It's never too early, I suppose, to start declaring our clunkers of 2008 - those books we found unreadable for some reason or another, the ones we couldn't or wouldn't finish, or the ones we may have thrown across the room or into the trashbin. It is important to remember, however, that one LTer's clunker might be another LTer's favorite. We have certainly learned this from previous clunker threads.
What were your clunkers this year?The 2007 Clunkers are
HEREIt was a terrible year for the Booker Prize, and two of the books that made the longlist were my least favorite books of the year:
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith and
A Fraction of the Whole by
Steve Toltz.
Message edited by its author, Nov 14, 2008, 2:07pm.
I haven't had too many clunkers this year mainly because I now allow myself to abandon books that don't grab me. I'm also picking books from
1001 Books to Read Before You Die so they are mostly good reads or if not great reads, unique in some way. Anyway, enough preamble my clunker list for 2008 would have to include
The Gathering by
Anne Enright and
The Enchantress of Florence by
Salman Rushdie. Both books are well written but disappointing and for me, a bit of a slog to finish though I realise a lot of people probably loved them.
Ah, socialpages - this year I did the exact opposite of you and tried to finish everything I started. Big mistake.
However, I did force myself to finish some major drek. The major clunkers include
Snow Crash,
The Virgin Suicides,
Any Given Doomsday, and
Pretty Little Mistakes. I also listened to
The Mermaid Chair which made me foam at the mouth. I now actually have trouble listening to any books where the reader even
sounds like the reader of The Mermaid Chair. There are also some romance and mystery minor clunkers not really worth mentioning.
Next year, I'm back to my every-year-except-2008 policy of abandoning books if I am not enjoying them.
edited to add The Virgin Suicides and Any Given Doomsday.Message edited by its author, Nov 14, 2008, 2:28pm.
This year has been pretty well clunker-free, except:
Still Life by A. S. Byatt
The Sea Kingdoms by Alistair Moffat
The Iron Whim by Darren Wershler-Henry
The first was turgid and filled with annoying characters (who weren't nearly as annoying when they were in
Virgin in the Garden), the second claims to be a history but is really more speculation and anecdote, and the third is pseudo-academic claptrap.
My clunker this year was
The Balance Wheel by Taylor Caldwell. I finished it, but it took half the book before it finally got going.
I don't think I've had any major clunkers for 2008, nothing that really struck me as a serious offense against good writing, but I have had some disappointments. Dan Simmon's
Hollow Man and Horacio Quiroga´s
Vampiros y Actrices were mediocrities from authors whose other works I've found much more impressive. Than there was Stephen King's
Danse Macabre, which I thought would be a fun, informative look at horror from Mr. King's perspective. It was informative but not a lot of fun, mostly because King comes off as a little full of himself. That was one of the few books I gave up on, but there were only 50+ pages left.
Message edited by its author, Nov 15, 2008, 8:32pm.
I really didn't enjoy
Love in the Time of Cholera and gave up 2/3rds of the way through.
I was also unimpressed with the Great Illustrated Classics edition of
The Picture of Dorian Gray. From now on if I want to read a classic I won't try to cheat with a "revised" edition.
Thankfully, everything else was on the upside of "meh".
The big one for me was
The Gathering. Well written, but should have been a short story. I chose not to slog through the last 130 pages to get to the "big reveal," which wouldn't have been a revelation to me.
I also abandoned
The Last Tsar because I couldn't abide Radzinski imposing himself and his theories into the text. Eeek!
I wish I had been on LT in 2007--I had a lot of clunkers last year.
The only one that comes to mind right now is
Books by Larry McMurtry--I really tried to like that book and read much more than I should have before I finally gave up. I should have listened to alcottacre and I would have avoided it.
Actually that may be why I didn't have many clunkers this year--I joined on my Christmas break last year and I've been getting great suggestions here--and dodging some I might have read except they were panned by LT members.
The one that was hardest for me to get through this year was
Thank You for Not Reading by Dubravka Ugresic. It's was book of essays related to reading written by a native of the former Yugloslavia. I don't think this was necessarily a bad book though. It just didn't fit my reading needs when I tried to get through it. I really pushed to finish it, but didn't enjoy it very much.
I thought
The Virgin Suicides was great!
Message edited by its author, Nov 14, 2008, 5:32pm.
I was waiting for this thread. There are 2 books that I hated very much this year.
Special Topics in Calamity Physics and
A Wedding in December. I hated both these books with a passion that is indescribable in the English language.
Message edited by its author, Nov 15, 2008, 7:30pm.
My 2008 clunkers:
Center of Gravity by Greg Cohen. I felt compelled to read it as the author is a friend of a relative. It was self-published... hope it stays that way. Runner-up:
The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook. I really liked the idea of the story, but thought the execution was poor, and I detested the characters.
#13 SqueakyChu -
The Virgin Suicides was well written, I just thought the subject awful and absolutely nowhere for the book to have any good moments.
It's quite possible that having a 15-year-old daughter colored my opinion too. I did love
Middlesex.
#15 sanja - I loved
Special Topics, but to each her/his own. I really love your sentence "I hated both these books with a passion that is indescribable in the English language." I have several books that I feel that way about.
#15 sanja ~ I remember trying to read
The Member of the Wedding years ago and abandoning it because the main character was annoyingly whiney.
#19 charlotteg
I'm not sure too many will flame away at you. A patient's of my son brought the book to him asking him to read it and my son was skeptical about how endurable it would be. I was on the computer at the time so I went to the LT page for that book and read the reviews--and knew my son wouldn't be able to abide it. Luckily there was a very complete review which summarized the book quite well. I printed the review for my son to read and now he can talk to his patient about the book in good conscience.
Another vote for
The Gathering by Anne Enright. I found it unoriginal and boring, and not at all moving considering the subject. Can't understand why it won The Booker Prize.
I think the only real dud for me this year was
Firefly Lane, which I hated with a burning passion once I'd finished. I actually gave it away, that's how much I hated it.
1.Having loved
White Teeth I thought
On Beauty was going to be as great. It was disappointing and I gave up on it part way through.
2. The High Flyer by Susan Howatch
Because of her continual use of the following terms: flufette, Tiger-thumper, nutterguff, dinosaurs, whippets and fruity-loops. These terms were used by her ad nauseum throughout the story and I found them ultimately irritating.
3. Vanishing Acts by
Judy PicoultHer general use of language did not enthral me.
The main character, whose name even escapes me now! I found to be totally unbelievable and irritating. Her reactions are psychologically unsound from a fictional point of view because they do not reflect her supposed loving relationships with her father, her lover and her friend. I could form no real conception of the other main characters.
4. The Thirteenth Tale by
Dianne SetterfieldI really enjoyed the first three chapters which comprised 40 pages of The Thirteenth Tale.
