Most popular books you just didn't like

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I liked Wheel of Time’s ambition, despite what I said above… and even did a relisten a few years ago, which felt much smoother than my initial read in paperback and hardcover… but I generally felt like I was slogging through the first 800 pages for the last 200…

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I could mention Chronicles of Amber :D

[Monika]

Hmmm trying to think what I didn't like from books I did read or at least tried to read... I went painfully through Empire of Silence - read it, but not interested in the rest of the story (felt totally bored to be honest, much too long book)... Great expectations by Charles Dickens - can't pass even 15%, just left it... Strange after enjoying David Copperfield...

[Tammie]

Monika wrote: "Hmmm trying to think what I didn't like from books I did read or at least tried to read... I went painfully through Empire of Silence - read it, but not interested in the rest of the story (felt to..."

I couldn't get very far into Great Expectations either, even though I love the film versions I've seen of it.

[Monika]

@Tammie not sure why I can't read it... Maybe the way he wrote it, kinda 'heavy'... I'm not sure how to describe it really.

[Shaitarn]

Prince of Thorns. I like grimdark, but for whatever reason it didn't work for me.

[Tammie]

Monika wrote: "@Tammie not sure why I can't read it... Maybe the way he wrote it, kinda 'heavy'... I'm not sure how to describe it really."

Yeah, it felt heavy and rather tedious to read.

[Veenaa]

@Shaitarn - the broken empire series was a difficult one to get into for me too, but once I got it, I grew to enjoy it by the third book. It’s more science fiction than fantasy!

[Ann-Marie]

It's not SFF but I DNF Hello Beautiful a few months ago. I was reading it for a book club and got a decent chunk into the book and it was just terrible and sad, I hated 95% of the characters so I looked up a summary and realized it would be more of the same and just noped out of it. It turns out I was not the only one to DNF, there were 4 or 5 of us that did (out of 15 people!) I also read The Perfect Marriage for the same book club and hated it, same with Lessons in Chemistry.

I would consider not participating any longer but we also read Remarkably Bright Creatures which I absolutely adored <3

[Omar]

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.
I couldn't connect with the story...

[Felina]

That’s my problem with real life books clubs. If I don’t like something, I stop reading it and it’s hard to do that when you’re planning to meet up and discuss. Then I feel obligated and it’s homework and then I don’t want to read at all. With BR here, if it’s not working you just bounce out and let everybody else finish up. No muss, no fuss. I tried to do a book club with some friends a few years back and everybody took turns picking the book and every book they picked was trash. The Goldfinch?! Get out of here with that. Mine was the only good one.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Felina wrote: "That’s my problem with real life books clubs. If I don’t like something, I stop reading it and it’s hard to do that when you’re planning to meet up and discuss. Then I feel obligated and it’s homew..."

I'm sure they thought the same thing :D

Anyway, I agree... the idea of a book club like that is giving me PTSD to the college class where I had to read 20 books in 20 weeks, and kinda just skimmed them and wrote a 20 page term paper and passed the class on BS (half the class dropped after the first day, and it turned into an almost independent study, that only met once a month, as a result... and I still definitely half-assed it)...

Anyway, the most successful / generally scheduled book club around here has been The Mystery book club, which is primarily me and Tammie, and some others have come and gone over the years... it's been going since 2019, I think?... at times it's been more loosely scheduled, but lately we've generally kept to monthly plans and kept them posted in the header...

All of this to say, there are real upsides to the instant discussion... some books have been really terrible, and 1-2 of us read them, and our comments convince Tammie / the rest to just save their time and skip that book and read something else, and continue on with the next book/month...

I've never done a real life book club, but feel like it could benefit from a group chat?... not to defeat the whole point of the monthly meeting, but to get some hype/change course if nobody is feeling it, instead of muddling on...

[Ann-Marie]

So the book club that had either excellent (Anxious People and Remarkably Bright Creatures) or terrible (Hello Beautiful and The Perfect Marriage) books is no more, I am not sure I am sad about this. I am in a SFF book club that I love, some of the books are a miss for me but the group is awesome and meeting to discuss both the current picked book but also other books we have read recently and enjoyed is fun. I love IRL book clubs, if you have the opportunity I'd suggest giving it a try. I mean if there is a book that doesn't interest you then you can always skip that meeting.

[Tammie]

Ann-Marie wrote: "So the book club that had either excellent (Anxious People and Remarkably Bright Creatures) or terrible (Hello Beautiful and [book:The Perfect Marria..."

We have a SFF book club and love it. I made it because I was tired of book club books I wasn't interested in.

[Ann-Marie]

Tammie wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "So the book club that had either excellent (Anxious People and Remarkably Bright Creatures) or terrible (Hello Beautiful and [book:..."

Right? It was not something I realized I needed in my life until I found it lol

[Felina]

Mine was actually the most liked so booya! It was The Book of Lost Things which is fantastic if you haven’t read it yet.

Anywho, what is the mystery book club? Is that in this group or a different one?

[Felina]

I was in a RL book club through Meet Ups that was actually really cool. People would just post a book they wanted to read and what restaurant they would discuss it at and when. So you just showed up to the books you were interested in and skipped the others. I found a lot of cool ladies and some awesome restaurants. However, the point of joining that book club was to meet men and there were like two and already taken so, it was a fail in that regard.

[Tammie]

Felina wrote: "Mine was actually the most liked so booya! It was The Book of Lost Things which is fantastic if you haven’t read it yet.

Anywho, what is the mystery book club? Is that in this group ..."

The mystery book club is in this group.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

We’re on a mini-hiatus now, with a bunch of our recent series winding down, and pausing on replacing them with new ones… headline of the thread is full of things I’ve been reading with others instead…

Tilly Wallace’s (I think) Tournament of Shadows with Tammie (last holdout), Icarus Hunt/Plot with Brian, before the new release in the Autumn/Winter, and new audio release of Black Hat Bureau with Choko… we’ll probably start a bunch of new stuff in September/October, when Tammie’s ready…