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Top Ten Books to Avoid
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Erin
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Sep 15, 2008 08:43AM
I am REALLY glad to see someone else didn't like Atonement because I'd come to the conclusion that maybe it was just me. I wanted to rip Brianny's head off and throw it in the stupid fountain.
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bnoir--The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time...may I recommend a far better book about autism with a more compelling protagonist? The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon.
Moon is a SciFi author with an autistic child. She sets this novel in a futher when autism has been cured in infancy and those born before the cure are functional.
My books to avoid?
Servant of the Bones by Ann Rice
Moo by Jane Smiley
The Grapes of Wrath
I'm sure there are more, but I tend to block out bad reads like bad movies.
Boy, this thread could really set people off, huh?!First, I'd like to apologize to Melissa for The Memory Keeper's Daughter. You read it so I wouldn't have to, and I thank you for that.
Brenda-I liked the Curious Incident, so I am definitely adding the Elizabeth Moon book. Can't remember if I tried Servant of the Bones or not, but I know I didn't finish.
Wasn't too much of an Atonement fan, but I did this one as an audiobook so I didn't have to gouge my eyes out!
My recents would be
The Glass Castle. After this one I stopped reading memoirs. And I only made it to when her father stole her from the hospital before I flung it away in disgust.
Body of Lies by Iris Johansen. I couldn't stand the character or plot development in this book, and could not for the life of me finish.
Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks. What a sucky way to end a book. Won't waste my time with the movie.
Luckily, I have recently decided not to finish any book I'm not enjoying, so this list isn't as long as it could (perhaps) be. I might have some from ages ago, but not really any recently.
I'll note that out brenda thanks. I did think that the curius incident was boosted more that waht it deserved because of the autist chararacter and not the literary merit.and btw I loved the graps of warth, and catch 22 to, also the last one I tottally understand people haiting it... its totally confusing
My son would agree with Old Man and the Sea, he had to read it for school and hated it more than you could imagine, and my son loves to read.The Great Gatsby both my son and I really did not like this one, and I had the nerve to read this for fun.
Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig. I myself liked GWTW, and hoped this authorized book (by Mitchell's estate) would be entertaining. It wasn't, it was pretty dull, and no where near as good as the original storyline.
Permanent Midnight by Jerry Stahl.
I think this was the only book that I liked the movie more. I forced myself to finish this book.
The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl
*sigh*
It is books like this why I hated reading in my younger days.
I've seen The Poe Shadow come up several times on here. As I put the book way to the side, because it was boring me so much, I would probably add this to the list, but Julianne told me to go ahead and finish it. I might have to come back and add it -- we shall see.
Mod
Looks like I'm going to be the odd one out here but I really liked Memory Keeper's Daughter.
I think you can take it as given that for any book, on any forum, there's at least one user willing to say he (or she) hated it.
I havent read the poe shadow but read the dante club by the same other and oh biy was that boring!also i'll ad to the list any book by virginia woolf
They said Dante Club was BETTER than The Poe Shadow, so if you thought that was boring...You know, everyone has such different tastes, for instance, I liked The Memory Keepers Daughter.
I want to add one more book.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
wow, talking about wanting to cry because I HAD to read it. It was in High School and I would have rather hung from the top of the Empire State building by my ear lobes than to read this book.
Can't stand:
1. Don Quixote - Read 200+ pages, and nothing had happened yet, so I stopped reading
2. Moby Dick - The dialogue gave me a headache
3. The Little Prince - Read it in French, so I'm not 100% sure what was going on, but I know I hate that kid
1. Don Quixote - Read 200+ pages, and nothing had happened yet, so I stopped reading
2. Moby Dick - The dialogue gave me a headache
3. The Little Prince - Read it in French, so I'm not 100% sure what was going on, but I know I hate that kid
I noticed a lot of these titles are ones that we were forced to read in High School.. Like that Portrait of the Artist... I don't even know what it's about. I read a few pages and then just didn't read it. I had a good enough grade that I didn't care if I failed the test on that book. We read A LOT of books in my 12th grade English class and were tested on ALL of them. I think we read 4 books a month.
