What books make you - want to toss it across the room

[terpkristin]

Funny about Twilight. I agree, they were horribly-written books and I think I am dumber for having read them but a friend of mine from work posted on Facebook yesterday that she was proud of Wesley for having finished reading the 3rd or 4th book, because it was so long. It took a LOT of willpower not to reply to that post.

[Michal]

Anything by Orson Scott Card or Robert J. Sawyer tends to infuriate me.

[Tamahome]

For anyone that missed it:

[Stuart]

"I already wanted to punch him from a previous book."

Yep. Perdido Street Station in my case. Brilliantly written, but relentlessly, ridiculously grimdark, right down to the final plot twists that ensure that nothing resembling a happy ending can be imagined for any of the characters.

[Megan]

I managed to grind through Twilight. I'm one of those people that can't stand to not finish a book. My friends were crazy about it, so I read it...all of it, before I judged it. It was not good, but for some reason I began to slog through the second one, winced through the most pathetic protagonist ever. At first, it sorta seemed like she might begin to move on. I got all the way up to the point where she chooses Edward over Jacob and then just quit. That's enough of that. Bella, you are pathetic. I feel sorry for you.

@Other Paul, your comment made me laugh, because I was firmly in Team Jacob without knowing about these "teams." Of course, I never got into the parts where he got all duchy and weird so maybe eventually I would have felt the same way but what I gained from the Twilight that I managed to endure was that Jacob was too good for this shit and just hadn't figured it out yet.

[Maggie]

Foreigner was it for me...If I had to see the word 'worry' one more time I was going to punch something, so I had to sell the book.
I actually got through Twilight, although I found it very bad writing

[Bryek]

I have done this literally with Medusa's Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience. It was for a social anthropology class i was taking but after reading the first 70ish pages, the author can't get away from relating everything these women do to the male genitalia. hardly scientific.

I also tossed A Game of Thrones away because I just couldn't bring myself to read a book full of useless characters I couldn't give a crap about when the characters I liked would only get a max of 100page screen time due to the massive amount of characters in the series. Waste of my time

[Daniel]

Frisbee Fun - the only book that comes flying back!

Seriously- Game of Thrones. I feel like I should like them, I just don't. At all.

[Rachel]

I have stopped reading books which failed to interest me or which I found boring or of poor quality. I have no idea how the Sword of Truth or Wheel of Time series ended, nor do I much care.

But there's only one trilogy which I absolutely hated, the Right Hand of God trilogy by Russell Kirkpatrick. I'm not linking to it on purpose. I'd seen the books in the store for years, and they had very interesting covers. As it happened, I picked them up just as RaceFail '09 was winding down. And I hated it. It seemed to hit on every single trope which RaceFail called attention to and criticized. The only reason I kept reading after the first book was because of the Prologue, which implied the archvillain might be a misunderstood antihero. If he was, then God really was an asshole and everything else everyone did was cast in a completely different light. Sadly, no. By epilogue, it was clear that no such subversion existed. I will never read another Kirkpatrick book again.

[Rik]

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

For what seems like nearly 30 years I've heard how great this series is and how funny. Somehow I never tried to read it until recently. Finally I bought the omnibus version for my kindle. It says I'm 9% through and its been the most tedious unfunny thing I've had to do since the last Monty Python movie someone tried to make me watch. And actually I think thats an apt comparison. Some people find Monty Python hilarious while others of us just quite simply find it beyond dumb which is pretty much where Hitchikers left me. Its been over a year since I started it and with only 9% down I'd say I've lemmed it though every now and then I try again. I usually make it about one kindle page before I want to throw it again except I don't want to break my kindle.

[Micah]

Rachel wrote: "I have no idea how the Sword of Truth or Wheel of Time series ended, nor do I much care. "

The Wheel of Time hasn't actually ended yet. Book 13 comes out early next year. But seeing as you don't much care I don't know why I am typing this out. I'll stop now.

[terpkristin]

Micah wrote: "The Wheel of Time hasn't actually ended yet. Book 13 comes out early next year. But seeing as you don't much care I don't know why I am typing this out. I'll stop now. "

No, the wheel of time has neither beginnings nor endings... ;)

[Tamahome]

Hence the title.

[Skaw]

Ariel: A Book of the Change irritated me. I liked it until the end.

(view spoiler)[ the boy is friends with and loves the unicorn more then anyone else, but she can only stay with him as long as he's a virgin. So he goes through hell to rescue her from the bad guy and then on his way to reunite with her at the end, he has sex with a girl he barely seems to like. I could see it if he loved both and was torn between them, but he barely tolerates her. So he ends up married to the girl, who grows on him? I guess? Where's her self respect? Why is she settling for a guy who thinks of her as someone who ruined his chances with someone else? Miserable.

