American Gods
Neil Gaiman
William Morrow; 1st edition (June 19, 2001)
American Gods started with a bang, but after 295 pages I abandoned it. I’m a One Book, One Twitter Quitter. Maybe its just my mood, but at this time the book just didn’t hold my attention and there are so many other books out there that I really want to read. I’ll hold on to the book and try it again sometime in the future. After all, it won the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX, and Locus awards. I’ve had it happen before, that I didn’t get into a book and for some reason picked it up months or years later and then couldn’t put it down.
Why did I give up on it? I lost interest in the characters, and caring about the characters (or despising them) is one of the main reasons that I read novels. If I don’t care about the characters I at least want to feel like I’m learning something or being challenged in some way. I’ve already had enough of “the gods” and their followers using and abusing people so I felt like “what’s the point?” Instead of being excited to get back to the book, it became more of an after-thought: “What book am I reading now? Oh, yeah, this one.”
I really do want to like Neil Gaiman. A few friends who love him say that American Gods wasn’t that hot for them either, and to try Neverwhere instead or maybe Anansi Boys. Anyone else out there give up on American Gods?
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog… I have enjoyed reading through your past entries and now I have a huge list written in my diary of books that I just 'need' to buy soon – big grin! There are a lot of authors I hadn't heard of and I had never even thought of reading a German thriller before – go figure – but I will be online to the book depository to order Therapy tonight – big grin! I look forward to reading more of your future posts.