Books that everyone loves and you hate

The first one that springs to mind for me is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It seems a lot of people find it an inspiring literary masterpiece, but I thought both the message and the symbolism were trite and simplistic.

More recently, I was disappointed by The Shadow of the Wind. After reading so many positive ratings and reviews here, I had high expectations even though I knew it probably wasn't a great work of literature. Instead, I found myself frustrated by a relentlessly gothic plot that seemed out of place in a relatively modern world. It seemed that many of the main characters' love-related problems could have been cured by a better sense of perspective and I wasn't sure what the narrator was supposed to have learned from his experience. At least that disappointment propelled me into the arms of some real literature in the form of Cloud Atlas. I haven't gotten far enough in to see how all of it fits together, but I have faith that I'm going to appreciate it in the end.

the 5 people you meet in Heaven has been om various best-seller lists a long time. Last week, my youngest daughter gave me her copy, telling me how great it was. Uh-uh. From the first page on, it was a struggle. I finally gave up around page 30. (If it hadn't been a daughter, it would have been many pages sooner.) Any one else had this reaction? The book must have some redeeming features, or it wouldn't be so popular for so long. Is it just me?

I've seen great reviews of Sophie's World: A History of Philosophy. I thought it was pure idiotic garbage.

I hated Eats, Shoots and Leaves even though (or maybe because) I'm an editor, and a fussy one at that. I'm very annoyed at myself for having bought it in hard cover.

Rebeccanyc,

I have to confess I am a punctuation challeged person so i found Eat, Shoots and Leaves to be an absolute riot. I break out in hives at the site of grammer and punctuation related reading material with flash backs to grammer school sitting in a corner with a dunce cap on. So for me the book was brillant.

As for a book that i didn't care for that came highly recommended the book was Angle of Repose. It took me until page 540 + to get to something i could sink my teeth into and there were only about 50 pages left.

David Perrings

Gone With the Wind. I alternated between boredom and disgust (for Scarlet's behavior) until Scarlet married Rhett, which didn't happen until around page 900, I think. After that, I was still disgusted with Scarlet, though less bored.

For me it's also The Alchemist. Pure drivel.

The other is The Da Vinci Code. Yeah, I know, a lot of people here on LT also despise it and I don't really want to start another heated debate about it... But I have yet to meet a person in real life who hated it. A few people have admitted that it is trite, but that they still liked it as it was extremely entertaining. I don't know... maybe the German translation is better than the English original. I won't read it to find out though.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The author sure likes to hear herself talk, so to speak.

I agree with THalia,

I do not like the da vinci code, and believe it or not i have made that clear in public.

David Perrings

I agree with THalia,

I do not like the da vinci code, and believe it or not i have made that clear in public.

David Perrings

#3 - cafepithicus

I agree with you completely about Sophie's World. Maybe I would've liked it better if I hadn't known anything about philosophy beforehand, but I didn't really see what was so special about the simplified, Reader's Digest version of Philosophy 101 it presented.

I must say I liked Eats, Shoots and Leaves and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell very much.

As for the highly acclaimed one I hated, it would have to be The Catcher In The Rye. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen and it never did.

#2 - I was also hugely disappointed with The Five People You Meet in Heaven. what i thought was a wonderful idea was executed in such a dull and unsatisfying way. you're the first person I've met who was as under-awed as I was. Thank you!

>12 Kira: - i'm with you on the catcher in the rye. i've read it twice and still can't figure out what's so great about that book.

in my more recent reading history, i forced myself to finish tad williams' otherland series, because i bought all the books before starting it... i've seen rave reviews of this series, but i found it to be so far fetched and the characters so ill-developed and lame that i was *aching* to be done by midway through the second book.

lastly, i actually had to give up on falconer when i tried to read it a few weeks back. the number of books i've refused to finish reading in my entire life is easily still in the single digits, but this one made the list. this book was a bestseller in the 80s, but i found absolutely no redeeming value in it whatsoever.

Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. If it hadn't been a book group book I would never have finished it.

#15....my sister has been going on and on at me for years to read The Poisonwood Bible. So far I've got as far as buying it...

The Thirteenth Tale seemed kind of blah to me, though many people here said they enjoyed it. I didn't like the characters. They seemed very forced.
The Great Gatsby I simply cannot abide for any reason.Sad but true.
Both The Historian and The Shadow of The Wind felt excessively long-winded, melodramatic and unrealistic in my opinion. I sold each off as soon as I finished it. I don't know how I managed to finish them either, but in both cases doing so was an unpleasant task.

Oh man, I really disliked The Historian also. The author just seemed hell-bent (if you will excuse the expression) to include every single bit of research she ever did for this book. It was interminable.

cestovatela - I read Sophie's World in high school (I think I was 16 or 17) and didn't know a whole lot about philosophy at that point -- and I *still* hated the book. Probably in the same way I hate the "Idiot's Guides" series.

I thought of a couple more: This Side of Paradise, which I didn't actively hate, but just bored the hell out of me.

Also, The Giant's House. I can't remember why I didn't like it, but I was disappointed. It came so highly recommended.

I totally disliked We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson. I bought it because the reviews on LT were excellent but....what a great disappointment! I only finished reading it because it is a short book. Much as I tried, I could not see the originality of the plot, and I could not understand how it was possible to compare it to a gothic novel.

I have tried since Byatt's Possession came out to read it. I have tried three times and can't get all the way through. I didn't care for the movie much either. I know I'm in the minority with this! Unlike other above posts, I really enjoyed The Historian and consider The Shadow of the Wind to be one of my favorite books.

At the risk of perhaps my life I can't see what all the fuss is about with "the Harry Potter books". I started the first one but gave up. Apparently everyone on LibraryThing has copies of the books and think they are wonderful. Does anyone else not care for them?

I know this is horrible, but... well, I really didn't like The Diary of Anne Frank.

Mine would be The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. The kid was dangerous, and should've been locked up; I couldn't believe that didn't happen after the train tracks episode.

I read The Alienist one day when I was home sick in bed, and that's a day of my life I'll never get back. My entire family raved about it, and I do like historical fiction, but this one did not do it for me.

I agree with rebeccanyc on Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I didn't bother finishing it.

>23 pandora22: pandora22 - You are not alone - the HP books do not appeal to me in the least either. They are very popular with adults which I find strange, although I do like the movies. I guess what I'm willing to spend my time watching as a movie greatly differs from that which I'm willing to spend my time reading. I've never been tempted to read an HP, and I doubt very much I ever will.

I'm sure this will astonish some, but I'm equally astonished by cabegley who didn't like The Alienist which is one of my favorite novels. Ah well, to each her own.

cabegley, #26 We must be twins! I hated The Alienist too (and I like it when books are set in NYC).

I've thought that before, rebeccanyc (#28)--we do seem to like/dislike a lot of the same books.

cabegley & rebeccanyc -- I read The Alienist earlier this year and didn't like it, either. Kreizler reminded me of that guy from Law & Order: Criminal Intent who thinks he knows everything. That book drove me insane.

I couldn't bring myself to even open The Secret, eventhough it was a gift from my mother. She's also always sending me the latest how to become a millionaire in real estate best seller.

To those who didn't like Poisonwood Bible I'm reading it in school right now and am discusted with Nathan and will admit to really liking Adah so far. I'm not even half way through it yet so I'll tell you how I fare.

Harry Potter...any of them. Just can't get into them.

I've heard people saying they really liked Half Blood Prince and I've just hated the book, it seemed so different than her other ones.

Embarrassingly enough, my first (and only - except 'Night') Oprah's book club book 'She's Come Undone' is my most despised of books. I hated the characters and the plot, but more than anything, I hated the end leading to nowhere.

re:message 2

I can't say I hated The 5 People You Meet in Heaven but it certainly wasn't as inspiring as I was expecting. I agree also with #13 that it was dull and unsatisfying.

The current crop of post modern books like The History of Love. Also housewife books like The Memory Keeper's Daughter and anything by Jodi Picoult.

Adding works by Terry Prachett. Also The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I cannot stand science fiction.

The Shipping News, Cryptonomicon, Atonement.

I loved Jonathan Strange and Harry Potter. Chacon a son gout!

>37 HelloAnnie: i actually love science fiction, but still don't get the hubbub about hitchhiker's guide. i read it, i guess i got a few giggles out of it, but the adoration people have for douglas adams is beyond me.

#37 and 39, I tried a couple of times, but couldn't get into the Hitchhiker's guide. But I decided to listen to it and now I'm on the 4th book. Much better as a story being told to you.

#6, I also hated Gone with the Wind, Scarlett drove me around the bend! But this was in high school and my friend told me it was brilliant so I finished it to see where the brilliant part came in. No luck.

One that I've never been able to finish but will try again someday is Lord of the Rings. Tolkien does write beautiful prose, and maybe I'll be able to relax and enjoy it now that I've seen the movie and won't try to rush through to the end.

Sandragon: nice to know I'm not alone! I've never finished LotR either. I've read Fellowship, but for the life of me can't remember any details, just a lot of "and they walked, and they walked some more, and they walked through the mountains, and through a valley, and ...."

Quicksilver I know lots of people who loved it. I've loved earlier works by neal Stephenson but this was just turgid. 900 pages of turgid dull dross. I have better things to do with my time.

Sandragon & ArmyAngel - I slogged through the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy but was pretty disappointed with it. J.R.R. Tolkien really should've picked up a thesaurus every once in awhile. I thought I'd barf if I saw the word "fell" one more time.

hi all-i absolutely positively hated the far pavillions by e.m.forester and anna karenina by tolstoy- it seemed like i carried those books around forever before i finally finished them

I've remembered a few others, thanks to this thread:

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Right off the bat, I really disliked the characters. They didn't do anything for me.

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. I wanted to reach into the book and THROTTLE Dolores. She remains one of my least favourite literary characters.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I don't exactly hate it, but I don't really get the hype either. I found it rather blah. I was a bit surprised, as I normally like that sort of humour, but Adams did nada for me.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Again, I wouldn't say I hated it, but I strongly disliked it. I initially disliked all the characters; while this faded to a mild disinterest as the book progressed, I still really didn't like the tone.

A few more I've thought of.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole -- couldn't finish it.

Paul Auster's City of Glass, the first book in what is now The New York Trilogy -- short enough that I finished it, but couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay MacInerney -- ditto

I personally did not care for The Kite Runner. I read it with a book group and was not as impressed as I felt I should have been.

It took me forever to finish Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, because I hated it so much but wanted to finish it because it was a classic. I also hated Running with Scissors and threw it in the trash before I finished. Wish I could have scrubbed out my brain after I read that one.

I didn't hate Wicked, but I didn't really like it much.

I did hate American Gods and Mélusine and couldn't even finish either of them.

#7 Thalia:
I, too, hate The Da Vinci Code.

#17 Phlox72:
I can't stand The Great Gatsby, either.

#23 pandora22, #27 Bookmarque, #33 physik:
Gasp!

# 34 blackcat:
Okay, I can't gasp at you 'cause I already knew how you felt about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. :)

#40 sandragon:
Oh, that's too bad. Hope you get to finish The Lord of the Rings someday. I liked those books very much. :)

49 bluesalamanders:
Did you enjoy any of the author's other books, or is that the only one you've read? (Don't read Son of a Witch since you don't like Wicked.)

Please, please, please don't ever make me read The Sound and the Fury ever again. I believe at last count it was assigned to me for classes in High School and College 4 times and it was painful and horribly tedious each and every time.

I don't really hate any books, I'd like to think there is something good in all stories. The ones that have been frequent favorites in their genres which I didn't really enjoy are Whitney My Love (romance where the misunderstandings were too redundant), The Giver (YA that was too disturbing for me) and Thirsty (YA that was too depressing).

50 Kerian

That is the first book I've read by him. And I'm not planning on reading Son of a Witch, no.

He's a decent enough writer, but I don't think I would ever read another fairy tale retelling by him. I might read an original novel, if it fell into my lap, but I probably won't seek them out.

I'm exactly the demographic that's supposed to like Jane Austen (female English major, generally inclined to like anything witty), but I really don't, even the pedestaled Pride and Prejudice, beyond a line here or there. I tried, but the focus on who danced with whom just couldn't hold my interest.

I also basically slept through The Great Gatsby.

But I like Dickens. Does that even things out?

For me I disliked: The Lovely Bones, The Road, The Time Travelers Wife, The Secret, Wicked, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Just couldn't enjoy them. I did not finish Wicked, The Secret & Time Travelers Wife.

I agree. The 5 People you Meet in Heaven had a poor excuse for a plot.I'm not sure if people are really reading it, or just buying it.

OK, I didn't like Harry Potter nor 5 people you meet in Heaven nor The Kite Runner.
Hmmm..... I didn't really like Wicked either.

Couldn't stand The Firm by Grisham - the ending was lame beyond belief. I read one other one of his when he was first starting out and thought it was dreck. Never read another. Cannot fathom why people read them. (shrugs)

#59, As far as both John Grisham and James Patterson go, they are terrible writers but their novels make entertaining movies.

The Poisonwood Bible is just amazing. Don't miss it.

I had to read Gone with the Wind for a college class on popular literature, and wanted to smack Scarlett every other page or so. Also from college, The Sound and the Fury: one of the two books I ever needed Cliffs Notes for.

Sad but true: when people recommend a favorite book too enthusiastically and shove it into my unwilling hands, I generally end up hating it. That's what happened to me with The Artist's Way, Charlaine Harris's Dead until dark, and One for the money by Janet Evanovich.

>>>35 tiddleyboom: - She's Come Undone was the only book in my life I had to force myself to finish because I hated it so much. I've had books I didn't like and were able to give up on. But I hated She's Come Undone so much I HAD to finish it in hope of finding something redeeming about it. Didn't - it bothered me right to the end.

I really didn't like The Kite Runner though I think it was well written. Stories where a character, especially a child, makes a decision that so strongly ruins the lives of others really disturb me. I had the same reaction with Atonement although I wouldn't say it disturbed me as much as Kite Runner.

I was very disappointed with The Artist's Way too. I was looking for creative inspiration, not therapy. Rarely, do I not finish a book, but I could not get through The Corrections.

Slaughterhouse Five.

Actually, of the four Vonnegut novels I've read, the only one I've liked at all is Mother Night.

Harry Potter. Read all of them, hated every single one. Gah. The films are tosh too.

Anything by D H Lawrence brings me out in a feminist rash. Virginia Woolf's novels are so dull I'd prefer a migraine. I love his style, but Henry James is also an enormous yawn-fest - sheesh, slow or WHAT. Salman Rushdie is boring (except for Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which is excellent). The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan is disgusting and made me shower after every read - ewwww.

Well, after such a dignified list of distinguished writers I actively dislike, I have to say I LOVED The Historian. I read Dracula straight after, and it looked very silly and episodic in comparison. So there. ;)

the picture of dorian gray

had to read it for college at one point and gave up after 20 pages or so.

Green Eggs and Ham, Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm all make me nauseous - literally. There are others I dislike and I find that getting older makes me much less tolerant of having my time wasted by a book I'm not enjoying. I almost never used to leave a book unfinished, now there is a growing pile of books I own I probably won't finish: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (loved the others), Iron Council by China Mieville (The Scar is a favourite).

Hera, message 67 (sorry, can't find hash on my keyboard!): Why did you read ALL of HP if you hate them so much? Agree about showering and The Cement Garden, also Ian Banks' Complicity had that effect, though I think it's a good (in the sense of moral, too) book.

Completely agree with all the DaVinci Code votes. Talk about a TV movie plot.

I'm going out on a limb and say Angela's Ashes. Day 1: my father got drunk and beat my mother
Day 2: my father got drunk and beat my brother
Day 3: my father got drunk and beat us all
Definitely not my thing.

Forgot to add Harry Potter. Only got through book 1 and well, it's a kid book. Didn't even bother with the others, though I'm embarrassed to admit purchasing book 2 in paperback in a moment of weakness. Philip Pullman's books are far more intelligent and original.

Oh man, Of Mice and Men!

I hated that book so much.

Also, George R R Martin's Song of Fire and Ice books. I don't have words for how much I hate those.

Since the Da Vinci Code is so unbelievably popular, it would be the best example of a book "everyone" loves but I hate. And I have expressed my dislike and the reasons for it publicly whenever possible, maybe too vociferously at times. I hate it so much.

I didn't much like Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong when I read it for my book club. The horrors of WW1 are well described but the main characters were unengaging and the love story completely unconvincing. I also didn't think the thoughts and behavior of the characters in Anita Diamant's The Red Tent rang true for their times. And count me among those underwhelmed by The Kite Runner.

