What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Name a book that everyone else seems to love, but that you hated
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Kate (Feathered Turtle Press Reviews)
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Jul 25, 2016 09:01PM
I don't hate books often -- but, ugh, Menagerie.
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WOW, so this list is longer than I thought it was gonna be.... but *shrugs*The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I kept waiting for it to get better... because everyone liked it, so it HAD to get better, right? NO. It was vulgar.
Waiting On You by Kristan Higgins. This book literally left me feeling ill. I disliked it so much, I haven't read (or even been tempted to pick up) ANYTHING she's written since. I wonder how long the couple in this ROMANCE NOVEL lasted before the divorce. 2 months? 3?
Lord of the Flies. Excuse me while I go barf.
Wuthering Heights. WHY is everyone like, "Oh Heathcliff!!!"??? No thanks. The heroine (whatever her name was) was an idiot, and he wasn't any better. But then I kinda hate the ENTIRE Gothic era. Literature, art, architecture, music. I don't like any of it. What's that one her sister wrote?
Jane Eyre... NO. It was... equally bad to me. I don't get this obsession with Mr. Rochester. Just no.
A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton. It was... BLAH. I mean, she's written HOW MANY of these books now? They're so... zzzzzzzzzzz.... oh, I'm sorry... I fell asleep just thinking about this book. I mean, seriously. The main character goes running every other page around Whatever-its-name-was California. And she wasn't likable at all. And there weren't any other good characters.... If you like these, you are clearly in a coma. Go read the In Death series by J.D. Robb (First book: Naked in Death) to wake yourself up. You'll kick yourself for wasting your time with Ms. Grafton.
2001: A Space Odyssey zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Into the Wild. I lack a wanderlust gene. Like completely. And this guy was an IDIOT.
Frankenstein. Have you read this book lately? I like the Halloween version of "Frankenstein" (the monster), but the book is really poorly written... it just rambles on and on like it wasn't planned AT ALL.
Anyway.... I feel like a Debbie Downer now. I think I'll go eat some Nutella out of the jar and watch Bob Ross on Netflix....
So far my experiences with Jane Austen have been terrible. I'm going to give one more book a shot but don't think I enjoy her.Hated The Bookshop, which won a man booker prize
The Thorn Birds - no idea why this book is so liked
The Sun Also Rises - dull and I disliked the writing style
The Black Dagger Brotherhood series is loved in the PR and UF crowd but I think the two I've read were awful
Carrie by Stephen King - I enjoy most of his older stuff but thought the writing techniques in Carrie sucked
I recently read
. While I apperciate what the author was doing and thought the plot was unique. However, I was let down. I was expecting an interesting dystopia. Travelling Symphony? Keeping Shakespeare alive? Sounds super awesome... Except over 80% of the book was taken place in the past.
Here's my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I can't understand how people say that Between Shades of Gray is "beautifully written" and "powerful" and who knows what else when I can't even read it because it feels like it was written by a child or someone just learning the language. I have looked into it a couple of times but the writing is just so bad that I don't even want to start reading it, I would just get annoyed.
I got bored with the Harry Potter books because Potter started to mosh and complain too much. I only got to book 5, I loved peeves though
Archangel's Heart. Sloppy, holes everywhere, useless characters, convenient plots, and so much more! Def not up to NS standards, which some people agree with, but most still love it.
The Golden Dynasty I can't believe its rating is 4.48 on Goodreads. The love interest is a piece of shit. Part of the rage comes from how deceiving the blurb was: she’s installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their Queen. "very unwillingly". Right, nice euphemism (view spoiler), lady.
Mariab wrote: "I was VERY disappointed by Swan Song"You know, I hadn't thought of this in a while, but I was too! Especially after Boy's Life. It has been maybe 20 years since I read it, so maybe I should give it another chance.
Anything by Gena Showalter or Sandra Hill. The writing is so horrible it makes me angry and they both keep getting recommended to me. Just. No.
Twilight. "Whaaa my bf left me whaaaaaaaa". The movie was *slightly* better, but not much.50 Shades of Grey: Really badly written, boring, and what the heck is so kinky in it?!? A tie as a blindfold or to tie wrists together (I forget what) is so low on the 'kink' scale it hardly counts.
Frankenstein: The professor whining about what he did was awful and completely stagnated the plot. Once I got to the monsters section the story finally picked up.
Don Quixote: Maybe I had a bad copy/translation, but it seemed I read 2-5 vignettes that were the same. DQ is in the woods, there's a love triangle going on and something about a knife.
The Odyssey: It was probably the version I read, I didn't comprehend diddly squat out of it, but poetry and I don't mix either.
