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I've read and re-read the Outlander a few times, and am preparing to read it again soon because the tv series will be on sometime this year. I've never had a problem with DG's writing this way, I really don't recognize that at all. She's into the details, so you learn sooo much more than you ever thought possible lol. It's all relevant to the story tho.
Now, The Goldfinch... oi, where to start...
Tartt writes beautifully, vividly, and I find myself reading sections over just to feel that warm wonderful flow of words. I also found myself stopping after reading one of her paragraph-long sentences just to count the number of commas she used in it. I'm about 1/3 of the way through it, but I keep putting it down for 3-4 days before picking it up again.
I'm so glad I got it on the sale from Amazon. It's not going to be a book I'll re-read, I'm afraid.
Thanks for the comment Anne. I stopped reading Gabaldon after 'The Fiery Cross', couldn't even finish the book because it was so darn bogged down with details. I could appreciate a book written with beautiful proses and all that, but there came a point where I simply just wanted the author to get to the point and move on with the plot. If 'The Gold Finch' is as 'wordy' as you described it, well.. let's just say you've just reaffirmed my decision to wait for my turn at the library
I'm about half way through The Goldfinch. I usually get through books faster, but I'm savoring it.
I wonder why so many people posted about the book being so big (not just in this thread but the general book thread). It's under 800 pages, and as I look at the books on my shelves, many of my books are 800 pages or longer.
I'm not understanding the people who said it was on their list but they weren't ready to "tackle" such a long book right now. So people find long books a bad thing? I did admit that Tartt does go off onto tangents and streams of thought, but the book is extremely enjoyable. It'd not like a longer book takes more effort.
To me, if a book is good, it can't be long enough. I actually start to feel a small amount of anxiety when I get to the final third of a good book, because I know it will soon be over.
I think the last time I didn't like a book being long was when I had to do some mandatory reading for a class in college or grad school. But now I choose what I want to read, apart from the arm strength needed, I like longer books. If you read a long book on a kindle, you don't even have the arm strength problem.
Anyway, for anyone who decided not to read The Goldfinch because it's such a "weighty tome" please reconsider.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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Tracy, the reason that I said that I wasn't ready to tackle such a big book was twofold: (1) I know how Tartt writes and I wanted to enjoy it with my full concentration; (2) I knew that with all the holiday events, I'd be reading it in fits and starts, instead of sitting down for hours and days at a time and reveling in it.
When times are busy, I prefer a shorter, easier book... and one that I'm not as excited about as I am about this one.
I wasn't thinking of you Dawn. You made it clear that you wanted to put it off until you could devote time to savoring it. That's different than just saying the book is so long, like it's some sort of problem.
It just made me wonder if lots of people are just used to reading 100 page throw-away books, and 800 pages would be hard for their brains to digest or something.
I am the same as Dawn, for a longer book, I wait until after the holidays. I don't have much time to focus on reading between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I think the whole focus on how long a book is has gained steam now that we have options about what medium we choose for a particular book. Prior to owning a Kindle, I didn't really consider a book's length as a characteristic that really mattered much one way or the other. If the book looked intriguing, I read it. Now that I have a Kindle, I'm more conscious of a book's length because I might prefer to read the Kindle version over the hardback version if it is a chunky one.
This isn't really a spoiler, but I'll treat it like one just in case. I just got really angry when...
Spoiler
...the book jumped ahead 8 years. Theo was 16, and now suddenly he's 24
and I feel like we've missed so much! Like Tartt left the reader out of important events.
But then again, I guess Tartt would have had to make the book 1,000 pages, which I'd have been thrilled with.
Have to admit I am struggling to finish this book, I will as I want to know the outcome but it's been a struggle.
The pages and pages and pages of descriptive text has me mentally screaming cut to the chase already!!
I'm at the point where I am skipping over pages, my kindle says I'm at 82% and the end can't come fast enough.
Finally finished!! All though I loved Theo, Hobie and Boris and forced myself to finish to find out the outcome, this book was way to wordy and cumbersome for my tastes.
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