[asmb] Book Club discussion
Book Chat - General
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Books you refuse to read
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In general, I'll read anything. My books on here reflect all the books I've actually finished. Often, if I get a novel, like I did recently, that just sucks... it doesn't get finished.
There's several books my wife has that I'm still meaning to read, I just haven't sat down and read them. Hell, I need to go and read Dead Witch Walking again so that I can get back into the series. It is urban fantasy, and a lot of fun.
In general, I try to give just about anything a chance. But I won't waste my time on something I cannot glean any enjoyment from. And I'm general easy to entertain.
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I am also very bad at picking up books and not finishing them if they dont grab my attention in the first few chapters. Sometimes its just that I am not in the mood for that style of writing or storyline. I also have a bad problem with buying books and then never reading them. Like i will get a gift card to a bookstore, go a buy 50 dollars worth of books, and a few always fall through the cracks. They get pushed to the side cause something else has caught my attention. >.< Its horrible I know. I actually have Dead Witch Walking, and have never gotten around to read it, I have also had the next in the Kushiel series and haven't gotten to them yet either.
What are some of the books that you have started to read and then just stopped cause you didn't like them? Have you ever thought of going back and rereading them? I did that awhile ago to a few books, and found that at least some of them were worth reading. While others I still couldn't finish.
It's creepy Kushiel's Dart is the next book I was going to get until I joined this group :| It's like we're all linked by some cosmic book nerd in space.
Oh on topic There are a few but I don't remember them because I refuse to read them. I'll try and think of some
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And yeah people dont usually remember the books they refuse to read haha. I just was curious to see if there was anyone who just loathed a book/genre and why.
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I also refuse to read Harry Potter or The Twilight series.
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I hate Stephen King. I refuse to read any of his books. That is all.
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If people haven't figured it out yet, im very curious and like to pick peoples brains on the how's and why's. Hopefully no one gets offended.
Ah thank you for reminding me. I hate Stephen King I read one of his books. Well half of one and I refuse to read him again. His style is just so blurg I dunno but I felt like a person reading a story I like when I feel like I'm in the world and captivated.
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I usually don't read history either, I'm just not interested in the stuff at all. Anything on politics is the same.
Oh and I'm almost to the point where I refuse to read anything with vampires in it. They've become synonymous with sexbots and that's just not fun.
It's like this Mr. King takes something that a 5 year old would be afraid of and stretches it to a length of rope and tries to connect it in something that is more mature. He does so in the worst writing style possible. Not only is it mundane for me to read about the horror or something, it's even worse when it's not believable. I've even read a few of his short stories before thinking, "At least he doesn't have the length to mess it all up" I was wrong. It's like reading Falnnery O'Connor and feeling sinful and wanting to believe it God, which I don't I laugh at the fact that this woman was so tortured by her own beliefs.
I have to say my favorite author is William Faulkner. Now he could write some shit that will scare you, because he took something realistic and wrote about it. When I read Stephen King he took something realistic and butchered it.
I don't know exactly when my hatred from him sprung. But I remember reading one of his short stories about roller coasters. I put it out of my head until late one night I was watching the sci-fi channel and the short story turned out to be a movie. I realized it then that instead of reading and taking a part or being captivated by the story, that I was just reading a screenplay waiting to turn into another crappy movie. Since then I refuse to even look at another Stephen King novel. I just can't understand why people find him so popular, maybe they're simpletons, but I bet if one of them stopped to read "A Light in August" then they'd understand real fear and horror.
I'm not a fan of non-fiction, although my husband has turned me into a huge Bill Bryson fan. As a whole, I find non-fiction hard to get through. I feel like I need to take a test to make sure I'm retaining what I'm reading. With that said, I still read non-fiction, I just don't tend to finish anything in that particular genre. Honestly, I tend to decide what I like to read based on the cover art. There's only one book I can think of offhand that I refuse to read and that's The Great Gatsby. I hated it the first time and I refuse to try it again.
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"She didn't like the Great Gatsby.
I guess that means the Great Gatsby....
*puts on sunglass*
Wasn't so great."
See what the internet has done to me?
As for more on this topic, I flat out refuse to read Twilight.
twilight wasn't so bad. i rather enjoyed it. but i wasn't looking for shakespeare. it is pretty much what it is advertised to be. a great novel for pre-teen to teenage girls.
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i didn't say you had to read it. :D i'm just saying its not that horrible.
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Yeah that is kinda how i feel about books, there are some that the back synopsis is enough for me to never want to read it. Although there have been a few times where i was suprised by the depth of a novel that the synopsis didn't allude too, but that is few and far between.
And I agree with history and politic books, if i wanted to know what a politician was thinking i just watch the nightly news. that and it always seem to be pushing their political agenda and trying to make it seem like the bad things they've done weren't that horrible. Which I could careless about their personal lives, it seems like the political ring is just high school drama on a much larger scale.(simplification of it i know but thats how it feels at times) So i avoid books like that.