And then I read the afterward (it was a later edition of the book), where the author acknowledges that many people throw the book at the wall at the end. He says that the ending was inevitable, a metaphor for growing up. Really? So I'm to assume that growing up is a miserable experience in which we screw ourselves over and then learn to live with it and become sort of happy? That explanation made me want to not only throw the book against the wall, but burn it. (hide spoiler)]

[AndrewP]

Any of the modern forensic science based crime books. I took a year of Inorganic/Organic Chemistry at university and the CSI for dummies in these books drives me nuts! Most annoying to me is that several people who write these books really are experts in their field, so I know they could do better. A case of playing to the audience I guess.

[Micah]

terpkristin wrote: "
No, the wheel of time has neither beginnings nor endings... ;)

Nicely done. :). I have wondered for awhile now if the last sentence will be something along the lines of "the wheel of time has neither beginnings nor endings. But it was an end"

*edit- changed neuter to neither. Damn autocorrect.

[Dharmakirti]

Chris wrote: "Anything by David Eddings...my god those Belgariad stories are utter garbage."

Instead of throwing them at a wall, throw them my way, I LOVE the Belgariad series. :)

[Dharmakirti]

Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind. I enjoyed the first three books of the Sword of Truth series. I thought they were mediocre novels but they were entertaining enough to justify the read. Then I read Temple of the Winds and cringed. Up next was Soul of the Fire which was just boring as hell. I decided to give the series one more shot with Faith of the Fallen. That is the last Terry Goodkind novel that I will ever read. Wow. What utter crap.

[AndrewP]

@Dharmakirti

That's interesting as quite a few people consider Faith of the Fallen as one of the better books in the series:) Like you, I disagree with Chris and love the Belgariad series. We all like different things for different reasons. To each there own. As Tom and Veronica said in the last videocast, there is something for everyone out there:)

[Dharmakirti]

AndrewP wrote: "@Dharmakirti

That's interesting as quite a few people consider Faith of the Fallen as one of the better books in the series:) Like you, I disagree with Chris and love the Belgariad series. We a..."

If you would be so kind, could you tell me what it is that people like about Faith of the Fallen and why they consider it one of the better books in the series?

[Keith]

Absolution Gap -- I loved this series, but the last book is just terrible. Jettisons most of the characters you were interested in, spins its wheels pointlessly, wastes time on characters in which I have no interest, and then serves up the absolutely lamest deus ex machina ending. Oh, I hate that book so SO much. I think I actually DID throw it across the room.

[AndrewP]

Dharmakirti wrote: "If you would be so kind, could you tell me what it is that people like about Faith of the Fallen and why they consider it one of the better books in the series? "

I can only say from my own point of view and a few reviews I have read here on Goodreads. It seems to be that Faith of the Fallen is more of a character based story than the other books. Sure there are a few chapters and interludes with the war in the Midlands, but the majority of the book is concerned with just Richard and Nicci and their experiences with the Imperial Order in the old world. Some political commentary here of course, but interestingly it seems to be more applicable today than when it was first published back in 2000.

[RogueHireling]

The Warrior Prophet
Really hated what the author did to the story and the characters. =(

[Dharmakirti]

TFGamer wrote: "The Warrior Prophet
Really hated what the author did to the story and the characters. =("

For me, the The Warrior Prophet was the best book in the Prince of Nothing series (which is probably my favorite fantasy series, ever).

Care to provide any additional information as to what about the characters and story you didn't like? I'm always interested when people's reactions to something are polar opposite mine.

[Dharmakirti]

AndrewP wrote: "I can only say from my own point of view and a few reviews I have read here on Goodreads. It seems to be that Faith of the Fallen is more of a character based story than the other books. Sure there are a few chapters and interludes with the war in the Midlands, but the majority of the book is concerned with just Richard and Nicci and their experiences with the Imperial Order in the old world. Some political commentary here of course, but interestingly it seems to be more applicable today than when it was first published back in 2000."

Thanks for your response.

Ultimately, I think it's the political commentary that really started to get to me with these books. It's just not that well done, in my opinion. For me, Faith of the Fallen was Mr. Goodkind telling the reader "communism/socialsm = bad" over and over and over and over and over again.

I'm kinda curious what the reaction would be to the series if their publishing happened to coincide with the rise of the Tea Party.

[[deleted user]]

Lord Of The rings.
I forced my self to read all three even though I knew I would hate every minute of it, and I did. In the end I didn't get anything out of it other than the overwhelming need to punch Frodo in the face.

[AndrewP]

Dharmakirti wrote: "I'm kinda curious what the reaction would be to the series if their publishing happened to coincide with the rise of the Tea Party. ..."

Exactly. I read Faith of the Fallen in February this year so it coincided with a lot of the Obamacare, Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, 99% movements. I had quite a few "this sounds familiar" thoughts while reading it:) If I had read it any other time, I probably would not have found it as engaging.

[Seamus]

I have read all of Sword of Truth (Possible the last series I bought to see what happened rather than see how it ends) and while Faith of the Fallen was full on lecturing on the greatness of Objectivism it was also the one I liked the most.

