Go Fug Yourself Book Club discussion
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Books You DIDN'T Like
Nora wrote: "Kris wrote: "Ooh, I love a good Victorian literature conversation! My degree is in English literature, and I focused on Vic Lit, because mostly, I hated contemporary stuff (and the few teachers I ..."A Victorian thread is a great idea, Nora and Kris. I too could go on for weeks, and have: I wrote my dissertation on Thackeray, though my true loves are the women writers you mention. And Trollope and Dickens and Tennyson. And Elizabeth Barrett Browning. And . . .
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I don't think we're inten..."
That is an interesting perspective Nora. One of the things that interests me about 18th and 19th century literature is the way that the strictures placed on women stunted them, and the ways in which they grew as a result. Like trees that contort to grow around rocks. I was a Women's Studies minor (a long time ago) and read many respected books of that era in literature classes intended to view the works through a feminist lens. In that time I came to love Gaskill, and Dickens, Austen and Eliot, Thackery and Hardy, and many others. But Flaubert, not so much. And after reading your comments I am thinking it might be because I read Bovary in a class where those who did not feel sympathy for Emma were reviled as misogynists on par with TS Elliott and Hemingway (not a commentary on the quality of their work, just on their disrespect for and diminution of women.) Your perspective is helpful. Thanks.
YES Madame Bovary. I wanted to slap her, she was just so annoying. I think you're meant to not like her though, I'm sure I read that somewhere.
Has anyone read "Correspondence: An Adventure in Letters" by N. John Hall? I stumbled across it on my mother's bookshelf. It's a series of letters between a retired postman in New Jersey and the curator of rare books and letters at Christie's. The postman discovers a stash of letters by Dickens in the attic and wants to know if they're worth anything. The book is a great introduction to Victorian literature for non-English majors like me.
Christie wrote: "I don't think I can legitimately say I "hate" this book, but I was not as captivated by it as I thought I would be..."The Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness. I'm the girl who re-read all t..."
I completely agree Christie! Totally underwhelmed by the hype about that book--I got about halfway through before I just gave up. Liked the idea and some of the story, but had too much of the overplayed "tortured hero"/more helpless heroine storyline for my taste, (and it needed an editor to do some cutting of excess details!)
Patricia wrote: "I think the WORST book I ever read is House of Sand and Fog. My friend made me read it just so that we could both be miserable. I know it got a lot of acclaim and was turned into a movie, but I ha..."We read this for my book club and ALL agreed that it was the worst. Each character kept making the worst possible decisions every.single.time. It was terrible!
Oh my goodness, I hated -HATED- Foucault's Pendulum by Ecco. It is the only book I have ever started to read and not finished, I just couldn't take it anymore. The sad thing is, I love The Name of the Rose, and I kept hearing that Foucault's Pendulum was even better. IT IS NOT!
Bonnie wrote: "I loved Atonement, but I get why it did not work for you. If you did not like it because it has little action and is sad you won't like other Ian McEwan either. He has a definite style. Not every writer is for every reader. I can't abide Dostoyevsky, which does not mean he was not a great writer."Oh, Bonnie, I am right there with you on both of these. I loved Atonement (as well as Amsterdam, Sweet Tooth, and others by Ian McEwan) and cannot stand Dostoyevsky. I can absolutely intellectually understand Dostoyevsky's talent and importance. I'll grant all that as long as I am never made to read him ever again.
However, I will read Tolstoy all day long, especially Anna Karenina. Another on my top 10 best ever list. But regarding the earlier comments about hating Anna/the book, although I love the book, of course I couldn't stand Anna. She's horrible! I definitely don't have to love all the main characters in order to love a book. To me, those things are not at all synonymous.
Oh, and count me in as vote for a Middlemarch discussion! One of my favorite books of all time.
I couldn't even get through the first 10 pages of Harry Potter and I have no intention of trying again…it just didn't do it for me. And anything by Sebastian Faulks…absolutely hated Englby and have a serious aversion to even seeing his books on the shelf…LOL
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Stavra, Anna Karenina has been sitting next to my bed for years. I absolutely adored The Death of Ivan Ilyich so maybe Tolstoy is my ticket to enjoying Russian lit?
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Amen Sista (or should I say "sestra?")