As for vamp books, yeah they can get like that but if you want a real vampire book that isn't just about tall dark sexy vamps, but actually has a plot line check out Jocelynn Drake dark day's novels. the first is Nightwalker. the vamps are still sexy, but they also kick ass, and are real characters and not just the shade of a character.
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brave man to try and read twilight haha.
I actually love the books, but im also female and i have yet to find a straight guy that liked the series. Its not what I'd consider literature, but its a fun read. In my opinion twilight is like the summer blockbuster of books. not a whole lot of depth of character, but thats not what it was written for. It is pure entertainment, not there to try to enlighten the masses.
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hmm...haven't really heard of him, I will have to check him out. And I agree that King has a tendency to take simple scary concepts and try to make them more adult, however if its done right then it makes an excellent book; but as i've said before i haven't ever really read Steven King so i really can't state my personal opinion of whether he fails at it or not.
Mushy romance smutty erotic porno crap. The types of books that are barely books since there isn't that much of a story involved - just textual excuses for some character to ruin a perfectly good bit of clothing. It's one of the reasons that I own only one book in the Anita Blake series - the Laughing Corpse one. Everything from that book on apparently has taken a turn for the smutty. It's now like if an adult Buffy decided to stake monsters with her crotchy parts. If I want to see an episode of "When Crotches Attack" , I'll put on repeat that clip of Paris and Nicole from Robot Chicken. I also think that all copies of "Tristram Shandy" should be launched into the sun. It tainted an entire semester of reading, a semester I will never get back. Just when you think that the writings of the 1700's are a mental delight, this turd shows up and won't fricking flush away. Go away, Tristram Shandy, you suck.
:D
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but i agree with the Anita Blake series. The first few books were good but they just got more and more pornorific. Which is sad cause there is a relatively good underlining story. I actually find the character of Anita very interesting(i've only read the first 3 books) but its like every time the character makes a stride in development they have to then throw a sex scene into it to make up for it.
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Actually, looking at my list of books - this is one of the few books I dropped before finishing. :D I couldn't even get through the first one. Oh brother.
Haha I kinna like the Anita Blake series but I only read it for the mystery I just skip the porn scenes. Like Dian said the character is really good, but I think if Hamilton put all the books into a trilogy without the sex it would be a really great story!
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There is really only one series that seems to have sex in every book that i can tolerate. And that is Karen Chance's Claimed by Shadow series. The only reason why i put up with it, is that the rest of the story is very good. It actually has several interesting characters and indepth plot lines. So i can forgive and skip over the one page or so of sex, and the plot that goes with it.(and yes, she actually made a plot point out of the sex, which was rather inventive without being porn.) That and her first book i nearly fell over laughing at the sexual scene because it was clear she wasn't comfortable writing it. She kept calling the characters genitalia their "sex". Which was just so strange, yet funny to me, I had forgave her for putting it in there.
I'll give any book of any genre one chapter.In general I don't like those Harlequin series romances, those things are just smut with a fancy cover. If I wanted that I'd write it myself honestly. Otherwise I'm willing to give a book the benefit of the doubt. I tend to shy away from purely political books, but I do enjoy reading biographies of famous politicians.
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I can honestly say I will also never read a political book, bio or regular. It just doesn't hold any interest for me what so ever. If i read a bio, i'd rather read about someone not famous.
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i was reading that several of you have been put off by a synopsis. i can understand that. but a lot of the time, i'll read a book, then re-read the synopsis and think, "what? that's not what this book was about!" i always try to keep in mind that those things are written to lure in a certain kind of reader. that doesn't meant that you will enjoy that book more or less, but how can you know until you give it a try?also, sex seems to really annoy people. oh i so get that. every five minutes someone is going at it! gah! but some series are really centered around sex, sexual proclivities, and sexual deviance. i mean sci-fi and erotic fiction go hand in hand. or... something along those lines... >.< my point is, fiction is about escapism and there are a lot of lonely men and women out there. been there, done that, wrote the emo guidebook to i hate my life. its so popular because everyone wishes they had a romance like that in their lives. people want to put themselves in the shoes of a hero or heroine WHO GETS THE GIRL/GUY TOO! the ultimate form of get your cake and eat it too.
@ Dian - Depends on the level of 'political' for me, I guess. I read "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" and laughed my arse off. Depending on who is doing the shelving, I've seen it in the poli section and the humor section. I prefer to see people not necessarily as obvious policitical parties but rather as dumbasses and slightly-lesser-dumbasses. I don't go out of my way to pick up whatever is the latest poli-schlock out there but that didn't stop me from pillaging the neighbor's dumpster during clean-up week and running off with some conspiracy books. :D
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I get that there is a big market for it out there, and thats why it seems like more and more authors are putting sex scenes in their books. Im really not against sex scenes in general, most of my books have one or two in them(cause i read mainly fantasy). Its just hard to describe the difference I feel between a natural growth and progress towards the sex scene, and just having it for the sake of having a sex scene. Kushiel's Dart is probably the best example of a series that deals with a lot of sex, deviant and otherwise, but it has a point to all of it. Now Im not saying every books needs to make a plot point out of sex, but having it explain characters actions helps take it from titillation of the masses to relevance to the story line.
