What books do you dislike?

[princesss]

Date: 1/4/2010 5:52:51 PM
Author: dragonfly411
Fortunately yes. In general our school was a bit understanding, especially when it came to graphic content. We were asked to read another book that was really heavy with swearing, and many opted out and asked to read something else. I read it, I don''t mind that.... but animals dragging body parts... no thanks.

I''ve seriously never heard of that happening. My HS was very clear about the assignments being the assignments. Period. The only time I ever knew of an alternative to an assignment was pig dissection - if you passed out, threw up, or were about to pass out, there was an online guided dissection where you could see and identify all of the parts, but not have to cut/handle them yourself.

Interesting. The things you learn on Pricescope...

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 1/4/2010 12:45:44 PM
Author: princesss

Date: 1/4/2010 12:33:29 PM
Author: upgrade
Don''t shoot me... I hated the Lord of the Rings. Just couldn''t get into the books enough to finish the series.

I''ve been trying to read the Outlander series too, because I keep hearing people rave about it but I''m about a quarter of the way through the first book and I keep putting it down to read other things. Does it get better? Because so far, I''m not sold!

For me Outlander picked up between page 200 and 250 - after that, I couldn''t put it down!


I hated The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is too heavy-handed and white hat/black hat for me. I loved the last 6 pages thought - all the subtlety I wanted ran and hid at the back of the book!

I got the sample for Outlander on my Kindle. The first two chapters were BOOOOOOOOORING and there was no way I was going to plow through 200 pages to finally get into it. Ugh.

 

[upgrade]

I forgot to mention my general hatred of ''chick lit'' in my earlier post. There are a few good ones out there but I hated the Bridget Jones books and the Shopaholic books...

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 1/4/2010 1:17:20 PM
Author: dragonfly411
Ivanhoe is now the bane of my existence. It''s like trudging through tar. But I will finish.

I didn''t like All Quiet on the Western Front

Ha! For some bizarre reason, I loved this book. It''s one of only two books I''ve ever re-read. I''ll go mention the other on the reread thread.

 

[TravelingGal]

James Joyce for me. I felt like I was an unworthy English major because I just didn''t get it.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Date: 1/4/2010 6:00:59 PM
Author: princesss

Date: 1/4/2010 5:52:51 PM

Author: dragonfly411

Fortunately yes. In general our school was a bit understanding, especially when it came to graphic content. We were asked to read another book that was really heavy with swearing, and many opted out and asked to read something else. I read it, I don''t mind that.... but animals dragging body parts... no thanks.

I''ve seriously never heard of that happening. My HS was very clear about the assignments being the assignments. Period. The only time I ever knew of an alternative to an assignment was pig dissection - if you passed out, threw up, or were about to pass out, there was an online guided dissection where you could see and identify all of the parts, but not have to cut/handle them yourself.


Interesting. The things you learn on Pricescope...

Princesss I hear ya. But no exemptions for dissections in my school - if you felt faint, you got to record the results rather than cut.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Date: 1/4/2010 6:02:40 PM
Author: TravelingGal

Date: 1/4/2010 12:45:44 PM

Author: princesss

Date: 1/4/2010 12:33:29 PM

Author: upgrade

Don''t shoot me... I hated the Lord of the Rings. Just couldn''t get into the books enough to finish the series.


I''ve been trying to read the Outlander series too, because I keep hearing people rave about it but I''m about a quarter of the way through the first book and I keep putting it down to read other things. Does it get better? Because so far, I''m not sold!

For me Outlander picked up between page 200 and 250 - after that, I couldn''t put it down!



I hated The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is too heavy-handed and white hat/black hat for me. I loved the last 6 pages thought - all the subtlety I wanted ran and hid at the back of the book!

I got the sample for Outlander on my Kindle. The first two chapters were BOOOOOOOOORING and there was no way I was going to plow through 200 pages to finally get into it. Ugh.

Hehe don''t you love having the Samples option on your Kindle?

