Reading books

As some might have noticed, I have made a list on the right-side margin of this blog. On it are the books I read. Only the ones I read "from scratch" :-) A re-read of an old favourite will not go there.
The reason I have started this list is, that I like to keep track of things that I moan about. Sort-of taking the wind out of my sails :-)
For ages, I've been moping about not getting books read, so this is the year, where I'm going to put it to the test. Do I, or do I not read books. New books. Not just re-reads of old freinds.
And so far the answer is : I do read :-)
BUT, occasionally I get stuck with a book.
I'm there with my present book.
Kate Mosse's "The Labyrinth"
It started out well enough, easy read, well-known subject. It's one of the multitude of Grail-novels that are out there at the present, and which were more-or-less started with Baigent and Leigh's "Holy Blood. Holy Grail" (and just for the record, I feel rather sorry for them for not getting some sort of recognition in Dan Brown's very overrated da Vinci Code, which to my eyes was nothing but a version of their book ... oh well)
ANYways. Kate Mosse's Labyrinth.
Easy read up until Chapter 20, and then ...
Mindless brutality and violence.
Oh, I can see that the author needs to establish some roles here. The innocence and harmless-ness of our heroes and heroines as well as the mindless brutality and insanity of their opponents, but frankly ... I don't have to read, in graphic detail, about brutality in order to understand that that is what is at stake.
I have now tried picking it up 3 times, and have soldiered through another chapter each time ... but I don't relax. This is not enjoyable to read. I'm waiting, poised, for when next to look away, only ... with a novel you can't really do that ! you need to find out where the gore ends and the plot picks up again, and even - perhaps - to know if there are plot-lines within the graphic descriptions ...
And that is why I'm going to cut my losses and put it away.
I don't like graphic violence in movies. I don't like graphic violence in pictures. I don't like graphic violence in books.
This is why I have completely stopped reading Patricia Cornwell.
This is why I miss Inspector Morse more than I can say.
And this is why I'm going to never finish this particular novel.
Too bad. It was a fairly good read for the first 19 chapters.

Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoy Tom and Jerry as much as the next man, but realistic descriptions of how cruel and vicious man can be to man ... thank you, no. I do not do that for recreation. There's too much of it in the news and in real life already.

And now the quest is on for finding another book to read :-) I think I'll go to the library tomorrow, and browse in their "historical novel" dept. :-) They are usually my favourite reads. Those and good crime-novels ... like Inspector Morse :-)
... oh, and any book from the most shop-lifted author in Great Britain : Terry Pratchett ... and the most sold one : J.K.Rowling ... and J.K. Rowling's favourite author too, Jane Austen :-)
Too bad I have already read them all :-)