Bonnie wrote: "Anna Karenina has been sitting next to my bed for years. I absolutely adored The Death of Ivan Ilyich so maybe Tolstoy is my ticket to enjoying Russian lit?"Yeah, he certainly could be. For me, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky have nothing at all in common other than the fact of both being Russian male authors. Whereas to me Tolstoy is a profound humanist, and his books read like great popular, page-turning fiction (with a good translation) in the very best sense, Dostoyevsky lives a little too much in an intellectualized plane for my tastes. YMMV, as always, of course!
"The Emperor's Children", by Claire Messud, was easily one of the worst books I've ever read. I hated every single character and their storylines. And the worst part was that I felt like the book used 9/11 as a plot device, which is insensitive and self-indulgent. I heard they are making this into a movie too and that makes me so sad...
Lori wrote: "I just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and I really didn't like it at all- I found the main character super irritating and was not invested at all in the story."Lori, THANK YOU. I finally finished it last night (if by finished means skimming the last 100 pages) because we're reading it for book club. No joke--if a book is an award winner (like this was for the Pulitzer), I can almost guarantee I'm going to dislike it instensely. I didn't hate The Goldfinch, but I thought it was bloated, depressing, and ultimately kind of pointless. I didn't see what I was supposed to get out of it and having her 1,000 words when 10 would do made me rage-y.
You all have inspired me to look back over my GR ratings (I've been on here since 2007 I think) and sort by rating--oh, that's been fun. Honestly, I abandon a book (and have a "could-not-finish" shelf) if I didn't like it (and therefore don't rate it), so I don't have a ton of 1 stars, but Alice Sebold's follow-up to The Lovely Bones was AWFUL, and Julie & Julia, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (about Frank Lloyd Wright), The Paris Wife, and Beach Music by Pat Conroy all deserved my wrath. Either overrated, bloated, self-indulgent, irritating as hell, or a combination of all of the above.
Oh, it feels good to get that all out!
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The Paris Wife - Hemingway (right?) was also an asshat!
Kris wrote: "Oooh, Loving Frank! Yeah, he was an asshat! The book was good though!The Paris Wife - Hemingway (right?) was also an asshat!"
Oh God, The Paris Wife. Hemingway was such a douchebag (at least in the novel), his wife wasn't much better though!
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The Paris Wife - Hemingway (right?) was also an asshat!"
The Paris Wife was so unnecessary. Everything was covered first hand in A Moveable Feast. Did we really need it from Hadley's point of view? It is hardly a challenge to imagine that the wife of a person who spent all day every day drinking and writing and did not ever think of his family would be considered a bad husband.
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That was my mother, the English teacher's, argument as well!
Megan wrote: "Allie wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Everything Dan Brown wrote after "The DaVinci Code." They are all basically the same story - Not sure why I keep reading!"What frustrates me most about Dan Brown is t..."
This drives me insane too, and what really got me about the Da Vinci Code is that this oh-so-clever Robert Langdon supposedly knows everything about everything but he cannot solve those unbelievably simple and stupid riddles that pop up through the pages. I kept shouting the answers at him: "It's Sophia, Wisdom, you idiot! She's sitting right next to you!" and so on. That was my first and LAST EVER Dan Brown novel!
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That was my mother, the English teacher's, argument as well!"
Thank you! With buy in from an English teacher I feel validated. Now if you can get her to agree John Grisham can't write worth a damn I will go from validated to vindicated :)
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I remember saying once that it was damning with faint praise but Micheal Crichton was a better writer than John Grisham.
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LOL, I will faintly damn right along with you. True story: I was at a long ago ABA convention in New Orleans (1991 perhaps), and Grisham was there schmoozing and signing. It was New Orleans, so it is to be implied I was blind drunk. So anyway, I walked up to him and told him that as a fellow lawyer who wanted to write I was terribly jealous of his success, especially considering he could not write to save his life. Happily I was drunk enough that I do not remember the specifics, but I have friends who tell the story all the time so it was almost like I was there :)
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Thanks! *taking my bows*
My stabby read was (and as I write this I still taste my disappointment) The Land of Painted Caves, by Jean M. Auel. The last in the Earth's Children (Ayla) series, it was a terrible read, more so because I had higher expectations. (Not ridiculously high -- every author has his/her quirks and after 20 years, Auel's were familiar, but overall the series always had great and fun elements, not to mention insane research, that kept me entertained.)Some commenters noted earlier how some series suffer from non-editing when their authors/books start selling well. Well, LPC suffered intensely from that — some of her earlier books also needed heavier editing, but that being said, LPC had characters regressing terribly, didn't follow potentially good story leads from earlier novels, and no one loves an ancient cave more than me (except maybe Werner Herzog) but her descriptions of said caves went on for PAGES. PAGES! Anyway, for me at least, it was a sad way to end an otherwise great series that was well-researched and created another time and place with fascinating detail (and some prescience in terms of recent finds on Neanderthals and other Paleolithic peoples).
