Beautiful Covers, Disappointing Books

I’ve published a few posts about my favourite book covers since starting this blog. I did so by only taking into consideration the allure of the cover. Many times, I hadn’t even read the books in question. When I finally did, some ended up being particularly disappointing, reason why I decided not to keep them on my shelves. I don’t keep all of the books that I read, as I don’t have the space nor the desire to do so any longer.

So, four books with beautiful covers no longer have a place on my shelves:

 

Homens Imprudentemente Poéticos by Valter Hugo Mãe

I mentioned this book by the Portuguese writer Valter Hugo Mãe on the second instalment of my favourite book covers. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it and rated it with two stars. It is about two Japanese neighbours, Itaro and Saburo, who are in open conflict. Not only did I not find the plot gripping, I also disliked the writing style. It is too pretentious and completely overpowers the story.

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Most Disappointing Books of 2017

Unfortunately, we, readers, not always enjoy the books we decide to pick up. Irrespective of how much research we do on a book, our expectations may end up not being met. In 2016, the year I started blogging, I read two books that disappointed me, although I didn’t completely dislike them. They were just tolerable reads I was expecting to like much more than I actually did. This year, however, I can surely say I didn’t like three of the books that I read.

 

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The main character in this novel, Jim Hawkins, unknowingly joins a group of pirates in search of Captain Flint’s hidden treasure. I was hoping for a thrilling adventure, but instead I got a joyless bland story, which I, nevertheless, managed to read until the end.

 

Homens Imprudentemente Poéticos by Valter Hugo Mãe

After liking A Desumanização by the Portuguese author Valter Hugo Mãe, I was expecting to also enjoy this novel about two Japanese neighbours, Itaro and Saburo, who are in open conflict. But my expectations were completely misplaced. The plot didn’t appeal to me at all and the writing style completely overpowered the story. Its pretentiousness even irked me in some instances.

Book Unhaul

My shelves are, at the moment, jam-packed with books, and I’m having trouble finding space to store the last ones that I bought. They are just dangerously piled on top of my other unread books. In order to mitigate that problem, I decided to take from my shelves some of the books that I’m sure I won’t be reading ever again.

Currently, I still keep on my shelves the majority of the books I read when I was a teenager. But I’ve now decided to donate the majority of them to my local library. I’ll just keep a few of those I loved the most. Those that I won’t keep any longer are by four Portuguese authors, two of them being co-authors:

 

Maria Teresa Maia Gonzalez

Estrela à Chuva

A Viagem do Bruno

Parabéns, Rita!

Poeta (às vezes)

Dietas e Borbulhas

‘Homens Imprudentemente Poéticos’ by Valter Hugo Mãe

My rating: 2 stars

Homens Imprudentemente Poéticos by the Portuguese writer Valter Hugo Mãe tells the tale of two neighbours, Itaro and Saburo, who are in open conflict, and exposes how suffering can significantly change a man who used to believe in love above all. This story, full of mystic elements, takes place in ancient Japan in a small town near a mountain, where people used to go to commit suicide. But it wasn’t the dark undertones that made me dislike the book. The reason was it feeling quite pretentious.

Itaro was an artisan who could see the future when he killed an animal. After stabbing a beetle, he saw that a wise man was to arrive. But that was not the vision that sparked the animosity with his neighbour Saburo, who was a potter. Once he told him that his wife, Fuyu, was going to be killed by an animal which would come down from the mountain nearby.

Since he had already started taking care of the flowers at the bottom of that mountain, Saburo decided to turn the forest into a garden, hoping to tame the animals and so avoid his wife being killed. His plan was not successful, though. His wife died anyway. Afterwards he continued planting flowers, as he believed that if the garden became bigger, the gods would be able to see it and would love him to the point of sending his dear wife back to him.