Unless it's for book club, I don't usually read bestsellers. Too many disappointments! I like to wait till the hype settles, check out this site, Amazon, and others, to sift through reviews and try to discern from reviews which books might appeal to me.

#69 - I work with children. If you don't know the latest plot, you're lost in many conversations. Each read has been more excruciating than the last: long on words, short on coherent plot IMO. I had to read one of them again straight away because the plot was incomprehensible to me: that's when you really notice how poor JKR's writing style is, on a re-read when you're not hooked by the plot.

I semi-agree with most educators that it's good 'children are reading SOMETHING' (subtext: we know it's crap, but it's helping their literacy). Same goes for Sweet Valley High and other teen-sub-porn girls read; it's total tripe 'but at least they're reading'. Not that I'd touch anything like that with a ten-foot bargepole and I am SO relieved the HP thing will finally all be over soon. :D

Some of the titles posted I've really liked, some I've also disliked. I am finding it interesting that a poster's likes or dislikes and the number of books we have in common doesn't seem to have much to do with other. Maybe that's because we're talking individual books instead of genres.

Here's a couple unmentioned that I'll admit to. I've never been able to finish Catch 22 by Jospeh Heller I can't tell you how many times I've started it. I usually laugh out loud at the first few chapters and I can pick any chapter randomly and enjoy it, but I can't get through the whole thing. There just isn't enough plot to see me all the way through. War is absurd. The military beauracracy is absurd. OK, got it. Don't need all those other chapters saying the same thing and I lose interest.

I've also disliked Lord of the Flies by William Golding since I got hit over the head with it in high school. I reread it when my kids were reading it in high school and found that age and experience didn't make it any better for me. (The touchstones insist that Lord of the Flies was written by Harold Bloom who did a critical interpretation of it....)

Golly - isn't it a good job we're all different!

#71 - i only read Of Mice and Men for the first time very recently and really liked it.

#72 - again, I really got engrossed in The Red Tent, probably because it was so unlike anything else I'd read previously.

Weirdly enough, I usually find out after reading a book that it's one of the "books of the moment". It's quite satisfying because somehow I manage to avoid everyone else's opinion and am able to form my own, independent of the hype!

I hated Lord of the Flies too, I forgot that one - nausea again (funnily enough, Sartre's Nausea was okay).

The Red Tent is on my list to read, because a friend who loved it lent me it, but I don't like the look of it somehow.

Okay, Hera, I get that you do have to read HP. I've read a lot of stuff to keep up with sons over the years (and watched a lot of films that I'd rather only see from behind the sofa), though that's mostly been rewarding. Agree about JKR's style, and they aren't at all original in the way she uses ideas, though I quite enjoy them myself - I'm getting grateful for anything that can hold my attention, and they don't take long to read (except for my husband, who has what Woody Allen calls "poor reading habits" and has, I think, lost HP and the Goblet of Fire under the bed).

I finished The Sun Also Rises yesterday on the train. I have mixed feelings about it. I do like Hemingway's descriptive writing, but the characters/plot honestly seemed like they would have been at home on Dawon's Creek. I hope some literary god doesn't smite me for that, but it's seriously what I was thinking the whole way through.

I'm still working on my nighttime book, The Stones Cry Out. It's quite poignant. My new day time book is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.

Harry Potter. I guess I just don't get it.

The Bridges of Madison County. I didn't understand that one, either.

Reading this thread has been very interesting!

vch

I'm in agreement with Phlox72. I really, really wanted to like The Great Gatsby, I kept expecting it to get better... but I just hated it.

Beloved by Toni Morrison. That book represents everything that is ridiculous about academia to me...

But I always feel bad for hating such a touchstone (hah) of neo-slave narratives. Or whatever.

the Secret is, well, not a secret. Its teachings have been public for years, and the same concepts can be found in books written by people who better understand it and better explain it than Mrs Byrne, who is quite obviously only in it for the money. I also agree with Catcher in the Rye. Its been a while since I read it in, I think, sophomore year of highschool, but I remember fucking hating the main character. He was, to my way of thinking, a complete loser, and I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen. Infact, I didn't like many of the books I had to read for school period, and this is from a guy that likes to read.

I absolutely agree on both The Great Gatsby and Sophie's World, and I'm particularly glad to hear I'm not alone on the former! If it really is one of the greatest novels ever written, then there's something I'm genuinely not getting. Maybe it's because I'm not American, have never been to America, cannot claim to have any understanding of America - but all that "the American dream was an illusion after all!" doesn't really float my boat.

#68, you astonish me! In a literary fight between Fitzgerald and Wilde, I know who I'd back.

My contribution is Life of Pi. If it hadn't been the last book I had with me on holiday, I'd have had difficulty finishing it.

Those mystery novels where people's dogs and cats help solve crimes.

Fantasy novels with bumbling sorcerer's apprentices who play the guitar badly. Gack.

Also, heresy to some, Moby Dick. I was firmly on the side of the whale and bored to tears most of the way through (forced school reading).

The Kite-Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.

I agree with those of you who didn't like The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It was a brilliant idea that was poorly executed.

I couldn't get through The English Patient. I needed to read it for two different classes CanLit classes and couldn't get through it either time. That was a few years ago so I'm thinking about giving it another go some time soon.

I also struggle with non-fiction. I'll here about a new title, get excited about it, buy it and then start reading, only to lose interest part way through. This has happened with: No Logo, Fast Food Nation, Planet Simpson, and 1968 just to name a few.

I had to read The Odyssey for school and I hated it until the last chapter when it finally picked up the pace and didn't take 2 pages to say something that could be said in a paragraph.

I also hated Great Expectations by Charles Dickens that was also extremely long winded, I know he was getting paid by the word, but come on!

Both of those books I had to read last year for school.

I agree with many of the suggestions here, particularly The Alchemist and The Shadow of the Wind (which I would have liked if it had been 300 pages shorter). And I really, really disliked She's Come Undone, which was such a disappointment after the pretty cover.

Also, I have to say that I was shocked when I finally read Tuesdays With Morrie--THAT was a best seller? "Stop and smell the roses"--wow, how profound. Who would have thought of that? Sheesh!

As for The DaVinci Code, I think it just gets automatically added to the top of this list without any debate.

Underworld, by Don Delilo. i got about 700 pages in to the book, which was only half way, when he had one of the characters do the stupidest thing imaginable, had barely hinted at the plot shift, and i just said "That's it! i'm not reading anymore." funny thing, i love the way he writes: how he puts words together into sentences, sentences into stories.

just that one thing was enough for me to hate the book.

someday, i gotta find someone who finished it and find out how the second 700 pages went.

Abarat by Clive Barker a lot of people were raving about it so I gave it a try. I gave up after only a couple of chapters because it started to irritate me. I can't really explain why strangely enough. Part of it was the illustrations and a part of it was the creature the main character ran into (a man with horns on which are the living heads of his brothers).

Also I'm a big Agatha Christie fan, but I hated Endless Night from the start. Just rubbed my fur the wrong way I guess.

the catcher in the rye for me was definitely a stinker. what a terrible book, poorly written, poor grammar, limited vocabulary, annoying main character, boring storyline. In no way whatsoever does it deserve tha acclaim and status it holds.

Harry Potter. Was mildly entertained by Books 1 and 2 but enough already!

Wicked. Read that one for a Barnes and Noble book club. Wanted to love it. Hated it.

The Egyptologist - also a B&N book club choice about two years ago - was so bad I threw it against the wall. Appalling characters. Mushy writing. Ridiculous plot. Up to that point I thought it wasn't possible for me to dislike anything written on or re Ancient Egypt. Even now when I see someone looking at it in a bookstore I want to scream "Don't touch - it's vile!".

The Da Vinci Code and The Kite Runner. I don't care how fascinating the plot is, I expect the book to be well written and those two are not, in my opinion.

One thing that really annoys me is when the author painstakingly describes EVERYTHING, especially feelings, and even takes the trouble to let me know how I should feel about people and events. I can't relate to a book if there aren't any blanks to fill. I need some reader's license :-) Neither of these books provided it, and I didn't finish either.

#92> XenaBallerina, I could not agree more about The Egyptologist. I found it awful and the character soooo irritating! What a pompous ass!!!

I think that was the point #94 & 92. It was part of the joke.

I have to say that I enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell very much. Maybe because nobody warned me that I was supposed to love it, lol. It's true that the 19th-century talk is a bit artificial, but it worked for me, and I really liked how the author manages to make the characters lovable while making fun of their faults.

I also like the Harry Potter books. The first ones were a bit too childish in my opinion but I've really enjoyed vol.3 and up.

Yesterday I read The Colour of Magic, my first full Terry Pratchett, and I was pretty disappointed. There were some funny bits, and I can appreciate that he's going for satire more than anything else, but I'd expected something with a lot more punch given all the rave reviews. There was almost no character development, and I didn't find that the random funny bits really coagulated into an entertaining whole. There was nothing there to engage my interest beyond the moment. I've heard that this is among the worst of the Discworld novels, so maybe I'll try a later volume somewhere down the line, but they're definitely a very low priority right now.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Somehow I just really did not like this book. The characters left me cold and uninterested. They just didn't seem real to me. And I thought the plot was silly. Maybe I missed something.

*Edited to say oops I'm sorry I posted about this book already. I guess I really didn't care for it and it still rankles me, but seriously I didn't realise I was repeating myself.

Anyway another one I remembered today was Wuthering Heights. Oh good god above I hate that book. No explanations required in my opinion.

>97 xicanti:
i have to agree on the colour of magic and the other couple of pratchett books i've read. that said, though, friends of mine who are into his books have told me that i started in the wrong place, and that i should give him another chance. *shrug* i kinda think three books is chance enough.

Put me down as another vote for The Great Gatsby -- thouroughly unimpressive even to this American reader.

I have recently been reading alot of classics and most of them are so suprisingly good I can see what all the fuss is about -- but not Gatsby, and another disappointment -- My Antonia by Willa Cather -- once again astoundingly underwhelming 'classic.'

I can't stand Wesley Stace's Misfortune: a Novel. He's very cavalier with matters of Georgian society. There are a number of irritating anachronisms, and unconvincing details of setting and characterization. His ideas about personal identity are sophomoric (in the sense that he seems to know just enough about some aspects of identity theory to misapply them) and some of the ways he employs them are just not believable. I found his gratuitous use of vulgar anatomical terms distracting, but since I don't know what he was trying to accomplish with them, I can't say whether he succeeded or not. The coarseness seemed not to fit the tone of the rest of the book, though.

Oh, and I knew how it would end by page 5. Not just what the resolution would be, but the general outline of it (which characters would turn out to be related to which others and how that would alter the situation driving much of the plot so that the resolution could occur).

A number of people defend it as being Dickensian, as though that somehow makes it good. But just because he wrote in the mode doesn't mean he did it well.

I hated The Historian. It's unbelievable that it sold so well.

#4 and others:

I am not an editor, but I hate Eats, Shoots ,and leaves all the same.

I'm surprised he hasn't come up, so perhaps I won't get much agreement by adding James Joyce to the list. I know he was important yada yada and Borges was a big fan, but I had to read The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in high school and it bored me to tears. (And I generally liked the more challenging books assigned in my English classes, like Faulkner) It was like a long, painful episode of "The Wonder Years: Kevin is an Irish Catholic."

97 & 99> I have to agree on Pratchett's Color of Magic. There were some funny bits, but a lot of the "humor" felt forced, as if it was written by a high school kid who had read a lot of Douglas Adams. (I suspect I would have liked Pratchett a lot more if I had encountered him when I was in high school.)

A friend loaned me Koontz' The Key to Midnight, which seems to get pretty good reviews. This was the first Koontz' book I ever read and may be the last if it's any indication. I understand that airport novels tend to have certain weaknesses (two dimensional characters, overreliance on cliche, etc.) but a book written to be light entertainment has no excuse for being boring. (Which it is, up until the last quarter, where he manages to get the action going.)

As for the Great Gatsby, I didn't particularly care for it, but I found it short and painless.

I'm with sflax. I'm the only female English major I've ever encountered in my life who hates Jane Austen. I especially hate Pride and Prejudice, and everyone I know who reads for pleasure seems to list that as one of their favorites. It's just so boring. Those people don't ever do anything. Except for Lydia. But I hated her anyway--because you were supposed to, I guess.

On Beauty bored me to tears. I only got about 50 pages read and gave up.

I did a bit better with Huckleberry Finn but not by much - 100 pages.

I did manage to finish On Beauty, but it was very disappointing I thought, compared with her others, so you rally didn't miss out on any possible momentof epiphany Morphidae!

I do not like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Hate the books though so many love the series. I also don't know what's up with the Harry Potter mania. I tried reading the first book and it wasn't all that great. ARGh, I'll be so glad when the last and final book comes out in July so it'll all go away!!!lol.

#104 - I agree with you on Koontz, the one exception being the Odd Thomas books. Quite different from his usual stuff: no Catholic prosletyzing, no evil godless commie pinko liberals, etc. Nothing earthshattering, but I was both entertained and amused.

I generally like fantasy, even stuff I might admit in an unguarded moment is terribly cliched and screams out for ruthless editing. For me its the literary equivalent of pro wrestling, I guess. But having said that, I could not finish R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series. The nasty sex stuff just got to me after a while, and I think I have a pretty strong stomach for that sort of thing. (Though I suppose I should have been tipped off when the opening sequence of the first book was about a little boy getting repeatedly molested.)

I have no idea why Bakker is getting treated like some sort of rising star in the Fantasy genre. Unless masochism is some sort of new requirement to read this stuff.

Oh, yes, speaking of reader masochism...I also loathed the Gormenghast books. Overwritten, tedious, plotless rubbish. Why this series is thought so highly of I haven't a clue.

Booklover: You think the mania will end in July? There are 3 more movies on the way! *evil grin*

>98 Phlox72:
I'm with you in loathing Wuthering Heights. Those stupid characters deserve each other. I wanted to like it, too, but not a chance.

>105 electricjellybean: As far as Jane Austen goes, I have to say I love them all except Emma, which seems to be everyone's favorite after Pride and Prejudice. The Emma character is the kind of person that would drive me insane in real life, and I really didn't enjoy spending time with her in fictional life, either.

ditto aviddiva. Can't stand Emma. Wanted to smack her about every other page. Waited for someone to work up the backbone to tell her off, but no one ever did. Cowards.

109> It wasn't Koontz' prosletyzing that got to me so much as the inherent flabbiness of the book. There were a two and a half pages devoted to the standard "putting someone under" of a hypnotism routine, something which a better author could have dispensed with in a paragraph. As another example, there were three pages late in the book devoted to the routine of a character who 1) we've only met once, 2) played only a tangential role in the plot, 3) has already been foreshadowed as marked for death, 4) and about who we could not care in the slightest. Perhaps it was meant to be suspensful, but it was really just tedious and I found myself skipping ahead to the death scene.

It is funny how Koontz' politics seem to interfere with his storytelling, though. One of the characters in Key to Midnight seems to make for something of a tragic villain, but any possibility of the character being sympathetic or his situation being poignant is quashed by Koontz' need to outline that he's a villain.

Speaking of fantasy, I'd like to name drop R.A. Salvatore, as one of those authors everyone but me seems to like. I have to admit I used to be a fan of his work when I was a teenager and AD&D novels were my main form of literary escapism. But somewhere around the final volumes of The Cleric Quintet I grew tired of his books, because they were really formulaic. (That along with the Dark Sun The Outcast from the Tribe of One series was why I gave up reading AD&D novels and generally soured on fantasy.) He's since gone on to the NYT bestseller list, and perhaps his writing has gotten better since I was in high school.

#110
ArmyAngel,
Ack, I totally forgot about the movies!! Ugggh! Last week at the local library there was some Harry Potter event going on and people actually dressed up. I couldn't believe it. Then while I was in the bathroom these two teenage girls were role-playing!! I just wanted to say, "Umm, you know it's not real and you look like a fool!". Okay, maybe I was being harsh thinking that but when I saw a group of high school/college age people dressed up...*shakes head in disgust*. Someone just shoot me please.lol.

At least they were kids. Kids are suppose to dress up and make believe.

In L.A. a couple or three weeks ago there was a star wars convention and there were middle aged star troopers, princess Lala, etc. Talk about "shaking ones head in disgust."

I have to teach A Separate Peace every year to my sophomores. The first time I read it I thought, it's okay, nice enough I guess. I absolutely hate it now. It gets worse every year. I'm not really sure why. There just doesn't seem to be any real substance to it and it seems cruel to be forcing teenagers to read a ho-hum book. Unfortunately, the other teachers in my district love it and won't take it off the curriculum. The students just dismiss it as, oh, they're gay. I keep trying to like it.