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Date: 1/4/2010 6:03:28 PM
Author: upgrade
I forgot to mention my general hatred of ''chick lit'' in my earlier post. There are a few good ones out there but I hated the Bridget Jones books and the Shopaholic books...

Any recommendations? I actually like Shopaholic but can''t stand Bridget Jones. I''d love to find more good ones though!

 

[icekid]

Date: 1/4/2010 12:58:34 PM
Author: monarch64
Gah! I forgot about hating James Joyce (anything). *Blech*streamofconsciousness*Blech*

This was the first one that came to mind for me! IMMEDIATELY. I can''t deal with the stream of consciousness thing either. Ugh... I still cringe at the thought of being crazy sick with mono during my senior year of HS while my AP English class was reading "A Portrait of the Artist." I missed a couple weeks of school and my teacher loved me and never made me make up the exam

Not much for Faulkner, either.

 

[TravelingGal]

BEG, I LOVE the samples option...has saved me a few bucks.

I haven''t started the shopoholic series. I''m afraid I''ll detest her as a protagonist. Someone who is into material things and racks up a ton of debt? Already on my dum-dum list. I have already read the other three standalone books (Remember Me, Undomestic Goddess and Can You Keep A Secret) and they were fun, silly fluff.

 

[monarch64]

Date: 1/4/2010 6:19:43 PM
Author: icekid

Date: 1/4/2010 12:58:34 PM
Author: monarch64
Gah! I forgot about hating James Joyce (anything). *Blech*streamofconsciousness*Blech*

This was the first one that came to mind for me! IMMEDIATELY. I can''t deal with the stream of consciousness thing either. Ugh... I still cringe at the thought of being crazy sick with mono during my senior year of HS while my AP English class was reading ''A Portrait of the Artist.'' I missed a couple weeks of school and my teacher loved me and never made me make up the exam

Not much for Faulkner, either.

Yeah, I didn''t realize until I got to college that Joyce had to have been high as a kite when he was writing. Consciousness, my foot.

I also can''t stand Flannery O''Connor. My mother gave me a book of her shorts and I gave it back to her after a few months of trying to stay awake every night as soon as I picked the damn thing up.

 

[princesss]

Date: 1/4/2010 6:02:40 PM
Author: TravelingGal

Date: 1/4/2010 12:45:44 PM

Author: princesss

Date: 1/4/2010 12:33:29 PM

Author: upgrade

Don''t shoot me... I hated the Lord of the Rings. Just couldn''t get into the books enough to finish the series.


I''ve been trying to read the Outlander series too, because I keep hearing people rave about it but I''m about a quarter of the way through the first book and I keep putting it down to read other things. Does it get better? Because so far, I''m not sold!

For me Outlander picked up between page 200 and 250 - after that, I couldn''t put it down!



I hated The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is too heavy-handed and white hat/black hat for me. I loved the last 6 pages thought - all the subtlety I wanted ran and hid at the back of the book!

I got the sample for Outlander on my Kindle. The first two chapters were BOOOOOOOOORING and there was no way I was going to plow through 200 pages to finally get into it. Ugh.

Haha. I think I only stuck with it because they''re my mom''s favourite books and she wanted me to read them. But man, once I got into, I really got into it! I own every book, and have two copies of Outlander.

 

[elrohwen]

BEG, thanks, I''ll look them up. I''m actually not a big historical fiction fan ... I usually like actual history, but well-written (I don''t have patience for long, boring history books even if I have patience for long boring novels

). But I do enjoy historical fiction that''s well researched (which Pillars seemed to be) because at least you can learn a few things along the way.

 

[gardengloves]

Could not get through Twilight- had to stop.

 

[Clio]

Date: 1/4/2010 4:12:52 PM
Author: vc10um
I HATED The Sun Also Rises.


Thinking it was because I was force-fed it by a teacher I didn''t like, I tried it again.


Nope. Still awful. In fact, I''m not sure hate is a strong enough word.


Not a fan in general of Hemmingway or Faulkner.


Also hated Twilight and the rest of the series.


I am, however, one of the only people I know who liked Wuthering Heights.

Oh, yes! I can''t stand Hemingway either.

