Let’s talk about books that have grown on us (or something like that).

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Ok, so there’s this book called Haunted. It’s by Chuck Palahniuk, the guy who wrote Fight Club, and also the man with arguably the hardest name to sound out (I’ve settled on Pala-nuk, but I also have no evidence that that’s close at all). And I think when I finished Haunted I was so disturbed that I decided I didn’t like it. I guess like any gruesome thing you read or see, though, the book has stuck with me. It’s about a group of wannabe writers who sign up for a writer’s workshop of sorts that goes terribly awry when they realize they are locked in and not allowed to leave. There are many characters, and between the descriptions of what they are doing to each other, each character has a chance to write a short story or two (before they get killed off). Anyways, I found out my brother was reading it, and it brought back all these memories. And even though I found it quite disturbing, I still think about it sometimes. So I’m wondering, does that make it a good book? Some of the stories made me cringe, and I wanted to turn it off at points (I listened to it on CD), but in the end I got through it. There are books that at the time I liked better, but now I neither think of them, nor can I remember what they are about. Haunted at least made a unique impact on me. Are there books like this for you? I know there are people out there gifted with the ability to close a book that they don’t like, whereas I am cursed to finish them, but have you ever read a book you didn’t think you liked, but in the end has stuck with you?

Hmmm. Sounds interesting.


In the next installment of Mentor's Reader, we will discuss the curse of having to finish every book you pick up, even the awful ones. Or maybe we'll discuss listening to books on CD vs. reading them. Any opinions?