Then, absolutely hated Chapter four, Meeting Miss Winter. I wanted to give up after this vile chapter but LTers encouraged me to continue. Unfortunately, my love/hate relationship continued. As I read I was partly interested and partly bored. I did not find the character of Miss Winter interesting. The twins, of whom she was one, did not engage my sympathy. Also, I just could not comprehend any of the other characters in the book. I even started getting bored with Margaret with whom I was sympathetic in the beginning.
As I continued reading I found myself becoming bored and impatient with the whole thing and started skipping, a sure sign that the author has lost my interest. At about page 200 I thought: “Just tell me in a couple of sentences what the conclusion is, so I can go on and read something else!” On page 256 Mrs Winter asked: “MY story isn’t boring you, is it?”
“YES! YES! YES!”
After page 256 I lost interest completely and skimmed to the end.
The Thirteenth Tale is one of those books that I thought I MUST like because everybody raved about it and it comes so highly recommended. I feel churlish not to have liked it.
It is a strange phenomenon this relationship between author and reader. I am afraid we just didn’t get on. I put it down to either temperament, a clash of personalities or possibly that I was just not in the mood for this sort of story. Or could it have been that I never got over how awful chapter four was? Or could it have been that I couldn’t bear seeing the stupid names of the twins: Emmeline and Adeline? They sound like the names of drugs! Take two of these and you will feel better. I did and I didn’t!
- TT
#24--TheTortoise--Don't despair. My reaction to The Thirteenth Tale was almost the same as yours. I so wanted to like this book, but was terribly disappointed. Yet others here on LT, whose book opinions I tend to respect, loved it. The relationship between author and reader is a strange (and very personal) phenomenon, indeed.
That's it! I give up! I loved the first 150 pages of
Moll Flanders. I even quoted some of it in the Share your favorite passage thread. But the last 70 pages were pure hell. The book became plain vanilla boring and I cannot finish it.
I am very fortunate that I manage to avoid any real clunkers. The only real letdown was
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. The first 200 pages were brilliant and it went down-hill from there, finishing on a sour note. It's a decent book but it should have been great!
Both of my doggies are non-fiction.
Simplexity and
Kluge both howl at the moon.
The first was just boring, and the second was sophomoric.
I also hated
The Thirteenth Tale-but that was my last year's choice for clunker.This year that prize goes to
The Queen's Lady, an annoying book by Barbara Kyle. This book had cheesy sex scenes, lots of torture, a very silly heroine and disjointed plot. The story had (I couldn't believe this) Sir Thomas More as a villain! My second choice would be
Toronto Noir , a book of really bad short stories.
O.K.... breathe, I feel better!
Message edited by its author, Nov 18, 2008, 8:01pm.
--> 29
I read
Baltimore Noir the summer before last and was also less than impressed with that book - although the idea of a collection of short stories about crime written by local authors was a great idea, I thought.
I am with socialpages. My time is too precious to waste on books I'm not enjoying, so most of those I finished were pretty good. But here are a few for the Clunker List:
Weaving a Way Home by
Leslie Van Gelder. This was an Early review book from LT. A mess of post-hippie, new agey blather, IMO.
Age of Shiva by
Manil Suri. I really, really wanted to like this book, because I loved
The Death of Vishnu.
The Spanish Bride by
Lauren Gardner. Hopelessly romanticized novel about Catherine of Aragon, told from a lady-in-waiting's POV. Bad, really bad.
Memoirs of a Muse by
Lara Vapnyar. Too chick-lit-ish for my taste (and the main character was a really annoying, stupid chick).
America America by Ethan Canin. I thought it would never end. Another ER book, which was WAY overhyped. Well written, but an extremely predictable plot.
The Attack by
Yasmina Khadra. Stereotypical characters and a lot of political diatribe.
First Love, First Rites by Ian McEwan. Generally, I love McEwan, but I've found a lot of his early work distasteful--like this collection of short stories featuring incest, sadism, masturbation, and child molestation.
And my nominee for the worst so far in 2008 (and I know it will be on the top of many lists of the best):
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. I'll admit that I didn't finish it; it was so irritating that I just couldn't. It knocked Matthew Pearl's
The Dante Club out of first place for my Most Irritatingly Pretentious Book Ever Prize.
Message edited by its author, Nov 16, 2008, 12:22pm.
#24 I listened to
The Thirteenth Tale on audio. It was probably better that way but still not great.
I seemed to strike out with a lot of contemporary fiction this year. I gave
The Lovely Bones a shot because it was on a short list of books to choose from for an English class I took. I could not read it.
I thought
The Abstinence Teacher was pretty pointless. I really have no idea why
Tom Perrotta wrote it.
I was also really disappointed in
My Sister's Keeper. It was a fast read, and the story was engrossing, but I felt really cheated by the ending. I don't need a happy ending, but that just left me wondering why I bothered to get invested at all.
Message edited by its author, Nov 16, 2008, 1:59pm.
The worst clunker that I have ever read was Girl Overboard. I forgot the author, but I thought that the book was absolutely horrible
My clunker of the year award goes to
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell. It was nowhere near as good as
A Thread of Grace - perhaps my expectations were just too high. The first half was pretty good, but I found the main character really irritating by the end.
>24 TheTortoise, I understand your feelings on
The Thirteenth Tale, the first few chapters were wonderful! I thought wow, here is a writer who can really convey the love of books and stories. Then when it got into the actual 'plot' with the writer and her life, it was a little less easy. I actually read the whole book, and I liked it. But I have to say, the beginning was the best part. It almost felt like a completely different author between those two parts.
Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago. I just couldn't get into it in the first chapter, so I stopped reading.
Message edited by its author, Nov 16, 2008, 9:10pm.
Just got
The English Major from the library and it will be going right back there. Tried to read it and didn't make it very far.
Count me in as one that understands the hype behind
The Alchemist.
Coelho is one of my favorite authors.
>31 Cariola - Oh dear! I recently bought
The Dante Club because I thought it sounded so interesting! On the other hand its not as bad as
Special Topics, so it can't be all bad! Can it?
- TT
#43 The Tortoise--I'm peeking around the corner to tell you that I enjoyed The Dante Club. Thought it was a fun read. Didn't like Pearl's second, though,
The Poe Shadow. Thought it was a yawner.
I just can't do it. I just cannot read Ka, by Robert Calasso. I simply can't follow it. By God i've tried, but failed!
I keep hearing how good Guernsey is but the title is just too cute and off-putting for me.
>46 and 49 - I thought the Guernsey book was wonderful. It started out light and fluffy but the deeper into the book, the deeper the story. karenmarie, I agree about the title, I felt that way at first, but the book is not cutesy at all. Some very interesting history about the Channel Islands during WWII. I'd say, give it a go.
I'm kind of a sucker for books written in letters, so I enjoyed Guernsey . . . but I thought the ending was way too predictable.
I have to agree on
The Gathering (read this year) and
The Thirteenth Tale (read last year).