Ginger wrote: "I think i'm the only person I know that couldn't make it through Cold Mountain...and I normally finish every book I start."YOu're not the only one...
I did finish Cold Mountain, but it was after surgery and I was hopped up on pain meds at the time. It did seem that every plot "twist" could be seen coming from a mile away.
Beth wrote: "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. HATED. IT. Simply could not understand what everyone was raving about. The only thing I liked about it were the dogs!"When that book came out, my boyfriend at the time LOVED it and wanted me to read it. I checked it out from the library and only got partway through before it was time to return it. I did not renew. Ugh.
I hated Bridget Jones' Diary. I found her pathetic and unlikable and really just wanted her to pull herself together. After I finished, I had it in my car and a friend saw it. She'd been wanting to read it, and I was happy to give it away.I also hated Here on Earth. We don't need a modern, poorly written retelling of Wuthering Heights. I didn't finish it; I don't even think I got halfway through.
I never read Twilight, but that's because a friend who knows me well (the one who took Bridget Jones' Diary from me, come to think of it) told me not to because I would hate them. She actually liked those books (or at least the first few), so it wasn't a case of her dislike influencing her opinions. I had a different friend who liked the books describe them to me later because I felt I was missing out on pop culture and wanted to be at least somewhat informed. I feel I made the right choice by skipping them.
I've also never read 50 Shades. I did, however, read Jenny Trout's (Jennifer Armintrout) review, and holy cats, I'm glad I skipped them. She occasionally included actual excerpts, and the writing was so terrible it made me want to peel my skin off just to be distracted from the horror.
Larisa wrote: "My stabby read was (and as I write this I still taste my disappointment) The Land of Painted Caves, by Jean M. Auel. The last in the Earth's Children (Ayla) series, it was a terrible read, more so..."I completely agree with your comment regarding popular series and the lack of editing. That is the major problem with Game of Thrones. Stop adding new characters and just move the plot along for pete's sake!
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Bonnie wrote: "Someone just liked a review of mine and it reminded me of a book that I DESPISED-- The Weird Sisters. It was just terrible. Here is my review for anyone interested https://www.goodreads.com/revie..."Your review hit on something that always pulls me out of stories: when a character is called stylish or fashionable but then is described wearing clothes that would give her a decent Fug Madness seed. To keep reading I have to change the description of the clothes in my head or I just can't get into it.
P.S. I love having a place where I can discuss books and make Fug Madness references at the same time.
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Me too!!! I have found my home planet.
Lori wrote: "Your review hit on something that always pulls me out of stories: when a character is called stylish or fashionable but then is described wearing clothes that would give her a decent Fug Madness seed. To keep reading I have to change the description of the clothes in my head or I just can't get into it.P.S. I love having a place where I can discuss books and make Fug Madness references at the same time. ..."
I know what you mean. Although I love it in the Sookie Stackhouse books - she thinks she's so well dressed and everything that is described sounds SO trashy! Velvet mini dresses with detached sleeves?!
"How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti reminded me of a (then) friend who wanted me to read the e-mails that she was exchanging with a guy that she was planning on cheating on her boyfriend with. Brief moment of voyeurism, followed by extreme self loathing for allowing myself to get duped into participating in such a creepy exercise in narcissism.
I'm in the minority, but I really didn't like THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. It didn't feel genuine to me, and to elevate teen romance to that level makes my brain shut down.
I also don't like any novels by Haruki Murakami.
Hated THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham. I thought it would forever mess up my experience of Virginia Woolf, my favorite, and I'm happy to finally have forgotten it.
I also don't like any novels by Haruki Murakami.