BTW, I hate Dickens. Especially Great Expectations. Even A Tale of Two Cities, while good for Dickens, has been done better. I know that's blasphemy for an English teacher. It is just so very obvious he was paid by the word.

Bookladykm #70:

I agree completely about Angela's Ashes - thanks for mentioning it. Then again I read it back-to-back-to-back with The Liar's Club and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Some books are simply awful, but I've discovered in my reading life that some books have a trick to them -- reading a book from the wrong angle or reading it with expectations from the wrong genre can make an otherwise good book awful.

The Harry Potter books are not great prose, compared to other works of Fantasy they are not deeply original or inventive -- but they are puzzle books. Each book is a mystery, and the entire series - taken together - will be a mystery. Smaller mysteries even span two's or three's of the HP books.

If I want that gossamer sense of Somewhere Else I read a solid Fantasy book. If I'm trying to work out a mystery in the Harry Potter books (the way I'd solve a crossword puzzle) I re-read one or another of the series. (The way the whose series works as a unit is vaguely like Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, but otherwise I wouldn't compare them.)

Lord of the Rings is like The Left Hand of Darkness, the start of the book throws a lot of readers off. Some suggest skipping the first chapter of LOTR -- it's certainly true that Tolkien himself was feeling his way into the story and the world as he wrote (I don't recommend it to anyone who hated Lord of the Rings but the middle books of The History of Middle-Earth show this process.)

The beloved book I hated was Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon; maybe it's being a historian that put me off it.

-Kushana

I've been trying to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell for two years. I can only make it a few pages before I fall asleep. At this rate it's going to take at least 15 years.

Someone brought me The Da Vinci Code when I was in the hospital a few years ago to keep me entertained. I got as far as the self-flagellating albino before I said you've got to be kidding and threw it out.

The absolute worst was The Celestine Prophecies. I realize that it was initially self-published, but once a major publisher picked it up could they not have spared an editor to clean up the grammar? I made it to about the fourth chapter, but the bad sentence structure, screwed up tense and point of view were such a distraction I couldn't concentrate on what he was trying to say.

I agree about the Celestine Prophecies. It was so poorly written as to laughable.

I once had a writing teacher who used The Celestine Prophecies as proof that anything can get published, but it's one's own decision to write well or to write poorly that matters.

As a result of that class (and my respect for that instructor), that I've never been able to read the book. Sounds like she was right (er, write?).

I know Im going to get bombarded by classic lovers everywhere, but I hated Alice in wonderland/through the looking glass. While I'm digging my own grave I might as well add that I loathe Jane Eyre.

#123 -- It's not so much that I hated Alice in Wonderland as I just didn't see the point. I know it's nonsense lit. but it never appealed to me. You're on your own with Jane Eyre. I absolutely love her.

Based on your handle can I assume you are a fellow knitter?

I have tried to listen to One for the Money by Janet Evanovich three times now. I get a little farther in the book each time but still don't want to listen to anymore. I have friends and relatives who love this series. But for me, there isn't one single character I like.

The first few are funny, but Stephanie is such a moron I can't believe she lived to adulthood and Evanovich recycles every gag about a dozen times so as not to waste a precious shred.

Oh, I've got a ton...

Top of the list are Ender's Game (seriously, we can't find a competent general outside the ranks of pre-school?) and Lord of the Rings - I was ok slogging through it up to the big battle with the Rohirim, but then it was just like...Frodo...drop the ring already and be DONE with it...

I also hated The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Lovely Bones (and I shudder to think of the self-indulgent movie Peter Jackson will make out of THAT), and The Golden Compass.

For all the Pullman fans, it was a matter not so much of disliking the story as absolutely HATING Lyra for being so completely self-absorbed and obnoxious...

>123 knitteratheart:
>124 gautherbelle:

I believe Alice in Wonderland was written as satire. Now that the satire is dated/meaningless it just reads as nonsense. Let me add that I have never read the book nor do I have any desire to do so.

Thought of a few more:

Uglies and Pretties. Haven't read Specials yet. I just don't get what's supposed to be so great about these. There's absolutely nothing new about them...

And Cider House Rules - it just...bugged me.

I thought The Lovely Bones was okay, but I can see why you disliked it; I don't believe I'll be seeing a movie version.

I'm just seconding a lot of what has already been said. Hated Da Vinci Code. Hated Ender's Game. Hated Wicked, Eats Shoots & Leaves, Golden Compass, and everything LOTR.

I read the first Harry Potter book and hated it. Then everyone said "oh, the second one is much better." So I read the second one and hated that. Then everyone said "oh, the third one is where it really starts getting good," but by that point I was like, forget it! I have better things to do with my time!

I've also always hated Wuthering Heights. The best thing about not being in school any more is knowing I'll never have to read it again, LOL.

>105 electricjellybean: electricjellybean, I'm another female English major who hates Jane Austen. *high-five*

>82 DLSmithies: DLSmithies, I'm alarmed to hear you mention Life of Pi -- I just started it. It's for a book club, so I guess I'm committed to finishing it regardless. But I'm only about 25 pages in so it's too soon to say yet.

Enders Game was awful. 7 year olds? Sheesh!

'Hate' is probably too strong a term, but I definitely felt The Kite Runner was very contrived and over-rated.

#133. Wow. I just finished the kite runner about an hour ago. I didn't hate it. But I did want to weep uncontrollably. Just when I thought the worst possible has happened, something else horrible happens. And the end was contrived. But overall, I liked it. Not love. Not to be read again. Yeah.

The Lovely Bones and Girl with a Pearl Earring...I just don't understnad what all the hype was about for both of those books or hwy they've been going around the book club cirlces for so long.

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald. It started off depressing and just got more and more depressing as it continued but I read the whole thing because I had bought it in hardcover.

I also didn't like The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver but I also read it totally because it's the favourite novel of an aunt that I really respect.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is another one that I just couldn't get into. I never finished it.

Jane Austen's books, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien are other books that I tried and couldn't get into.

Oh, here's another book that everyone loved and I loathe: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

I really, really wanted to like it...but no.

*The touchstone appears to go to the movie, which I did like.

#87 (blackcat348) Were you reading the prose version? It really makes a difference when the long-windedness is due to lovely poetry instead.

I started reading Atonement by Ian McEwan and couldn't get beyond a chapter. In my memory it seemed like overly-romanticised drivel, you know, little blonde children who write cute little stories and then skip down to a tumbly moss-covered wall.

The Da Vinci Code's popularity makes me want to weep. How snobbish. But really, how can people be blind to the lame writing? And why does no one care that 'Da Vinci' wasn't his effing name???

I'm also against Wicked. 'It turns out good and evil aren't as black and white as we thought! Prejudice is bad!' I hope he didn't think this clever.

Also, calm down with Harry Potter. (I'm one to talk). It's children's fiction, and it is a far sight better than C. S. Lewis and countless other classics.

>138 rebyonak::rebyonak: I'm sure that if you'd had read any other of McEwan's novels you would have realised that he doesn't go in for that sort of writing at all. All he's doing here is introducing the character of Briony as a storyteller and this imaginative trait is what sets off a whole train of misunderstanding and distress (and, yes, I've simplified matters) . It might be as well to read the synopsis on Amazon.

The Stranger. Ugh, I'm glad it was a short book. It was terrible.

Lovely Bones. It was fine until the end. Then it was ruined.

And almost everything I've read by Gregory Maguire. I just can't get into him at all.

Umm, let's see, I dislike the hype around the DaVinci Code, after all it's not THAT imaginative, especially since the concept has already been done in Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and besides which the whole thing is more pop-entertainment than anything else. Also, the Harry Potter books, people gotta stop making them out to be the best literary achievement since Paradise Lost or something, they're children's books, end of story.

Absolutely anything by Toni Morrison, most especially Song of Solomon. I've had to read 6 of her works for various classes and they have all been hideously unbelievable. I had a professor go on and on about how wonderful this woman's work is, but all it was as far as I'm concerned was a well-dressed V.C. Andrews book. They're both all about sex and incest. At least V.C. Andrews books don't give any illusions about being great literature.

I have absolutely no idea how this woman came to be the god she is in English and Literature departments she is right now. I was happy to read regulations for transporting hazardous materials after Song of Solomon, and would happily do so again rather than.

>142 sailordanae::sailordanae: this (Song of Solomon) was one of my texts on an Open University course. I must admit I wasn't totally enthralled, to say the least. I usually like literary novels but with certain authors like Morrison I sometimes think they get overly praised because they press the right buttons for academia.

Another real dog was Neuromancer. It was a gift so I tried, but couldn't do it.

#139 I know I overstated it a little, I was just trying to express the general sense I got from that book...I think it is decidedly the type of book I don't like. I did read Enduring Love before I started Atonement, so it wasn't a rash judgement of him. But the prospect of something eventually happening to that self-indulgently precocious Briony character wasn't enough to keep me reading through the overused turns of phrase and stock, wearisome adjectives-a-plenty writing.

I can't find the appeal of "The Memory Keeper's Daughter". I can't get past the first chapter. It's horrible.

Let's see.

First, Toni Morrison. Although I liked Jazz, Song of Solomon, and The Bluest Eye, I wasn't at all fond of Paradise and had to drag myself through Beloved. Someone out there, tell me why I should give Beloved another go!

Da Vinci Code? Blech. Sure the ideas are interesting, but the writing style and character development leave much to be desired.

I was very disappointed when I read The Shadow of the Wind a couple of summers ago. It started out wonderfully well . . . all that lovely stuff about books . . . but it degenerated into a plot-driven, tedious sort of thing. My book club wants to do it this September, and I don't know whether or not I should discourage them.

Although I really enjoy most of Margaret Atwood's books, I just can't stomach The Handmaid's Tale. Maybe that's because it's so well done, i.e., a convincing view of an all-too possible world. (I probably shouldn't have read it when I was pregnant . . . those of you out there who have read it will understand why this is so!)

Tuesdays With Morrie is just as corny as I expected it to be. Problem is, lots of people love corny. Often (but not always) if something is a best seller, that's a good reason to steer clear of it.

Well I don't know if anybody loved it but there was all this buzz about House of Leaves. I only recently read it and boy was I bored and irritated. It seemed more like a gimmick, a bit of an insulting one at that, than an "experimental novel" as it has been called. It wasn't horrific in my opinion, just filled with some pretty lame characters, who made some rather silly choices. And the house just needed a good arsonist if you ask me. Seriously, I've felt annoyed and deceived since finishing it, and not once did it terrify me. I think there was a story in there - but it may have been a good one that was badly told. It just fell flat for me. Ok, deep breath now...end of rant.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Everyone raved about this book, but I hated it. The writing style really rubbed me the wrong way, and I couldn't relate to the main character at all.

I wasn't able to get very far into The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Don't remember why.

I have also given up on Elizabeth George. I read everything up until With No One as Witness. I got halfway through and was annoyed at the wording used "to keep us guessing." I cheated and flipped to the end and was so appalled that she killed off one of the very few really nice characters, that I put the book down and swore off the series. I always thought them very dark, but this one was too much.

Almost anythying by Kurt Vonnegut. I just can't stand that guy. I remember reading the intro to Slapstick or Cat's Cradle or something and getting into this rage. I love J.D. Salinger and everything he's written and Vonnegut seems to me to be the awful, self righteous opposite of him.

Perhaps hate is too strong a word. Intense disappointment is how I'd describe my reaction to Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master which struck me as pretty dull, despite having several people tell me they were good fantasy. Feist also managed to sour me on "ripping good yarn," which I now reflexively think of as equivalent to "sloppily written."

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Too close to home for me.

>151 careyi:, I can't say I "can't stand" Vonnegut, but the impression I got from reading a couple of his books was: "Hi, I'm Kurt Vonnegut and I'm very, very smart and know everything. You, gentle reader, are pretty smart, because you are reading my book. I'm still better than you, but you're OK. Those other people out there, they're all morons." Not a real uplifting attitude. Good vocabulary, though.

I thought the da Vinci code was pretty lame too, and the construction was so obvious - make nothing happen for most of the chapter, then get a huge cliffhanger and move on to one of the other storylines.
I did not manage to finish Lord of the Rings either, I got to somewhere in the second book.
And one that was very popular in the Netherlands, Knielen op een bed violen, I though pretty awful as well. I just kept on waiting for something to happen, and worse, I kept wondering why the writer made the choice to describe the bits he described instead of others. And once the writer becomes that visible, the book doesn't really stand a chance anymore.

I do want to defend His Dark Materials though - of course Lyra is an obnoxious brat. But I actually think that's one of the strong points of the book, the people that do the good things are not always the nice ones, and vice versa.
The same goes for catcher in the rye (#98) - of course it's got "poor grammar, limited vocabulary, annoying main character". The guy's a teenager, he's confused, he does not know what to do with himself, with his life, how to express himself, he only has a vague idea of what he does not want.

And very slightly OT - why spend time finishing books you hate? Especially when its's Otherland - I loved it, but even I thought it was a bit long. Or even rereading them - I know Catcher in the rye is not as long, but when you know you dislike it, why not read something else?

I totally agree with those of you who didn't get the hype surrounding The Five People You Meet In Heaven - it was just OK for me. Another that I've read recently and didn't like at all was the 2006 Booker Prize winner The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I really didn't like any of the characters and ultimately didn't give a toss what happened to them!

>154 Pawcatuck:, Yes! That's exactly what I get from him.

Adding my drops to the bucket:

The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner
Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell by Susanna Clarke
The Harry Potter books Rowling

The first book I ever likened to Vogon Poetry -- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin -- Totally fascinating man; utterly horrible writer. Couldn't wait to get to the part about his burial.

Close Seconds:
The Life of Pi
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap Series - over-the-top sexual violence

There are other books I've lost interest in, but intend to give them a second shot when I'm in the mood.

I find all Dickens books dull and overwrought. I also thought The Corrections by Franzen was tedious. I disliked the characters thoroughly.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

I simply couldn't get over the bizarre fact that somehow this child was left in the care of the sibling who was youngest and ostensibly the least capable of raising him. Where was the older married brother in all this? I just never warmed to the story.

What an interesting question and variety of responses.

I'm sorry (mortified in fact) so many loathe Jane Austen, or Wuthering Heights or The Picture of Dorian Gray. I worship them, religiously.

On the other hand, I'm relieved a few readers dislike Tuesdays with Morrie and Sophie's World. The absolute pits. Frankly, it isn't the books I'm allergic to, but the authors. Ayn Rand is another: anything by her.

Anything in the Popular Science vein - a contradiction in terms. Stephen Hawking, for example, or Richard Dawkins or, worst of all, David Attenborough, Dickie's brother.

Anything remotely religious, or same difference, to do with money. Priests who lecture us on marriage, rabbis who are experts on Islam. Trendy theologians like Hans Kung.

Almost all poetry in the Anglo-American mould. Or from Australasia.

"How to do it" manuals on any subject under the sun.

Business Directories, political autobiographies, celebrity vols.

Need I continue?

So you like Unpopular Science, then?

BTW, everyone who hated the Da Vinci Code should probably read Dave Barry's column on it: http://tinyurl.com/2zbljl .

As for why people finish reading books they hate...my guess would be some combination of a) need to read it for class, book club, etc., b) determined to figure out what the fuss is (for very popular/classic books), and/or c) simple reluctance/inability to leave any book half-read. I'm bad about the latter myself.

>165 mamajoan:: Your link doesn't work.

Dune. It never particularly grabbed me.

sorry -- the link is fixed now...I think?

Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell goes near the top of the list. I started reading it thinking "This is going to be awesome!" and turned into "This is the most boring freakin' thing I've ever read!"

I seriously hated The Giant's House. A friend gave it to me and thought that it was wonderful. It felt more like a middle school read than anything.

I find the wild plot contortions and coincidences of some Victorian novels hard to stomach, especially in Dickens.

And Kahlil Gibran's quasi-mystic sanctimony makes me want to puke.

Louise Gluck is the most boring modern poet I've read.

I gave up on Last of the Mohicans half way through, and I almost never do that.

In defence of The Catcher in the Rye, an unlikeable protagonist / narrator doesn't make it an unlikeable story, surely? Not for me anyway. Besides, Caulfield isn't that bad a kid! Lay off him!

Winkie. I got thirty-ish pages in, and just couldn't stand it anymore. I know, I know, it's satire. I just...can't handle what they do to that little bear.

Walden Pond by Thoreau I just hated, I had to read it for English and it was like torture on the mind. Any thing Transcendentalist is horrible to read.

