Aussie Readers discussion
Book Related Banter
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Your least favourite book... and why?
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Going to be suspicious of all your 5 star ratings now Sally..
Sally906 wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "Sally906 wrote: "I just quietly delete my DNF books :)"I have a shelf for unfinished books - I don't want to make the same mistake down the track and try again! And yeah, I know I..."
That is funny!! But for books that make it onto this shelf (and there's only one on there in a whole year and a bit more of using GR), I don't have ANY desire to be picking these books up again!
To be fair, the book currently on there is a very popular one in general (Cloudstreet) so maybe I did miss something and could try again but I really don't want to even potentially waste the time trying!!
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LOL
Kathryn wrote: "Sally906 wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "Sally906 wrote: "I just quietly delete my DNF books :)"I have a shelf for unfinished books - I don't want to make the same mistake down the track and try again! A..."
Kathryn I think Cloudstreet is one of those books you either hate or love. Personally I loved it but I know a lot who couldn't read it. So chances are nothing will change if you try it again. I keep thinking I might do that with my least favourite book, The English Patient, which I realised I inadvertently posted twice about on this thread , but I don't think anything will change. Life is too short and there are so many other wonderful books waiting to be read.
Sally906 wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "Sally906 wrote: "I just quietly delete my DNF books :)"I have a shelf for unfinished books - I don't want to make the same mistake down the track and try again! And yeah, I know I..."
Sally906 wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "Sally906 wrote: "I just quietly delete my DNF books :)"
I have a shelf for unfinished books - I don't want to make the same mistake down the track and try again! And yeah, I know I..."
I have a couple of theories on this. I think that a book, or an author's 'brand' has a kind of superego that some readers plug into. Before they plug in they respond one way, but when the superego (usually a prevailing enthusiasm) kicks in they may respond differently. That doesn't (necessarily) mean an unconscious conformity...but it can mean that you are able to see the book's virtues after your own idiosyncratic response is overcome. Taste can evolve in this way.
Another factor might be the fact that you knew the writer well. As a writer myself, I suspect that friends and family don't really take you seriously until you've had some success in the real world. This was certainly my experience. For the best part of 20 years I was a figure of gentle fun for my writing pretensions but in 2010 I had a book published and I watched the attitudes change overnight. In fact, the closer the friend or family member, the more comically I was perceived until legitimated by publication.
I don't mean any of this to be critical of friends and family and I certainly don't think all friends and family are like that...plenty are quite the opposite - too uncritically supportive of would-be writers. All part of life's rich and varied...
I must be a tad bit slow... I never even thought of have a 'permanently unfinished' shelf. I have usually marked them as read if I;1) Read at least 1/3 properly.
2) Skim read the rest.
An unfinished shelf would be marvellous, let me review and keep track of them.
The first to go on it would be
and
I should like Cornwell! I really, really should - he writes historical fiction, which I love. He is a favourite of many friends who share interests with me.
But he is so incredibly grim and humourless that I get depressed reading him and lose interest, first in the plot and then in the well researched historical details.
Try Sharpe. Just fantastic. The Grail series is very good also.With Stonehenge you've read by miles (IMHO) Cornwell's worst. I found it tedious and I'm one of his biggest fans.
Elaine wrote: "Life is too short and there are so many other wonderful books waiting to be read...."Agree, agree, agree!!
Kathryn, I'm with you on Cloudstreet. Had one failed attempt some years ago. Then out of a sense of obligation towards an Australian author, I had a second attempt with the audiobook version. Finished it this time but it did nothing for me. The annoying sentence structure was less obvious in the audiobook.
I totally agree! I read Cloudstreet for school and it started me on a bad path with the author. It's certainly put me off reading any more if his work. I want to like him but my attempts are tainted.
Yep, Cloudstreet was a bummer for me; I finished it but it started a problem with me reading Tim Winton. I just find him depressing; he makes me feel like Australia is depressing and it's not!But I really did enjoy In the Winter Dark; I had to read it for a Challenge and it was my only Winton success story.
