Having trouble reading? Again?!

It is quite common for a voracious reader to hit a reading slump. I wrote about it here. And in May of this year, I addressed the conundrum of putting a book aside until a later time, if you can't get into it. That piece is here.

The reason I bring this up again is that it has happened to me. AGAIN. I am having a great deal of trouble reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. It's not that it's hard to read. It's not hard to read at all. It is just mind-numbingly boring. I can't help by think that it is too wordy, and could have used editing. It is about a young boy of both Mexican and American descent. It's written to be an epic of his life, but I have to think that "epic" doesn't mean that it must be "long".

However, I remember the enthralling The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, at a healthy 488 pages.

The Lacuna is a touch longer at 507 pages, and I am stuck around page 150. What to do? Put is aside for later.

The other is, unfortunately, for my book club which meets every two months. Surely I must be able to read a book in two months! WRONG!

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann is not grabbing me, either. So, that is two books that I can't get into, almost back-to-back. Makes me wonder if I am the problem. However, I have had no issue reading other books in the meantime.

The book club meets tonight, and I have barely broken 100 pages in this 454 tome. Do you really need that many pages to tell of the downfall of three woman in New York in the 1940s? Again, I am going to put this aside for now and move on to another on my TBR.

I still want to read these, but just not right now. It's too much work.