On the Road. I just can't help it. I dislike the man. I think the message of experiencing life to the fullest is important but if during your pursuit of your experiences you disregard those of other people then what's the point?

I won't even touch 'bestsellers' here, since I almost always despise them and consider their readers illiterates.

Some highly overrated, but well respected fiction authors, though (none of whom I like):

John Steinbeck
Walker Percy
JD Salinger
James Joyce
Ezra Pound (eww)
TS Eliot (double eww)
Andrei Codrescu
DH Lawrence
Thodore Dreiser
Ernest Hemingway

>176 joshuaferris:: I think you'll find most LTers dislike Dan Brown in general and Da Vinci Code in particular...

Wow, reading this thread is an emotional rollercoaster. I agree vehemently with some, but then I see that someone hated one of my favorites (which is the point, I suppose) and it breaks my heart.

Anyway, I can really only think of two books I hated that everyone seems to love - The Da Vinci Code which has been mentioned a few times already, so I won't elaborate on that one. But another well-adored book that I found awful was Saturday by Ian McEwan (which the tochstones don't want to work on, hmm..). That unfortunate novel actually won a Booker and I found it just awful. Contrived, full of medical jargon, with a lot of strained 9/11 references (which seem even more strained coming from a brit, to me).

What baffles me is that I'm still hanging on to my copies of them. I need to put those up on book mooch since they're actually among the rare book I'm willing to part with.

While those are the only two books I can say I hate, quite a lot of other well-loveds have not quite lived up to expectations: The Kite Runner, The Life of Pi, and Wicked among them.

I'm in the middle of The Shadow of the Wind and it's looking as if it might fall in that category as well.

I also have had no success with Jane Austen. I suspect partially because I've never gotten past the first twenty pages or so of any of her novels. It seems that they might get good a ways in, but I just can't make it there and I almost always finish a book.

I know this will torque a few, but I didn't like Catcher in the Rye by Salinger. Lame. I don't mind that other people enjoy it, and it "speaks" to them. But, it's really annoying when people think it's the end-all be-all of American Lit.

While I read The Lovely Bones about 5 years ago and hated it, I re-read it recently and have to say I really liked it so much better. It wasn't earth shattering, but I did enjoy it. I think alot has to do w/ time in your life and mood you are in when reading a book that makes you love it or hate it.

ATTENTION LT'ers - The link in msg 165 is a virus. NEVER visit any page that starts with http:// tinyurl or http:// www. tinyurl. Always bad pages designed to infect your pc. BAD! :(

>181 pandammonia: It is not true that any page that starts with tinyurl is bad. I've used the service myself with no issues. However, you can't tell where it will send you so don't click unless you know the source.

I hated The Time Traveler's Wife. got about a third in and had to throw it aside. absolute dross. And anything by Ian McEwan brings me out in hives. rotten!

#181 - the link is not a virus and it is not at all true that all tinyurl links are "bad." Please educate yourself before you start throwing around accusations.

Add Eat Pray Love to my list. I just couldn't finish it. It was boring as can be and the author narrated with this whiny tone. It was just awful. Sorry Oprah I couldn't do this one.

Hemingway. I can't stomach anything he wrote. Also, I don't mind the whole Harry Potter craze, but I cannot agree with everyone that Rowling is a good writer. That last book, for a very minor instance, where she narrated him going up and down the stairs carrying stuff, oh and then not carrying stuff, nearly made me give up on the book before I finished the first chapter. Also, Lady Chatterly's Lover. I was utterly repulsed by it. Her lover was a misogynist of the first order, and I can't understand how no one else sees it. Well, maybe it's just me. I gave the thing up in disgust before the end. I very nearly threw it out. Oh, and The Hobbit. I'm pretty sure I'd rather stab my own eyes out than read another word of Tolkien's prose.

OT #178: do put Saturday on Bookmooch, I might even mooch it myself. And put your BM link in your LT profile, it makes everything so much easier.

Everything by John Irving, especially Hotel New Hampshire I only read beyond World According to Garp because I hoped I would see what everyone was raving about. Nope.

Also, The Hobbit Couldn't get into even though I tried several times. Years later the movies came out and they left me cold. I guess .J.R.R. just isn't my cup of tea.

Also, I hated Memoirs of a Geisha!

I really hated Watership Down. People whose opinion I do respect have really loved this book. I just could not get past the fact that it was about a bunch of rabbits. I don't know why I couldn't wrap my head around that because I absolutely love Animal Farm. Of course, the latter is only about 100 pages.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. I've tried three times to get through this book but, as Scotty might say, "I just canna dooit, Captain. I doon't have the power!" Or something like that:)

I've been told the books get better after this one, but I can't stand stupid writing where the hero is being chased by a group of bad guys yet he persists in identifying himself and where he's from to every Tom, Dick and Harry he meets on his journey.

I feel that it is blasphemous to dislike Beloved so...

I think Song of Solomon is the greatest thing ever created in life.... but Beloved is a different story. literally.

I'll probably give it another go... sometime this year.

On another note, I think I should re-read One Hundred Years of Solitude as well

Great topic!

I struggled to get through Holes by Sachar. If they dug one more frickin' hole I was going to scream.

This is what I love about literature. Equal numbers of people can both love and hate the same book.

I agree Zodiac, I thought the movie was a huge improvement on the book.

I know kids loved it, though. YA fiction is my favorite genre, usually, but...

I'm glad to know the movie is better. I didn't have the nerve to see it. lol.

Lhea, I'm glad someone else feels that way about Beloved. I really didn't care for it but MY LORD, don't say it out loud. haha.
I've only ever read The Bluest Eye when it comes to Morrison, which I enjoyed (if enjoy is the right word for something so upsetting). I will make a note to try Song of Solomon.

I really didn't enjoy World War Z I really thought I would, but nope. It didn't appeal to me at all. I think it just didn't seem like a coherent story to me jumping all around the globe like it did.

Count me as a female English lit major who loves Jane Austen totally. Can't decide whether I love Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion more.

In the bleeding obvious department, I hate and despite anything by Danielle Steel. Worst best-selling author ever. Barbara Cartland wrote better books!

Could not finish Lord Jim despite three attempts. Ugh. Women seemed completely irrelevant, and I'm a woman, so--I'm pretty sure that's not the only reason.

Let me add most of the books my book club picks out. I like the people in the club, which explains why I still show up occasionally, despite having been subjected to My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Sea Glass by Anita Shreve, One True Thing by Anna Quindlen, The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd, and a few other weepy miserable wallowing in depression exercises in chick lit. Ugh.

Also, Red Dragon by Thomas Harris--I felt it was filthy and I threw it out so no other person would have to read that crap and feel similarly soiled by it.

The thing that most struck me about The Da Vinci Code was the complete lack of character development. I didn't hate it--kept turning the pages to see what happened, which is the least I expect from a book--but sure didn't think it was well-written or particularly daring, brilliant, etc.

The Kite Runner was horrible. Melodramatic, unbelievable, full of cliches, and poorly written. A real disappointment.

I, unfortunately, have to agree with The Kite Runner. Although I found the writing agreeable, I thought I would stick a fork in my eye if I heard one more evil thing happen to that kid!

*touchstone not working

I know this is wrong, as there are so many in the world according to Robert Jordan, but I can not stand stupid people.
With the rare exception, the characters in Robert Jordan's books lack the most basic of common sense. And as one of the big points of the series is that history repeats itself, the stupid just gets repeated over and over again. When will they ever learn!?! Never, that's when.
Then to add to the fun, the amount of characters gets so large and some of their names are so similar that I could not keep them straight.
My only reasons for reading the series were:
1) After the first one, I never made the mistake of spending money on them again.
2) I liked three of the characters a lot.
------- Considering the amount of characters in the book three is not that many and, as one of them dies while the other two disappear randomly for an entire book, these characters did not always make the reading worth the pain.
3) Everyone I know has read the freaking things and I gave in to peer pressure, with a lot of grumbling and glares on my part but I still gave in. I was weak, pity me. The only bright side is that I can now explain to every one why I didn't like the series in explicate detail.
Other books authors I don't think are that great, though I don't hate any of them (I keep all of that for RJ) I just don't think they were worth the hubbub people made about them, include:
Rowling I liked the stories but she's not that great an author
Tolkien They just dragged on and on at parts- I kept skipping to the sections with Merry and Pipen cause at least they were exciting.
Dan Brown OK. I lied before. I do hate someone more than Rob Jordan. Any one could have written a book to try and prove how smart they are but it takes a truly conceited man to actually do it. My favorite part in the entire book was when it says it's fiction and then the book starts with how it is all proven fact. I was like really Dan Brown, an entire poorly written work of fiction is all fact? (I would raise my eyebrows as I said that last question.)

The Time Traveler's Wife. Hated it, hated it, hated it. The writing was second-rate, the characters unlikable and the book was too long- it needed to be edited down by at least 1/3. I was so disappointed- everyone raved about it and it was such a letdown.

I just discovered that just about everyone who's reviewed The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton on LT loves it. I don't. Lily Bart has to be one of the most unsympathetic characters in literature, at least for me. My deep dislike of this book is uncharacteristic because I generally like anything Wharton wrote.

I read 15 pages of The DaVinci Code and put it down. It's not so much that I don't like specific books that others like I just have unusual tastes. My reading is 80% non-fiction. I have always been interested in history and that is what I like to read. I read more to learn than to be entertained or learning is my form of entertainment. I will get interested in an historical topic and read on it for a long time, usually years. It is like I am in a one person graduate seminar. I do read some fiction and lately have started reading poetry. I don't recognize most of the books that people talk about in the groups. As I have told my wife I try to be normal but it never works out.
I do enjoy my reading and it is my main hobby. I search the groups for people who are reading what I am and LT has been a real addition to my life. Enjoy and remember it is great to be alive!

I think all of mine have been mentioned so far but here are my batch of 'I can't believe I wasted time reading this' list

1. Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell, I hate Scarlett with a passion
2. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - I hated all the characters, not one of them had a redeeming feature.
3. The Thirteenth tale by Diane Setterfield - I'm struggling to get through currently, I'm still expecting (wishing) it to get better, apparently, if you lose a twin then go crazy.

Since I, too, tend to read mostly nonfiction, my reading tastes don't generally butt heads with others. One glaring example was a book one of the lit professors assigned to her students (so I had to read because they kept asking questions in reference to it) called Same kind of different as me. I abhored this book to the point that in my review I said the only way it could have been a more painful read was if it gave me papercuts as I turned each page. I posted my review here and on Amazon, where people overwhelmingly love the book-so much so that many of these people have actually started insulting me because of the review. Sheesh.

The funny thing about it is this: I did an interview for a public library position and they asked me to booktalk a book I'd read recently as if I were suggesting it to a patron. That was the first one that came to mind, so I said "OK, here's one that I hated," and proceeded to extol its virtues for the next 4 minutes. The board was writing furiously trying to keep track of everything I wrote, asking the title again and again-finally at the end, one woman asked "Wait a minute-you DIDN'T like this book? It sounds like you loved it."

Every book its reader and every reader his book.

I saw a LOT of people on LT raving about War and Peace, but I tried to read it a couple of years ago and thought it was sheer torture! I came about halfway and just had to stop. Terrible, ter-ri-ble!

Also, I read Oliver Twist and Hard Times by Charles Dickens and I hated it!

I've noticed that a lot of LTers are also a big fan of Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale and The Robber Bride are two of my all time favourites, but I've had a really hard time getting through any of her other work and I sooooo wanted to enjoy all of it! I did read The edible Woman and barely finished it and I had to give up on The blind Assassin.

>206 Vonini: Atwood tackles a lot of different themes and styles, so her books are quite varied. Besides The Handmaid's Tale, one of my favorite of her books is Oryx and Crake.

Atwood is hit or miss for me, but I really liked Oryx and Crake as well at THT & RB. Did not like TBA, but that's how it goes.

Hmmm, sounds like I should give Oryx and Crake a try.

I'm glad a number of you mentioned Vonnegut. I always thought it was me. Slaughterhouse Five wasn't terrible, but the whole time I read it I kept waiting for the "great part" to begin. Cat's Cradle was just painful; quit about a third of the way. Started Timequake, couldn't stay with it.
One I did like was God Bless You Mr. Rosewater--can't quite say why. I've also read very good reviews of Mother Night, so I'll at least try that one as well.
As for Slaughterhouse, I think it's like what "Piano Man" is to Billy Joel--it's what he's known for, but it's definitely not his best.

Lord of the rings Trilogy,
the hobbit
god... I love fantasy but i'm not sure why these books are love.

Well, Tolkien pretty much invented fantasy as a genre. (Although I guess some credit is due to Robert E. Howard as well.) Tolkien drew from many European and Christian sources to create his own mythology, which was something pretty unique. Of course, that doesn't make Tolkien's style necessarily enjoyable.

The Corrections. I know it is supposed to be brilliant, but I loathed every character, thought they should get some perspective and get on with life. Ah well. Thank goodness there are lots of choices.

#210 -- Oh dude, that hurts: Slaughterhouse 5 does not equal Piano Man!
please try the estimable Mr. Vonnegut again, Bluebeard is in my top 3...

Sorry Teacher Dad--I thought the Slaughterhouse 5/ Piano Man analogy was a good one (Don't Ask Me Why)

no need to apologize, you're just using Honesty, and sometimes I Go to Extremes... Joel may be An Innocent Man, but he lost points with me by letting that epitome of Modern Woman, Christie Brinkley, just go Movin' Out... anyway, he does quote Mr. Vonnegut: "And So It Goes..."

You sound like an Angry Young Man...

I've been discussing Cormac McCarthy in a couple of other groups lately. He is the only author TWO of whose books I could not finish! I started All the Pretty Horses a few years ago. After the chess game in which the wise grandmother warns the young cowboy not to flirt with the beautiful haughty daughter of the landowner I put the book down. Then someone suggested Blood Meridian. I was game; I bought it and put it down after two puppies and six or seven people were slaughtered for no apparent reason on two consecutive pages. The main characters in the book kill and scalp Native Americans, get paid, get drunk, go whoring, and then repeat it all ad nauseam. I have been told of the wonderful "glimmers of hope" that lie within the narrative, but I find none, and no inner life in any of the characters. McCarthy is very poetic about everything: the sky, the mountains, lice, clotted blood, live people, dead people; I think he's indiscriminate. He gives us no information about the victims or their lives, either. I gag to think how he would write about the holocaust. am I the only person who doesn't like him?

I've got to hit the "ignore" button for this thread -- either I'm too thin-skinned or have terrible taste in reading material, but every time I stop by this thread someone is dissing one of my favorites... *sigh*....

But what if you're getting something we're missing? Help us!

#219 TeacherDad

And remember, the title of the thread is "Books that Everyone Loves . . ." so the idea is certainly that many people love these books but the poster just doesn't or can't . . .

But it is like a physical wound for me every time someone says they don't like Jane Austen!

I understand #218, I didn't get far in All the Pretty Horses either.

OMG!! I am not alone with disliking Terry Prachett. I HATED the Terry Prachett books I had to read fro a Young Adult Literature course I took.

{People of the Book} was very disappointing...

#223 -- not surprised you don't like Pratchett, but surprised you read him for a Literature class...

I have read four or five of Kurt Vonnegut's novels (including Slaughterhouse Five, and the only one I've liked at all was Mother Night.

I don't know why I've read so many books by a writer I clearly don't like, except maybe that I'm trying to figure out what everybody else sees in him.

#218 - readem.. I tend to agree with you about Cormac McCarthy. I wouldn't characterize myself as hating his writing; I actually admire it -- but in particular the unrelenting and pointless violence and cruelty in Blood Meridian to me was just sick and unnecessary and I agree that the characters were just caricatures; instruments of death. I rather liked most of The Border Trilogy though.

Whew! Great thread.

I can't get through LOTR or The Hobbit. I can't even get through the audio CDs of LOTR.

I read but disliked Sophie's World, A Confederacy of Dunces, The Alienist.

Couldn't finish The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Read 1 1/2 pages of Ahab's Wife. Read one paragraph of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Read 20 pages of The Proud Shoes. Ditto Reading Lolita in Tehran.

Want to like Virginia Woolf on general principle but am like #67 Hera - migraine-making.

I have been told to not read Terry Pratchett's first two books but start with Men at Arms. Maybe I'll like him. I want to like him.

Could go on and on, but probably so could everybody else.

He certainly writes well; I might try to restart All the Pretty Horses; it was just too formulaic in the opening chapters.

