Book 9 The Neverending Story +1

 

 

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende fulfilled the category “Book with a Misleading Name” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. I read a couple for this category, one more wrong than the next.

I had some great titles for this choice: Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, among others, but I went with one of my childhood favorite movies.

Wow, the book was not the same. It has Bastian’s tale of saving the world of Fantastica (Fantasia in the movie) from the Nothing. We follow the narrative along almost exactly as the movie portrayed. I cried about the horse, Artax, and for the Childlike Empress. It was childhood relived.

But it wasn’t. After Bastian saves Fantastica, the book goes on and on about Bastian’s journey. More like a power trip. He explores the world and abuses the power of the Auryn (the snake amulet featured on the book).

What?

What happened to that cute kid who read a book and saved the world? The second half was kind of ugly and a bit of a shock. I get it was a lesson on having and using power, but…

So, the book didn’t have a misleading title. It dragged on forever. By three-quarters through, I disliked Bastian. He was even mean to Atreyu (the hero on the horse). I finished the book because I wanted to use it for the blog. I would’ve been satisfied to stop with the movie ending.

Another book I read that fit this prompt was Dear Writer, You Need to Quit by Becca Syme. I’ve been having some trouble on the writing side of my career and wondered if I was finished. This book is not about that. It was helpful, telling me about all the bad habits I should stop to make writing more enjoyable and profitable. The title was a good read, short, and informative. It’s part of a larger series, and I might peruse the other titles.

Why does a misleading title draw us in? We usually have a gut feeling that the title is lying, but we read anyway. We’ve talked about how much I dislike an unreliable narrator and campaign for those books to have a trigger warning on them. (Except Gone Girl because that was one of the best books I’ve read.) I like a title that pokes at me and makes me think. I always hope the book will tell me the reason behind the deception. Some do, and some don’t.

The Neverending Story was a slog in the second half, never-ending. So, truthful title. Dear Writer, You Need to Quit implied I could quit writing if I needed to. Perhaps neither book actually fit the prompt. Hmm… Should I grab a third?

I give The Neverending Story by Michael Ende Four Luck Dragons because the first half was so darn good.

I give Dear Writer, You Need to Quit by Becca Syme Five Sharpened Pencils because it had some great writing advice.