What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
Just to chat
>
Name a book that everyone else seems to love, but that you hated
The Alchemist I absolutely loathe this book and refuse to read anything by the author, and the same goes for The Fault in Our Stars or anything by John Green, and all Nicholas Sparks just on principle.
Some books that I hated that people have so much hype over that I just don't understand.The Hunger Games (honestly I don't see why everyone makes a big deal out of Katniss? Like she was forced/blackmailed to do some things and did other stuff selfishly or for her own self preservation not for other people? But people act like she is some fantastic hero?)
Twilight (honestly the whole shiny disco ball vampires really threw me off)
Immortal Instruments (I literally do not get the hype, I choked my way through the book and just barely finished it It was horrible)
Assassin's Apprentice! I couldn't make it more then 50 pages, on every occasion I have tried to read it. I just don't understand wheres all the hype. It's thick with unnecessary prose, underdeveloped main characters, and very pointless exerts about other places in the world with the sole purpose of only having one line of how a character kind of looks like these people. If anyone else has read it and liked it, why?
Winter's Tale. I made it about 20 pages and got a headache! It made no sense to me. Definitely 50 shades of grey. I constantly praise my co-worker for forcing herself through that tripe!
I finished The Lovely Bones and I'll never pick it up ever again.
The Host. No, just no.
The Crimson Petal and the White. Got a few chapters in and, nope. Never again!
I also dislike Nicholas Sparks on principle. I'll only read A Walk To Remember. (I just love Jamie and Landon's story even though it's a sad one.)
Pamela wrote: "I also had to read As I Lay Dying in high school and couldn't stand it. Read another Faulkner in college, Sanctuary, and couldn't stand it either."I live 30 miles from Faulkner's hometown of Oxford and I still can't read his books even though I did try.
Re: OutlanderThat spoiler thing was too much for me, too, Laurie, I didn't think it was necessary for the plot. I didn't really care about the cheating because I had forgotten the whole time travel thing already, for me it was just a gimmick, and I tend not to judge characters. But the end was just too repetitive, the book could have been 200-300 pages shorter. And that's why I won't continue the series. I don't usually read series in the first place, but those books are just too long for me to commit reading one again.
Kikki. If you can't handle me at my Strider, you don't deserve me at my Aragorn wrote: "Some books that I hated that people have so much hype over that I just don't understand."Usually hyped books are actually not that good. I won't bother with The Hunger Games because I couldn't even finish watching the movie... And I have known and met bigger real life heroes than Katniss ever was, I am even related to one.
yeah, I've found nine times out of ten a hyped book isn't all that great. I always try to give the benefit of the doubt though. But Hunger games I ended up just kinda skipping through most of it and the end to the series was pretty disappointing to me too .-. the hype behind a handful of books that I've never enjoyed has always confused me heh
Kikki. If you can't handle me at my Strider, you don't deserve me at my Aragorn wrote: "I always try to give the benefit of the doubt though."I won't, there are too many books out there for me to waste my time, and there are so many books that are not (or haven't been) hyped but get good reviews from people who have read a lot.
yeah, I like Goodreads a lot because you get a lot of people who make very well thought out reviews that you can read before deciding to check out a book. I've found it comes in handy with avoiding some particularly bad ones that had a lot of hype (I'm still hesitant to even think of picking up Throne of Glass, its had a lot of hype but I've seen so many negative reviews)
I rely more on reviews in newspapers and book blogs. Only one of my friends has read "Throne of Glass" and she called it "bad Harlequin". YA isn't very popular here and probably it won't get translated, either.
I have found a few really solid people on GR who do really good book reviews that I'll usually turn to for book reviews ^-^ they're well thought out and explains why they feel a certain way about the book with facts and whatnot, so I usually go for what their reviews are.I think I'll only try to read throne of glass if I can find it somewhere for free, like checking it out at a library or something
I get most of my books from the library anyway, they have such a good selection and they can get books for me, too.
Kikki. If you can't handle me at my Strider, you don't deserve me at my Aragorn wrote: "Some books that I hated that people have so much hype over that I just don't understand.The Hunger Games (honestly I don't see why everyone makes a big deal out of Katniss? Like she was forced/bl..."
Shiny disco ball vampires?? Just, LOL!!! ☺☺☺☺☺
haha I'm glad you like my choice of words XD
Kikki. If you can't handle me at my Strider, you don't deserve me at my Aragorn wrote: "haha I'm glad you like my choice of words XD"
Speaking of hyped books and authors, am I the only one who dislikes John Grisham? I've tried reading several of his books; forced myself to finish two of them (The Firm & The Pelican Brief) and gave up less than half-way through on the others.
Tytti wrote: "Re: OutlanderThat spoiler thing was too much for me, too, Laurie, I didn't think it was necessary for the plot. I didn't really care about the cheating because I had forgotten the whole time trav..."
Just from watching the Outlander TV series I found it unbelievable that anyone would find the spinsterish, sanctimonious and self-righteous Claire sexy and desirable.
On the same note I loved the movie The Last of the Mohicans and even read the Leatherstocking sagas afterwards so I thought the book Into the Wilderness would be wonderful to read.