But the worst one for me was
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks. I wouldn't have finished it, except that a good friend asked me to read it and
The Player of Games (which was a little better), but I'm quite sure I won't be reading any more of his books. Although the future society was moderately interesting, I thought the books were tedious, confusing, poorly written, and poorly characterized.
As mentioned above, my biggest problem may have been a lack of connection with the author; he reminded me of those arrogant, egotistical, bombastic college professors that I so despised.
As I said last year, I have a pretty good sense of books I'm not going to like and do my best to avoid them. So I had only one real clunker:
A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle by
Liza Campbell. The best, and only good thing, about this book is the title.
The rest of this list is books I found disappointing for one reason or another.
Chicago by Alaa al Aswany I found the US characters and setting so stereotyped as to really put me off.
The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples by
Shirley Hazzard I love Hazzard, but collecting these magazine pieces didn't work too well.
The Breezes by
Joseph O'Neill Not up to
Netherland and
Blood-Dark Track, both among my favorites of the year.
The Girl from Foreign by
Sadia Shepard A fascinating subject, but a little too much about the author herself.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts Too self-indulgent for my taste.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle -- great sense of place and writing in the beginning, marred for me by the supernatural and the Hamlet connection, and ruined by the way-over-the-top ending.
The Rebel Angels by
Robertson Davies. I fell in love with
The Deptford Trilogy and was very disappointed by this novel.
Wolf Totem by
Rong Jiang. I really wanted to like this book, and it had a great sense of place that I really enjoyed, but it was way way way too didactic.
#53 Interesting to see you didn't like
Shantaram as I loved it. Not so much him as a person but the people he was surrounded with and the world he lived in. I guess thats one of the reasons I love it here, so many differing opinions!!!
#43 TheTortoise
I actually enjoyed
Dante Club--it has its shortcomings but I found it entertaining and I liked the ways the plot used elements of
Inferno for the crimes. But, then I'm a huge Dante fan.
As a result of reading the book I bought a beautiful illustrated edition of Longfellow's translation on a remaindered table at B&N. Sometime next year I hope to read it--I've never read this translation so it won't exactly be a reread. This will be the 3rd translation for me.
re your review of
Thirteenth Tale--I read the book when it first came out and I remember it with fond thoughts--but I've been hesitant to recommend it and couldn't exactly pinpoint why. When I read your review I realized you nailed the book exactly-and those points were why I had reservations about recommending it. Now I had to figure out why I have such fond memories of it--I loved the libraries! That's the part I keep remembering. I was devastated when the fire destroyed it. I always think of it as a book about books--for me the people in that book were secondary.
Message edited by its author, Nov 17, 2008, 6:00pm.
#46 bkmcneil
I rather enjoyed
Guernsey--a nice Sunday afternoon read as a break from my "real" book at that time. I have a friend who will love it when I give it to her. I'm responding, though, because it also made me want to read something by
Charles Lamb! I'm hoping someone will give me a copy of his essays for Christmas. Must remember to drop hints!
The Gathering, most definitely. I kept waiting for something to happen, for it all to be worth it. But alas.
I found
Lolita to be a bit mixed - loved the outset, thought the end was a bit strange and tacked on, but the road trip in the middle? Incredibly boring. The only thing that got me through was the fantastic writing, but only just. I kept looking at my stack of TBR longingly.
#s 3, 10, 22, 52, 58 re:
The Gathering -- that's one selected by my book club for Feb or March... I remembered inwardly groaning when we selected it (unanimous save for my vote), as I remember reading less-than-complementary comments about it here on LT. I'm hoping I see something you all don't and I love it... or else it will likely be my first clunker of 2009. Sigh.
#55 MusicMom41, et al.:
Initially, I was surprised that anyone who likes to read wouldn't like
The Thirteenth Tale. It's such a readerly book, and I found myself reading it in one gulp, staying up late into the night to finish it. I've since read it again, twice.
Then, I recommended it to a couple of friends, both avid readers. Their response was mixed: one hated it, one was lukewarm.
Now, I tend to think that response to this book has quite a bit (though not everything) to do with whether the reader has a particular type of relationship with books, and whether the reader does in some way identify with Margaret Lea and her relationship to books, literature, and stories in general.
Here are my two clunkers:
1.
The Lace Reader - Everything that could possibly be a hook for middle-aged women was thrown into this novel. It was awful. After getting about half way through, I realized the only way I was going to make it to the end was by skimming. Only attempted to read it in the first place because it was a book club pick and I had vowed to read every book this year even if I knew I wouldn't like it.
2.
The Abstinence Teacher - Is this
Perrotta's embarrassing mid-life crisis book? Unlikeable and unbelievable characters and a pointless plot. Thankful that I didn't waste too much time on this one before chucking it. I liked
Little Children.
I've not been able to pick up Spin Control after reading about the first third. While not particularly bad I also can't say that it was particularly entertaining.
I've also been underwhelmed by
The Good Fairies of New York, which at least has its moments. The main human characters simply annoyed me.
These were both book discussion group picks.
Early in the year, I started
Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair. I forced my way through most of it, but eventually just gave up. It wasn't exactly too dens per se, but took too damn many detours.
Edited to add: I managed to finish
The Virgin's Lover, but only because it was a gift. Not entirely sure just what I didn't like about it, but I certainly had to make myself finish it.
Message edited by its author, Nov 19, 2008, 12:21pm.
This year it was
The Secret of Lost Things. I wanted to like it, I really did. The plot was just far too slow, the writing wasn't good enough to merit enduring such a slow pace, and I found the characters to be unsympathetic at best. I started reading it around the same time that my annual book purge began, so it quickly joined the charity bin.
Message edited by its author, Nov 19, 2008, 3:02pm.
#60 cornerhouse
"Now, I tend to think that response to this book has quite a bit (though not everything) to do with whether the reader has a particular type of relationship with books, and whether the reader does in some way identify with Margaret Lea and her relationship to books, literature, and stories in general."
I think you have pinpointed it exactly! I loved the book while I was reading it--even without liking many of characters very much. I, too, read it in practically one gulp. It was the relationship to books that Margaret had that drew me in and kept me going throughout.
This year I haven't read anything that I would classify as a Clunker! A few that I would put in the "Just OK, nothing special" group, but nothing that was really horrific. I think I did my fair share of them last year, and so I decided at the beginning of this year, I would only read books that I REALLY wanted to read. Last year, I would wander to the library (my local branch is good but small) and just borrow whatever they had. This year I'm planning ahead & reserving books that I really want to read. It's taken some of the excitement & adventure out of choosing books, but I'm enjoying the reading much more. I've also started saying no to people when they say you must read this book. If it's something that doesn't look good, I say no. I think I've read a fair range of books this year though, so I guess I've been a bit lucky with my choices too.
I have to agree with those who already said The Enchantress of Florence (I loved the beginning), The Mermaid Chair, and Love in the Time of Cholera (it did have its moments).
