What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
Just to chat
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Name a book that everyone else seems to love, but that you hated
Jill wrote: "Connie wrote: "Gone Girl"I haven't read this book or seen the movie, but from what I know about it I think I would hate this book. It seems to be kind of anti-feminist? Guess I can't judge, but I..."
Personally, I love most of Gillian Flynn's books and that one barely squeaked past a three star rating for me. I liked it but it was kind of a let down after reading Sharp Objects and Dark Places
Elizabeth♛ Smart Girls Love Trashy Books♛ 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..."I havent read The Book Thief, but I did find The Nightingale very overrated. I found The Orphan's Tale strangely done as well and not convincing.
Aubren wrote: "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, [book:Wut..."
I couldn't get into Jane Austen or Hemingway. I'll give both of them one more try.
Moby Dick. I forced myself to read it when I was about 15 just to say I had, but god that book was garbage. Every page was like poking my eyes out with knitting needles. Absolutely nothing happened until they finally caught up with the whale in the last three chapters, and that wasn't even particularly interesting.
Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations
Fahrenheit 451Although the language was beautiful, i found that the storyline was boring and the characters one dimensional.
Mod
Although the language was beautiful, i found that the storyline was boring and the characters one dimensional."
I think it works better as YA, or for adults who don't read all that much.
Water For Elephants, Twilight, and She's Come Undone. Ugh... hated them all.
speak I couldn't like it no matter how much I tried
To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye.... blah. I don't get the hype.
The Great Gatsby. Found it totally ho-hum. Had to call my English teacher mom and get her to explain why it's considered so great.
The Night Circus. Totally not what I expected. It became a chore to read. Started out great, then fell apart. It was way too long and I really didn't care about Celia or Marco. The only characters I really liked were Widget and Poppet.No One You Know. This book felt like a waste of time. I saw the ending coming a mile away and didn't really care for any of the characters. Very blah.
I'm sure there any many more, but I'd have to think :)
You don't have to vote if you don't want to....I mean yeah the ads are everywhere but there's no penalty if you don't...
- my review says it all
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in AmericaMarley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog
The Complete Persepolis
A is for Alibi
Emma
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Say You're One of Them
The Spa
Speak
The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria
Silent Spring
Angela's Ashes
Pride and Prejudice
Girl, Interrupted
Confessions of a Shopaholic
The Color Purple
Persuasion
A Kiss of Shadows
Falling Angels
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
A Tale of Two Cities
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Bridget Jones's Diary
The Lady and the Unicorn
The House on Mango Street
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Virgin Blue
The Guns of the South
Class: A Guide Through the American Status System
Kushiel's Dart
Death Comes as the End
Maniac Magee
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Beloved
Heart of Darkness
A Streetcar Named Desire
Tuesdays with Morrie
The Da Vinci Code
Flowers for Algernon
The Great Santini
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Mateo Falcone
No Exit
A Separate Peace
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
Song of Solomon
One for the Money
I feel like I've been subjected to passages from the books often enough to add the Shades of Grey series and the Twilight series.
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"
I understand. It tries too hard.
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."Your loss.
Tricia wrote: "I don't like Little Women. They're sickeningly sweet and good, giving up their breakfast to a poor family (but now THEY don't have any breakfast, so aren't they just as poor as the family they just..."They have a nice lunch to make up for it.
Andrea wrote: "Water For Elephants, Twilight, and She's Come Undone. Ugh... hated them all."Twilight! A thousand times YES!! I hated the whole saga, but I forced myself to read the whole thing. I worked in a bookstore at that time and I wanted to be able to knowingly converse with patrons who asked questions about it. OMG! The whining....!
Fifty Shades of Grey et seq. I don't know if "everyone else" really liked it or it was just that everyone seemed to be reading it, but ugh ugh ugh. Poor writing, insipid characters, zero plot, and lousy sex. You'd think she'd at least have gotten that right.
The Glass Castle.The people should have had their kids taken away. Or they never should have had kids at all.
Outlander was one I could not do more than skim for book club. Hilarious, ridiculous and just plain stupid. Feels good to say that.
Harry Potter - I hate to read children's books where someone is tortured or a child dies, so it's not the first one, but some of the later ones.SPOILER
eg: "I will not tell lies"
Or the tournament book.
Av wrote: "Harry Potter - I hate to read children's books where someone is tortured or a child dies, so it's not the first one, but some of the later ones.SPOILER
eg: "I will not tell lies"
Or the tournament..."
The Twilight series was also really annoying and full of grammatical errors.
Cindy wrote: "Outlander was one I could not do more than skim for book club. Hilarious, ridiculous and just plain stupid. Feels good to say that."I liked the first one but got progressively less interested as the series went on. Didn't bother with anything after the third one.
If anyone's read the Michael Vey series, that's one I hate.The first few books were just this side of bad, but the last book was amazingly horrible in both terms of pacing and character actions.
Gone Girl. I sat down to read it outside on a beautiful summer day, happy to start a brand new bestseller. It wasn't long before I started to feel cold and creepy, but not in a good way. My negative reaction was visceral. It was still warm and sunny, but I had to look up to the sky to check for looming dark clouds or dementors. Finally, I went into the house for chocolate (just in case) and a different book.
NancyJ wrote: "I had to look up to the sky to check for looming dark clouds or dementors. Finally, I went into the house for chocolate (just in case) and a different book. "lol
Michele wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I had to look up to the sky to check for looming dark clouds or dementors. Finally, I went into the house for chocolate (just in case) and a different book. "lol"
Thanks Michele, I didn't think anyone would notice. True story btw.
Definitely Tolkien. His writing style was like nails on a chalkboard to me. Plus I blame him for the influence he has on other writers. Noble elves! Barely any women! Noble elves! Dwarves, not dwarfs.
“Dwarves” is a collective noun. “Dwarfs” is a verb.
Year of Magical Thinking When Breathe Becomes Air
grieved over grief. I just do not understand why author's were praised and so many books sold. I felt like I wasted precious time
I hated The Great Gatsby. I found it insipid, I also could not stand Melissa Gilbert's Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love. Sorry to all the Shakespeare fans, but Romeo and Juliet was a dud in my book.
The Great Gatsby. Over the space of twenty years, I have read it three times, wondering whether I am simply missing something, failing to see the book's merits. But each time I have read it, I end up disliking it even more than I did previously.
Michael, my thoughts exactly. I applaud you for trying it three times -- once was enough for me!
I read Great Gatsby for the first time as an adult and loved it. I suspect Fitzgerald would be very sad that people admire the people in that book.
I think you are right. There are few if any admirable characters in Gatsby, including the narrator. Of course, it isn't necessary that we must like the characters in a novel in order for the novel to be significant. My dislike for The Great Gatsby arises from reasons that I find it difficult to understand or articulate, it's a gut-level thing. Ah, well. De gustibus non disputandam est. Perhaps one day I will read it a fourth time, and try to figure out exactly what it is about the story that nettles me so.
Michael wrote: "Perhaps one day I will read it a fourth time, and try to figure out exactly what it is about the story that nettles me so."Nah. Life's too short to waste reading books you don't like.
Perhaps so. My "To read" list just keeps getting longer and longer.
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)
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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)
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They are definitely an acquired taste. I got my first BDB book in audio form so I didn't realize exactly how ridiculous the names were until I switched to the written version.