I'm glad to see someone posted Eat, Pray, Love. I read that book on vacation and kept thinking it would improve. Instead, I found myself trying to psychoanalyze my friend who "LOVE, LOVE, LOVED" this book (direct quote). The author's selfish whine, throughout the book, left me cold. I kept thinking, she has no one to blame but herself for where she is... and yet she feels she's earned "time for herself". Because she ruined her marriage by cheating on her husband and not negotiating? Anyway, I was so happy I did not buy this book before I read it!

Harry Potter series, Celestine Prophecy, and Da Vinci Code.

That is really nice book!

Snow by Orhan Pamuk. I finally got through it, but, ugh. And I really, really wanted to like it.

For me it would have to be Labyrinth. It was far too slow, and even though it got slightly better towards the end I still felt that it was overall not worth the read.

Thought of another one...The Life of Pi was our towns One City: One book selection a couple of years ago. I started reading it thinking "This is as bad as Old Man and the Sea. I flipped the book around and one of the reviewers compared it quite favorably to that novel. I couldn't make it any further.

#140: I liked The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, but I totally agree with you--the ending ruined my overall opinion of it. I wonder if the movie's ending is going to be the same . . . .

Although some of my favorite books ever are mentioned in this thread, I would have to agree with those who didn't like the following:

The Kite Runner: poorly written
Tuesdays with Morrie: big deal
Blood Meridian; distasteful
and I'll add The Body Artist by Don DeLillo -- what the heck was that all about?

#234 03swalker: I didn't like Labyrinth at all either! She has a new one out now; don't think I'll be getting it.

I didn't like The Lovely Bones either.

My least favorite book all time..... I try not to even THINK about it, its so troubling.... But it's already been mentioned here..... The only book I've ever wanted to burn in order to keep other from reading it, the writing was so awful (I couldn't do it)......: The Celestine Prophecy.

****gag hack****

I second your gag and echo your hack -- couldn't read more than a few pages of that one...

#230 lutheranjulia--I'm w/ you on Eat, Pray, Love. Although the Eat section was somewhat entertaining, the rest of the book stunk--boring and the author's whining tone just put me off.

#233 alaskabookworm, I am currently reading Snow for a book club and I absolutely hate it. It is a chore to pick it up again and read it. Boring boring boring. I hate not finishing a book for book club, but I think I am going to get rid of this one.

I just tossed Disturbances in the Field into my "to the used book store" pile. Read (skimmed mostly) half of this 4.5 star disaster described in my book-of-the-day calendar as "the best book you'll ever read." How sad. It was so pretentious and dull. Read it until the life altering event and decided I wasn't going to listen to those self-absorbed, disfunctional adult characters whine through another 150 pages.

I'm voting on The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, too. Sounded good by the description on the back, but it's so freakin' dull. I started it back in January, and I'm still picking away at it. Yawn. :/

#242 I knew that I would hate the memory keepers daughter before I read it so I didn't bother but say that I did. People are slightly less horrified that I say I hate it than they are when I say I haven't read it and at least they don't keep saying "oh, but you must read it, it's wonderful" to me now.

#243

Oh, thank you! I've had some doubts lately about deciding not to read books because I strongly suspected I'd hate them (and The Memory Keeper's Daughter is one of them), but I feel better now. It's the kind of book that I think probably indulges in lots of emotional wallowing in distress over whatever is going on in people's lives, and I have no patience for it.

#243: Ha ha ha! I should use that tactic next time someone pushes a book on me. Thanks. :)

The Shipping News was god-awful! I barely found the energy to finish it. I am disappointed too because I really want to read Open Range, but as a result of my first encounter with Annie will probably not.

Wuthering Heights I found long and boring. Half the time I didn't care what was going on and the other half I just didn't know.

Finally the book I could not even finish, The English Patient. I could not get into it, too much jumping around.

I remember Shipping News as being challenging, but very satisfying; I'd recommend Ace in the Hole and Open Range, great feel for the west (except that Brokeback story)...

Pretty good thread here! It's strange though, so many of the books mentioned here are ones that I really loved...hmm, what's that say about my taste in books.

I guess everyone (even me) has a right to like something that others do not, eh? :)

But I have to agree with The five people you meet in Heaven as one that I couldn't stand. Eragon is another. IMHO, That book was even worse that the movie version. (That doesn't happen often!) Also, The Sun Also Rises was one that I actually finished, as it was for a class, but I'd stick forks in my face rather than read it again!

I'm glad I'm not alone in my hating Eragon! I couldn't get through it.

Half way through, I watched the movie hoping that I was just missing something or it would get better at the end, I was disappointed so the book went back on the shelf where it has stayed.

I really don't know why people went on and on about it.

Another book I disliked was Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Was anyone else disturbed by this book or is it just me?

#244/#245 - glad that I helped.

I agree that emotional wallowing can be very trying and the attempts at worthiness by the author can sometimes leave me very impatient with the book.

To that effect, and I am nervous about saying this as most people I say this too disagree, I do not like this current trend for writing and reading the true-life victim books that all my friends seem to be going mad for now. My neighbour keeps pushing the most awful abuse stories at me and it's just not my idea of good reading. You see it in the news all the time and I am truly sorry for the people who have these things happen but to go out and read book after book of this sort is really not for me.

Jody, I completely agree - I would hate to read any of them. And there are so many of them! Go to see the book section at Asda and it's just full of them and I just can't imagine voluntarily reading *any* of them! But they're obviously selling...

#250 & #251

Couldn't agree more--I don't understand people who find this kind of thing inspiring or cathartic. People will read hundreds of pages of misery and then brightly chirp "but it has a happy ending!" Ugh.

For roughly the same reason I avoid the local news most of the time--I think it's important to know what's going on nationally, for example, but to know that some drug dealer got shot or somebody killed their wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/child or that some poor folks died in a house fire--it's just depressing and for the most part there's not a blessed thing I can do to change things or help. At least on a national level I can vote in the elections (for all the good that's done the past eight years).

Sigh--rant over!

249 -- I'm with you on Wicked... liked his Lost and Ugly Stepsister much, much better... enjoyed it at first, then it went on and on and on... zzzzzzz...

I have a lasting dislike of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I read it for my A Levels and absolutely hated it and the way Thomas Hardy painstakingly described every blade of grass under a cow's feet (and there were many cows).

I also disliked Tess as a protagonist. I think she was such a victim, and seemed to go headlong towards trouble and bad decisions. She just frustrated me at every turn.

Nope, not for me.

> I'm with you on Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I think it was the only book I didn't finish for my high school English class. I got as far as Angel's rejection after she was trying to be completely truthful and threw it across the room. Of course, modern advise columnists would probably have told her the past is the past and just shut up about it already.

I don't think I've seen this one on the list yet, which suggests I may really be the only person who hates the much-loved Outlander series. People who I love and respect just rave about these books, but I found the first one so mind-numbingly boring that I could not finish it. Which is kinda strange because I read a lot of stuff that I'm sure is actually much more boring. I've figured out that the only reasonable explanation is that I am missing the gene that allows for appreciation of Diana Gabaldon.

#256 Nickelini. I loved the first, liked the second, was bored with the third, and stopped reading her.

Of course, I can say that with a lot of authors, unfortunately.

I think the problem with Orhan Pamuk's Snow might be the translation. I remember reading the book through, thinking "That was OK, but I think I missed something," and then, VERY unusual for me, reading it again a couple of months later. I liked it much more the second time.

>254 omphaloskepsis:, 255 I was reading through this list thinking "Hmmm, I don't think I really hate any books that other people love." Then I saw your posts and realized I had just blocked that book out of my memory. It was that bad.

it ok gurl

>256 Nickelini: *lol* It's funny you should say that, because I used to rant about how much I hated Outlander all the time, but I got so many blank stares that I decided to just shut up about it. I loathed every sentence....

I loved Outlander, and persuaded my husband to read it. He was polite, but I think he hated it, too.

I have to agree with One Hundred Years of Solitude.
I have read so many good reviews about it and the author I thought I should give it a try.
I don't know how I managed to read all the book. I don't like giving up on a book, so I did read it until the end.
The books just keeps going and going telling the story that never gets anywhere !! OMG. I don't recomend it.

I'm not too keen on Outlander either. Jack Randal's obsession with Jamie was disturbing for me. I did try the next book but I kept getting mixed up because of the jumping around in time. Could never keep track of what had happened already to whom and when.

265, Funny you should mention Cold Mountain. I forgot all about it (maybe because I only lasted about 20 pages).

Appropriatley enough, while in a garden shop, I recalled how I loathed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

I finished Cold Mountain on my lunch break at work and was so mad at the ending that I said a very bad word and threw the book on the floor.

I have his new book Thirteen Moons and don't have much interest in reading it - it was a present from my mother-in-law.

I didn't particularly like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil either - that was given to me by my OTHER mother-in-law.

To be fair to both of them, they've each given me some very wonderful books, too.

PHlox72--- I absolutely despised this book. I agree. Very irritating.

I recently read Great Expectations by Dickens. I found it to be quite a depressing book. Though I never made it all the way through Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, I could say the same thing about that one. Why were these authors so sad?!

#270 AustenGirl

I think these authors both had tough lives in some ways--Dickens' father was put in debtor prison and I'm not sure the Brontes' homelife was entirely wonderful (though they were better off). But I believe both books present life as hard and full of struggles, but with relatively happy endings--Jane does end up with Mr. Rochester (should I say, spoiler alert!?) and though I don't remember the ending of Great Expectations that well, doesn't Pip's life improve because of the money the ex-convict secretly provides him?

I guess I'd even argue that most books are about the difficulties the protagonist/hero/heroine faces and must overcome to achieve his or her goals, happiness, acceptance of fate, whatever . . .

Edited to add: But I will agree that reading Austen is a more pleasant experience!

Thanks, ejj1955. I didn't know that about Dickens' dad. It's just that Great Expectations left me with the impression that Pip never found what he was looking for in wealth, love, or life.
Knowing the ending of Jane Eyre does make it a little better :)

271 - ejj - I remember someone telling me that the Brontes' dad disapproved of them writing (and maybe reading, but I'm not sure) and that they wrote their stories on very small pieces of paper in tiny script to better hide them away.

In reading these messages, I begin to wonder if the difficulty with certain books is that they fall outside the limits of what you like to read. For example, I liked Shadow of the Wind by Zafon but was bored with Name of the Rose by Eco. Both are convoluted. Both are melodramatic. Both involve a search. The difference for me was that everything in Shadow of the Wind had a direct bearing on what the protagonist went through, but Name of the Rose seemed to be a history lesson disguised as a novel. In sum: I like good characters and action, and everything else better have a reason to be there.

I don't hate much of anything but a couple I disliked are The Giver (which I might have posted earlier, sorry if it is a repeat) and Love in the Time of Cholera. I keep seeing reviews here about how wonderful the books are and just keep thinking I must be very, very strange.

Behind the Scense of the Museum by Kate Atkinson
I read this book because so many had raved about it. I also checked Amazon and read very positive reviews. Somehow, I just could not agree with the reviewers. I found this book to be whiningly annoying. There was a crisis not only in every chapter, but sometimes in every sentence.

All time hated books:
Catcher in the Rye--I finished it only because it was assigned reading
Moby Dick-see comment above
Lord of the Rings-a big long chase scene--why?
Anything by Jane Austen, is on my yawn list.
I haven't brought myself to read any of the Harry Potter books, but I get the feeling that they would end up on this list.
The Devil Wears Prada I don't even know why I picked this one off the library shelf, I kept waiting for it to get beyond "my boss is an awful human being". Okay, move on, get a new job. I don't have the patience for someone who seems to need to be abused and then write a few hundred pages abut how awful it was. Quit!! I made it in about forty pages, I just was hoping something would happen...if it did, I guess I'll never know.

I enjoyed The Giver, I was teaching and it was on the reading list. The kids had problems with their parents borrowing the book when they needed it to do their homework. Back in the comments someone said it was disturbing, yeah, well, at least it has depth and makes them think--unlike most of the other disturbing things that are marketed to YA.

I saw no value in (confederacy of Dunces).

A couple of so-called classics that I should probably love and do not: The Great Gatsby and Wuthering Heights.

Another, more recent book that was highly thought of here on LT but I cannot stand is Beautiful Children by Charles Bock. I did not even bother finishing it.

I just didn't get what the fuss was about over Davinci Code, Wicked, The Historian and Eat, Pray, Love. I've found a lot of my favorites listed here so you never can tell!

I'm surprised Chuck Palahniuk hasn't come up yet at all. I don't know if everyone loves him, but I think there's definitely a sharp divide between some of the praise I see tossed off about his stuff and my own reaction to his books. And to name names, Choke is just plain overrated and I'm kind of surprised whenever I find someone who claims to have genuinely liked Haunted.

Of course, some of the stuff that shows up on other people's list is stuff I rather like.

For those of you who hated Eat, Pray, Love, there was an article about it last month in the Globe and Mail detailing how the popularity of that book was entirely created by the publisher's incredible marketing campaign. The author of the article proposes that the book would have gone nowhere without that (based on poor early sales and reviews). I'd provide a link to the article, but I can only find the version that you have to pay for.

What kind of incredible marketing was done?

Regarding #283- It was still (in my opinion) an incredible book. Had it not been, it never would have made so many bestseller lists and been featured on NPR. There are plenty of terrible books with wonderful marketing that go away quickly the minute people start to read the book. Eat, Pray, Love has been on the bestseller lists for well over a year now. Is it implied that we all just really will take to a terrible book because it is marketed towards us? I really don't believe that it would have gone "nowhere" without the marketing campaign.

Gilbert was also a relatively unknown author at the time of Eat, Pray, Love. She had a couple of fiction books that you couldn't even find on the shelves. Why would her publisher take such a risk on a relatively unknown author?

Put me in the camp that loves Eat, Pray, Love. I've heard the criticism that it is self-centered and self-indulgent, but it is a memoir. Isn't that sort of the point?

Sorry #284 & #285, I can't give you anymore details because I read the article last month and I've stuffed too many other things in my brain since, so the memory is fading. It was written by Nyla Matuk in the April 19 edition of the Globe and Mail if you want to track it down for yourself. I haven't read Eat, Pray, Love and have no opinion of the book either way, but I used to study marketing so I found the article fascinating from both a marketing perspective and as a book lover, and also from the cultural studies viewpoint (how much of what is popular is because it's been fed to us, etc.)

(@ karmadillo) Exactly: the corrections is horrible. The story (when summarised) seems alright. But the descriptions just don't work.

>23 pandora22: I don't care for them either. I even went to the trouble of buying them in Canada because I wanted to make sure the Americanization of the language in the first book wasn't an issue, but oh, dear, I just didn't like them at all and could not see what the fuss was about. I only got about a few chapters into the first one.

> 71

I read the first two, but I'm sorry, I'm not 16 any more, and I just don't have the time now to read such long books unless they are Victorian literature or some other classic works.

84 is referring to Spellsinger.

I read Wicked, but didn't want to read any more of his books.

Ethan Frome was a painfull experience. I'm not sure why - but I hated it.
I can remember the plot and main character(s) of every book I've read since fifth grade english class, yet I have now read the great gatsby twice, and still can't remember the story.

Hmmm, I didn't hate Eat, Pray, Love; in fact, I enjoyed a lot of the experiences, especially in Italy. I just got tired of the author continually second-guessing herself, and didn't connect with the spiritual journey.

Couldn't finish Wicked, got bogged down in the politics at the Emerald City. It surprised me, because I really liked Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and a children's book by the same author, The Good Liar.

It's fascinating reading people's differing opinions - how someone can love a book just as much as someone else hates it. I usually don't hate a book so much as just kind of dislike it or even sometimes feel nothing for it at all really. I would have to say that I didn't particularly enjoy I Know This Much is True, even though a lot of other people seemed to like it. Also, I felt mildly traumatised after reading Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis, and in a similar vein, Choke by Chuck Palahnuik although I do like some other Chuck Palahnuik novels. I just can't get interested in LOTR or Terry Pratchett, try as I might.

I enjoyed or even loved some of the books mentioned above like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite authors), and A Confederacy of Dunces, but I can see why other people might not feel the same.

Elee, it is definitely fascinating to see everyone's opinions--I know Eat Pray Love was a huge bestseller and so many loved it (including Oprah), but I just totally disliked it and disliked very much The Road which is another one that was a huge bestseller. That's part of the reason I love LT--so many varying opinions and tastes--makes life very interesting.

What an interesting thread!
My two cents (adjusted for inflation = $1.76) would be:

Watership Down I remember trying to read this book in high school, getting bored and ultimately moving on to something else. A few months ago I saw it on a shelf at my favorite used bookstore and thought, "Maybe I just wasn't sophisticated enough back then... I have matured now, it will probably be a good read." Wow was I wrong!!!