Hated THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham. I thought it would forever mess up my experience of Virginia Woolf, my favorite, and I'm happy to finally have forgotten it.
I find it interesting to read the differences of opinion on Gone Girl. My sister hated it because she hated the characters. Im reading it now and am only on page 98 but I already don't care for Nick or Amy but it has crossed my mind that maybe they aren't supposed to be characters that we like. Maybe we are supposed to kind of hate them or something. I dunno.My most hated books are (and I'm going old school here) Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.
WH wins for WORST BOOK EVER WRITTEN.
JE wins for WORST MALE LOVE INTEREST EVER, HE IS CRAZY AND HORRIBLE AND WHY AM I SUPPOSED TO LIKE HIM?! There will be no swooning over Mr. Rochester from this chica.
Sorry but those books make me yell and scream and stamp my feet because they are awful.
Alisa wrote: "I'm in the minority, but I really didn't like THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. It didn't feel genuine to me, and to elevate teen romance to that level makes my brain shut down.Alisa - I also really didn't like TFIOS. I found Augustus to be almost completely insufferable, and the plot was pretty much the same as Titanic, which I also really didn't care for.
I didn't like Hazel either, but I loved her parents so much. It makes me wonder if being an older reader (and, to be fair, kind of a crab) makes it difficult for me to identify with/have sympathy for younger protagonists?
It also was a really unpleasant reading experience for me because I felt really guilty for disliking the sick kid characters. Like, am I some kind of terrible monster for wishing they'd just STFU already? I was *very* relieved when the movie came out and saw so many reviews citing the very same issues I had with the book.
Megan wrote: "Now that I've lured you all in with my hatred of GONE GIRL, this is when I admit that I both appreciated and HATED Erin Morgenstern's THE NIGHT CIRCUS. I'm actually afraid to admit this to some of ..."God, that is so funny! I love The Night Circus, but...you're right. Nothing happens and the characters don't have much depth to them. I am such a sucker for descriptions. I didn't think about the major flaws in the book until I read your comment.
Okay...I know that this series is really popular, but I just have to say it. I hated Outlander. Hated it. So much. It's hard to say why without spoiling the book. I will say that I thought the writing was mediocre. I enjoyed the first episode of the show though. I often enjoy time travel and romance, but this particular book made me angry.
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I am about to read Outlander (next on the pile after the book I am just starting.) If I hate it this comment will make me feel better since the praise for the first 3 books has been nearly universal. Also, while I did not hate either, I was lukewarm on both Gone Girl and Night Circus. The characters in both books were totally two dimensional. Gone Girl was pretty poorly written and Night Circus was a far too precious and melodramatic and had no dramatic tension at all. Also, Night Circus stole liberally from Bradbury's Something Wicked this Way Comes and it bugged me throughout.
Bonnie wrote: "Grace wrote: "Okay...I know that this series is really popular, but I just have to say it. I hated Outlander. Hated it. So much. It's hard to say why without spoiling the book. I will say that I th..."I can't understand the overwhelming fan base for novels like the Outlander series and the Twilight series. I read lots of books that are like brain candy, so I'm not saying that all books have to be serious or anything like that. I just don't get the appeal of these books in particular. I found quite a few similarities between Outlander and Twilight. Sometimes I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
With that said, I will be interested to hear what you think of Outlander. If you like it, than there are a bunch of thick sequels to get into. My brain candy of choice is Laurell K. Hamilton's work (unapologetic supernatural smut). We all have our thing.
Stephanie wrote: "I find it interesting to read the differences of opinion on Gone Girl. My sister hated it because she hated the characters. Im reading it now and am only on page 98 but I already don't care for Nic..."My friend wrote an academic paper in college that was thinly veiled "Why Wuthering Heights Sucks The Big One" so your comment made me laugh.
Amy wrote: "Alisa wrote: "I'm in the minority, but I really didn't like THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. It didn't feel genuine to me, and to elevate teen romance to that level makes my brain shut down.Alisa - I also..."
This is a weird tangent, but I love books/movies where the parents are awesome. That's one of the main reasons why I love Easy A so much. There should be more books/movies where the parents are super cool. Maybe I just don't know about them?