There are also other ways for authors to let people feel the escapism of "getting the guy/girl" without undo sex. I think the Patricia Briggs is a great example, in almost all of her books the girl gets the guy yet there isn't ever any graphic sex scenes. Another example is Ilona Andrews, her two main characters go at each other for 4 books before they ever have sex. Now there is plenty of build up and near misses, so to speak, that entice the reader; however she lets their relationship take a normal course.
I guess really that is my problem, that in too many books there is no lead up, no anticipation, no joy of wondering when a couple is actually going to get together. More and more its just wham bam thank you ma'am. I would just like to see a bit more reality when it comes to book romances, well as much reality is possible. There is so much fantasy that goes into even the relationship of these books, that I'd like to see at least some thing resemble normality.
@ Dian: you know... i think we're pretty much on the same page about sex in books. have you ever read anything by Anne Bishop? She has a two book series, Sebastian and Belladonna that you might enjoy. the first book, Sebastian is about an incubus. you KNOW THERE IS GOING TO BE SEX! INCUBUS! SEX! RIGHT? well he does end up having sex, and there is sex in the book, but it is like... two... maybe three scenes? her Blood Trilogy is in my top ten favorite series. and the world is innovative and different. Daughter of the Blood was even suggested as Book of the Month by someone, I think. if that was you, forgive me. i didn't even vote on which book should be book of the month so... yeah...
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You didn't enjoy enders game? I loved that book. What was it that turned you off of it?
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Honestly, I suppose I am a bit of a book snob. lol, It read like a children's book. I read children's books as a child and again to my children. As an adult I prefer more depth, I suppose you could say.(& we see a glimmer of why I got tossed out of my last book club.lol) I realize that sounds awful but it's at least honest.
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And then you get these movies where the guy just ravagers her and you see everything as the camera stills in one spot. They're panting and it's just ... too real? It feels like I'm watching a porno and it feels awfully in appropriate. And I never really like stuff like that."Watchmen" . o.O
People had made such a big deal about nekid blue-dude that I had thought that -one- particular scene had been shortened, darkened into obscurity, or skipped for the theater release anyway [since I knew they wanted to stick to the book as much as possible under the circumstances:]. It wasn't. >.<
Alexander wrote: "Like, okay. I get it. They're having sex. Enough. No. Enough! Stop! Next scene! Next scene!"..."Extreme Screen" viewing...
*curls into fetal position
"Watchmen" . o.OPeople had made such a big deal about nekid blue-dude that I had thought that -one- particular scene had been shortened, darkened into obscurity, or skipped for the theater release anyway [since I knew they wanted to stick to the book as much as possible under the circumstances:]. It wasn't. >.<
haha! i laughed so hard during that scene i almost peed myself... :D good times... good times.
Instead, I'm just going to tell you it's not the existence or lack of sex in a novel that affects me. It's like a sex scene in a movie. You can make it so that the chick shows off her boobs and the guy does a couple pelvic thrusts. With effective cinematography, they never let you see her entire body. It's teasing. It's cute. It's super hot."i agree that the understated sex scene can be some of the sexiest. hell, i think kissing scenes can be hotter than sex scenes. or maybe that's just the romantic in me. i do hope that Kushiel's Dart, the very first book in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series gets picked as a Book of the Month. I would like your take on the sex in that book, since there is a lot of sex that is very graphic and deviant, but I think it is well-handled. and i think the language is some of the over-opulent ocher style i was mentioning before, but i think it really works well without being overly pretentious. and the sex is really key to the storyline. sometimes it could have been paired down here or there, but then it wouldn't have the affect she's going for.
So, Glodson reminded me in a different thread......that I semi-refuse to read anything by R.A. Salvatore. Because I'm pretty sure he's a hack.
I would, at very least, take a lot of convincing.
[Then again, I sometimes love to rant about things that I hate, so maybe I wouldn't take so much convincing after all. <_< :]
Then again, I sometimes love to rant about things that I hate, so maybe I wouldn't take so much convincing after all. <_<"read one. i don't want to be the only person ranting like a maniac here.
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[asmb] Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Claimed by Shadow (other topics)Nightwalker (other topics)
Dead Witch Walking (other topics)
Kushiel's Dart (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ilona Andrews (other topics)Karen Chance (other topics)
Jocelynn Drake (other topics)
There is very little that I wouldn't read but a genre that i tend to avoid like the plague is Romance. Not that I dont enjoy romantic books, I actually do, however most romance novels are porn dressed up as literature. If I want titilation I will go look for porn, I dont want graphic sex scenes in a book that I am trying to enjoy. Sadly thats not just romance books that has graphic sex scenes, it just has more of it.
Its bad enough that a lot of fantasy authors feel the need to put in sex scenes to make their books enjoyable, I really dont want to read a book that is purely based on sex.