5 Books To Avoid

[Leah]

So. What are some real page-DON'T-Turners you've encountered?

I can't think of five, but I thought everyone else should!

Here's one: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

Anyone else?

[Catamorandi]

Bridge of Sighs
Northanger Abbey
Lord of the Flies
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Finnegan's Wake

[Greyweather]

The Scarlet Letter
The Edge of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass
Anything written by Dan Brown
Anything written by William Shatner

[Alison]

Ethan Frome
Then We Came to the End

[Stephanie]

I LOVE The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe - one of my favorites as a kid!

I will think of my list...too sleepy...

[Leah]

Man, you guys are some tough critics! I thought Then We Came to the End was mediocre at best, but PARTS were amusing!!!

I agree about Ethan Fromme--I'd put that on my list, too.

I actually like the Scarlet Letter. Very dark, but Hawthorne went a bit overboard in some parts...

And Dan Brown...he's pretty good for a quick read! I thought "Da Vinci" was a bit overrated, I guess.

[Heidi]

I enjoyed Then We Came to the End...

Hmmmm what would I NOT recommend:

Mason Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon
The Dream of Scipio, by Iain Pears
This Book will Save your Life, by A.M. Homes
Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safron Foer
The Piano Tuner, by Daniel Mason

All books I didn't finish as I got a bit bored!

[Leah]

Thought of some more:

The Pact by Jodi Picoult
The Name of the Rose
Secret History

[Alison]

Here's where I will disagree - The Pact was the first Picoult book I read, and I loved it! Also enjoyed The Secret History, and think that should be on everyone's must read list.

[Sadie]

I will say "Heart of Darkness"...the horror! the horror! I couldn't get into it in high school. My husband loved it, so I probably should read it again before I totally discount it.

[Stephanie]

I loved Heart of Darkness. Read it with Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

[Stephanie]

I loved Heart of Darkness. Read it with Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

[KrisT]

Wow you guys are tough. I, of course, agree with Heartbreaking staggering genius..ugh!! but some of the others...I loved Secret History, Piano Tuner, Northanger abbey, Lord of the flies and Ethan Frome. I give a nod to The Pact too.
We all have diffent tastes so we are going to see the differences in books we don't like.

However to be fair I don't think you can put a book on a hate list just because you didn't finish it. If you didn't finish how do you know?? Just wondering about others thoughts on this??

[Greyweather]

To quote Yahtzee, "If someone serves you a dead dog for lunch, you do not stick around for the pudding."

[Leah]

Ha ha. I agreea about not waiting for pudding! I think anymore a lot of us feel that life's too short to spend time on books that really aren't too great. There are too many amazing reads out there; I will quickly put down a book if it doesn't catch me by the first 50 pages! Sometimes I don't even wait that long.

[Sadie]

Reading books with my husband is like reading books with your English teacher! We have to finish every book we start no matter how bad it gets! I have yet to find one that he has been willing to drop. Of course he is this way with everything in life, you start it, you finish it!

[Leah]

Have you tried "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"? If he sticks through that, he deserves an award. Or a slap.

[Sadie]

Thanks Leah, good suggestion. Maybe I'll make it my quiet mission to find a book he'll finally give up on...but I don't know, the man is STUBBORN! :)

[Vanessa]

Greetings.

If our lists prove anything, it's that it's hard to find 5 any such list even a small group of readers can agree on. Variety, spice--discuss.

I loved The Secret History (shout out Alison!) and it's one of my all-time faves. I also liked Shatner's first Trek memoir. I don't know if you were referring to his non-fiction or his Tek War series(of which I know nothing), Greyweather.

My list would be:

-Stranger in a Strange Land (I'm mystified why this is so popular in SF circles)
-The Prince of Tides
-Wicked (I couldn't get past the first 50 pages. Maybe it improves?)
-The Fountainhead (ditto)
-Anything by Tom Clancy

"And Then We Came to the End" is on my to read list. No?

[Heather]

Wicked is actually a really good book, but I have discovered that people either love it (like me) or absolutely hate it. There is no middle ground on that one.

And then we came to the end is actually pretty good, but it hit really close to home with all the layoffs we've been having at work.

my five:
1) Wideacre (every character in this story is reprehensible)
2) Sock

Can't think of anymore right now, will get back to ya'll

[Stephanie]

I hated Wicked.

I was in the middle on The Secret History - I enjoyed how disturbing it was.

I love The Fountainhead.

I heard And Then We Came to the End is good. It is on my to-read list.

[Leah]

I read And Then We Came to the End. I think I said earlier that if were like, 75 pages shorter it would be great, but it does this meandering thing where you want it to end somewhere. But there were some hilarious moments.

"Walking Spanish down the hall..."

[Stef]

I am not sure whether I will come up with five books or not but lets start:

- The Blue Bottle Club by Penelope J. Stokes

- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

- La Biblia de Barro by Julia Navarro, not sure whether it was translated into english or not but the german edition was more than awful

[Laura Beth]

Here are my top 5 to avoid:
The Reader
The Glass Castle
A Reliable Wife
Loving Frank
The Pretend Wife

I am just not into dark, depressing books.