Kris wrote: "Ooh, I love a good Victorian literature conversation! My degree is in English literature, and I focused on Vic Lit, because mostly, I hated contemporary stuff (and the few teachers I had who taugh..."I have always thought Collins was a much more talented writer than Dickens. The Moonstone and The Woman in White are such page turners. I haaaaaated Dickens' Bleak House. The domestic angel trope makes me barf. Are there any thoughts on this among you fine people? (This is so much fun. I'm so glad there's a book group now!)
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OMG I LOVE EASY A. My son teases me about how many times I have watched it. I adore Emma Stone and think she is wonderful as Olive, but Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as her parents are one of my favorite things in that movie.
I will update on Outlander. I have not read the series in the past because what I heard about them indicated I would not love them, but I am going in with an open mind. I also read lots of crap. Not big on the Laurel Hamilton books, just not my thing, but I read a lot of books that fall on the same part of the literary continuum. I read and love a lot of really good literature old and new, but I adore my literary junk food.
Finally, I have to say that I am not often drawn to Victorian lit (Wuthering Heights and Mill on the Floss are high on my hate list) but I love Dickens. Great Expectations is, if not my favorite book ever, at least in the top 5. It is so funny! I did not love Bleak House nearly as much, but there was a good BBC treatment of it which I liked more than the book. I am also a huge Thomas Hardy fan. I have not read Wilkie Collins, but maybe I should do that. (And I am also very happy we have a book group!)
Amy wrote: "Alisa wrote: "I'm in the minority, but I really didn't like THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. It didn't feel genuine to me, and to elevate teen romance to that level makes my brain shut down.
Alisa - I also..."
I'm going to be checking out the movie reviews now TOO to make myself feel a little better about not caring about them even though they're dying!
Hmm.. I don't know. Am I crabby? Maybe. Even when I was in high school I pooh-poohed the little romances going on around me. I just didn't buy it, thought we were too young. Yet I think it's cool when people marry their high school sweethearts, so I'm not quite sure what my deal is.
What an interesting, funny observation, that it's like Titanic! That movie is ridiculous! Ha!!
Alisa - I also..."
I'm going to be checking out the movie reviews now TOO to make myself feel a little better about not caring about them even though they're dying!
Hmm.. I don't know. Am I crabby? Maybe. Even when I was in high school I pooh-poohed the little romances going on around me. I just didn't buy it, thought we were too young. Yet I think it's cool when people marry their high school sweethearts, so I'm not quite sure what my deal is.
What an interesting, funny observation, that it's like Titanic! That movie is ridiculous! Ha!!
Oh and I also love cool parents in movies and books! LOVE Easy A and Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci in it! And I think the '80s were better about at least *including* parents
Bonnie wrote: "Grace wrote: "Bonnie wrote: "Grace wrote: "Okay...I know that this series is really popular, but I just have to say it. I hated Outlander. Hated it. So much. It's hard to say why without spoiling t..."I wrote my Master's Thesis on supernatural Victorian lit, so it would be fair to call Victorian Lit my jam. I have only read Bleak House and Hard Times out of all of Dickens' novels. I don't know why my teachers assigned his worst stuff, but there you go. Why not Tale of Two Cities or Great Expectations? That would have been nice. Hard Times is terrible. So so bad.
I like Hardy's poetry, but Jude the Obscure was the most horrifyingly sad book I've ever read. It's like a Victorian Grapes of Wrath. I could not deal with it. So not bad exactly, but very hard for me to read.
Go Fug Yourself Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
It Was Me All Along (other topics)Consequences (other topics)
The Girl on the Train (other topics)
The Girl on the Train (other topics)
The Girl on the Train (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Ian McEwan (other topics)Fyodor Dostoevsky (other topics)
We should start a separate Victorian lit thread. I could go on for weeks. I am a huge fan of Mrs. Gaskill. Also whenever anyone tells me they like Downton Abby I always recommend that they read Trollope.
I think the fact that women's lives were so circumscribed is exactly what makes Eliot, Austen, Gaskill and Trollope so interesting and satisfying to read. I don't think it's a coincidence that so many of the lasting English writers of the 19th century were women. What is so great about Middlemarch is that someone as brilliant as Dorothea had to hitch her wagon to a man in pursuit of living a meaningful life, and then live the tragedy of having that man be so unworthy of her. And what makes for the underlying tension in Jane Austen's novels is that, if these women don't marry, they will end up marginalized or in poverty or both. Miss Bates is a cautionary tale.