)

On the bright side, abandoning a book leaves you with more time to check out other interesting things, like these:

A nice article about the Little Free Libraries movement, including a link to a Google Map where you can find one near you. (None in New Jersey? Seriously?)

A short video about New York's most devoted opera and ballet fan.

Kate Spade's phone cases are almost cute enough to make me want to upgrade to the iphone 4.

This salad caught my eye as I searched for simple, no cook recipes for hot summer days.

I've posted about this before, but I never get tired of seeing photos from the Jazz Age Lawn Party. I really need to go one of these years.

And in case you're thinking that it's been too long since I've posted anything Downton Abbey related, here you go.

4 comments:

  1. I also abandoned Arcadia. I was so looking forward to it because I loved Groff's short story collection, Delicate, Edible Birds, but I didn't care for the characters or the setting either. Lately, I've abandoned Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead.
    I am very happy to see that there are 4 Little Free Libraries in my hometown and I love that Downton Abbey scarf!

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  2. I love the Downton Abbey scarf. And yes, I do abandon books, and sometimes I come back to them later and give them another try. I am doing that right now with one of Kate Atkinson's books.

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  3. I've abandoned MANY books, sad to say. The last one of note I abandoned was Book 4 of The Game Of Thrones series (I'd geek out and call it the 'Fire and Ice series' but most people know it as GOT :) -- I just hit the wall 1/3 into that book. It had a whole slew of new characters, I was like, Whah? I'm outie!

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