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
If you've read it three times and hated it every time, you've gone above and beyond. No need to try a fourth. I mean, I'm never going to like A Thousand Acres. Ever. No matter how hard people try to sell me on it. How that book won a Pulitzer is beyond me.
Yep. I joined a book club and one of the previous months they'd read that, so my friend said "read it so you'll understand the references when the other members start bashing it". They were all either farmers or had married them and there was not a single positive thing they had to say about that book. Having read it, I understand why.
Michele wrote: "Michael, my thoughts exactly. I applaud you for trying it three times -- once was enough for me!"Me as well. One of the books that helped break me of finishing everything I started.
Alice in Wonderland. I read it as a child and didn't like it and have tried to reread it several times since. I like a lot of the poetry, but the book(s, actually since Through the Looking Glass is included here) just left me cold, cold, cold.
The Giver by Lois Lowry. When I finished it, I felt depressed for days.
Wuthering Heights was AWFUL!!! I think it was worse because I bought the book instead of just checking it out from the library, so I just wasted money. I just went into it figuring I would like it since I loved Jane Eyre and every book by Jane Austen. Honestly, I love how divided everyone seems to be with this book, though. I've heard of other people who also hated it, and then some people LOVED it. Like they plan vacations to the area it was set in and they quote the book all the time, and they reread it every year. I guess it's just one of those books where you either love it or hate it. And I hated it.
1984. Every Time I hear a big brother reference I cringe. The ending man... Ugh.
Miranda wrote: "Wuthering Heights was AWFUL!!! I think it was worse because I bought the book instead of just checking it out from the library, so I just wasted money. I just went into it figuring I would like it ..."I think a lot of people feel disappointed by it. I started reading it a couple years ago, thinking I had already read it as a teenager. It wasn't what I remembered at all, so I think I must have only seen the movie. I keep thinking I'll try again some day, but, maybe not.
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 can't stand that one, either!
Totally hearing everyone who hates The Great Gatsby. Me too. I’m going to chuck Captain Corelli’s Mandolin into the mix as well (apologies if this has already been listed). One of the very few books I haven’t finished. Also Ivanhoe which I heard serialised on the radio and which sounded brilliant. In book form? Not so much!
Emma.I read once that while Jane Austen did love Pride and Prejudice, it broke a lot of her self-imposed rules for writing-- the plot had a little too many contrived coincidences for her taste, the dialogue was a little too polished to be spoken by real people. And I get it. But Emma is why you do write books a little unreal: if you write out every single bit of brainless dialogue said by shallow, brainless people, well... it's just not entertaining to read.
I’ve also just given up on Libra. Sooooooo hard to read. I managed 200 and some pages and then wondered why I was persevering, considering that took me months!
Sookie Stackhouse and House of Night are series I can not stand but people seem to love.
Michael wrote: "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 en..."
I'm a bit late to the conversation, but my history teacher says that The Great Gatsby is a perfect snapshot of the 1920s. Nothing written in history books captured the era as well as that fiction novel. I think that's where a lot of the merit comes from. For literature buffs who read a book by analysing it to death (I am so guilty of this), then The Great Gatsby is a unique look at the Lost Generation. I haven't read it yet but it's on my must-read list.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. I know this book counts as a classic and it's written really well. But it's creepy in my opinion.
Carlene wrote: "The Giver by Lois Lowry. When I finished it, I felt depressed for days."Me, too!!!
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. I was furiously underwhelmed and disappointed.
Khue wrote: "Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. I was furiously underwhelmed and disappointed."Wow, he seems to have that effect on people, for me it was Pines by Blake Crouch.
An FBI-Agent who tends to make the same mistakes again and again?
Something I cannot stand from a supposedly intelligent person in any book. Together with a boring story and other problems lead me to conclude nether to read a book from him again. And why that was filmed I will never understand - saw a few episodes, but it was as bad as the book.
Daughter of Smoke & Bone Series by Laini Taylor
Good Omens. I read it in high school and did not much like it but I was desperate for fantasy-ish books and would read pretty much anything that fit. Now that the TV show is happening it seems like everyone I know is so excited and I am just -- not.
Motorcycle Man. I thought the heroine was weak and the Hero was more Neanderthal than Alpha. And I love a good caveman alpha! But everyone else loved it, so......;-)
Bryn (Plus Others) wrote: "Good Omens. I read it in high school and did not much like it but I was desperate for fantasy-ish books and would read pretty much anything that fit. Now that the TV show is happening it seems like..."Did you try the series? It really was excellent - well cast, well written, well acted.
The woman in the lake by Nicola Cornick. Interesting premise but it had me confused as I was reading it and thus I didn't bother continuing it.
The Book ThiefThe Alchemist
Atonement
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
All The Light We Cannot See. It felt like such a wasted effort. WHY was this on so many must read lists??
Michael wrote: "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 en..."
I agree. You are the first person who seems to hold this book in the same light.
So I didn't *hate* it, but Where the Crawdads Sing was not that great to me! It was predictable and just okay. I kind of regret reading it but feel guilty saying that! (I'm a librarian by trade so I hear people's reviews all the time. I have not had one person tell me they didn't love it.)