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy I don't understand the Douglas Adams humor.. it just seemed silly.

Next Michael Chrichton just doesn't seem to have what it takes any more, sadly.

Also, any of the last four or five Patricia Cornwell books. Instead of me becoming engrossed by an interesting story with some amazing forensics, I feel I am being lectured.. the stories are now burdened with a constant "I am a lesbian and I have been persecuted. Hear me roar!" subtext. I just want a really good murder mystery! Is that too much to ask?

#296 TheBoltChick: I totally agree with you on Patricia Cornwell. I started reading the Kay Scarpetta series when it first came out and really enjoyed them, but the last several books I have not really been able to stomach. The Book of the Dead made it on my list of clunkers last year.

Tristram Shandy - I have friends who love it and all I can think is, "Shut up and let something happen for pete's sake."

Anything by John Grisham, people keep giving them to me because I'm a lawyer and all I can think is that I've read leases which has better prose.

Elizabeth George - why is everyone so successful, gorgeous (except poor Havers) and so damn miserable (including poor Havers)

MobyDick I read Dickens with pleasure, I even shell out for his letters, but I cannot get more than about 5 chapters into it.

Must weigh in; I recently acquired a book called 'the double bind' which I heard required pre-reading of the 'great gatsby'. Liked 'double bind', hated Gatsby. No redeeming characters.

Also agree with those who hated Dorian Gray - again with the characters.

Also disliked 'Wicked'.

#296 I feel the same about Douglas Adams. I've tried several times and never got past the 2nd book. Another that is well-loved in my family is Terry Pratchett. I just don't get it. I'm beginning to think it may be a gender thing - my husband and sons think both these authors are wonderful, but my daughter and I couldn't care less.

I have to agree about "Tristram Shandy." Absolutely hated it.

I also didn't care for:

Wuthering Heights
Moby Dick
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
The Color Purple
Gone With the Wind
just about anything by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I have to admit that I do like quite a few books nominated above. However, I sure didn't care for "Zorba the Greek" though. I thought it was dumb and misogynist. Ayn Rand's Anthem was utterly stupid. Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom" was nonsense. B.F. Skinner's "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" has been mostly forgotten, and a good thing too. And there is a lot of bad science fiction out there. "Stranger in a Strange Land" still seems fascistic to me. In the "Door Into Summer" and other books, Heinlein reveals a fascination with little girls. Heinlein hits rock bottom with "Sixth Column", a horrendously racist work, where a heroic group of scientists defeat the yellow peril, the teeming tide of oriental hordes, by inventing a death ray that will kill only Chinese. Disgusting. I read that when I was a teenager, and I have never read another Heinlein book.

I'm the same with Sophie's World. Urgh. I can't stand it. Drivel.

I also don't like Lord of the Rings at all - love the movies, can't stand the books - they dribble on and on, and half of it is filler in my opinion. And I did read the books first before I saw the movie.

Harry bloody Potter. Boo hiss. It scares me that the stats for most groups show that most people have the scary wee wizard boy books in common...

Da Vinci Code - more drivel. A phenomenon that I can't account for.

Lots of classics that I'm not ashamed to admit bore me to tears. More than tears: Hawthorne, Fenimore Cooper, Moby Dick, Tess of the D'Urbervilles...there's more but those are the worst offenders. And yet I love Austen, and Typee, and Great Expectations...

This is a cool group. I don't even know where to begin...I agree wholeheartedly with so many of you.

Da Vinci Code :( yukkk
The Secret .. heaven forbit
Jane Austin ..just couldn't get into it
George Eliot - middlemarch
Virgil - the Aeneid
The Poison Wood Bible ...sis
The Kite Runner
The Alchemist
Faulkner - the sound and the fury
Toni Morrison - beloved
Lord of the Rings
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Watership down
The New York Trilogy
The magician
ender's game

ok im going to stop there

Everything by David Sedaris. I find him moderately funny on "This American Life" - his whiney voice goes well with his whiney stories, but I couldn't stand Me Talk Pretty One Day or Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

I do so agree about the da Vinci Code - what utter tosh, and I can and do explain to people why it is, if they let me.

Just read The Book Thief for my book club, and guess what, everyone else loved it - I thought it trite and badly written, and 'tho it is a young adult's book, I certianly wouldn't give it to my kids in case they thought that was how to write. (I'm thinking of Stella Gibbon's star-rating technique!)
We have to talk about Kevin and Angela's Ashes are on my list, too.

oh, Ajaxthecrum, Watership Down is one of my favourites - it might help if you listened to the very wonderful Andrew Sachs reading it, although the incidental music is awful, and I suppose if it's not your thing, it's just not.

What a great thread, and what lousy books! I wholeheartedly agree on Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Cold Mountain. Everyone seems to love them; I simply do not. Blech!

Life of Pi. It was a struggle to finish.

Koalatees - I HATED Life of Pi, but I hear so many people refer to it as their favorite book! ...yuck...

I would put anything by Chuck Palahnuik on the list - I couldn't be bothered to finish Fight Club, Haunted was gross for the sake of being gross and I hope they all died miserable deaths, Diary was utterly stupid, even though there was a gem of a good idea behind it.

I thought The DaVinci Code was a decent mystery novel, but simply could not understand all the hype around it.

Everyone in my book club loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time except me. I thought it read like someone had googled "funny stories about autistic kids" and patched them into a novel.

I also can skip the Bronte Sisters, Jane Austen, all of that manners and money drivel. That has shocked and outraged some acquaintances, but I find it all too tedious to bother with.

I really hated A short history of tractors in Ukrainian. Which I was hacked off about, because with a title like that I'm sure I should have loved it. But everyone spent their whole time being horrible to each other, so I gave up on it (I think when the narrator said something along the lines of "little did I realise how bad it was going to get"...) Lots of people seem to find it funny and touching, but I just couldn't see it :-(

I had a similar but less violent reaction to The Case of the Missing Books, in which everyone went around being mean to the protagonist. Who was a bit of a bumbling idiot, but still. That's no excuse!

Lisa, I think Haunted would have been vastly improved if the Red Death had shown up after a dozen pages and struck them all down, just as in the original Poe story that Palahniuk based the theater on. I guess his idea of improving on a classic is by dragging it out.

LizT (#311) I am SO with you on A Short History of Tractors In Ukrainian - not one tolerable character among them! And I couldn't understand what it was that we were meant to find even vaguely amusing.

thank god someone else feels the same about 'The Catcher in the Rye'- I found it to be the most frustrating book I have ever read. As well as this, the acclaimed 'Sophie's World' and ' Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' never succeeded in capturing my imagination..

Also- this one does not appear to have been mentioned-' We Need to Talk about Kevin.' I thought it was exhaustingly sentimental, repetitive and wholly uninteresting. Each page was a struggle to finish.

Augiemom, I completely agree! I did not enjoy The Kite Runner at all

I actually read The Secret. Ok, positive thinking is great stuff. I fully agree. There are probably excellent books out there that deal with this subject.

But I don't think terms like metaphysics and electromagnetic radiation should be bandied about by someone who is so unbelievably clueless. I really don't think science has proven that us humans are a bunch of walking, talking radio transmitters or electro-fortune magnets or optimism-attractors or whatever ditsy Rhonda Byrne thinks. I sure do envy her ability to make a buck, though.

I really enjoyed The Historian, and The Shadow of the Wind and One Hundred Years of Solitude both rank among my favorites.

I couldn't stand On the Road, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. It's entirely obvious that he wrote it in 3 weeks while under the influence of a variety of drugs. I've tried to slog through it twice and haven't succeeded yet.

I also can't stomach anything by Jodi Picoult--her books are formulaic, overly sentimental, predictable, and it seems like they're all about the same thing. Mitch Albom is too mushy for me as well, though my mother-in-law claims that I just need to be 30 years older to appreciate them.

Most recently, I really, very strongly dislike the Twilight series. I don't see what all the hype is about. Here's a review of the series I wrote recently, in case you're wondering exactly why I don't like them. http://readerville.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/the-sunday-salon-eclipse-by-stepheni...

booklady, I heartily agree re: On the Road. Just a hippie aberration. What a useless way to live. This attitude probably indicates my age, but I thought this book worthless.

#318

I would agree with you on Jodi Picoult although, to be fair, I've only read one of her books--My Sister's Keeper. I loathed it, and the ending was outrageous. I expect to have an emotional reaction to a well-written book, but I hate feeling as though I'm being manipulated.

Books I openly disliked and got me kicked out of the reading group:

1. The Bridges of Madison County
2. In her Shoes
3. The 5 people you meet in heaven
4. The Kite Runner

...and I apologize.

I can't say I really "hated" these, but their successes had me puzzled: The Historian, The Thirteenth Tale, Triangle, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Through most of my reading of The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, I thought I was in "classic" territory, but by the end I wanted to throw the book away.

Oh, and I'll add Bonfire of the Vanities. Loved Wolfe's "new journalism" stuff, but this book left me cold.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad for me. That was painful. Not sure why exactly I hate it but I hate it with a passion.

#324

Goodness (and my book club) knows I'm not a fan of weepy chick lit, but, as a female, I find it impossible to find anything in Conrad to relate to. I tried numerous times to slog through Lord Jim, but it wasn't happening.

#72: I am SO with you on Birdsong. I know so many people who have raved about it, but I found the love story so unbelievable - very male perspective, no great surprise he's writing James Bond now... I also went on to feel the same way about Charlotte Gray so goodness only knows why I've just bought a copy of Engleby; some might say it was madness to repeat the same action expecting a different result :-)

Girl With a Pearl Earring I felt much the same about, and it has deterred me from ever picking up another Tracy Chevalier.

The Other Side of The Bridge was longlisted for the Booker and has been raved about by others, but I thought it was dire - struggled through because it was a present from a relative I greatly respect and love but I wish I could have that time back again.

Life of Pi I didn't hate, but was seriously underwhelmed by it. Although I'm actually planning to re-read to examine its debt to Edgar Allen Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which I'm supposed to be reviewing for Penguin's 'Blog a Penguin Classic' promotion...

Generally find Henry James, Dickens and DH Lawrence unreadable despite their stature in The Canon.

Impressive that this thread has been going so long!

PS there was a post on the Guardian's books blog about this sort of thing too:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/07/books_that_make_you_go_zzzzzz.html

So the takeaway, after months of this thread, is that just about everything, including the world's most beloved classics, is hated by somebody at some time... ;-)

I guess my dislikes could be summarized by "anything Oprah has ever recommended." I've tried to read or listen to several of them, and been totally bewildered as to the appeal of any of them. I've been burned by the likes of White Oleander, The Corrections, She's Come Undone, A Million Little Pieces (dreadful as fiction or non-fiction) and The Poisonwood Bible to really care what she recommends anymore.

The book I absolutely despised that everyone else was raving about was The Lovely Bones. When it started out, "My name is Susie Salmon, like the fish", my eyes rolled so far back in my head that it was difficult to finish reading . . . but unfortunately, finish I did. What a mess! It was so strange to hear people going on and on about what a great book it was when I thought it was the worst piece of drivel I'd ever read.

I absolutely hate when Oprah puts her stamp on a book. As if because she said so, now Anna Karenina is now worth reading. (My favorite book ever, by the way.) As with any book club, there will be winners and losers. She has picked some of my favorite books in the past, East of Eden, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Good Earth, etc. I think she has better luck when she is choosing more classic novels. It makes me wonder who helps her pick which novel she is going to promote. I suppose she is due some credit for getting more people to read. I suppose - I don't have any statistics to back that up, of course. :)

The book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer has everyone saying it's the best book ever! It's really annoying when they keep saying it's really good over and over and they go onto the site almost everyday. I'd like to read it.

#332: That's odd that you mentioned Twilight, because I just started that one the other day, and I'm already halfway done. I wouldn't consider it the best YA vamp book I've ever read, but if you like this kind of genre, then I'd definitely recommend it.

The main reason why I bought it was because 1) it was on sale at work (50 cents--yay!), and 2) I kept hearing how disappointed people were in the series, so, of course, I had to try it. :)

#331

Well, sales figures are not the same as proof that people are reading the books, but it's something, and everything Oprah recommends seems to experience a huge jump in sales, so . . . that's a set of statistics to prove your point!

To each his own I say--the various likes and dislikes is what makes this website so interesting. I love reading why people either liked or disliked a book.

I have watched when I know Oprah is announcing a new book--as soon as I hear I check ranking on various websites (B&N, Amazon, etc.) then check an hour later--its amazing how a book can jump from like thousands to top 10 or even #1 in that short time frame just because Oprah mentioned it. Her touch is golden. I've read many of her choices--for the most part I have liked them--a couple were clunkers but not too many.

I really hated Sacred Games. I loathed it. I despised it. I was the only one who finished it for our book club. I don't think I've ever hated a book like I hate that one.

Also, on the Twlight topic: I don't get the appeal. They aren't particularly well written, the storyline is trite, and the characters are annoying. And I like vampire stories. Maybe it's because I'm not a teenager? Anyway, 'meh' is how I feel about them.

emaestra 331:

Oh my God, I'm so glad that someone shares my opinion of the Oprah seal of approval. The Good Earth is one of my favorite books ever (and has been since well before Oprah got her claws on it), and now whenever I mention it, people are like, "Oh, yeah, that Oprah book!" Um, no, it's not "that Oprah book," it's a freaking classic.
And as far as getting people to read goes, I'm all for it, but I don't know how much Oprah's minions are really getting out of it. Here's a nice example: I worked at a Barnes & Noble when Oprah announced her pick of Their Eyes Were Watching God (another of my favorites). We sold a couple of hundred copies as a result, but within the next two weeks, OVER HALF of them were returned because the readers "didn't get it." Same thing with Anna Karenina. "Too long," "Boring," etc.
I'm a snob, I admit it, but I feel like Oprah's stamp cheapens the books that I love.

PS--I hate Harry Potter and anything remotely involved with the franchise. I wrote a wee manifesto about it in a comment in my anti-HP LibraryThing group, Harry Potter Resistance Movement (Party of One).

The Da Vinci Code. How, oh, how does anyone think this is a good book? Absolute garbage.

Tristram Shandy I've tried, Lord knows I've tried but I can't get beyond page about 15.

Anything by Dorothy Dunnett - all these truly repulsive characters like Lymond and his ghastly mother, whom we are expected to admire.

I nth Gone with the Wind not only is Scarlet irritating but she's also incredibly stupid.

the Da Vinci Code do what I did, read the beginning and end of each chapter, then you can find out what happens without having to read his terrible prose.

The History Man I only finished it because I wanted Howard to get his comeuppance - he didn't.

this is a great topic...

Pillars of the Earth - about 500 pages too long

Stones From the River - it made my skin crawl. I have no idea why, just did.

Bonfire of the Vanities - loathsome book

Wicked - I liked the first two parts, and then it just fell apart.

All of Hemingway, except for A Farewell to Arms

The Corrections - it takes a lot of willpower for me to not respond "No! Don't do it!" whenever I see someone posting that they are reading it.

Saturday. I like other Ian McEwan books, but I just couldn't handle this one.

And my vote for the Worst Book Ever Written:
The Red Tent. Great idea, terrible execution.

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. It seems like such a self-serving book. It keeps going on and on about how he was wronged. It barely mentions anyone else. It seems to say, "Poor me, poor me." If he wanted it to be a condemnation of the Catholic church in Ireland I would understand. But this book seemed to just be a pitiful attempt to say that Joyce was an "artist," misunderstood by the word at large.

Very interesting thread!

The book that immediately pops to mind is Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris. I just did not like it. At all.

I really don't get why the Christopher Moore books are so popular.

I sometimes give up on books because they are boring, I'm not sure that is the same as not liking a book.

I went through a period when I read a lot of mysteries, fantasy, and other "just for fun" stuff. With most of the series (Kay Scarpetta, Alex Cross, Inspector Lynley, Wheel of Time) I eventually lose interest in the series, usually because the stories become repetitive or outrageous in some way.

We would criticize anyone who took it upon themself to promote one book over another. Oprah realizes she has some influence, and chooses to share her love of reading. I am almost always fairly certain I will hate the book she selects. Ex: White Oleander. Who cares? Talk about repulsive characters. And repression. And poverty. Cruelty. Bleah.

I gave up on Oprah's choices long ago. But I admire her for trying to share the value of reading. And now that she is including literature, I may reconsider.

>342 snapdragongirl: I felt the exact same way about A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I wanted it to end and just barely willed myself to finish it.