I would like to add
Eat, Pray, Love (It felt contrived to me. I also thought the descriptions could have been more colorful. But my book club loved it though!),
Moloka'i (way too sad, ridiculously sad), and
Walking in Circles Before Lying Down (just lame).
I was very disappointed in
The Boleyn Inheritence by
Philippa Gregory. I liked some of the earlier books in her Tudor series, but this one seemed just like a throwaway. I couldn't stand it, I didn't care for or care about anyone in the book - they all got what they deserved!
The only book that I can remember made me go "ugh" is
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. I was able to be oblivious to the Christian allegories and just enjoy the stories until this last book which was just dumb.
#68 ktleyed
I (and many other people) have been disappointed by
The Boleyn Inheritance and her latest one,
The Other Queen. It seems to me that she is churning them out far too fast, with no consideration for characterisation, detailing or storytelling. Her later ones are nowhere near as good as her earlier ones. So if you were thinking of reading
The Other Queen, don't expect very much from it is my advice!!
lunacat - I had seen that around here on LT about
The Other Queen so I had decided not to read it. I've read all the books of hers I want to now. Too many other books on my TBR list I'd much rather read!
The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet was a bit of a let down. Fun to read at first but the end was really stupid.
Water for Elephants was really really boring and a waste of time to read. A woman at work told me it was the best book she had ever read and I cringed.
>70 and 71 I had read all of the Tudor series and I was really excited when the new one
The Other Queen was released. But I read the first few chapters at the bookshop cafe and it didn't interest me at all so I didn't buy it. It feels wrong not to have read it but it just want as good as
The Other Boleyn Girl.
#73- I wouldn't call it the best book I've ever read, but I did really love
Water for Elephants.
Never Let Me Go. Lazy, poorly plotted, over hyped and frankly boring. There is no subtext here worth discussing. I'm most annoyed that this guy is getting such a lot of good press for something so horribly underwritten. And did I mention I hated it?
Other than that, it's been a great year!
#73 I enjoyed
Water for Elephants too because of the details about circus life and the photos - how many times are there photos in a book of fiction?
But too each her/his own. Heck! I don't like LoTR so go figure. If I'd tried reading it
this year it would have been my major clunker of 2008.
So far –
Couldn’t get through them clunkers –
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane – this pains me to no end, but I just cannot get into this novel.
World Without End by Ken Follet – too depressing for words, should have come with a script for Zoloft or something.
Did force myself to stick it out clunkers –
Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain – my eyes hurt from rolling.
Vicious Circle by Mike Carey – eh, had potential, didn’t rise to the challenge, kind of boring
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmyer – managed to suck the life out of what could have been an interesting story. Yawn.
I didn't bother finishing
Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital. I got about 70 pages in and realized that I didn't care about anyone in the book at all.
I kind of whish that I'd done the same for
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. I'm just glad I didn't pay money for it.
I didn't like
A Page Out of Life at all. The only reason I finished it was because it was recommended by a friend so I kept thinking it would get better.
At the start of 2008, I decided that I Would Not Abandon Books. I'd stick it through to the end with every one. There have been four where I just couldn't take it, but for the most part I've finished everything. Even the hardcore stinkers.
Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh.
What Was Always Hers by
Uma ParameswaranThe Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley
The Sword in the Stone by
T.H. WhiteThe Sweet Far Thing by
Libba Bray (one of my abandoned books)
The Host by Stephenie Meyer (another abandoned book)
The Penguin Book of Summer Stories, ed. by Alberto Manguel (a third abandoned book)
Kalifax by
Duncan ThorntonBreaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Something Wicked This Way Comes by
Ray Bradbury (yes, really)
The Faerie Door by
B.E. MaxwellAny Given Doomsday by
Lori HandelandThere were a few others that I was disappointed with but didn't actually
dislike. These included:
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Voyage to Venus by C.S. Lewis
Mistress of the Sun by
Sandra GullandAtonement by Ian McEwan
Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice
Grave Peril by
Jim ButcherEclipse One by
Jonathan StrahanBlood Pact by Tanya Huff
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon
Forest Mage by
Robin HobbThe Field Guide by
Holly Black and Toni di Terlizzi
The Gypsy by Steven Brust and Megan Lindholm
That, um, seems like quite a lot. I've had a rather disappointing reading year.
(And for the record, the book I abandoned but didn't list here was
The Sparrow. I'm sure I'd have given it a high rating if I'd been able to finish it, but the hand mutilation disturbed me so much that I felt physically ill and had to put the book down. I decided not to pick it up again).
(Edited because I forgot to make note of one of my abandonees).
Message edited by its author, Nov 22, 2008, 1:00am.
Just to further explain my dislike of
Water for Elephants (though I know we all have our own opinions which are bound to be different) I thought the story was flat. The idea/subject is great: a travelling circus, in the US, during the depression wow what a great book this should be I thought. But it was flat and boring I felt like the author had written the book primarily so it could be turned into a movie or something. Through out the book I kept thinking "oh get on with it already". The story and the characters never surprised me or interested me.
#85 I get what you're saying, and I agree for the most part. It was a fine book, but it never really hit me. It can exist, of course, but it didn't really strike a strong emotion either way.
>73 et al, 85. While
Water for Elephants is not on a list of personal favorites, I found it a very entertaining book. I read the book pre-publication so no pictures that I remember:-( To each his/her own, eh?
>84 wow, that's quite a long list. Bummer of a reading year, it seems. How much do you figure is you and how much is the books themselves?
#87 - I think it's a mix of the two. I had an amazing reading year in 2007, and I found it annoying that so few of the books I picked up this year lived up to that high standard. I also recognize that I read some books, like
The Sword in the Stone, at the wrong time of life. But at the same time, I think I've had pretty rotten luck with a lot of my picks in 2008. I came across very, very few books that spoke to me.
For the record, I've just done some calculations and determined that my clunkers/disappointing reads list accounts for about 12% of my total reading list. Blah.
Comments on others books:
Clunkers I agree with:SnowCrashThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoThe AlchemistPeony in Love It was an Early Review book and I couldn't find a thing to say
Moloka'i I didn't find is sad, so much as underwhelming, uninformative and boring. Gorgeous cover though.
Water for Elephants The Brief History of the DeadViriconium One of the most boring books* ever written, couldn't finish it
*Collection of stories
Two of the worst written books I have ever read. They were both for RL book groups or I never would have picked up the second one. Didn't finish Poe, just couldn't endure it anymore.
The Dante ClubThe Poe Shadow Clunkers I liked Fearless Fourteen The lovely BonesForeignerThe Sword in the StoneGrave PerilBlood PactThe Shadow of the WindThe Sparrow I have a book called:
The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas IIby Edvard Radzinsky
Don't know if its the same as The Last Tsar, but I loved my book. It has lots of information, and is one of the best about the murder of the Czar and his family.