Valerie wrote: "Kathryn, I'm with you on Cloudstreet. Had one failed attempt some years ago. Then out of a sense of obligation towards an Australian author, I had a second attempt with the audiobook version. Finis..."Glad to hear I'm in good company with the three of you, Valerie, Angela and Bette, in not liking Cloudstreet! Although I was listening to the audiobook, Valerie, and I wondered if it was worse than the written book - I just couldn't keep going past a quarter of the book... I thought if I'd been reading it physically, I might have been able to skim over the worst bits. But I'm just not willing to try again. As Elaine said, there's just too many good books out there!
I agree. It's one of those books where you feel like you are missing something, like when the 3D glasses don't work properly at a cinema! But as mentioned, life is too short to eat your way through sour apples.
Bette Book Babble wrote: "Yep, Cloudstreet was a bummer for me; I finished it but it started a problem with me reading Tim Winton. I just find him depressing; he makes me feel like Australia is depressing and..."Yeah me too. The whole Cloudstreet experience has put me off from reading another book of his :(
Michael wrote: "Going to be suspicious of all your 5 star ratings now Sally.."Only the mysteries Michael :)
I have a shelf on my GR account called 'BAD BOOKS'..It's a reminder to me for all the rubbish books I've put myself through (sometimes I've loathed myself afterwards..lol). I've been trying hard over the years to just STOP reading a terrible novel/non fiction but I find it hard to just kiss away the thought of never finishing it. Crazy maybe?My book of dislike was VERY recent:The Teahouse Fire. If you care to read my review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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I don't keep reading if I don't like a book - too many good books to read, to keep reading a bad one IMO!
Hahaha...Yeah :/ I think it is a book of very mixed reviews.I wish I could stop reading books I disliked like you've mentioned many better ones out there. My partner picked my books to read last August and I went a long fine until I stopped reading completely..And in light of what month it is already I thought I should finish the picks!
the hunger games. I caved and read it to see what everyone was raving about. By the time I forced myself to the end I wanted to poke my eyes out with toothpicks. Such drivel
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I enjoyed The Hunger Games :) It's funny because I didn't think I would - it was a bookclub read, and I was hooked!
Lol....Was it only the first book you disliked though??
Laura wrote: "I have a shelf on my GR account called 'BAD BOOKS'..It's a reminder to me for all the rubbish books I've put myself through (sometimes I've loathed myself afterwards..lol). I've been trying hard ov..."Laura, Ellis Avery's other book is glbt genre as well.
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I liked the first book best. I was disappointed in the last one.
Laura wrote: "Hahaha...Yeah :/ I think it is a book of very mixed reviews.I wish I could stop reading books I disliked like you've mentioned many better ones out there. My partner picked my books to read last..."
Laura, I'm the same way. Or at least I used to be. I'm trying to force myself to quit reading if I dislike a book, knowing there are too many books out there to waste time on one I don't like.
I think it's harder though to quit if I've paid a lot of money for the book. But I try to tell myself it's better to waste just the money and not time AND money.
The problem of course, is that some books take a bit of time to get into and you don't want to cast something aside, just as it's about to take off. I loved The Book Thief but if there hadn't been all that hype about I probably wouldn't have got past the (rather turgid) first 30pp or so.
Adrian wrote: "The problem of course, is that some books take a bit of time to get into and you don't want to cast something aside, just as it's about to take off. I loved The Book Thief but if there hadn't been ..."Adrian, That's so true, and what you say is what's made it so hard for me to quit books.
I quit books I might have ended up liking if I had given it more of a chance. On the other hand, I've too often completed books, then regretted it.
It's hard to know what to do.
Some go by the (very arbitrary) 50 page rule, which in most cases probably works. I would've been quite into TBT by 50 pp after being quite irritated for the first 20 or 30.
@B3tt3 - Yeah, I noticed that as well. Doesn't make me think it'll be any better than it was in this book though..lol Actually, I was so amused I read it my partner and she burst out with laugher as well and then wondered if she should read the book too (I said no).@Dina - True!! When a book is expensive it's even harder to put down if there is a true dislike..But I do agree with you an Adrian about the rule of not putting a book down for so many pages
@Adrian - The page rule for me varies for me so much. Sometimes I will just read ahead and see if it sounds more interesting and make my mind up from that (which to a lot of people it's a no-no but this is just rare instances for me).