I was bored by The Jungle Book. Not enough Mowgli, too much random other stuff.
Alice in Wonderland: I think the guy was high on drugs when he wrote this.
Mary Poppins: Why would anyone *want* her for a nanny? She's cold and mean! Her movie version was much more likeable.
Almost anything and everything labelled YA. There's usually a love triangle that can't go anywhere, and the kids are so WHINY!
OutlanderI saw the first few episodes of the show, which had me interested in picking up the book. Big mistake. I found it to be overly descriptive. I don't need an author to go on and on for several pages just to describe the scenery. Just let me imagine it for myself.
It took me something like 4 months to finish that book when I generally finish everything in a a day or a few days if it's a super long book.
Memories of IceMalazan Book of the Fallen!
The entire series. Some redeeming moments and characters but it is soooo tedious. Could have been a lot shorter and faster-paced. It came across like the author was trying too hard.
The Eyre Affair from the Thursday Next series! I should have loved this book but I just could not get into it.
I'm with you on The Secret History. I didn't hate it or anything but thought it was highly overated which is strange because I absolutely loved The Gold Finch.
I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't like these well I can't stand Six of Crows and whole Throne of Glass series
lebedeva wrote: "I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't like these well I can't stand Six of Crows and whole Throne of Glass series"I hated Throne of Glass, too. Totally unrealistic and unbelievable. I did like Six of Crows, not so much the sequel.
Tytti wrote: "I can't understand how people say that Between Shades of Gray is "beautifully written" and "powerful" and who knows what else when I can't even read it because it feels like it was w..."Do you mean 50 shades or Between Shades?
Did anyone else think Atonement was highly overated? Great movie, average book.
Megan Elizabeth wrote: "The Eyre Affair from the Thursday Next series! I should have loved this book but I just could not get into it."Read the two following books in that series and found them vastly overwritten (and overrated) - which is a pity because inbetween the author manages some genuine funny moments and clever jokes.
G.G. wrote: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Sorry for those who love it, I just couldn't finish it. No matter how much my husband insist that I do, I will not re-open that book. :P"
Me, too--just don't get it. Not wild about Dr. Who tv shows either. How weird am I.
Teri-k wrote: "The Awakening by Kate Chopin. If feminism means it's OK to hurt people because you're feeling selfish and can't be bothered about their feelings, then I guess it's a good..."Exactly my reaction to The Awakening. Her poor kids.
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..."Me, too--get bored with them really fast.
Elle wrote: "Most of my friends are fantasy readers. I'm not sure I know even a single person who reads HF, so that is maybe why?Had a look at the list yesterday, it's fun :)"I read both genres, and I hated Outlander. Too much graphic sex, too little substance, and it bothered me that she cheated on her husband. Call me puritanical, but vows mean something even across time.
Tessa wrote: "Do you mean 50 shades or Between Shades?""Between Shades of Gray" like I wrote.
Lobstergirl wrote: "I read the first few pages of The Hobbit (I was probably 12 or 13), couldn't get interested in it. I've never gone back to it."I usually tell people to skip the first 60 pages--info dump, only for the Tolkien fan (like me). Don't ever read The Silmarillion either.
Woolfie wrote: "I think it's safe to say that I can addThe Night Circus
The Magicians
And most YA novels
to my can't stand list." I was really let down by the Night Circus. Too much for too little at the end. Yes, it had some beautiful passages and ideas, but it was just a let-down.
I also hated The Magicians--too much drugs and dissipation. I dnf'd it.
Tytti wrote: "Tessa wrote: "Do you mean 50 shades or Between Shades?""Between Shades of Gray" like I wrote." I asked because I was really surprised. I thought that book was very well written, too. Oh, well.
Tessa wrote: I thought that book was very well written, too. Oh, well."It makes me feel like reading a children's book with an adult subject but a childish teenage protagonist for the YA crowd who doesn't feel at all believable and neither does the language. There were pages where NKVD was said several times when I am pretty sure they had better words for them, for example Cheka is used even today. But I rather read real memoirs, there are plenty of them and they are way more interesting and even funnier.
Tytti wrote: "Tessa wrote: I thought that book was very well written, too. Oh, well."It makes me feel like reading a children's book with an adult subject but a childish teenage protagonist for the YA crowd wh..."
It's been awhile, and what you speak of isn't something I have any experience or knowledge with which to evaluate. One of those situations where those closer to the region can see issues the unfamiliar can't. It was a totally unfamiliar historical event and region of the world for me. Her book set in New Orleans didn't seem near as good to me...I haven't read Salt to the Sea yet.