Clunkers I have yet to read I have to read
The Shack for one of my RL book groups (for December),
On BeautyThe Spanish BrideInversionsDreamers of the DayEverything is IlluminatedCity of Saints and MadmenConsider Phlebas and
The Player of Games The Good Fairies of New YorkThe Secret of Lost Things A RL book group read
Kitchen ConfidentialChrist the Lord: The Road to CanaForest MageSo far I haven't really looked at my Clunkers for this year, though the books listed below were all this year.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoWater for Elephants The Poe ShadowMessage edited by its author, Nov 29, 2008, 1:45pm.
The biggest clunker I tried to read this year was
Twilight. My daughter read the whole series, and I tried the first one, and could not get past their obessions with necks.
#75 Couldn't agree with you more about
Never Let Me Go, which I read last year. I finished it, but by the time I got to the "surprise" ending (which I had figured out by the end of the first chapter), I was dying of boredom. Way too much precious teenage angst and blather, IMO.
Message edited by its author, Nov 29, 2008, 11:44am.
Feeling inspired to review my various lists and return with an entry....back soon.
Need to add
Sweetpea's Secret to the unfinished clunker list. So bad that I can't make it to chapter 3. Horrifying. I have a bunch of notes and comments penciled in the copy I have...will translate into a review when I can stand it long enough to do so.
So, I looked over my list and realized I have not read even one horrible book. Two disappointments, if they count. First,
Blood and Smoke by
Stephen King. Second disappointment is
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by
Victor Hugo. I am a huge Hugo fan and was terribly disappointed in this novel. Oh well.....it was a really good reading year!
I've had a pretty good reading year. I don't think I've abandoned anything, but one of my biggest disappointments was
Michael Chabon's
The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Fortunately, books like his are usually very swappable, so I was able to swap it for something I did enjoy reading! And I seem to be in the minority for disliking it.
#37, tabloidesque is a great way to describe Picoult. I've been talked into reading a few of hers for book clubs over the years, and I won't touch anything by her anymore. Too many better books to read!
Only two clunkers:
The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer, which I did finish; and,
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith, which I did not. Both were book club selections. To be fair to
Fair and Tender Ladies, I think my displeasure with the book stemmed more from the time I tried to read it (I was not in the mood for Southern dialect) rather than the quality of the work itself.
The Dive from Clausen's Pier just irritated me to my core, mainly because I felt that the characters were predictable and sold out to others' expectations in the end, not being true to who they could be.
I am now reading
The Shack. It seems OK. Its well written, though a bit sappy but that is pretty typical for religious fiction. The characters are always cheery, thankful, praying, and thinking or talking about god. Of course something bad happens very soon after the start, and that makes them less Pollyanna-ish.
It took me a while to remember my clunker, the book I couldn't finish.
It is
A Perfectly Good Family by Lionel Shriver. It might have been my mood but I just couldn't stand the family anymore. Of course, that's somewhat the point in this tale of the consummate dysfunctional family (that might just be an oxymoron).
I have to add another clunker, Gregory Maguire's new book in the Wicked Years series,
A Lion Among Men. I really struggled to care a whit about any of the characters. Thought the dialogue was stilted. He should have stopped with
Wicked and not tried to drag it out. I didn't much care for
Son of a Witch either.
I hated Maguire's series from the start with
Wicked, just couldn't finish it. Though it was years ago that I attempted to read it.
I couldn't love
Privilege of the Sword because of a lack of good Alec and Richard time, who are the characters I want to read about. I also hate what she did with them in terms of 'aging', but I didn't find it to be awful, or badly written, just disappointing.
I finished
The Shack and I thought it turned out to be very well done. It was written simply in a memoir style so that the bad things were incredibly searing. He also wrote well about the after-effects of losing a loved one, I went through it when my mother died unexpectedly of a heart attack, and he was spot on about the emotional and physical impact.
I thought the whole god thing was an interesting take on the central question of if there is an unlimited god, why are terrible things allowed to happen to good/innocent (6 year old) people. He also threw in enough unconventional stuff to shake up the standard view of religion, and he asked the question is it about the form (rules, power, social status) or function (love, compassion, helping).
It was also a book that brings up a lot of points for thought and discussion. It was still too sappy at the start, but it more than made up for it in the middle and the end.
ellevee -- what about Wicked made you angry? I enjoyed that one quite a bit and also
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I'd just like to see Maguire move on to something else now. He's a good writer/storyteller.
Not too many clunkers this year:
Baudolino by
Umberto Eco - Finished it, only by a sheer act of will. Couldn't care about the characters, everything became crazily fantasy-like in the middle (after starting out as what seemed to be historical fiction), and sluggish writing. So disappointing after
The Name of the Rose and
Foucault's Pendulum. The only think I got out of it was that it expanded my vocabulary.
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - Had potential, but didn't live up to it. Perhaps I expected too much? I understand the main character was meant to be representative, but he just didn't evoke any sympathy in me.
Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin - Timing can be everything in reading, and what could be more perfect than reading this when less than an hour's drive from Baden-Baden? Yet I still didn't like it, perversely, because the writing actually made me feel physically ill. The portrayal of Dostoyevsky's spiralling moods made me feel queasy. Haven't yet decided if this is a sign of good writing. Was queasiness what the author intended?
Message edited by its author, Dec 6, 2008, 3:43am.
This message has been deleted by its author.
>104 - I have had that book
Baudolino for a while, I bought it in hardcover for some reason. I've started it about 3 times, and could never really get into it.
Tried Baudolino once...couldn't finish.
103 - I liked the book so much in theory, but in practice I got bored very quickly. I didn't find the characters sympathetic, or even interesting, and some of the plotline just seemed so cliche. Overall, I thought it was ridiculously hyped and couldn't live up to it. And frankly, I didn't think his writing of women was particularly convincing.
But I know a lot of people loved it, and overall, people loving that book makes me much less angry than when people gush over certain OTHER books that will remain nameless, lest I incur the wrath of book-lovers across the internet. :)
I was going to congratulate myself on not having finished any clunkers this year, but then I went to my list and found a couple that I had (purposely?) forgotten that I had read:
1.
The Mosaic Crimes by Giulio Leoni - Dante as murder investigator, I wanted to love this but couldn't. The writing was just not good and, in parts, is dreadful.
2.
The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir - This is supposed to be history, but I found it was more a vehicle for Ms. Weir's personal opinions and biases.
