Concluding a Challenge
So anyway, I sort of won my personal challenge, having read 33 Xanth books in a row and not completely succumbed to puns. The "sort of" comes from the fact that there IS a 34th book, but I don't actually own it yet. (My local bookstore doesn't have it) and I can't just...not read any book at all while waiting for a copy to arrive!
So yeah. I guess I technically lost, but you can be the judge.
It was fun. Xanth has its flaws as a series (I still don't know how to react to T wo to the Fifth, to be honest), but it's a vivid world populated by likeable characters, amusingly intricate continuity, and books that build off what came before.
It would be very strange to pick up one of the later books and try to follow it without having read any of the ones before. Maybe not impossible, but I know I'd get confused!
So anyway, I've made worse personal challenges to myself, so I don't regret it! :-)
So yeah. I guess I technically lost, but you can be the judge.
It was fun. Xanth has its flaws as a series (I still don't know how to react to T wo to the Fifth, to be honest), but it's a vivid world populated by likeable characters, amusingly intricate continuity, and books that build off what came before.
It would be very strange to pick up one of the later books and try to follow it without having read any of the ones before. Maybe not impossible, but I know I'd get confused!
So anyway, I've made worse personal challenges to myself, so I don't regret it! :-)
posted by kalinara @ 11:16 PM
5 Comments:
At August 13, 2011 9:57 AM,
SallyP said…
Congratulations!
At August 13, 2011 12:51 PM,
shurwitt said…
Impressive! In high school and early college I was pretty hooked on that series (which I guess means I read the first 13 of them), but what I found so comforting about the series and made the books such quick reads was eventually what turned me off of them: That every book had the same structure, and it felt like I was reading the same book over and over again. Still have a soft spot for Bink, though.
At August 13, 2011 1:45 PM,
kalinara said…
They're like candy, really. Good for a snack, probably not good to read all at once.
They are definitely formulaic, but every so often the books would still do something interesting. :-)
Oddly, I'm not very fond of Bink. I think he's kind of bland. But I absolutely adore Dor. :-)
At August 17, 2011 7:45 PM,
The Pretentious Fool said…
I used to love those books. As they went on, though, I lost interest. Something of what drew me in was lost in the later books. I think a part of that was that I loved th3e characters in the earlier ones, and have no real connection to any of the later characters. After we get to the grandkids of the characters I loved, I stopped caring. I think the last book I read in the series was Xone of Contention.
At August 18, 2011 9:24 AM,
kalinara said…
I didn't care for Xone of Contention at all. (Nimby and Chlorine annoy me, and I still want a moratorium on Mundane visitors for a while.) I did like Grey's little side adventure in the past, but that wasn't enough to carry the book for me. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that was probably my LEAST liked book.
But there were a few after that that I really enjoyed.
The Dastard, Up in a Heaval, Cube Route and Jumper Cable were probably my favorites. (Still not sure what to make of Two to the Fifth, even though Cyrus is one of my favorite leads.)
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