Vanessa's comments (member since Jul 28, 2007)

Vanessa's comments from the Books I Loathed group.

Brian - hear hear on Charline Harris' Dead Until dark sex scenes! Just crappy or cringe-worthy. And they do nothing to further the story.

Revelations is like some hallucination from "Altered States" - I recommend the King James version as the archaic language enhances the reading experience!

I would echo what David says about choosing a good translation - it is amazing what a difference it can make in your enjoyment of a work. I read a lousy translation of "The Iliad", which was not in verse. It was hard going. A better translation in verse made quite a difference. Similarly, I read two version of "The Frogs" by Aristophanes, and one translation was hilarious, whereas the other was lame - lines that had my laughing out loud in one fell completely flat in the other.

Chekov's plays - Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull. They are considered masterworks and I just couldn't stand any of them - either reading them or seeing them performed. What's wrong with me????

Tara - Bilbo Baggins in the Rankin Bass animated Hobbit was voiced by Orson Bean.

I must say, I am a fan of LOTR, but found The Hobbit a chore and a bore. When Thorin Oakenshield died I felt like "Good riddance - greedy a**hole!"

"Mons Pubis" always makes me think of some giant volcano on Mars, rather than female genitalia.

Xysea, Natalie, stephanie & Lori -

There is some interesting info on the "c" word in a book called "Expletive Deleted" by Ruth Wajnryb - a whole chapter on its origin , use and misuse (and how it came to be considered the worst of all swear words). What was particularly interesting to me was how, once upon a time (a long, long time go), it wasn't really considered a bad word, just a name for a body part.

I find I get irritated when someone says "I need time to process that." What are you - a computer, or a factory that makes Cheez Whiz?

I agree that Sci Fi does terrible things to great works of fiction - another case in point includes their horrible adaptation of "The Lathe of Heaven" with Lukas Haas as George Orr. By contrast, PBS did a pretty good job of it almost 30 years ago.

However, recently I saw a Sci Fi production of "War of the Worlds" which was not too bad at all.

I forgot about hte Rainbow Fish books - I hate them too. The first one I guess is supposed to teach children to share and that is how they will make friends, but it really comes off like "Can't get friends? BUY THEM!" The sequels are similar - the same old fish being nasty to other fish/ocean creatures that don't quite fit in.

My kids LOVE Captain Underpants - but I'll agree with Izzy in one regard: if you are trying to reign in the potty talk with your kids - DO NOT expose them to Captain Underpants, because it only reinforces their beliefs that toilet humor is the funniest thing around.

Please elaborate! I love to hear the reasons why anyone hates a book.

I've heard that "Wind-Up bird Chronicle" is supposed to be better than "Kafka", but I've heard conflicting things about "Norwegian Wood". While there is a cat torture scene I can't say that he lingered on violence in "Kafka" beyond that - my hatredof it stemmed from the fact that it was a thought salad that caused me extreme irritation while it bored me to death.

Hated. Loathed. Despised. This. Book. I can’t for the life of me understand why so many critics loved it. It was like someone took the pages out of their diary and from their therapist’s notebook, cut out paragraphs here and there from books on philosophy, pulled a few reviews of classical music out of a newspaper, ripped a couple of advertisements out of magazines, and jotted some notes on what they were seeing during and acid trip, tossed them together in a salad bowl, then sent the result to the binder. My full review (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4929....) describes more completely why I hated this book.

SPOILER ALERT





One thing that I didn’t add to the review due to the lack of space, is how irritated I was by Kafka’s constant yammering on about “I’ve got to be the toughest 15-year-old on the planet.” I don’t see how he ever has to be tough – he never has to sleep on the streets or starve, instead doing quite well for himself by mooching off some girl he meets on the bus (with handjob thrown in to help him sleep) and then conveniently gets room and board (and some sex) in a library in exchange for making coffee and sharpening pencils. Then, when he needs to lie low, gets put up by the librarian in a nifty little cabin in the mountains, food supplied. Gee Kafka, you’ve got it so tough – how can you possibly stand it?

Kate - I accept the challenge. I will get ahold of a copy of VM and see what I can come up with. Anyone else?

Maybe we could discuss potential soliloquies should Eve Ensler decide to take on The Mangina Monologues as her next opus.

I'll try to remember to assume the "plough" position (http://www.indianmirror.com/games/gam8.h...) next time I get caught in a thunderstorm.

Ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is like a lightening bolt in the mangina.

I hate to show my ignorance, but is the "mangina" something already occuring within the realm of born-with body parts of most males, something you you have to undergo surgery to obtain, or something you have to buy from a specialty shop (like Blowfish.com)?