There were many more that I tried to read but eventually had to abandon lest I go mad and try to poke my eye out with a fork:
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes - sooooo slooooow
The Magnificent Catastrophe by Edward J. Larson - much too much unnecessary minutia
The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey - boring and not well written
The Goddess Queen by Nicole Vidal - dreadful writing, besides which I think I've just read too many stories about Nefertiti
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon - boring
Wraith by Phaedra Weldon - dreadful writing and a stupid story
The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston - too much about the incompetence of the Italian justice system and not enough about the murders and the investigation
The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill - sorry if you were one of those who liked this, but he sure ain't no Stephen King
I belonged to a book club for six months this year and it didn't work out. One of the books I attempted to read and I utterly hated was
Belong to Me by
Marisa de los Santos. I'm sure it has some redeeming social value, but when I read a book, I want to read about characters that take me away and outside of my life experience, not reflect it. Why would I want to read about other women in suburbia? Can't I just talk to my friends? They invariably have stories more interesting than anything a book can provide.
In short, I was bored.
I'll preface by saying I wasn't able to to read as much fiction as I would have liked this year but the stand out clunker was
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Finally, winterpaws, someone else feels the way I do about that book!
Count me in, hemlockgang. I actually finished it and thought it was the biggest waste of my time. I hated it, not because of the content but because of how the book progressed. I'm always amazed when I find that people enjoyed (I don't think that's the word I'm looking for) it.
#109 Storeetllr - I haven't read any of Alison Weir partly because I had heard that a lot of her books were how you've decribed, her own personal opinions and biases, have you read any of her other books, and if so, did you find the same thing with her others?
#109 Storeetllr
2. The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir - This is supposed to be history, but I found it was more a vehicle for Ms. Weir's personal opinions and biases. I agree totally, in fact this book ENRAGES me. She cherry-picks what to use, presents items untruthfully, and emphasizes what supports her argument. She uses Sir Thomas More as a condemnatory source, even though he was 3 years old at the time of the events, and decides what he says obliquely as an adult refers to RIII.
I had already purchased two of her other books when I read this one. I won't buy anymore of her books, fiction or non-fiction.
All the drek I read this year was stuff I had to read for school. Not much chance that anyone here will have any of these in their TBR piles because they were seduced by glossy marketing ploys, best seller lists and the recommendations of friends with poor taste.
Confessions of an Opium Addict, Thomas de Quency, who is a lying, pompous jerk
Discourse on Inequality, Jean Jacques Rousseau
Civilization and its Discontents, Sigmund Freud
In Spite of Plato, Adriana Cavarero, who gives academics a bad name
oh, and one I read on my own:
Thirty-nine Steps, John Buchan
We're going to need extra effort on Nickelini's nudges this coming year.
The undoubted absolute out and out clunker in these parts this year was William Manchester's
A World Lit Only by Fire, mistakenly described as a history book and assigned to our young daughter for what should have been her first real history class. I think I found over a dozen patently false statements on the first two pages. All I can say is I hope the kids don't go to Wesleyan (where the fellow teaches). UGGGGH.
Thanks for your concern, A_Musing. I'm curious to read
A World Lit Only By Fire just to see how bad it is. Seems to have so much promise. Definitely a library loan though-won't spend money on that one!
I thought of another stinker from 2008:
Burger's Daughter, by Nadine Gordimer. Painful in so many ways.
Don't spend too much time, either - you'll never get it back. I have a review on the system going in to more detail.
Whoa, Nickelini. I had Burger's Daughter ready for 2009. Was it too...pedantic...or what?
#120 - Oh, no I've been meaning to read that one. I heard from a couple of people that it was really good.
#121 - Whoa, Nickelini. I had Burger's Daughter ready for 2009. Was it too...pedantic...or what?
---------------
If you click on
Burger's Daughter, you will see my review. For the most part, I disliked how Gordimer writes dialogue. Another thing that I didn't like that I didn't write in my review is that the book seems quite dated. Definitely a product of its times. I suppose it had its moments, but the author just didn't make me care. Oh, and my sister-in-law couldn't read it, and she reads
everything.
Message edited by its author, Dec 8, 2008, 9:33pm.
#125 I really feel that Jennifer Weiner's writing has gone downhill since
Good in Bed, and that makes me sad, because that's one of the few chick lit books I unabashedly love.
#125 & #127, jhedlund and ellevee:
I completely agree!
Good in Bed is probably one of my favorite books ever; Weiner is, to me, the queen of "chick lit." But after getting a few chapters into
Certain Girls, I put it down and started reading something else. Then I read two other books. And then five others. Now I'm worried I'm never getting back to it! I just wasn't interested in what was happening somehow . . . Cannie had become -- dare I even breathe it? -- boring!
My Stroke of Insight is ill writ, simplistic, condescending -- a waste of time, money, and paper.
Robert
#127 & 128 - Unfortunately I think what often happens is when new writers come out with a blockbuster, publishers put pressure on them to write more quickly because they know they'll make money. The only other book of Weiner's that I really liked was In Her Shoes. I couldn't finish
Little Earthquakes, tolerated
Goodnight Nobody and
Certain Girls. However, unless her next book gets fantastic reviews, I doubt if I will read anything of hers again. I'll certainly not buy any more!
And Cannie WAS boring. I know people change as they age, but this Cannie bore no resemblance to her earlier self.
Message edited by its author, Dec 9, 2008, 7:56pm.
I think
Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani and
China Boy by Gus Lee ought to be added to this list. Both were incredibly boring.
I have to agree with
Burger's Daughter being on this list too. I read it at the beginning of the year and couldn't bring myself to even give it away to anyone else. I ended up cutting up the book and using the pages for my niece's papier machier project.
Yikes! I'm convinced. Am striking Burger's Daughter from the TBR pile!
#115, 109
#109 Storeetllr
2. The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir - This is supposed to be history, but I found it was more a vehicle for Ms. Weir's personal opinions and biases.
I agree totally, in fact this book ENRAGES me. She cherry-picks what to use, presents items untruthfully, and emphasizes what supports her argument. She uses Sir Thomas More as a condemnatory source, even though he was 3 years old at the time of the events, and decides what he says obliquely as an adult refers to RIII.I've heard this before. I've enjoyed some of Weir's other books, but I'm actually tempted to read this one just to tear its argument apart. While I think it would be a bit wrong to say that I'm a devoted fan of Richard III, I have done a fair amount of work in history on him and I think I could disprove whatever theory she has presented, particularly if she's using Thomas More. That's just bad history. And it's really, really fun to be able to do that to other historians, especially "pop" historians.
I think Weir is pretty good if she doesn't have a bias already constructed, but in this book and in Isabella's book she does. So I wouldn't avoid her other books on the basis of this one, particularly not her fiction.
Another one I just didn't really like -
The Sea by
John Banville. I'd enjoyed one of his other books but not this one.
Message edited by its author, Dec 10, 2008, 5:55pm.
I had read Weir's
Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley, and came away from it convinced that she writes very well but relatively little of it really qualifies as even mildly good history - she make a bunch of assumptions and biases, admits they're a stretch based on the facts, but then constructs a detailed historical narrative based on them.
So, a lot of fun to read. Not something to rely on as history. Many books of historical fiction have more real history in them.