Another one I didn't care for was Tale of Two Cities. What was that about??? The best of times... the worst of times.... Way too complicated for me in 8th grade...
When I find a book boring, my mind tends to wander while reading and the entire page I just read just completely passes me by. So if I read a chapter or two and still have no idea what the book is about, I won't go any further.
But I'll tell you what... If you are an English teacher... be nice to the students and don't have them read two similar books at the same time. My teacher did that and I would get so confused....
We would read, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at the same time as Canterbury Tales... And Hamlet at the same time as MacBeth. When we would be tested on the book, I'd sometimes forget which characters/events went to which book... ACK!
And I've been out of school for over 15 years and I still remember the frustration.
I suppose the School Board thinks some of these books are good because they are Classics. I hated most of the books I had to read in High School.Luckily my son's experience has varied. For instance last year he had to read "The Secret Life of Bees" and "The Lovely Bones" along with some other dry stuff. But it broke up the bordem.
Vicki--add A Separate Peace to my list of school books I hated. A year or so ago, I saw it on audio and tried again, thinking I was just too young to get it the first time. STILL hated it.
I am really out of the norm on this group of posts. I enjoyed The Memory Keeper's Daughter. It is not on my list of top books, but I thought there were so many issues that the reader could pause and think about. Gone With The Wind is my favorite books of all time. John Steinbeck is my favorite classic author and thus Grapes of Wrath is on my fav. books list. I also truly enjoy reading Picoult because of the viewpoints her characters provide for a variety of issues. While I don't believe her writing to be as amazing as other authors of contemporary literature, her extensive research and character emotions make her books intriguing to read.For me the Vampire series is one that I have never got involved in. I know that is a popular series with many of this group and just can't make the leap.
I think i'm one of the few that not only loved Atonement but thought it was brilliant.It's so strange to read through this thread and read of books I loved being so disliked by others,and yet also feel validated for avoiding those books on the thread I had gotten such a bad vibe about and others didn't like as well. :)
I agree with most of you on the Memory Keepers Daughter. There was so much hype on it and then they decided that it was so "worthy of becoming a movie but then it was on Lifetime so I knew it was going to suck but as usual I just had to watch it and thank God that there were no sharp objects near me at the moment because I would not be writing on here now.I nominate "Are You There Vodka? It's me Chelsea" by Chelsea Handler.
OK there may have been a few funny lines in the book but I stll don't really know what I was reading. It is not a memoir so I guess I would consider it her notes for her next stand up act.
I dunno!!!!
Did I see a Steinbeck novel and the words bad read in the same post?!
Donna,
LOL!!!....sharp objects. let me gouge my eyes out before I watch that movie!
I have eight books on my i-give-up bookshelf that for me are of the don't bother variety -- I tried, found them all too boring to read much past 50 pages. I know this will be close to heresy for some:1. The Hobbit
2. Lord of the Flies
3. Watership Down
4. Justine (from the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell)-- didn't bother trying the rest of the quartet
5. The Joy Luck Club
6. The Corrections
7. We Were the Mulvaneys
8. The Poisonwood Bible
I've also finished a few I'd put in this category because IMO they were an utter waste of time:
9. The Testament
10. The Other Side of Midnight
11. Naked Came the Stranger
I know there are lots of people who enjoyed these books, but I just didn't. It's one thing for a book to just not "grab me," but these I pretty much found torturous even to read as far as I did.
I'll throw a few out there. (Wincing in anticipation)Housekeeping: A Novel I know a lot of people love this author, but I didn't care about anything or anyone in the story. I had to give up about halfway through.
The Nanny Diaries The fact that I stayed so angry at the parents throughout this book probably says that the authors were good at doing what they do. But my blood pressure says to stay away.
Lake Wobegon Days I know that Garrison Keillor is supposed to be some sort of living national treasure, but his sense of humor and mine are not the same. At all. Remotely. He's a very dry, subtle wit. I was bored out of my mind. Another one I didn't finish.
Lord of the Flies I had to read this my freshman year of high school. Maybe I was too young. I just remember thinking "Realism? Let's call this pessimism." Or something along those lines.