Re: Oprah books

I've read a bunch of the Oprah books--some I've loved, some I've hated. All the ones I've hated fall under the same description: A woman has a lousy life. Lousy things happen to her. The ending is kinda lousy.

So, unless it's a classic that I've heard of, when I approach an "Oprah" book, I expect it to be lousy. But I applaud her fully for getting people to read things they wouldn't have read before, and to read more challenging books. While I loathed She's Come Undone, many people loved it, and it's a big step above your typical drugstore romance. And, That's a Good Thing (R) (but that saying belongs to Oprah's competitor). :-)

Personally, I'd ten times rather read a drugstore romance which at least has a happy storyline to it than something about lousy people acting lousily and ending up lousily because of it... And I think that's a Better Thing, though I know that's not an often voiced opinion - I'd much rather read something that I'll enjoy than something "with meaning" or "good".

Good reply! So do you have an idea about why is it that so many "good" books are unhappy? There are conversations over at the 1001 Books group about this. A lot of the books are tragic, depressing, sad, . . . but so few are uplifting. If someone is reading to escape a lousy life, maybe drugstore romance is what the doctor ordered.*. Okay, we don't have to be escaping a lousy life--I read to just go somewhere else. It's a drag to constantly encounter hardship. That's why I like Virginia Woolf. From what I've read so far, nothing too, too horrible will happen.

*I think Oprah was trying to break women from that auto-mot routine.

Honestly, I think "good" books are unhappy because many authors find it easier to evoke a recognizable reaction (sympathy for the characters, or even empathy) by including horrible things that happen to characters. It's much more difficult to get a large number of readers to get as emotionally involved without running them through the wringer. So many different things make different people happy - we all have our own ideas of bliss. But there are certain situations that we all recognize as being lousy.

I just think people respond more strongly (and remember longer) stories about pain than about happiness. Happy people tend to be boring (from a literary point of view), while unhappy people have a struggle ahead of them, and you can root for them.

I, personally, often don't empathize at all with characters in the books that so many people love and adore (time traveler's wife, curious incident, etc.). So for me, not only are they about unpleasant things, they're also not evocative or involving to me - hence (again, just for me) they pretty much fail at the only task I personally have set for any book I read. When I'm reading a (well-written) romance novel, though, I get a profound sense of satisfaction when I see the two main characters end up together - so that works for me.

Those are sort of my top of the brain sorts of ideas, though I'm sure many would disagree.

I tried very hard to read it. Also hated it.

Both Harry Potter books and LotR books. Couldn't get into any of them, nor the movies.

I was forced to watch the LotR movies by my best friend. And I made her watch 9 hours of movies that she previously didn't want to watch as payback.

Problem was, was that she liked some of the movies that I made her watch and I didn't like LotR.

Madame Bovary
I love 19th century novels so I thought I'd give this on a try. I hated it but plowed through because this is supposed the be the best novel ever written! Boring, stupid book about boring stupid people that I could care less about. Maybe it's beautiful prose in French. But there is nothing to enjoy about it in English.

Please somebody take if off all those best book lists.

Thanks for a chance to rant about that, it's been bugging me.

I read The Sound and the Fury By William Faulkner. It seems to be on every top one hundred list I have ever seen but I hated it. Why this is considered and American classic I will never know.

>353 jamesapt10: Jamesapt, I completely agree. I forced my way to the very end of The Sound and the Fury thinking there must be some turning point in the book that would make me see the genius of the story. Nope. Hated it all the way through. I had planned to read As I Lay Dying when I finished The Sound and the Fury, but I just couldn't do it after that ordeal.

As I Lay Dying is one weird book. I don't regret reading it but it wasn't earth moving for me.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think anyone really likes The Sound and the Fury. I've yet to meet someone who truly enjoyed it...I feel like it's one of those books you know you're supposed to appreciate and admire, but it's virtually impossible.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think anyone really likes The Sound and the Fury. I've yet to meet someone who truly enjoyed it...I feel like it's one of those books you know you're supposed to appreciate and admire, but it's virtually impossible.

Oh, I do. I love it - one of my top 3 favorite books ever. I love Faulkner's writing, especially the disjointedness of the Benjy section and the stream-of-consciousness of the Quentin section. IMO, these two sections are why the book is on every top 100 list going - Faulkner's ability to give us a glimpse into the minds of two people who are completely incapable of linear thinking is brilliant.

I know this thread is "books everyone loves and you hate", not "defend your favorite-est books when someone mentions them" so this is probably not the appropriate spot for this comment, but I did want to point out that there are actually people out there who really like The Sound and the Fury.

I liked The Sound and the Fury too but only after listening to it as an audiobook and also reading every sparknotes, monarch notes, review, plot summary, etc. that I could get my hands on. I know it doesn't sound like too much fun.

Everyone seems to love The Book Thief and keeps saying that it's the best book in the world. I finally read it and I thought it was nothing spectacular, the writing was rather bland and the plot didn't interest me that much. It disappointed me because I expected something much better.

Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time wasn't to my liking either. We read it in class and no one enjoyed it. I thought the plot was bland and not interesting. The characters were stupid, not the kid himself but his parents.

theaelizabet...I agree about The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. What a let down after The Secret History.

I also agree with many people here about Joyce and Faulkner, although I should admit that I appreciated The Sound and the Fury more the second time I read (Why did I read it again? Heaven knows.) But in general, I don't enjoy the heavy stream of consciousness/schizophrenic first person narration. It makes my head hurt, although I did enjoy some parts of Virginia Woolf's stories. Also...GRRRRRR to crazy post-modern authors. Pull yourself together dammit! lol

I just don't get Tolkien. It took me 4 months to read The Hobbit and 6 months to read the first of his The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was about 2 weeks into the second book of the trilogy when my husband took mercy on me and suggested I give it up. And why did I spend the better part of a year trudging through that hell? Because I'm married and that's what married people do. My husband loves those stupid books so I gave it my best shot. When he turns any of the movies on I just leave the house. I come home a few hours later and they're just still all fighting. He'll say it's a whole different battle but I don't know about that.

Am I the only one who hates Sue Grafton's alphabet books? A is for Alibi, etc. She's up to S or T or something like that and I've read them all and I really hate them. The irritating girl PI keeps getting shot but she just won't die. Early on I thought she might get killed off but now I am resigned to the fact she will be with us through Z. If Grafton rounds the horn to AA I refuse to follow.

I forgot that I didn't like The Catcher in the Rye. It's been 25 years since I read it but now I remember I thought Holden Caulfield was going to still be living at home when he turned 30. Everybody else in my high school English class was quite impressed with him, so I thought it was just me.

>361 sjflan:-sjflan, you hate Grafton's alphabet books, yet you've read them all? That's impressive, just as your effort to read Tolkien is admirable. I can normally stand no more than three or four of a terrible series. (I made it through 3 Harry Potters before donating the whole set to the Library book sale!) If I was to start Grafton's books, and found I didn't like them, B,C, or D would have been my stopping point, as I like to give an author a chance, and won't form an opinion after just one bad book. But to go all the way to T in a series you can't stand? That's what I call "Giving it the old college try"! Are you going to give Grafton's U-book a chance. If so, Good Luck!

>361 sjflan: There are too many books to read to waste time in trudging through books you don't like. If you read A and B and you still don't like Sue Grafton, you are exempt from having to read C through T, and even U. Find something you like and don't bother with what other people want you to read.

I don't disagree, I just can't seem to help myself. It doesn't cost anything because I get them from the library, and they only take 2 nights to read. I think it will be easier to finish the series than to try to break the addiction. Now that I hate the main character I don't want to miss her death. I hope it's painful.

I was able to stop reading Kristin Hannah's books as soon as I realized they are all the same, so this doesn't happen to me all the time.

I'm wishy-washy on the Harry Potter series. Numbers One and Two were short, fun reads. Three was bad, Four was good but way too long. I only read Five through Seven because my husband bought them and I'd come this far already. I was thinking I'd read them to the kids in a few years, but the idea has grown cold. Absence has not made my heart grow fonder.

I just picked up A Collection of Short Stories from Dylan Thomas and I'm bored. Could somebody please advise whether I should proceed? I named my child Dylan Thomas so I feel somewhat obligated.

Middlesex by Eugenides. Hated it! I tried twice to finish it, but couldn't, though everyone at work read it and raved about it. I also hated Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I had to read it for a college lit class and had only 5 pages to go to finish, and just thought, "Why bother? I hate this book." Also hated The Catcher in the Rye. For a great alternative, I suggest Fateless by Imre Kertesz. That is a great story, with a main character who is similarly unimpressed with the world around him, but because he gets caught up in the Holocaust, his story actually has some meaning. To me, Holden Caulfield was just a spoiled middle-class brat who needed to get over himself. I didn't even get that he dies at the end; I was just glad he finally shut up! That's one book I should have stopped reading, but because it was short, I finished it. There's a list to ponder: books you should have stopped reading:)

>361 sjflan:

"She's up to S or T or something like that and I've read them all and I really hate them."

I think it's the letter "T" that Grafton is now up to, Sally. I believe her latest title is called 'T' is for Time to Terminate Tedious Titles; Twenty is Totally Too Many!.

"If Grafton rounds the horn to AA I refuse to follow."

Hmmm, interesting concept. Of course, like everyone else I had always assumed Ms. Grafton intended to stop at 'Z' is for Zorro or 'Z' is for Zenda, the Prisoner of or some such title. I had not even considered there might be the possibility of an 'AA' is for Alcoholics Anonymous tome coming down the pike after that one. Yikes! :(

"I remember I thought Holden Caulfield was going to still be living at home when he turned 30."

Well, he's a lot older than that now but nevertheless you were right, Sally, he's still living at home with his mother. And dressing secretly in her clothes. Now it's him that everyone comes to watch mincing around through the open window of the cheap hotel room across the street. Plus he still also holds that, "In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw," and that is now his main justification for enjoying such "crumbystuff" as golden showers and other water sports.

However, Holden still stands for young people everywhere, who feel themselves beset on all sides by pressures to grow up and live their lives according to the rules, to disengage from meaningful human connection, and to restrict their own personalities and conform to a bland cultural norm. Thus Holden now claims, like all other CDs, he's a symbol of pure, unfettered individuality in the face of cultural oppression.

And yes, Sally, Holden still hates all things "phony" ... that's why he passionately shunned wearing breast forms in favor of developing something more real and natural by the use of hormones. He's now a very natural redhead with an ever so un-phony 38D cup. Overall, I think you'd be very surprised how well he turned out. Not anything at all like most of us expected him to be.

>364 sjflan:

"Could somebody please advise whether I should proceed? I named my child Dylan Thomas so I feel somewhat obligated."

You might try renaming your child Rabbie Burns and starting over. Just a thought, Sally.

Gin a body meet a body
Coming thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body —
Need a body cry?

Gin a body meet a body
Coming thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body —
Need the warld ken?

BTW, I also posted some recommendations for further reading on your profile as you requested.

Whatsa matta, rule42? Still livin with your mama?

I can't stand Eragon. I tend to go on lengthy rants about it, particularly to the friends I have who adore it. It was one of those books where I knew exactly what was going to happen and really didn't want it to, not to mention that I couldn't stand ANY of the characters.

The other one whose acclaim I absolutely cannot understand for the life of me (and is less excusable because this is a fully-grown man rather than some teenager writing it) are the Shannara books by Terry Brooks. I've read better-written fanfics.

Of course, these books' case isn't helped at all because I hold Tolkien in the highest regard, so these are really poorly thought-out "tributes" ("ripoffs" might be a better term) to Middle-Earth. Sigh.

EDIT
#148: Yeah, I couldn't understand what was so immensely incredible about House of Leaves, either. A boyfriend recommended it to me as the most utterly horrifying book he'd ever read, I read it and asked him exactly what was horrifying about it. It's like, well, that wasn't even that interesting...

The Sun Sword books by Michelle West I'd completely forgotten about. They were bad enough that I can't remember any of the plot or any of the characters and gave them to the used bookstore about a week after having read them. I think they were appallingly boring, which is rather unacceptable for 800+ pages for each of the eight books.

The Hobbit, even amidst my Tolkien adoration, is one of the books that I don't bother rereading when I'm reading the series. All of the other Tolkien fans I know adore it and I can't figure out why.

Heart of Darkness was awful and so was Frankenstein.

...I'm also one of those people who's cringed as they've read the list—so much Tolkien mentioned, I love Palahniuk, and Jane Eyre, World War Z, and The English Patient are some of my favorite books.

I’m actually looking forward to & is for And Here's Sue Grafton's 27th Kinsey Millhone Novel.

Maybe Grafton will switch to numbers and the books will go into infinity...

>370 bookladykm:

Oh goodie! Today I placed my advance order with B&N for the following upcoming Sue Grafton titles:

'∞' is for Infinity
'A' is for Aleph Zero
'B' is for Bijection
'C' is for Continuum
'D' is for Dedekind-Infinite
'E' is for Euclid
'Ш' is for Euclid's Fallen (And He Can't Get Up!)
'F' is for Frege
'G' is for Georg Cantor
'H' is for Hilbert's Paradox of the Grand Hotel (shades of Agatha Christie, eh?)
'I' is for Infinite Regress
'J' is for Imaginary Component :)
'K' is for Kurt Gödel
'L' is for Lemniscate
'M' is for Möbius
'N' is for Natural Numbers
'O' is for Ouroboros
'P' is for Peano Axiom
'Q' is for Quantum
'R' is for Real Numbers
'Я' is for Infinite Supplies of Toys for Us
'S' is for Proper Subsets of an Infinite Set S that are the Same Size as S (according to the DJ blurb this is perhaps Sue's most complex and counter-intuitive mystery to date!)
'T' is for Transfinite
'U' is for Uncountable
'V' is for Roman Five
'W' is for Uncountably Uncountable
'X' is for Xeno's Paradox
'Y' is for Y So Many Titles?
'Z' is for Zahlen (only available as a German edition)
'ω' is for Lowest Transfinite Ordinal
'} → אּ' is for Death Comes to the Transfinite Cardinal (according to the DJ blurb this one is Sue's homage to Willa Cather)

The good news is that I received a 5% discount on all of them. Yea!

Now I'm so psyched up and can barely wait for Sue to finally start in writing on the "infinite phase" titles in this wonderful "hard-boiled" detective series. As you all probably know, at the end of 'V' is for Vendetta our favorite female sleuth changes her name to Cantor Millhone in order to better prepare herself for this exciting new phase of her sleuthing career.

Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit

# 371 - that made me laugh. The "s" title killed me.

The Time Traveler's Wife.

What a pile of sentimental trash.

>371 Rule42: Rule42: Fantastic! Glad you got that 5% discount, too :)

>341 jfetting:

"Wicked - I liked the first two parts, and then it just fell apart."

Yeah, that's always a problem with reading old paperbacks. My recommendation is that you should shell out for a hardback edition. That'll probably solve all your issues with this particular title.

>373 jfetting:

"The 's' title killed me."

Oh goodness me! I'm now hearing rumors over the grapevine that Ms. Grafton wants to turn the investigation of your sudden demise into the story line of her next Kinsey Millhone outing. Do you possibly have a title that you could suggest to her?

>357 jfetting:

"... these two sections are why the book is on every top 100 list going - Faulkner's ability to give us a glimpse into the minds of two people who are completely incapable of linear thinking is brilliant."

Sheesh, if as you claim, people really wanted to have "glimpses into the minds of others who are completely incapable of linear thinking" then all they have to do is read the LT message board. All your own argument in defense of Faulkner does is prove that there is absolutely no need for his books in the age of the internet.

Nice try, though. :)

Hated Great Expectations -- I had to use SparksNotes to finish it for school. I also was not impressed with Wicked. Madame Bovary dragged so much for me I stopped about halfway through, though I like Flaubert, and might try reading it in French. I've never been able to finish any LotR. I also thought Atonement was very slow-- I did finish it, and it came together at the end, but very little happened in all of Part One.

I agree, flipflopgirl, about Atonement. Took lots of concentration to get through, but at least had an ending that was, in my opinion, a great payoff.

I bought James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffany's for a long plane trip. BIG MISTAKE. Hated it, hated it, hated it.

>367 sjflan:

Why yes I am, Sally. As always, your speculation is right on the money. But things have been so darn busy here at the Bates Motel this summer that I haven't really had very much quiet time to myself to be able to take her "out" and pay her the kind of attention she so richly deserves. Hopefully things won't be quite so hectic in the fall.

Best regards, Norman.

This is a very entertaing thread.

