sometimes I read things that are not fanfic...

[ratcreature]

Like just now I am reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, because I had seen it recced a lot. But... so far (I'm only on page 344 of its slightly over 1000 pages) I'm kind of underwhelmed.

It hasn't really hooked me, a sure sign for that being that I read it mostly on public transport, whereas if I'm really engaged with a book I usually bother to take it out of my bag and continue reading it at home rather than leaving it. I still don't like any of the characters. I realize that that's probably intentional, but while the book is kind of interesting with its worldbuilding I'm starting to ask myself whether I really want to spend several hundreds of pages more with characters I dislike. Also, I find the whole excessive footnote thing kind of jarring. If it was just brief footnotes it would be different maybe, but some are four full pages long.

Comments

[elynross.livejournal.com]

I wanted to like it, but like thete1, I didn't even finish it. I find that of works that deal with combining magic with the "real" world, I tend to either feel like they're making the real world more magical, or the magical more mundane, and the latter I rarely enjoy. And I got several hundred pages in and didn't care for any of the characters.

I did like the footnote thing, though; I've enjoyed that kind of thing both in Pratchett and in House of Blue Leaves, which does an even more extreme job. But in both cases, I like the core stories, as well.

[ratcreature]

The magical world becoming more mundane even appeals to me, but not so much that I could get into it without single character I like to identify with.