And you make a great point about memoirs. One of my main issues with the overabundance of WW2 and Holocaust fiction. The real stories are so much better.
Also I don't like that she simplifies and misrepresents history and even drags my country into it. Finns were not deported, we fought three wars during WWII to prevent that and succeeded, but ethnic Finns, Soviet citizens, had been persecuted since 1929, along with other ethnic minorities, and this also was public knowledge already in the 1930s (and it of course continued during and after the war, Finland was even forced by the Allies to return tens of thousands of refugees to the USSR). Even memoirs about forced labour camps had been written by survivors and published in the 1920s, I've been reading one in English from 1929. So there has been information available about GULAG but.... Also Americans in the USSR had asked for help from the US Embassy in Moscow during the Purges but they didn't get it and were often arrested immediately. It's a bit like the Katyn massacre; both Churchill and Roosevelt knew that Stalin was responsible for it but they blamed the Nazis instead. I doubt many people in the West know about that, either, even though those Polish officers were their own allies.
Well since we're on the subject of WW2, I seem to be the only person on Earth who hated The Book Thief. It had some good ideas, like how it was narrated by Death, but it was way too confusing. I hated the style it was written in, it was nothing but a stream of consciousness and I could barely keep track of the events or characters in it. It was easily one of the worst books I read back in 2014, and I'm so baffled when I see people praising the beauty of the writing. It was nothing but an incoherent mess. I could probably write something more coherent while having a fever dream while also smoking weed.
Well, I have no interest in reading The Book Thief, the whole premise sounds pretty stupid. My problem with that (and with many similar books about WWII) is that so many people have said that it was interesting to read something from a German point of view. But the novel was written by a young Australian... (Granted with some German/Austrian heritage but still.) If someone actually wants to read a book from the German POV, I would suggest reading a book by a German author. It's always a bit questionable when someone from the winner's side is also writing the loser's stories. That means the losers have also lost their voice. Usually those books are not very historically accurate, either.
I also did not like The Book Thief. You're not the only one, Elizabeth. It was just ok, I thought, not impressed. I also was not wowed by All the Light We Cannot See. Fair only, needed more editing, I thought. It is obvious to me, especially thanks to Tytti, that there is a lot of history from WW2 that I am unaware of, despite the ocean of WW2 novels out there. I will continue to avoid more novels of the era, and seek out history instead.
Tytti, could you recommend a couple histories/memoirs from that part of WW2 history? Off topic, I know. Sorry.
Elizabeth♛ Everyone Else Has a Super Long Name With a Symbol So I Might as Well Do it Too♛ wrote: "Well since we're on the subject of WW2, I seem to be the only person on Earth who hated The Book Thief. It had some good ideas, like how it was narrated by Death, but it was way too confusing. I ha..."Nope. You're not the only one. I hated it too.
Too much style. Too little substance.
I don't know if this counts, but I only made it about 75 pages into "Wicked" before I had to put it down. It actually made me feel physically ill to read it.Also, it took four attempts to read "The Eyre Affair" and I never really figured out why people say it's so good. I tried to reread it again (my mom and sister love it!) and just couldn't.
And probably my greatest shame, "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy." I want to like it. Really I do. But it just doesn't do anything for me.
Absolutely agree on Wicked!!! The Eyre Affair--I thought it was just my mood at the time.
"The kind worth killing" is a mystery/modern Noir and I usually love mysteries but I could not stand the book. And 90 percent of the reviews of it are 4 and 5 stars. I don't get it. I think I found one or two reviews where people did not like it but so many seemed to think it was great and I was bored and found myself skimming.
Tessa wrote: "Tytti, could you recommend a couple histories/memoirs from that part of WW2 history? Off topic, I know. Sorry."That's always a difficult question because so little gets translated, and I don't read general histories because I already know that. Hitler's Nordic Ally?: Finland and the Total War 1939 - 1945 is almost the only one I know covering all three wars in one book, and it's written by a Dane so he probably "gets us" better than someone from a major power. Actually I would suggest a documentary found on Youtube for a crash course. It's slightly melodramatic in places but gives a pretty good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxpcI...
This Estonian documentary about Estonian and Finnish women and girls is a pretty good, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP9p9...
I don't really know books (translated into English) from the Baltic countries, what I do know I have mostly learned from documentaries and articles I've read over the years. Purge is a novel set in Estonia, written by a Finnish-Estonian.
