Sunday, July 14, 2013
Question Four: Parts that Distract from the Work's Overall Effectiveness
I finished "A Walk in the Woods" a few days ago and realize now that it was not as good as I thought it was. I loved the beginning and part of the middle, but after that I just got bored. As the book nears the ending, the author (Bill Bryson) progressively adds more and more facts and stories. This would not be a bad thing, but Bryson elaborates on these details so much that you occasionally wonder when he is going to get back on topic with the actual story. In the first half of the story, these extra things all make sense with the context and are just long enough for the story to keep flowing smoothly. Later on however, I found myself spacing out at these sections because they became so long and frequent that it was extremely hard for me to maintain a good attention span.Still, if you look past all of that, the story was pretty good. I do admit I was disappointed that the plot was a bit different from what I had expected (SPOILER: The author did not hike the entire Appalachian Trail), but I still enjoyed the story. I am very easily distracted, which may be the reason why it was so hard for me to sit through all of the long "extra" parts. I am only one person, so others may like "A Walk in the Woods" much more than me. Besides, most of the novel was perfectly fine and I had fun reading it!
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I couldn't agree more! I also have read the book, and one of the overall distractions that I wrote on my blog was Bryson wavering frequently off topic with other stories rather than his own.I don't mind the facts but it got to the point where he progressed into talking about everything but what he was doing until a chapter or two. Then again perhaps I was expecting more than this book had to offer? (some sort of a bear attack? I could not help pondering upon that considering he brought up so many stories about other people's unfortunate situations) Nevertheless I found it very comical. Especially when Katz came into the picture.
ReplyDeleteYes! Exactly! Throughout the entire book, he made it seem like something terrible was going to happen but nothing ever did. I think that I was expecting something more from this book too. Still, I agree that the parts with Katz were hilarious! He was my favorite character! :)
ReplyDeleteI severely dislike it when an author continually jumps around to different stories and facts. I too find it very distracting from the text. I feel like authors who do this feel as if they are helping the reader to understand the story with a clearer perspective (which does happen from time to time), but in reality it can often confuse the reader to where to plot is going.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I prefer to read books that don't jump around so much! :)
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