Laura wrote: "@B3tt3 - Yeah, I noticed that as well. Doesn't make me think it'll be any better than it was in this book though..lol Actually, I was so amused I read it my partner and she burst out with laugher a..."I have this thing about finishing them. Even if it takes me forever, which occasionally it does. But it does become painful sometimes!
I used to finish books no matter how dire, but having reached 50 I've gradually come to accept that life is too short to waste on rubbish. The first book I failed to finish - can't remember the name - but I really should have known better. I hadn't read any sci-fi for a while (used to love it but I'd gone off it) but browsing in a second hand store one day I picked up a sci-fi book that (from the blurb) sounded interesting. The cover however did not fill me with confidence. It seemed to show an alien, wearing skin-diving equipment dancing on a beach.I should have judged the book by it's cover. I only waded through 20-odd pages but what rubbish! It was a bit of an existential struggle but I managed to put that book down, and now I do it quite regularly if I'm not being adequately entertained.
LOL - love the sound of that Sci Fi book cover Adrian :)I follow the 50 page rule quite rigidly - if an author can't pull me in by page 50 then it's all over red rover. I have had people say oh but Sally 3/4 of the way through it took off and was wonderful at the end. My reaction. Meh - I want to be involved from the beginning and then all the way through to the end! A friend of. One is in her 80s and she is even harder - they get the first chapter or 30 pages, she says she's not going to live for ever to waste whatever time she has left reading a book just in case it comes good. :)
And on the theme of dreadful book covers...(slightly off topic I know, but I'm sure many of these would fit the theme of least favourite book!)http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-book-...
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http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-book-..."
They are terrible Leonie! Hard to believe they could possibly have got through whoever is supposed to be the "expert"...
Brenda wrote: "Leonie wrote: "And on the theme of dreadful book covers...(slightly off topic I know, but I'm sure many of these would fit the theme of least favourite book!)http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-book-t..."
Some were obviously intentional, and some have changed in the context of language shift, but others had no such excuse! You really wonder about some people!
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Thanks heaps, Leonie. The Lesbian Horse one did it for me! still laughing:O
Bette BookAddict wrote: "Thanks heaps, Leonie. The Lesbian Horse one did it for me! still laughing:O"Some of them are absolutely hilarious, aren't they?
A Confederacy of Dunces. I read extremely quickly and it's the only book I've ever struggled so much with that I wanted to give up. I know its supposed to be a classic, and I love all things New Orleans, but I just couldn't get into it.
I really disliked Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart which from memory our Michael loved. I had no idea where I was going with this book and found that really frustrating. One of the very, very few books that I abandoned.
Michael wrote: "Both Michael's loved it Bette. OH well we all cant like the same things. if we did life would be very boring. :D"I so wanted to like it because I'd heard great things from you. I read a fair way in but still had to check your review to have any idea what was happening. The things they wore in their chests confused me for ages.
I have always loved books you rate highly.
Patrick White's The Tree of Man. I had to read that dreck in high school. Forty years later, I still shudder at the thought of it. The magnolia tree blossomed, the magnolia tree withered, over and over again with heavy-handed symbolism.
Not to mention the silver nutmeg grater!
Most. Overrated. Writer. Ever.
Susan wrote: "Patrick White's The Tree of Man. I had to read that dreck in high school. Forty years later, I still shudder at the thought of it. The magnolia tree blossomed, the magnolia tree withered, over an..."
Uh-oh. I'm reading that for my challenge this year.
I would have to go with I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. Both of them made me want to destroy something!
Sarah wrote: "Susan wrote: "Patrick White's The Tree of Man. I had to read that dreck in high school. Forty years later, I still shudder at the thought of it. The magnolia tree blossomed, the magnolia tree wit..."
To help spur you on, I read The Tree Of Man 30 years ago and loved it. Patrick White went on to become one of my favourite authors:)
I really didn't enjoy
. It was really shallow and very badly written. They spent more time describing the main character's clothing than doing any decent character development.
Mod
And while Sarah found I Am Legend made her want to destroy things I gave it four stars:)
It's our differences that make the world go round.
Aussie Readers
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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LOL - no when I owed up and confessed to him I promised I wouldn't :)
Not an Australian writer :)