Faulkner, on the other hand, I adore. I''m not sure disliked any Faulkner I''ve read, though I haven''t read everything. Absalom, Absalom is one of my very favorite books ever. Wuthering Heights is also a favorite.

 

[Iowa Lizzy]

Date: 1/4/2010 6:31:59 PM
Author: TravelingGal
I haven''t started the shopoholic series. I''m afraid I''ll detest her as a protagonist. Someone who is into material things and racks up a ton of debt? Already on my dum-dum list. I have already read the other three standalone books (Remember Me, Undomestic Goddess and Can You Keep A Secret) and they were fun, silly fluff.

TG, if you''re finding Stephanie Plum to be redundant, I''m afraid you probably won''t like the Shopaholic series. You can pretty much figure out how the book is going to end within the first few chapters. I read those in between heavy books to give my brain a rest.

One book I''ve started twice is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Ugh. It''s too boring! It has one of my all-time favorite quotes in the first few chapters. But I can''t get much farther than that.

Another one I tried was The Gunslinger series by Stephen King. Ugh. It''s one of FI''s favorite books so I thought I''d give it a try. I didn''t even make it halfway through the first book. And it reeeeaaaally bothers me to not be able to finish a book.

 

[Cehrabehra]

the only book that to me represents this thread is return of the king.

I read The Hobbit and I LOVED it!
I read Fellowship of the Ring and I really liked it!
I read Two Towers and thought it was okay.
I read half of Return of the King and just could not finish it. I wouldn''t start any other books until I had and ended up not reading ANY books for over 2 years until I finally forgave myself for not finishing it and moved on. No exaggeration here. I don''t know that it was such a horrible book, but reading has NEVER been the same for me since that book and I still hold it to blame.

I loved the movies though

 

[elrohwen]

Travel Goddess, I also made DH read Life of Pi and he complained about that one for the first 150 pages too

But then he ended up really liking it. I think it's worth trudging through! Then again, I don't remember it being boring at all (though I read it years ago). I want to read it again now that both you and DH said how boring it is because clearly I've forgotten a thing or two (or everything) about the book.

Cehrabehra, that's a really strong reaction to a book! Haha. I honestly think of all three as just one long book, so I can hardly differentiate one from another in my head (I'm the same way about the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies too

). I'm glad you liked the movies at least - now you know how it ends so you never have to finish it

 

[Sabine]

Date: 1/4/2010 6:06:22 PM
Author: TravelingGal
James Joyce for me. I felt like I was an unworthy English major because I just didn''t get it.

I''m totally with you on that! I gave up after thinking, a book should not be this much work...

I''ve loved reading my whole life, but in hs there were a handful of books that were assigned that even I didn''t read and only did the Cliffs notes:
Grapes of Wrath (I might have to revisit this one at some point though...totally love Of Mice and Men).
Moby Dick
Billy Budd
Just couldn''t read them...

I also had a really hard time getting through The Road.

 

[Iowa Lizzy]

Date: 1/4/2010 9:05:24 PM
Author: elrohwen
Travel Goddess, I also made DH read Life of Pi and he complained about that one for the first 150 pages too

But then he ended up really liking it. I think it''s worth trudging through! Then again, I don''t remember it being boring at all (though I read it years ago). I want to read it again now that both you and DH said how boring it is because clearly I''ve forgotten a thing or two (or everything) about the book.]

Okay, dammit. Now I''m going to have to start it. Again. I''ve heard it''s good but it seems so dry to me in the beginning. Third time''s a charm, right? The quote I love from that book is: "The reason death sticks so closely to life isn''t biological necessity- it''s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possesive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud." I just love that. I really should just finish the dang book.

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 1/4/2010 9:33:25 PM
Author: Travel Goddess
Okay, dammit. Now I''m going to have to start it. Again. I''ve heard it''s good but it seems so dry to me in the beginning. Third time''s a charm, right? The quote I love from that book is: ''The reason death sticks so closely to life isn''t biological necessity- it''s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possesive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.'' I just love that. I really should just finish the dang book.

