This book was passed to me by my mother who said, ‘What do you think..’?
Snowdrops by A D Miller
This story was interesting for me on several counts. I have minimal knowledge of life in Russia(in any day and age, let alone current times) so this started to fill some gaps. I found the concept of ‘Snowdrops’ disturbing – not the beautiful little white flowers that we see in spring-time, but the reference to dead bodies which lay in the Russian streets through the Winter and are only found in the Spring when the snow and ice thaws. Mmm… Stirred all sorts of emotions, along with reflection on the human need to label and judge people to make sense of our world and to protect ourselves. I find this very interesting, especially as a mental health nurse. There was one character particularly that I found difficult to ‘judge’ – to get to grips with, to understand what she was about and her approach to life. I think this was at least partly due to a lack of background information, or detail, by the author.
The story was okay, just the everyday life of a Brit living in Russia. I thought there was going to be something big, a great twist to a mundane plot at some point in the story. I got to the end – no big explosion.
It was just okay, to me. I enjoyed the read. It wasn’t difficult to read. But it wasn’t gripping, captivating.
I’ve made the decision at this stage in life, that if I don’t enjoy a book, am struggling to read it, struggling to be motivated to open the pages, then I’m not going to finish reading it – life is too short! I have felt guilty about this for a while, and I am one to persevere with books. But persisting with dullness, uninteresting detail, mind-numbingly dull ‘stuff’, is a waste of time. There is no pleasure. There is no relaxation. There is no great escape. I stop reading. There is no need for this! It is okay to not finish a book 🙂
Do you persist with books regardless?
Through Afternoon Tea... 