``Laurie wrote: "Tytti wrote: "Outlander The beginning of the TV series looked good so I wanted to get a bit of the background and I also happened to have the book lying around (had found it for free..."
I liked a couple trailers I saw for the television series--the costumes, setting, cinematography, actors (well, the woman anyhow)--and the reviews of the first book sounded as if the book was breaking some real ground for US writing and thinking about sexuality. But jeezh! the book's writing was so poor and, while the reviewers may have said some new things, the book apparently didn't, and also it got tiring, every ten pages they'd stop whatever they were doing, even fleeing for their lives, to make what the author'd tell us was (she would say again) incredible love.
Lobstergirl wrote: "The weird thing about The Great Gatsby, given that it's assigned so much to high school students, is that I think it's hard to like at that age. I only read it after I had a whole bunch of other li..."Have you read Fitzgerald's short stories, though? I agree with you The Great Gatsby's far better when one's read a zillion novels, and that his other novel (forget its name) is so-so, but his story "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" and very short (and unforgettable) story "The Long Way Out" [or may be titled "The Long Way Home"] are wonderful; the very short one is timeless--could be any time in 20th century or even today--and mesmerizing.
Crystal Dawn wrote: "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,..."I think you have to be at least a bit used to fantasy genre, Crystal. That said, it's good because it's about longhaul courage and sacrifice--not only the assassin's sacrifice of what in his own life he cares for, but also the readiness of the king (or emperor, is it? It's years since I read this book, and I forget details) and, especially, of the queen to be sacrifice for the good of their continent. Anyhow, that's why I liked it despite the things wrong with it.
Courteney wrote: "Outlander by: Diana Gabaldon Twilight by: Stephanie Meyers
The Catcher In The Rye by: J.D. Salinger"
I second Outlander, too. Commercial softcore. And haven't read Twilight. But Catcher in the Rye--?! Maybe it's a generational thing, but when I was 18 and first read it--on and just after my first trip to NYC--! OMG yes--I loved it! Holden Caulfield spoke for some part of so many of us, then--and the writing was marvelously right for shaping and showing who this character was.
Elisheva Rina wrote: "The Hobbit. Little House on the Prairie series. Can't think of more but I just think some books are boring. Then there are the classics I refuse to even try, like Anna Karenina."Don't try Anna Karenina until you're at least 40 or 50 years old, I think, and have read many classic novels of European and Russian literature. It's boring and tedious until . . . I don't know what happens, but at a certain point, or age, or familiarity with what Tolstoy and several other European authors (de la Clos, Hardy, Hugo, Dostoevsky, for example) are doing, suddenly one sees what's wonderful in Anna Karenina; it took me by surprise, and after many years of occasional tries to read it.
David wrote: "Never been a great fan of Thomas Hardy. Any of them. Long-winded, self-indulgent, badly in need of a good editor.*Whispers* Not too keen on C.D. either ;)"
Hardy--really? Not his last two book, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, either? His earlier works, I could understand; these latter two, I'd think one needs, perhaps, to let oneself familiarize oneself a bit with late-19th-century style, and then these are amazing.
Musashi. We read it in a class that I took on Japanese Pop Culture. It was really popular in the class, but my friend and I hated it! Worse, it's 970 pages. I also remember not particularly liking The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.
Just to state the obvious, I hate Stephen King, cannot write, boring books (read one and looked into 2-3 more before DNF) and way too many - suggesting a ghost-writer to me and him only putting his name on the books. Re: Hunger Games:
it is said that Hunger Games is a ripp-off of Battle Royale. But that came out after the King book.
And having watched the movie Battle Royale I cannot see the ripp-off or the book is way different than the movie.
Still have to read Battle Royale but am planning to (already bought the book).
Someone said
(Mark Twain? although I failed to find the quote when searching for it)
there is basically only one story "boy meets girl ..." all other are variations from it or something like that.
"Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern was really disappointing for me, yet quite a few BookTubers I admire are reading it for the third time and still adoring it. I hate love triangles and I have to really be in the mood for a character study. I was not in the mood for a character study when I read it. Sigh.
The rockabilly werewolf from Mars wrote: "Another one for me is Dean Koontz, his work is preachy and not remotely frightening."Indeed!
Divergent.So many of my reader friends seem to consider it to be the pinnacle of YA dystopian - even more so than The Hunger Games, in fact! However, it bored me to tears, and somehow the pseudoscience was even worse.
Two books I found very boring that other people loved are:V for Vendetta
Good Omens
The first one was so awful I even gave up reading it!
I hated 50 shades of grey. I tried to like it because my female friends did and swore by it but I found it ridiculous. No offence to the author, but it was simply not my cup of tea.
Krazykiwi wrote: "The Great Gatsby I suspect I'm not American enough for the great American novel. I'm not a big fan of To Kill a Mockingbird or On the Road either."
I utterly disagree with you about Gatsby, but just as utterly agree with you about On the Road.
One Hundred Years of SolitudeAbout twenty-five years ago, I got through the first fifty pages or so, before privately acknowledging that I really, really hate magical realism.
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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Perhaps one day I will read it a fourth time,
.."
Why would you torture yourself if you didn't like it the first three times. It won't get better.
I agree with Sam. There are too many great books out there to discover.