McTeague I read this one in college. See my comments about realism above.
The Rule of Four I actually enjoyed The da Vinci Code. On some listopia list I described this book as "A terrible attempt to profit from the da vinci code craze. A mess." That's still how I feel.
She's Come Undone I didn't find Dolores to actually be whiny, I just felt bad for her. Could any other bad stuff have possibly happened?
Ethan Frome The writing itself was fantastic, but the story was waaaaaaayyyyyy too depressing for me.
I actually gave some of these two or three stars. (Ethan Frome and She's Come Undone) But they were the first ones I thought of when I saw this list. Maybe I should change my ratings...
Oh, JG!! I completely forgot about The Nanny Diaries! Add that to my list. Nanny was an incredibly unbelievable character, especially in our day!
The Nanny Diaries was horrible. But can you believe those two authors actually went on to write a book that is WORSE???? It's called Citizen Girl, and believe me, it makes The Nanny Diaries look like Shakespeare! LOL.Besides Citizen Girl, others on my Books to Avoid list would be Catch-22, Lord Jim, Saving Fish from Drowning, and just about any chicklit that is out there :)
Liesl, I so didn't get The Corrections. I listened to it and hated ever character in the book. Perhaps that was the point, but when I read, I want to be transported to someplace I want to be. If I wanted to go to hell, well then, I'd just go to work and forget the book, lol. :-) I still don't understand all the hype about that one.
Erin - oooohhhh.... A Separate Peace. We read that too..... no, wait. Actually, I think I read that one on my own in High School and it wasn't assigned to us at all. But honestly, I don't even recall if I liked it or not. It was way too long ago.Speaking of HS reading lists. I did actually enjoy reading Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Speaking of HS reading lists. I did actually enjoy reading Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier I have the complete works of DuMaurier and I felt that Rebecca was not her best work. I liked, but I think I liked The Birds better.
I don't have ten, but I would say Gerald's Game by Stephen King was pretty bad.
I 2nd and 3rd that motion! As a fan of Stephen King, I thought Gerald's Game was appallingly bad.
1. A Child Called "It": Badly written, sick, and most likely full of lies. I couldn't finish it.2. The Notebook: I know I don't like Spark's books after reading this. It seemed like a cheap romance. Loved the movie, though.
3. Breaking Dawn: I'm not a huge fan of the other books, but this book is awful.
4. Go Ask Alice: It seemed fake, and I cared less and less about the character the more I read.
Liz, I read "Dante Club". I hardly finished it and than decided not to purchase "The Poe Shadow". I don't know if I was wrong or not. Did somewone that read itboth can give me an opinion?
Rebecca is a good one, Vicki and Brenda. Although I do think The Birds was way freakier. And wasn't it a short story? Am I remembering that right? It's been a while. I just remember being impressed that du Maurier was able to squeeze so much suspense/horror into so few pages.Nikki, thanks for warning me about Citizen Girl! I hadn't heard about it, but I'll be sure to stay away!
Mod
Tsk Tsk to all the Lord of the FLies haters. I read it in HS and thought it was just eh, ok. But I reread it this summer and loved it! Perhaps I took a larger liking to it this time around since its so closely linked to LOST.... but I did really like it!
All the Corrections haters are scaring me. I picked that up at the salvo a few weeks ago.... Im afraid to pick it up now!
If it was true or not, I feel like the author should have told less about what happened too him (there was too much detail), and did more to prevent it from happening again.
Amanda.Do you think maybe the fact that Dave Pelzer wrote about all that horrible stuff has helped bring more attention to child abuse and may help other kids in the same situation?
At least bring it out in the open.
I have read A Child Called It and The Lost Boy.
They were both sad but enlightening.
The fact the author lived thru the abuse and became a normal adult is fascinating to me.
I just don't like how he wrote his story in such great detail. It just seemed unnecessary to me.
Going to start with a book of which till now I never so anybody writing bad about. so thank you!!!!1. The lovely bones- Alice sebold
I absolutely didn't like this book and till today, I thought I was the only person!!!