Hey, maybe we should all go back and try a book that we hated (or never finished). Mine would probably be either finishing Crime & Punishment or Moby Dick

 

[packrat]

Thought of another one-Maori by Alan Dean Foster. I thought I''d like it as much as the other books of his I''d read but I just could NOT get into it.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

I hated:

Watership Down, Treasure Island, The Little Prince, and (don''t kill me!) The Hobbit.

 

[Haven]

Date: 1/4/2010 1:58:03 PM
Author: packrat
I do believe I''ll have to give Catch 22 another chance! When I''d checked it out from the library it was one of those times where the books I was specifically looking for were out and I thought well, whatever, I''ve been meaning to read this book since HS, I''ll give it a whirl. Prolly not the best circumstances!

Catch-22 is one of my favorite books. I used to teach it in my junior English classes and my students all loved it, too.
I''d say Catch-22 and The Picture of Dorian Gray were the two books my high school students most loved when I taught them. (I taught DG to sophomores.) They also always liked The Things They Carried up to the chapter about story-truth. Teens don''t like being misled, apparently.

ANYWAY . . . elro--I will totally reread one of the books I''ve hated! As long as it''s not To Kill a Mockingbird, I''m in.

I hated the Twilight books, too. They were almost too horribly written to get through, but I had so many students reading them that I really wanted to finish. So I did.

Does anyone hate Robinson Crusoe? I LOVED it when I read it in undergrad, but I was the only one in my entire class. I thought I would have seen it pop into this thread by now!

 

[katamari]

So a slight threadjack out of curiosity, since I enjoyed most of my assigned reading, did this trend hold with books/articles for other classes, or just English/Lit.?

Huge ditto to The Divinci Code, Faulkner, and Twilight. Yucko.

 

[somethingshiny]

Robinson Crusoe was actually a book that I hated the first time. When I reread it as an adult it was much better. The breaking point for me as a kid was the part that says something along the lines of "he stripped down, swam to the wreck, and filled his pockets with biscuits." I was done! How can you have pockets if you''re naked?? But, when rereading it, I realized that "stripping" was only down to his undergarments which apparently had pockets during that time period.

Oh, gosh. I don''t WANT to read War and Peace or Moby Dick. Either one would take me the next 2 years to get through!! I guess I''ll have to try To Kill a Mockingbird again. I finished it the first time but hated every minute of it.

That reminds me. When DH was assigned To Kill a Mockingbird, the teacher told them to write "a report on it." So, DH got out his trusty Sharpie and wrote "A REPORT" on the cover and turned it in.

The teacher failed him, but my Lit teacher would have appreciated the concept based on her wording and probably given an A for it. Of course my Lit teacher danced on the desk singing show tunes, but I learned a lot...

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/4/2010 2:51:27 PM
Author: yssie
I really disliked the Twilight series.

Twilight. . .me too. I quit reading it after page 29.

 

[VRBeauty]

HS authors I couldn't stomach were Somerset Maugham and Hemmingway (although I did sorta enjoy The Old Man and the Sea -- at least it was short!). I was never forced to read Ullyses, didn't care for Portrait of the Artist, but I recall liking some of the stories in The Dubliners. Wuthering Heights was entirely too depressing for me (especially since I was expecting something like Pride and Prejudice!). More recent do not reads include anything by Umberto Eco -- it seems like the plot exists solely as a rack on which he can hang a prodigious accumulation of factoids.

 

[IdLikeToBuyAVal]

@ Clio re Hemingway - I''m with you! I just finished "True at First Light" and it was atrocious. I''m Type-A to the extreme and I HAVE to finish a book that I start and I am not a fan. I liked "Farewell to Arms" though...go figure.

Also, this is silly considering the length of the book but I hated "The Pearl". Another required reading. I realize it''s the message behind the story but ugh...awful.

I also hated Madame Bovary. Awful AND depressing, what a combo!

 

[sbde]

Atlas Shrugged!!

i really enjoyed the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, but atlas shrugged just killed me - the final few chapters and that 40 page long speech did me in. it all just seemed way too indulgent.