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A review by hmgelo02
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
2.0
It's not often that I force myself to read a book. If I start reading and can't get into it, I normally put it aside, never to finish. For some reason, I actually forced myself to read this book... for reasons I'll probably never understand. Maybe because it was on the NYT Bestseller List, or because it was widely acclaimed, or because there was even a movie based on it. Maybe I thought I was supposed to enjoy reading this.
The fact was, though, that I didn't. I wanted to enjoy this book; it was pretty well-written but the subject just didn't hold my attention. I have a black thumb and can't keep plants alive for more than a few months, so maybe a book about an entire sub-culture of orchid-obsessed people isn't really up my alley.
I think, mostly, it just wasn't that interesting. There was a lot of information about the background of bringing orchids to the US, about the swamps of Florida, about the Native American tribes in Florida, about orchid growers and orchid collectors. The author tends to ramble and has some very long run-on sentences. Toward the end I found myself scanning the paragraphs just to finish the book so that I could say I'd actually read it cover-to-cover.
Now that I have, I can cross that off my list forevermore. Whew.
The fact was, though, that I didn't. I wanted to enjoy this book; it was pretty well-written but the subject just didn't hold my attention. I have a black thumb and can't keep plants alive for more than a few months, so maybe a book about an entire sub-culture of orchid-obsessed people isn't really up my alley.
I think, mostly, it just wasn't that interesting. There was a lot of information about the background of bringing orchids to the US, about the swamps of Florida, about the Native American tribes in Florida, about orchid growers and orchid collectors. The author tends to ramble and has some very long run-on sentences. Toward the end I found myself scanning the paragraphs just to finish the book so that I could say I'd actually read it cover-to-cover.
Now that I have, I can cross that off my list forevermore. Whew.