Confession's of an Ugly Stepsister Greg McGuire. I did like
Wicked>124, 131, 132 I liked
Burger's Daughter but it is not an easy read, imo. OR maybe I should say that I found it interesting - like might be too strong a word here:-) There's a lot in there about things like 'inheritance' and the socio-political upheaval in South Africa at the time. All that said, I wouldn't recommend the book for everyone. I, on the other hand, feel I need to read more Gordimer for comparison.
#131 cameling
"I ended up cutting up the book and using the pages for my niece's papier machier project."
Liked it that much, huh? I wonder what you would do with a book you REALLY hated?
hmm... kitty litter?
I definitely plowed through my fair share of brow beating and botched literature, including some sacred cows I will happily slaughter: The aptly titled
Bleak House with its super-virgin in 900 pages worth of lethargic litigation hell; Count Tolstoy's
War and Peace, which combines bad philosophy and jingoism with dull characters in a story that begins in earnest at page 600 (not to mention my disappointment as a huge
Anna Karenina fan);
Sometimes a Great Notion was cartoonish and detrimentally experimental;
The Kreutzer Sonata - Tolstoy's philosophy at its most inhuman (abstinence after marriage);
The Secret Agent wasn't really worth the effort of reading Conrad;
Oliver Twist was manipulative and implausible to the nth degree plus anti-semitic into the bargain;
Casino Royale an agent without agency (Bond does zippo except get lucky at cards); more of a dead horse in for more beating, but
Women in Love? Lawrence is so emo; and although I have a few books left to go I'm prepared to out, the most sacred of sacred cows, The Holy Bible (KJV) - with apologies to the apologists
Rubbish bin fillers: Chuck Palahniuk's
Diary, which is just wrong in the worst way on every level;
Factotum crosses the line for a confessional (murder and fake orgies);
White Jazz Knucks. Jab. Toss;
The Chronicles of Narnia - can we say deus-ex machina? not to mention HE KILLS THE CHILDREN!; and Uncle Don must be paying for somebody's new braces with
The Body Artist (DeLillo is
not a great stylist -- critics be damned)
#139 zanix - Oliver Twist was manipulative and implausible to the nth degree plus anti-semitic into the bargain
Yes! Yes! This is exactly why I hate that damned book! It broke my heart, too, because I absolutely love the story. Give me an Oliver Twist adaptation and I'm a happy girl. But the book itself? Oh god, no. Don't even go there. I'm always ridiculously pleased when I hear of someone else who disliked it.
zanix, but how do you really feel?
I love when people feel free to trash the classics, and Palahniuk. :)
In defense of
Diary, it is probably the best pre-emptive homage to Neil LaBute's
The Wicker Man (the one with Nicholas Cage) ever written. Though compared to Haunted, Diary at least has the merit of being semi-coherent.
I skipped 'The Wicker Man' remake as the original was the product of true genius (Anthony Shaffer's) and stands among my favorite cult films. We can certainly agree that the original film certainly "inspired" Palahniuk's
Diary, but when abused so grossly it's more of a rape than an homage.
> 139: zanix - "and although I have a few books left to go I'm prepared to out, the most sacred of sacred cows, The Holy Bible (KJV) - with apologies to the apologists"
Apology accepted!
I'm pretty sure that regardless of what I thought about religion I'd like the KJV just for the language it uses. You just don't get rich, self-indulgent language like that any more - reminds me of clotted cream.
How far through did you get?
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. This happens to show up in a lot of best books of 2008 lists, which either means that all these reviewers forgave the second half of the book (I honestly suspect the author gave up and just force-wrote the plot for whole 2nd half), I really missed something, or it was just the wrong book for me.
I'm tempted to include
Any Given Doomsday too, but that was such genre misfit for me. I now know I don't do paranormal romance. Lesson learned.
I guess these were both more of a misfit between the book and the reader, than actually bad books.
I was highly disappointed with
Slam because I love Nick Hornby, but this skateboard, Tony Hawk, jumping back and forth in time, teen pregnancy book was disappointing. Perhaps it would have been less disappointing if I hadn't read
The Time Traveler's Wife right before, that was a book that did time travel well.
Bleachers.. blech, John Grisham football book.
I read it because my patrons love John Grisham in all forms (crime or football). I read John Grisham crime books in junior high and high school, but thought that this was the same old, same old. Onery football coach, injured hometown hero leaves town but comes back years later when the coach is dying.
And perhaps the one I am most ashamed to admit not liking
The Greatest Generation.. I hated the part where Tom Brokaw spoke to "famous" people who were involved with the war. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting their words, but to read that Andy Rooney thinks that only veterans who were wounded or seriously injured deserve benefits and that George Bush (the First) thinks that some veteran groups are wrong to ask for more benefits is horrendous in my opinion. If these are the opinions of members of the military who went on to be "famous" I'd rather hear from everyday people.
Message edited by its author, Dec 15, 2008, 3:58pm.
I was being sort of tongue-in-cheek when I described it
Diary as an homage to LaBute's The Wicker Man, but I guess that didn't really come across. The new Wicker Man is fairly terrible, which is why it seemed like a fair comparison with Diary. (Not to mention the two seem to have some plot similarities.) Diary is actually, per Palahniuk, meant to be an homage to
Rosemary's Baby, which is probably as egregious as anything in Diary itself.
The Dracula Dossier by James Reese was probably my clunker of the year, mostly because I can't remember if I read all of the godawful, throw-them-against-a-wall
Shannara books in late 2007 or early 2008. That being said, a boring clunker isn't a bad one to have...
Oh no! I just ordered
the Dracula dossier from amazon as I noticed someone else reading it and looked it up and it seemed right up my street (historical murder mystery etc.) Why did you not like it?
#153 mrsradcliffe
I just went and read the reviews on LT for
Dracula Dossier and I added to my amazon wish list for Christmas. If you like Victorian novels (and I most assuredly do!) like
Woman in White or
Dracula it looks like this will right up your alley--
I thought it was good in parts (
Dracula Dossier), but it was like slogging through mud to finish it. In fact, I started skimming about 3/4 of the way through and completely stopped reading the footnotes. I remember thinking it was kind of like
Jonathan Strange with the footnotes, except most of the ones in DD weren't quite as long as those in JS. Like most Victorian novels (i.e.,
Woman in White, which I also read), this one was just too wordy. And this from someone who truly enjoys long narrative passages such as are contained in Tolkien's novels.
Apparently, now that 2008 has ended, I have no other clunkers than the one Lionel Shriver mentioned somewhere above. Yay!
My clunker for 2008 was
The Truth Commissioner by David Park. I was compelled to pick up the book, forced myself to soldier on after 80 pages to finish it and now completely regret the waste of time spend reading the book in the first place. Thankfully, I enjoyed most of the books I read in 2008 and hope for the same in 2009!