How wrong I was! In the first pages of this one we are introduced to another spinsterish, sanctimonious and self-righteous sour puss that this real sexy guy Nathaniel goes absolutely gaga for. I just don't think it works that way in real life...
I could see why Rochester fell for the rather plain Jane Eyre as she was obviously his intellectual equal, something Mr. Rochester had never encountered in his whole life so I don't believe the heroine has to be sexy and gorgeous to be desirable at all. I was unable to believe that either Claire or Cora in the above mentioned books would be able to cause anyone to fall madly in love with them with their holier-than-thou prating.
Kikki. If you can't handle me at my Strider, you don't deserve me at my Aragorn wrote: "I have found a few really solid people on GR who do really good book reviews that I'll usually turn to for book reviews ^-^ they're well thought out and explains why they feel a certain way about t..."Reading the reviews of trusted Goodreads friends has been so helpful in weeding out the stinkers I agree.
Jeremy wrote: "Speaking of hyped books and authors, am I the only one who dislikes John Grisham? I've tried reading several of his books; forced myself to finish two of them (The Firm & The Pelican Brief) and gav..."I usually don't read Mass Market books of this type but since I went to High School with John Grisham I made an exception and did read The Firm which I found to be very enjoyable as far as these types of books go.
John is the nicest guy you'll ever meet so please give him a second chance :D
Jeremy wrote: "Speaking of hyped books and authors, am I the only one who dislikes John Grisham? I've tried reading several of his books; forced myself to finish two of them (The Firm & The Pelican Brief) and gav..."I have seen some movies based on his books, as a teenager probably. They are ok movies but I don't really care for simple thrillers when choosing books to read, I want something more interesting. They are probably popular because they are easy, straightforward.
I don't really remember what I thought of Claire but considering that my all-time favourite character is Scarlett... I tend to like not-so-likable female characters.
Tytti, I'm southern so this might explain why I have such difficulty connecting with the rather strident female characters such as Cora and Claire. Scarlett was pretty horrifying at times but fascinating none the less.
Laurie wrote: "Tytti, I'm southern so this might explain why I have such difficulty connecting with the rather strident female characters such as Cora and Claire. Scarlett was pretty horrifying at times but fasci..."I think they are closer to the women I know than most female characters in books. Finnish women have always been rather tough and opinionated...
Laurie wrote: "Another book I couldn't connect with was:Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Volume 2"
I was so disappointed by Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and everyone I know loves it. (I would have been fine with it if she had been writing the opening to a series, but as a stand alone it sits squarely on my 'weak tea' shelf.) Makes me think I'm losing it.
Tytti wrote: "Laurie wrote: "Tytti, I'm southern so this might explain why I have such difficulty connecting with the rather strident female characters such as Cora and Claire. Scarlett was pretty horrifying at ..."Yes, I can see your point Tytti and I have no doubt that people such as yourself that have to brave harsh weather for most of the year might be different personality wise than me since I live in an area that has a very short winter and plenty of sunshine all year long.
So this probably explains why I find overly serious and strait laced book characters difficult to connect with.
I do enjoy reading writers of fiction from all over the world though as I'm always curious and enjoy learning about women from different cultures and how they cope with their problems.
Good authors make it easy to connect with people that are completely different from me.
Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Laurie wrote: "Another book I couldn't connect with was:Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Volume 2"
I was so disappointed by Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and everyon..."
Amy, after reading my Book Club's review of "Dr. Strange" this sounded like the best book I'd ever heard of and I couldn't wait to order it.
I was so disappointed though and found the pace of the book deadly boring; so along with other reasons this book was unreadable for me.
This is another book I'm upset that I spent good money on and another reason I'm glad I joined GRs since then.
GR helps tremendously. I've become a lot more focused in my reading and read a lot more things I love since I got serious on here.
Goodreads has saved me a lot of money and helped me discover a lot of great books as well.
Yeah, harsh weather but especially harsh history. And the weather is not so harsh "most of the year", it's not even freezing at the moment. It's warmer than it should be, unfortunately, because the snow is gone (soon). But when about 240,000 women (out of a population of only 3.6 million) served in the auxiliary paramilitary organisation in many demanding duties (even close to the front line in the middle of nowhere in a forest, cooking, washing, nursing, even during the winter) in 1944, then that is a lot of women, almost half of the number of men in the military at the time, and the rest had to try to feed them and do everything else, too. So I understood Scarlett very well, even though I never lived those times.
Tytti wrote: "Yeah, harsh weather but especially harsh history. And the weather is not so harsh "most of the year", it's not even freezing at the moment. It's warmer than it should be, unfortunately, because the..."After reading the book Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell I learned after WW2 that GWTW was such an inspiration to all European women who had to rebuild their country and lives. If Scarlett could do it there was hope for them.
GWTW also points out that some women don't even know what they're capable of until tragedy strikes.
I've been through the phase where almost everyone I knew loved Twilight but I didn't.The whole thing about Fifty Shades of Grey drives me mad too.
Also although I started out as a fan, Dan Brown now fails to amaze me.
