- March 2012- I place a 'hold' on the audiobook version of The Night Circus at the public library. It seems to me that everyone in the blogosphere is reading or has read the book and I don't want to be left out.
- June 15- The 'hold' is ready for pick up at my local public library branch. I am delighted to learn that the performer for this audiobook is Jim Dale, the actor who read for all the Harry Potter audiobooks.
- June 18-29- Listening requires time and I don't have much with the wedding and work requirements. When time allows I listen to a disk at a time. Early enthusiasm vanishes as the tedious, boring bits are amplified by the audio format. I do enjoy Jim Dale's narration. I don't have an actual copy of the book so I can't read ahead when listening is impossible. I tell my daughter, who listens with me occasionally, that I wasn't prepared for the mundane/boring parts. It is also confusing with the time jumps back and forth. I am frustrated but continue listening in an effort to finish.
- July 2- The wedding is over and I have to spend several hours in the car returning rental items and running errands. I'm on the last two disks of The Night Circus when suddenly everything clicks. I become completely captivated by the love story, by the stalemate, and especially the conclusion where the reader learns who and why the story is told.
- July 4- In preparation for this blog post I read a few professional reviews of The Night Circus. Most are surprisingly negative. I think there is no way the reviewer read the book to the end. It feels like they are stuck in the middle somewhere.
Don't miss that final experience.
20 books in July Reading Challenge
2 / 20 books. 10% done!
I had mixed feelings about the book, but am 100% happy that I read it. It was an unusual and captivating read.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this, but I've heard it's for a certain kind of reader. I used to not let myself finish a book I wasn't enjoying, but there are so many books i really want to read out there that now if a book is really bad, I won't finish it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I should read this one, but am afraid it is too magical realism for me.
ReplyDeleteI just finished Chris Crutcher's The Sledding Hill for your challenge! http://www.helensbookblog.com/2012/07/review-sledding-hill-by-chris-crutcher.html
I actually really loved this book, so this is biased, BUT, I don't think audio does this book any favors. I talked to a couple people on goodreads who did this with the audio book and found the time jumps confusing and most of the book to be incredibly frustrating. Not to say you couldn't dislike it on paper, because a lot of people have, I just think that the audio version on this one makes it a lot harder.
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