I sometimes don't even finish books I
like, so I don't have that many clunkers, but ones I really didn't like were:
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (it may be, um, my least favorite book I've even finished, but I love talking about it, so I maintain that it was worthwhile to read)
The History Boys, which I thought well-written, but I found the characters self-indulgent and had trouble with the way the sexual assault was glided over -- though, again, I got a good paper out of it, so I suppose it was worth having to read it twice
Um, was there anything else... Well, Shakespeare is off his rocker in
Two Gentlemen of Verona, but it's only a clunker as far as Shakespeare goes, which means not very far.
I'm not sure if this counts, as I only finished it this morning, but I read most of it in 2008... anyway, I really hated
The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff. Self-righteous and disgracefully hypocritical.
Abandoned:
Disney War by James B Stewart. I just didn't care.
Worst book of the year that I finished: Prize goes to
Guinevere by
Sharon Newman. Hated, hated, hated it. A sore on the Arthurian legend.
Books highly rated by others that I did not enjoy (rated 1 star by me):
Einstein's Dreams by
Alan Lightman and
House on the Borderland by William Hodgson.
I actually have 9 more books on my 2008 list that I rated below 3 stars. I need to spend more time reading books I love rather than just reading books.
Getting
The Fire as an ARC led me to reading
The Eight . I had owned
The Eight for some time and never red it, but felt I should before starting the sequel. I hated them both.
urg~
#162 I have
The Fire as an ARC too. I've been waiting for
The Eight from the library for months. I have a feeling they're going to be my 2009 clunkers.
Two that I expected to enjoy and really didn't like were
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel and The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho which I found to be woo-woo claptrap. I think I might have liked it 20 years ago, but not now.
Aside from those and a couple of other disappointments, LT has greatly increased the quality and enjoyment of what I read.
#162 and #163 - oh that's disappointing about
The Eight. That's on my 2009 TBR list, I had high hopes for it, it sounded so good!
The Eight was excruciating , details on top of details and every single famous person who was ever mentioned in history ever is a character. Seriously.
The Fire was a tad less excruciating , but just a tad. I couldn't get them out of my life fast enough!
so sorry
thats just me though, lots of people loved them I am sure... you might be one of them!
I never finished
The Eight. Just couldn't do it.
After much thinking
On Chesil Beach ended up being my clunker. Just terrible. Can't believe it is on so many "best of 2008" lists.
Snow by Orhan Pamuk is my clunker of the year. Irritating, very slow read and I didn't like the "hero". The worst was that the author told us the end of the hero half-way in the book, and from then on it was no reason to read on. I did finish it, but it took me weeks.
#169 lilisin - I completely agree.
I'd add
The Magus as an honorable mention, not for its style, which is quite elegant, but for its dull main character and rather silly plot. As far as novels with femme fatales and excessive twists go, I'd rather read
Raymond Chandler.
"... abandoning it because the main character was annoyingly whiney."
Years ago, I abandoned
Salman Rushdieʻs Midnightʻs Children -- a very highly regarded book among critics -- and I didnʻt even have that much of an excuse.
I abandoned it because he introduced a c haracter named Wee Willie Winkie, who had the line "Winkie is my name, and singing for my supper is my fame (sic)." (--where I was expecting "... my game"). Guess I just wasnʻt ready, in a mostly serious book, for characters with cutesy names (derived, in this case from a nursery rhyme, and/or a Kipling short story?)
Hi Carlos McRey:
You may have heard the Woody Allen story about "The Magus" -- the movie (ca. 1964?) in his case, not the book.
He was asked by an interviewer what he would do differently if he had his whole life to live over again. After thinking briefly (or pretending to), he said, "Possibly I would pass up seeing ʻThe Magusʻ." (In another version, more complimentary to the film, he said, "Possibly I wouldnʻt see ʻThe Magusʻ THREE times."
139 Zanix
What an unpretentious load of crap you have posted to this site. I respect anyone's right to love or hate books, that is what makes LT such a joyous place to be. But simply to savage some of the great classical writers of our time so you can be noticed on this site, is appalling.
One can discuss the works of Dickens or Tolstoy or C S Lewis,
but how in good grace can you call Bleak House and Oliver Twist clunkers?
How can you put down Tolstoy's War and Peace? It is a long book, and at times, difficult to read, but a clunker? Hardly.
Did you, I wonder, pick the names out of a hat, because it hardly seems possible you can have the temerity to have read the entire works you mention, and then use fancy words that looked good on paper when you reread them?
Why only knock the 'name' authors such as Delillo, Palahniuk, and Ian Fleming? Cause you knew you would get a reaction - and you did.
I am so angry right now, and I shouldn't be, I should simply take what you have written with a proverbial grain of salt, and join the party again of sound and practical Lt posters that I enjoy so much.
And there are many that I disagree with on occasions, and that's ok. We can discuss the why's and wherefores in an orderly fashion.
Why on earth would I want to talk about how bad Dickens is and have you read Tolstoy's latest? Get down from your high horse...
Message edited by its author, Jul 12, 2009, 2:05am.
I appreciate your remarkable tolerance for critical opinions of books you have been told are the best-est ever, ever. I was completely unaware that the titles mentioned can only be discussed in glowing and reverent terms as you so rightly claim.
After such a spirited defense of "How? Why? and Where do you get off!" I can only refer you to the summary complaints above. Obviously I would never expect any specifics as to why you find my point-of-view so errant or any indication you have actually read the books in question. And yes, I have the "temerity" (such language!) to actually begin and finish books of many lengths and qualities; so sorry to offend. I can only appeal to your renowned good humor and other Victorian graces for clemency.
I am sure I can't begin to express how pleased we all are that you have finally arrived to dictate the "orderly fashion" in which we can enjoy "sound and practical" disagreement. After all, who am
I way up on my "high horse"?
Perhaps, in the future, you should avoid threads where people discuss books they didn't like? Merely a helpful suggestion.
Message edited by its author, Aug 13, 2009, 5:07am.
Cadillac Orpheus. This debut novel had potential but I think the author was trying to appeal to all the people, all the time, and he failed. In other words, he was attempting to do way too much.
#129
i agree with you.
definitely a waste of time. it's sad to see a brain scientist turn into a crazed new-age pusher in
My Stroke of Insight.
Message edited by its author, Jul 13, 2009, 1:47am.
Good for you, zanix, #176. I enjoy reading posts here that take on the shibboleths, even when I don't agree. I've certainly had plenty of people politely disagree with my views on a book.
I haven't had any clunkers recently, just disappointments. Those include
Brave Story by
Miyuki Miyabe, a YA fantasy out of Japan that I had high hopes for but was about twice as long (800 pp.) as it should have been,
Territory by
Emma Bull, an author I've enjoyed in the past but for me this supernatural western was sub-par, and Napoleon's Pyramid by
William Dietrich, whose main character was described as being like Cornwell's
Richard Sharpe, but who was more Indiana Jones lite.
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