I fourth The Great Gatsby! I read it as a HS student (and suffered through it). Another classic I was required to read in HS was The Scarlet Letter and although I also struggled to get through it I actually liked it a lot more than The Great Gatsby. I don't know what is was. I related more to Hester's turmoil than Jay's. Like, I could understand why Hester's life sucked. Jay's? Not so much... it was annoying how slow and indirect the story was (since the other guy was the narrator) and Jay's love interest was sooo annoying!! The language in The Scarlet Letter is harder to get through (since it was written much earlier) but I still liked it more. Never got The Great Gatsby. I saw parts of the movie with Leo and still nothing. Bleeeh.
Melisandre wrote: "I've been through the phase where almost everyone I knew loved Twilight but I didn't.The whole thing about Fifty Shades of Grey drives me mad too.
Also although I star..."
Regarding Twilight, several people I know in real life seemed to love it at the time. Two of the girls who did didn't read much so I was rather dismissive of their opinions. But then this guy friend of mine read it and said he really liked it too. He wasn't as effusive of the girls, but hey, we have similar tastes in other books, so I decided to give it a try...
I tried several times and never got past page 50 without banging my head against the wall far more than was healthy. So, I gave up...
A couple of weeks later, the book came up in conversation with my guy friend and I mentioned my attempt to read it -- and he eventually admitted that he only read it to keep his girlfriend happy, and he mostly focused on the action in the later books. I had to chuckle at that.
On my part... I hated The Book Thief. Feel free to shun me. I'm clearly a horrible, terrible person.
Melanti wrote: "Melisandre wrote: "I've been through the phase where almost everyone I knew loved Twilight but I didn't.The whole thing about Fifty Shades of Grey drives me mad too.
A..."
I tried the Twilight movie but couldn't get into it either although I can understand why it has so many fans but it does seem to attract more imaginative people than myself.
The Mighty StormCan barely remember this book now, but I keep thinking it was one of those 'everyone loved it' for some reason... And I really didn't. Just read my review, and remember a bit of it now... can't believe I still gav it 3stars. Maybe I clicked the wrong spot!
The Secret History, All the Light We Cannot See
Outlander by: Diana Gabaldon Twilight by: Stephanie Meyers
The Catcher In The Rye by: J.D. Salinger
Basically, most of Kurt Vonnegut. Seems everyone else find his books hilarious and deep. I read 5 of his books, 4 of them was only 'meh', the fifth was terrible. I just did not like his style.
Courteney wrote: "Outlander by: Diana Gabaldon Twilight by: Stephanie Meyers
The Catcher In The Rye by: J.D. Salinger"
I second Outlander which I found to be no more than an overly long bodice ripper. Plus this book has to have the most unlikable heroine I've ever encountered in a book.
The Just-About-Average Ms M wrote: "Outlander. Trite, silly, over-sexed.The Goldfinch. Self-absorption on steroids.
No reasons need be given for Twilight and 50 Shades.
Anything at all by Nicholas Sparks. Saccharine sweetness and..."
Good choices Maggie and I agree with all but 1 - I did like Sara Gruen's first book but I'm an elephant fanatic and tend to read any and all books if an elephant is involved.
Sparks is just too cloying for me to read but I can see why he might have fans.
Not into the supernatural either.
I was considering watching the Cloud Atlas movie that's on tonight to see what all the fuss is about.
Donna Tartt's home town is 20 miles south of where I live and I loved The Secret History, but from all the reviews I've read of The Goldfinch it sounds dreadfully boring.
Gotta pile on with "The Great Gatsby". I'd rather set my hair on fire and put it out with a hammer. Well maybe not THAT bad."On the Road" - I tried to appreciate it for the time frame, and I get it.... just wasn't enjoyable for me.
Mod
I will not go near Breakfast at Tiffany's with a 40 foot pole. Even though "the novella's prose style prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation," adding that he "would not have changed two words in Breakfast at Tiffany's"." (wikipedia)
I have seen one or two very brief scenes from the film and would sooner sit through Wagner's Ring Cycle without a bathroom break, wearing a diaper, than watch the whole thing.
I have a very solid three.The Kite Runner - lost my interest within the first 50 pages
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - would actually rather read an IKEA catalogue than read this description of furniture. DNF after 200pages.
A Visit from the Goon Squad - the hype around this book was ridiculous a few years back. i would rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon than read it again
50 Shades of Crap. Twilight fan fic worse than the source material. Bad writing and bad BDSM. Gone Girl. two hateable characters hating each other.
Twilight. Vampires don't sparkle.
Divergent. blaaah. boring and dumb.
Hunger Games. The Japanese manga she ripped off was much better.
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Dark Carnival (other topics)One Hundred Years of Solitude (other topics)
The Great Gatsby (other topics)
To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)
On the Road (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ray Bradbury (other topics)Thomas Hardy (other topics)
Josh Lanyon (other topics)
Gillian Flynn (other topics)
Gregory Maguire (other topics)
More...
Also, even though they are non-fiction: Confessions of a Slacker Mom and Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.