The Great Unfinished

Monday March 12, 2007 in books |

Yet another book survey has named the UK’s most put-downable books. Here’s the list of the most unfinished fiction:

  1. Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
  2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
  3. Ulysses, James Joyce
  4. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres
  5. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
  6. The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
  7. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
  8. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
  9. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
  10. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Personally, I can’t see a problem with Vernon God Little. It’s overrated I grant you, but I still like it and it’s a slim volume and not that hard to get through. Similarly, if you have a problem with finishing Harry Potter maybe it’s time to go back to junior school rather than sit around completing surveys?

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is – whether you hail it as a great work of fiction or not – still remarkably lightweight. Who are these people? Probably the ones who waited around for the film versions. In the case of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin it serves them right.

Cloud Atlas I realise may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I did finish it, although Ulysses and War and Peace still remain on my unfinished pile. I’ve never attempted The Satanic Verses (after abandoning Midnight’s Children) and, although I still haven’t read it, The God of Small Things is the book I pick up most in second hand bookshops and go “hmmm…” before putting it back again.

Perhaps it’s something to do with recommendations, whether from the media or from friends. DBC Pierre’s Booker success may have influenced some people to buy it. It did me. And Corelli is more obviously a personal recommendation, so there must be a lot of offended friends out there, after hearing that their favourite book was abandoned. For the record, here’s five books that I urged friends to read, who didn’t like them and made me sad:

  1. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
  2. London Fields by Martin Amis
  3. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger
  4. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  5. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre (bringing us full circle)

You know who you are!

How could someone not like Remains of the Day??

Dorothy W.    Tuesday March 13, 2007   

Strange but true. As I say, they know who they are!

The Book Tower    Tuesday March 13, 2007   

I’ve got to admit, I wasn’t keen on Vernon God Little. I read it, but I kept on wondering why I didn’t just put it down.

It’s a shame the list is just fiction: otherwise everone’s favourite shelf-decoration “A Brief History Of Time” could make it onto the list too…

I think the Harry Potter thing is that this was published to a sea of Harry Potter mania – and much like Dan Brown’s da Vinci Code – meant that the book was being foisted upon so many people who didn’t really want to read it.

“Go on, read this it’s brilliant!” Or people being bought it for Christmas and birthdays simply because it was popular when it wasn’t really their bag?

Or maybe there were just a lot of people who thought “Teenage Fantasy” meant something else entirely?

Just look at the evidence: Satanic Verse, Vernon God Little,Captain Corelli etc etc. All novels which for one reason or another were famous – meaning they were read by people who wouldn’t normally like the genre. Meaning they’re more likely to be put down?

JackP    Saturday March 17, 2007   

There was a bit of a Corelli backlash with that book. I bought it when it first came out (honest!) but lost it when I moved and then didn't get round to reading it until after all the hype had come and gone. I've gone on to read the author's subsequent work and it's brilliant - but people aren't interested when I tell them. They just give me an "oh Corelli!" wave of the hand.

Funnily enough, there is a list for non fiction:

  1. The Blunkett Tapes, David Blunkett
  2. My Life, Bill Clinton
  3. My Side, David Beckham
  4. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
  5. Wild Swans, Jung Chang
  6. Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking
  7. The Downing Street Years, Margaret Thatcher
  8. I Can Make You Thin, Paul McKenna
  9. Jade: My Autobiography, Jade Goody
  10. Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?, Mick O’Hare

Spot the Christmas presents and spot the self help books that might have helped (why finish a ‘stop smoking’ book if you manage to give up halfway through?).

Books like Eats, Shoots and leaves I get the jist of them just by reading the back cover.

Surprisingly no Stephen Hawking.

Presumably the people who bought the Jade Goody book had reading difficulties anyway? Ouch!

The Book Tower    Saturday March 17, 2007   

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