2.Alice's Adventures in wonderland- Lewis Carrol
Reading it now and so happy it is almsot finished, I just reaaaalllly don't like it. That girl sounds so stupid and boring.
3.Moby Dick- Herman Melville
Started this book three times and didn't manage. reading it now and determined to finish it, but poor me.... I thought this was suppose to be one of those great books??????
4.The world according to Garp- John Irving
Okay, this one is half on it because I am stucked with the feeling most 2/3 of the book left me.
There are some others, not too many fortunately, but forgot about them. Not that it is a book never to read but does The kite runner really have to come on so many 'best books' lists??? I liked much more A thousand splendid suns. His first book I thought it to be a bid boring.
I'm so glad you said Atonment I can't get past the first chapter. I thought I was missing something. I'm just going to put it down.
Okay, so I am reading all the posts and posting my comments here. I don't have a top t en to avoid, because I haven't read any that nobody should read.Lori-- =( 1984 is in my top five books I've ever read.
Everyone who has said Lord of the Flies, I couldn't agree more.
Racheal--Enders Game??? How could you not like that book? How? It is amazing.
Kim--Wicked was okay, I would recomend people to read it, but only if you didn't love the musical, or haven't seen it yet. I wa sreally disappointed because I wish it was more like the musical. I liked the Musical a ot more.
Bnoir--I loved the Curisous Incident of the Dog in The Night Time. I loved loved loved it.
Nikki--Omgsh. Lord Jim is the slowest read ever. I think I read 25 pages in an hour. It stinks.
My list (isn't ten) I don't think1.Twilight saga....it stunk, waste of time. I think I got half way through Twilight, when I stopped, vomitted because of the mushy love crap and threw it away so I could get rid of a copy of the disgrace to literature.
2. Lord Jim---*yawn* No comment
That's all I can think of for now. Until then, I will be hiding under that bush over there!
Oh HO! I was just working up the courage to type out the Twilight Saga... excellent! I'm not the only one though it feels like it alot of the time.My other picks are:
dang... I have been hating on those so long I can't focus... lol
Yep, Erin. That's pretty much why I didn't finish The Corrections.
the twiligth saga foe me is as the car crash effect... its terrible but i cant loock awaythe books are crappy but they are so esay to read, that I end up not wasting that much time whit them. I think i'l alaways expecting to see how much can s. meyer annoy me
I tend to only read things I picked out, so I don't know that I have a hate list ... but there are authors I just don't read because I find them boring! I don't like many of the "classics": I can't stand Dickens, he talks too much and moves too slow, Never got past page 5 of Moby Dick or Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hate Hemmingway (drunken mysogynist) bored by many others!Current books I tried and despised:
1. The Golden Compass trilogy - bored me, and didn't finish even the first one.
2. Prey - by Melina Morel - blurb sounded good, but it drags
3. A curious Affair - again, blurb sounded better than book!
4. The Anita Blake books - they just got worse as they went along!
5. The Flowers in the Attic books - why does my sister enjoy them, they're totally depressing!
6. Christine by Stephen King - it gave me nightmares for months!
Fiona, I agree with you. I loved Atonement so much. It's one of my favorites.I'm surprised so many people find it boring!
Bnoir, I'm wondering if I'm getting the car crash effect with the Twilight Saga, as well. While I usually end up either antsy or annoyed about halfway through the books, I can't stop myself from wanting to make it through the whole series. Maybe by the end of the fourth book, I'll see what the big fuss is about.
oh melissa I just want to read breaking dawn and go one whit my life ;P
Somehow I stumbled onto this discussion and I am glad I did! I had to join the "group" once I saw this. So I guess I'm a newbie. To find a group that has so many varying and interesting tastes is so great. So, that being said, I have to say that I would have to put the Twilight Series on my definite worst books list. I wanted to bang my head on the wall the whole time I was reading them. (I felt compelled to; I just felt I should give them a chance.) What a waste of time I could have used to read something else. What I love about this group it that is looks like you can be honest about what you really think of book and not worry about what people may think...and by the way, I LOVED Atonement!
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