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Unfortunately the first book I was reading this year I decided to abandon. Not a great way to start off the year in books if you believe that whole 'start as you mean to go on' malarky but as I said, time is a 'waisting and actually my reading pile has some really good titiles on it. The abandoned book in question was Temple by Matthew Riley which had been suggested by a friend of mine as a great read, but after about two hundred pages I just couldn't stand it any longer. When I read the back of the book it had real promise to me. It sounded like a cross between Dan Brown and Indiana Jones and who doesn't love a little bit of action and adventure during their holiday period?
I've never read any of Matthew Riley's novels before but the over-descriptive writing style of Temple just really started to do my head in. Every object is described in great detail and sometimes even twice which was really distracting. Adjective stuffing is one thing that I'm getting quite pernickity about and I'm pretty sure Temple could have been about fifty pages shorter if half of the unnecessary descriptors had been taken out.
The second and final thing that lead me to abandon Temple was the action. Now, I know there are some books that are best enjoyed by leaving any sense of realism at the door. But. It was when the hero of the book survives riding on the roof of an SUV down a swollen Peruvian river which then crashes into an army helicopter while simultaneouly being attacked by caymans and black panthers that I decided to give this story a pass.
If you have read Temple by Matthew Riley let me know your thoughts (and should I have given it a second chance?) and tell me if you like to stick with a book that isn't working for you or do you throw them away with wild abandon?!
I rarely abandon books because I am a very curious person. If somehow I feel the book annoyed me to death, I'd just skim and skim until I reach the last page. Whatever happens, I have to know how it ends. Still I am a huge believer in DNF list. For those who read for fun, there's no point of torturing yourself by reading a boring book, especially if you have a mile long to-read list :D
ReplyDeleteBTW love love you new blog design. So clean and easy on the eyes. Well done!
Thanks Citra, im glad you like it! It's very rare that I don't finish a book as usually I think they can have redeemable qualities but there was literally nothing I found very good about this book which is a shame.
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