Here is also a couple of articles about Jews in Finland during WWII:
http://jewishquarterly.org/issuearchi... (though some minor details are off)
http://www.thankstoscandinavia.org/th... (one of the Finnish Jews who served in the military during WWII, as brothers-in-arms of Germans)
As for memoirs, I already mentioned this https://archive.org/details/1929InThe... from the 1920's, then there is of course The Memoirs of Marshal Mannerheim but that is probably difficult to find. He was an interesting character, though, starting his "public" career at the coronation of the last Tsar in 1896 as an officer in the Russian Imperial Army and ending it as the president of Finland 50 years later, so some biography about him might be interesting, like Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy. https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
Another two memoirs that I know to have been translated are but are probably difficult to find are Before And After Stalin: A Personal Account Of Soviet Russia From The 1920s To The 1960s by a former wife of Otto Wille Kuusinen, who is buried in the Kremlin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Wi...), she, on the other hand, was in the Gulag system from 1939 to 1955, and also The Bells of the Kremlin: An Experience in Communism (by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvo_Tu...). As you can see, the historical events always have their own history, too. The same people were already involved in our civil war in 1918 (and continued to be involved to 1950's and 1960's), and for example I used to live only a few hundred metres from the place Stalin and Lenin met for the first time in 1905. Also there are characters like her https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella_W... in the Finnish history.
For realistic fiction, Unknown Soldiers was just recently translated properly into English, it is based on the author's own experiences from the war. He later wrote a trilogy Under the North Star about the family history of one main character in Unknown Soldiers (it's from the Red/working class POV). The Winter War is a realistic novel about that war, it's based on interviews and diaries.
I knew someone who couldn't get thru Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.As for me, personally, I just seem to have a hard time with the 'classics".Oliver Twist, Wuthering Heights, and anything by Rudyard Kipling or Jack London. There's just something slow and brutal about them that I highly distaste.
There was also a well-known science fiction novel, about what would happen if we actually detected alien communication. Female protagonist, 1970-80s; but this isn't the unsolved forum. It was intriguing, but it was god-awfully *slow*. After several chapters in of no aliens (only a hologram detected) I just gave up on it. I practically rage quit it.
Niffer wrote: "I don't know if this counts, but I only made it about 75 pages into "Wicked" before I had to put it down. It actually made me feel physically ill to read it.I read Wicked several times, starting when I was 13-14. It was so negative the first time I put it down. Everytime I tried again, I became more numb to its...depressing-ness. I think my actions were unhealthy.
My mom went on a Gregory Maguire craze, and let me tell you, after reading several of his books, I have decided that I *hate* that man. I can read his misanthropic disgust and pessimism, it seeps thru the pages. He presses on in the most negative way for his stories possible, which leads to the stories going in occaisonally (decidedly) worse directions than they had to be.
The book themselves are...well they're not fine, but if they had a *different narrator*, I could have liked them a lot better.
I think he has experience with a pessimistic life...
Elizabeth♛ Everyone Else Has a Super Long Name With a Symbol So I Might as Well Do it Too♛ wrote: "I think he has experience with a pessimistic life..."I was a pessimist too at the time, and am one now. Had a bad past and depressing current life and the whole shebang. Still disliked it, lol
The Island of blue dolphins, we had to read it in elementary school, and I just hated it so much.
Aubren wrote: "There was also a well-known science fiction novel, about what would happen if we actually detected alien communication. Female protagonist, 1970-80s; but this isn't the unsolved forum. It was intriguing, but it was god-awfully *slow*. After several chapters in of no aliens (only a hologram detected) I just gave up on it. I practically rage quit it. ."Let me guess?
Contact
The book was at times very political and more about how nations agree to work together (hint, even if they do, the have an agenda). There are lots of discussions, probably from Sagans real life experiences, and they are interesting to show how this works, but add nothing (for me) to the story and are not very suspenseful. The big question how to deal with alien first contact is the main theme - but (view spoiler)
As I am a fan of the movie, I did read it through, but can understand if people do not, the movie is too long as it is, and they left about 30% from the book on the cutting room floor. The MC was played by Jodie Foster. Highly recommend movie, even if you do not read the book, but also too long.
Just to give you an impression, the movie Arrival has a similar feel and while playing out differently, a take on the same idea. And also feels too long. If you are interested in the themes covered by these movie, it is ok, if not, I'd rather think they will bore you as did the book, and then I suggest to rather read or watch something more to your licking, life is too short for boring books and movies.
Jessica wrote: "The Island of blue dolphins, we had to read it in elementary school, and I just hated it so much."I didn't like that one either. I also hated Jonathan Livingston Seagull which I had to read in Jr. High. Then we had to watch the movie and 30 years later, I still get that stupid song stuck in my head randomly.
What's the Name of That Book???
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Gregory Maguire (other topics)
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