Gail Z Martin's books, read the 3rd one and realised it was the most generic shit I have ever read along with Fiona McIntosh's quickening. Both were nothing but cliched characters with one interesting take on magic. Just thinking about them has me raging over the money I wasted by not realising how boring they were till the 3rd book

[Dawn]

I hated Perdido Street Station so much.. Seriously. I couldn't finish it, and beyond that, it broke me. I'm a fantasy girl, but after reading that I was reading romance and shit... A palate cleansing wasn't enough, I needed a full reboot.

[Andrew]

For some reason it took me to the end of the series to realize twilight was shit. Not just the writing style but the fact that nothing fucking happens unless you count the necrophilia beastiality and pedophilia

[David]

Gerald's Game by Stephen King as soon as the dog started to eat the man's junk I tossed it in a box

[Richard]

The book I hated the most (& had to read for class in JR High) was Lord of the Flies, but the only book I actually threw across the room was The Once and Future King: 2 pages in & I felt mortally insulted by White's footnotes.

[Nick]

David wrote: "Gerald's Game by Stephen King as soon as the dog started to eat the man's junk I tossed it in a box"

Funny you say that, Lord of the Flies is the only book I've ever fallen asleep reading. And it wasn't because I was tired.

As for books I wanted to hurl across the room, the two that come to mind for me are The Magicians by Lev Grossman and Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

I didn't really mind the bad behavior Grossman brought into the fantasy setting, but after awhile, all the characters I'd fallen in love with ended up being despicable. I lemmed it right before the third book.

I was turned off by the mere description of Oliver's book, mostly because I knew I'd never relate to the main character, but then I read the the prologue and decided to give it a chance. After reading the first two chapters, I realized that it didn't deserve the chance I gave it. The characters were so petty and shallow, you could step in them without getting your toes wet. Not that I disliked them, but that I honestly felt like their story wasn't worth my time. I skipped to the end of the book so I wouldn't be totally left out of the conversation (it was for a book club) and found that it only affirmed my apathy for the characters.

Coincidentally, I've heard that there is another, lesser-known author who also named Lauren Oliver whose work is actually very good. I'm sorry that she'll have to use a pseudonym from now on.

[Tamahome]

Is this different from lemming?

[Nick]

Tamahome wrote: "Is this different from lemming?"

Not at all.

[Paul]

A few years ago I was reading the Anita Blake Series by Laurel K Hamilton and had 10 or so of the books. They started out enjoyable for what they were, I LOVE strong female characters thanks to Joss Whedon :) and all was well. After about a half dozen books when Hamilton was going through her divorce and started writing Anita Blake the slut I picked up the entire collection and deposited the read and unread alike into a box in the basement...the only reason I didnt throw them away was because I figured that when the Zombie apocalypse hit they would make good kindling, I hear crap burns well.

[Stan]

Tamahome wrote: "Is this different from lemming?"

To me lemming is quitting a book because you find it boring or uninteresting. Throwing it across the room involves more of a active hate for the story or characters in it

[Kathryn]

Changes by Jim Butcher. The cliffhanger ending... I may or may not have been cursing Jim Butcher at the end of Changes... along with every other fan who read Changes the day it came out. The forums on his website virtually blew up with the number of fans demanding to know what happened next.

Jim Butcher- you are an evil genius. I love/hate/love you.

[Keith]

Stan wrote: "Tamahome wrote: "Is this different from lemming?"

To me lemming is quitting a book because you find it boring or uninteresting. Throwing it across the room involves more of a active hate for the ..."

Lemming happens with a disappointed sigh. Throwing happens with a berserker war cry.

[Micah]

Keith wrote: "Stan wrote: "Tamahome wrote: "Is this different from lemming?"

To me lemming is quitting a book because you find it boring or uninteresting. Throwing it across the room involves more of a active ..."

You're a poet! And you didn't even realize it!

[Rambler]

I can think of a few, Uncle Tom's Cabin (but in a good way) because the author killed off one of my favorite characters and I was upset with her; Gone with the Wind just because I hated Scarlett so much, and Twilight. I forced myself to read the first chapter and immediately regretted it. It felt like I was reading bad fanfiction.

[Keith]

Micah wrote: "You're a poet! And you didn't even realize it! "

Sad thing is...I totally didn't realize it!

[AndrewP]

Micah wrote: "You're a poet! And you didn't even realize it! "

I think that's from a Bob Dylan Song...

I'm a poet,
And didn't know it,
Hope I don't blow it.

[Rob]

Sometimes, I want throw out of frustration a few books by Haruki Murakami. He tends to make open-ended endings or really bizarre ones. The last book I read from him was "Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" and I literally (but on a more positive side) want to throw it. Haha

On the negative end, those books written like some short stories made in high school *ehem*50-shades-of-gray-and-twilight*ehem*. I feel stupid (maybe this is a bit harsh?) and sad when I try reading those kinds (tried reading some parts but didn't pursue).

[Charles]

I haven't personally thrown a book across the room, though I wanted to do it to Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Worst book ever.
My sister on the other had literally through the Hunger Games across the room when (spoiler alert) Rue dies. I finished the series but said she wouldn't. She also thought it was to much like Battle Royal which she read about 6 years ago. I still think the Hunger Games was pretty good.