There is just no accounting for taste, mine or anybody else's! Have agreed with quite a number of the dislikes mentioned. Here is my take on the subject:

Enjoyed The Hobbit loathed LOTR, gave up, too derivative of the Hobbit.
Enjoyed David Copperfield can't stand enything else by Dickens.
Enjoyed Pride and Prejudice could not get into anything else by Jane Austen, tried all the others, gave up, too boring.
Enjoyed Sons and Lovers and The Rainbow, dislike everything else by Lawrence.
Enjoyed Madame Bovary found everything else by Flaubert unintelligble.
Enjoyed Far From the Madding Crowd not keen on much else by Hardy.

- TT

I agree with #380 - different flavors for differnt folks - I guess thats why Baskin Robbins does so well.
Just a note that Harry Potter was written for kids not adults so the story and action might be more important than "great" writting style.
- ? for Hera #73 - while I too cannot stand Sweet Vally High and the Babysittters Club why is it that educators/teachers only seems to like books that most kids find dull, dark/depressing and preachy? ie: Catcher in The Rye, Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies

>380 TheTortoise:

A tortoise goes to New York and is mugged by a gang of snails. When asked by the investigating officer for more details of the attack the tortoise replied: "I'm not too sure ... it all happened so fast."

Add my vote for Lord of the Rings! I can't get past the second page.

BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN AND WEPT and THE ALCHEMIST get my votes!

>369 shmjay:

& is for And Here's Sue Grafton's 27th Kinsey Millhone Novel.

>371 Rule42:

The 'S' and 'Y' titles.

You guys make me laugh

I dont want to sound like a book snob, but may well be. I think what makes the best seller list is almost always close to pap, junk etc. The average american doesnt read a lot of serious books,

I dont want to sound like a book snob, but may well be. I think what makes the best seller list is almost always close to pap, junk etc. The average american doesnt read a lot of serious books,

#386

Just so long as they're reading. They could be killing their brains watching television. A book zombie is better than a television head ANY day.

It's not to say that I don't have my own snobbish tendencies. James Patterson horrifies me. He doesn't write his own books; I just know it.

#388: I agree--as long they're reading. But everyone's tastes in books varies. And I think the same goes for TV--not all programs dumb down the viewer. Just depends on what you're looking for (in a book or show)--to either be entertained or informed (or both, if you're lucky).

James Patterson definitely has ghostwriters, but at least he admits to it. And, yes, I have read and liked some of his books. I'm not a big fan, but they're quick reads and a nice break from some of the stuff I normally read.

I absolutely HATED The Jane Austen Book Club. It's the first book in a loooong time that I can honestly say I detested. In my opinion it was shallow and uninteresting. Also, the characters were totally unlikeable. I also got the feeling that the author was desperately trying to get me to care about them but secretly knew herself that they were superficial.

So, I'm really not sure why people love this.

As a fan of Jane Austen, I was dissapointed and irritated that her name would be connected to this horrendous book.

#391

Unfortunately, there are too many horrendous things connected with the Jane Austen name. I'm thinking of all of the Pride and Prejudice rip-offs out there. Those to me are the absolute worst.

The Scarlet Letter is one of the classics of literature which I hated from beginning to end. Granted, the writing and thematic symbolism are impressive, the characters are no likeable in the least, in my opinion. Even our "heroine" is sorely wanting.

#391-2
I absolutely agree. I've read the backs of some and they're just awful sounding. It reminds me of something I read a while back in which a British woman was weirdly put off by seeing Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle on a talk show in modern clothes, smoking cigarettes and whatnot.

I have just come to apologise for adding Moby Dick to this list - after a minimum of 35 years of not being able to stomach it, I tried again this summer and loved it.

So I went back and tried my other hated books and am pleased to say I still cannot abide Tristram Shandy (what *was* the author drinking?) A Confederacy of Dunces and Wuthering Heights.

I'd also like to add the book by Clive Cussler someone left on the train which was so badly written (at one stage the author turned up and took an active part in the plot) that I've thankfully managed to forget what it was called.

I refuse to read any more books that have the word 'club' in the title or anything about a group of people (usually women) all of them the same characters we've all met thousands of times before: free spirit, earth mother, romantic lead, iron maiden,career woman, tormented wife, wisecracker, etc. Blah!

#396

I'm not up for Girl Power Sentiment myself.

I agree about Clive Cussler - does he write so he can be a walk on in the movie versions?

I absolutely despised and loathed The Virgin Suicides. I cannot say enough awful things about this book. The only good thing I could say was that the writing was good, but the subject was horrific, sickening, awful. As the mother of a 15-year old girl, it made my skin crawl.

For entirely different reasons, mostly having to do with spiraling down into suicidal depression, I stopped reading One More Year by Sana Krasikov. Talk about depressing lives of boring people. Blech. It felt like a black hole - if I kept reading it I was going to be sucked down into nothingness.

And, except for about 30 pages having to do with computers and religion, I hated Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I just didn't get it.

Next year I will be back to my normal routine of only finishing books I am enjoying. This year I made a commitment to finish everything I started. Big mistake.

Awesome thread ~ adding my .02

Thirteenth Tale was horrid, hateful characters and the stupidest ending of recent memory!

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell same thing, LONG winded, used the word "sanguine" about 300 times and ultimately very pointless and boy, sorry I stuck with it all the way through to the end! I feel I deserve a price for tenacity.

Bridge of Sighs one of my favorite authors generally, but couldn't stomach more than 200 page of this one, terrible.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - just put this in the tank pile after 193 pages, beautiful writing and even my deep love of all things canine does not make this one any better.

Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis though gets my personal award for the worst novel of all times, gratuitously violent, horrid characters and mediocre to sophmoric (if that) writing. Despite that, it seemingly is on the 1000 books to read before you die list.

I've just thought of another one - Gone with the Wind a friend of mine actually called her daughter Scarlet. Poor little mite, burdened with the name of one of the most willfully witless women in all of literature.

I hope I don't get a lot of hate mail, but I absolutely hated The Shack. This book did nothing to improve my faith and only made me sigh and grumble as I read it.

Oh, the Jane Austen Book Club! I'd forgotten all about it (says a lot) What I thought at the time was something like - I'm a middle-aged woman with a not terribly exciting life, so why would I want to read about m-awwntelives? Especially when I could be reading Jane instead?

I know this is a little off topic, but I have to mention...

I was in the bookstore the other day and came across one of those Austen sequels/knockoffs and read the back to see if it might be fun. It went something like, "Mr Bingley is shocked when on the night before their double wedding, Mr. Darcy shows him a copy of the Kama Sutra..."

I laughed out loud right there in the store. It wasn't in the erotica section either. Funny stuff.

>404 frogbelly:

Laughing here, too. Can you imagine Jane Austen's bewilderment?

This is an excellent thread! Thank you everyone that gave a thumbs down to The Kite Runner... it is now off my TBR pile.

No one else has mentioned this one yet, but I hated The Mists of Avalon. I received the book as a gift from a friend that loved it and to this day (years later) she still doesn't understand why I hate the book. She thinks I haven't given the book a chance (sigh!).

The same goes for everything I have picked up by John Steinbeck and John Irving.

I grit my teeth at The Eight by Katherine Neville, at Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, at Nora Ephron writing anything, at the The Mists of Avalon, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and virtually anything Oprah Winney likes. This is a great list. I could keep going for ages. The Catcher in the Rye is a guy thing. I threw Stranger in a Strange Land out a window. I've also stopped reading Elizabeth George. Actually, just lately I've been chucking books (my world, my life, my favorite thing to do: read) into bags for the Salvation Army. Where's the books I'd never let go of list?

Why don't you start one.

i hated Eat, Pray, Love, The Lovely Bones, and Anna Karenina. it's a wide range, but....ugh..... totally forgot to add one. i have never been able to get past the first half of Swann's Way and i don't know that i ever will. AND i think it's terrible.

I really could not stand The Five People You Meet in Heaven or Wicked.

There are a lot of books on this list that I did love though! The Time Traveler's Wife, Slaughterhouse-Five, Eat, Pray, Love, and Pride and Prejudice. To each his own, I guess!

I'm with you there, on The Corrections. I lost patience with it after about 200 pages.

It is amazing at how subjective literary tastes are. I find it difficult to swallow when someone says that a certain book is important literature yet I hate it. It makes me feel like I'm missing something or lacking something. I admit to reading plenty of fluff: reading is an escapist activity for me. Therefore I consider myself quite opinionated on Vampiric Lit (yep, I made that up) and am picky about what makes a great Vampire novel. (It is so NOT Anne Rice!)

I hate The Secret and how much stock people have put in that book. Oprah did multiple shows on this bunk. It breaks my heart that people believe it and follow it, then wonder what went wrong. Saturday Night Live did a brilliant send up of this book w/Amy Pohler as the author. It's worth trying to find on YouTube.

And The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown?!! This guy is laughing all the way to the bank. I imagine him thinking, mmm, what's the formula to getting on the bestseller list? I'm going to dumb down my writing to junior high level, add subversive sexual undertones, and involve highly controversial religious topics. Voila!

I absolutely hated On The Road and Interview With The Vampire.So dull!

I think Crime and Punishment was not worth the huge amount of effort I put into it because the ending left so much to be desired. I was absolutely disgusted with the amount of energy and excitement I put into this long book only to be let down at the end.

>413 katie1802:

I agree about Interview with the Vampire; I intensely disliked that book. I'm plenty fond of sexy vampires--loved Buffy and Angel both, really enjoy True Blood, and I'm planning to read the Twilight books one of these days. However, the Rice book just seemed to revel in the sensuality of drinking blood--the descriptions made me want to vomit. Not what I'm looking for in reading material.

You definitely should read Twilight.The vampires are cleverly used as a backdrop,whereas Interview...... It is as you say all about drinking blood.All Louis could talk about or should I say complain about was killing humans.

Seriously HATED anything written by William Faulkner; not all that fond of Charles Dickens either.

Running with scissors, wish I'd never read it.

I thought Twilight was awful. Poorly written too.
Tons of my adult friends were crazy for it, but I was just uninterested.

Many of my friends recommended Middlesex and it was just "okay" for me.
The family history was interesting, but overall I was pretty bored.

I just finished Memoirs of a Geisha and LOVED it, as well as Wally Lamb's new book The Hour I First Believed. Lamb's stuff is always great. I own all his books.

Happy reading!

I read a lot of YA Lit, so when I picked up The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson, I was dying to start reading it. I loved Maximum Ride (the first two, the others just fall apart). Big mistake.

The result was like pulling an all nighter in college with just redbulls and jellybeans for norishment. Utter crap. It had an interesting idea to it but was mind numbingly stupid that you just wanted the main character, Daniel, to get impaled on something sharp and pointy.

Basically, Patterson just wanted to have a new book on the shelves, just 'cause.

(Water for Elephants.) Everyone seems to love that book but for some reason I could not connect to it at all.

>421 Iudita:

When I heard what it was about, I refused to read it.

I agree with many of the books mentioned above!:

The Road (interesting premise, but the execution was horrible)
Water for Elephants (what part exactly is supposed to be so good?)
The Great Gatsby (... yeah... and?)
Foucault's Pendulum (you've gotta be kidding-- I'm not wading through all that name-dropping and pseudo-intellectualism)
Cloud Atlas (didn't like the writing style)
The Alchemist (overly contrived and cliche)
Me Talk Pretty One Day (the main character wasn't charming or funny or interesting in any way)
Middlesex (love the themes, but reads too much like an autobiography)
Love in the Time of Cholera (too many names, too few important points)
Unbearable Lightness of Being (vague and general, like a psychic's reading)
The Historian (it had its creepy points, but never really took off)
The Secret (No. Way. In. Hell.)
Lovely Bones (eh... not another rape story.)
The Joy Luck Club (I don't even remember a single thing about it.)
Atonement (Does something important actually HAPPEN in this book, or is it all longing and guilt and feelings?)
Tuesdays with Morrie (talk about cliche)

I hated all of them. I finished a few, but that was only because I kept thinking it would get better. It didn't.

I just couldn't get on with the shipping news, and I don't know why. The prose style was interesting, but for some reason the characters left me cold.

>423 shewhowearsred:

Right-on, Red-woman!

You folks are all providing a great service for those of us who have TBR piles in the hundreds.

Hated The Da Vinci Code and was mad at myself for finishing it, but I liked The Historian up until it just sort of meandered off in the last 100 pages.

However, Foucault's Pendulum I have read twice, and that is rare for me. It is probably part of the reason I hated The Da Vinci Code so much because Brown "borowed" liberally from Eco's book.

I just finished G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. Fortunately its not very long, but in my opinion it wasn't worth the effort.

On Chesil Beach - Terrible, terrible! I doubt I'll pick up Ian McEwan ever again. Just terrible.

Well this question is a very fasinating one.. but I would say that Twiilight the book was VERY GOOD, for sure !However, the movie was a little.. well, hmm, you could say that the actors/actresses hadn't seem very prepared, meaning I wasn't truly believing in there character, if you know what I mean. Although, some others I know think the movie was excellent. I wouldn't say I hated the movie, I just thought the whole concept was very good about vampires falling in love but the actors/actresses just were not fit for the movie. This is just from my perspective thus if anyone disagree's with me, I totally understand because everyone has his/her opinion

I have read a lot of books I didn't like and some I have even hated. But the one book that I recall being raved about that I read and could not stand was Love in the Time of Cholera. He absolutely took forever (& I don't have that much time left) to say anything.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I really didn't get on with it at all but will try it again one day to see if my opinion changes.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. Maybe I've read too much non-fiction about Anne Boleyn and the Tudors to be able to go with the narrative flow. Or maybe things like basically having those wacky Boleyn siblings invent tampons or having the Howard clan act essentially as pimps to all the nubile females in their family just irritated me beyond all endurance. Whatever it was, I hated this book.

The Great Upheaval by Jay Winik. Possibly one of the worst books ever written. I cannot believe that anyone actually reads every sentence of this book and enjoys it. It simply defies imagination.

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. As the kids say, "Beyotch, please."

The Firm by John Grisham So the evil plot involves putting me to sleep, right?

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. It wasn't all the talk about "space" and other new age-isms. It was the saved-by-a-sing-along climax of the story. No, I didn't make that up. That's really how it ends.

Special mention for a character I hated so much that she nearly derailed an otherwise good book: Dairdre Trahair in Careless in Red by Elizabeth George You know you don't like a character when you find yourself sighing at the end of each chapter that yet another perfectly good opportunity to KILL Dairdre has been missed. If George includes this appalling creature in her next book it will end my 20 year relationship with Lynley and Havers.

I'm in the anti-Faulkner group; The Sound and the Fury is the only book I've ever thrown away (well, left it in an airplane seat pocket, because I couldn't stand hanging onto it).

Bonfire of the Vanities was wretched, with plenty of unlikeable characters. I liked Tom Wolfe's nonfiction, and wish he'd give up on fiction.

I also can't read Joyce Carol Oates after hating her book Them. Life is too short; although she seems to find plenty of time to write books, I don't want to spend time reading them.

I haven't read Them, but i loved the film adaptation. What could be better than giant mutated ants?

>432 mjs1228: I completely agree with you on The Other Boleyn Girl I absolutely could not stand that book...or and of Gregory's for that matter. As a history grad myself I cannot handle her shoddy research.

Other books I've ready lately that are terrible are:
Sunday's at Tiffany's - I'm sorry Patterson fans, I simply think he is a terrible writer!
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict - I will admit, I hate "Chick Lit" to begin with but this book really was a joke, I couldn't get past the first 50 pages!

I must say I was disappointed with the Twilight series. It has the makings of being great and then Meyer made the characters (in my opinion) stupid. I admit that I read the first 3 books but have been so replused by all the hype that I haven't finished the series. Also the book from Edwards point of view that has made it on the internet is just sad, that's her own private work that should stay private until published.

oh my goodness i know! I hated the movie, she is the most self centered person and is like horrible. rhett is so patient with her though!

>435 jsherri: - I loathed The Other Boleyn Girl. I wouldn't even have cared about her changing historical facts if the book had been enjoyable in some way. Instead, I was constantly bored and annoyed at the wooden characterization. The only reason I finished it was because we'd chosen it for book club. It was probably the worst book I've read in a decade.

>434 MrAndrew: - I wish there had been giant, mutated ants in The Other Boleyn Girl. They would have enlivened the book considerably.

Stay tuned for The Other Boleyn Girl and Them. It's a matter of time.

#439 - Just as soon as they finish The Other Boleyn Vampire

I only made it a third of the way through Gone with the Wind; we had a copy in the house because my sister and her friends had gone through a serious phase with that story. I couldn't stand spending any more time with a self-centered twit like Scarlett; she and Rhett deserved each other, that's for sure.
I've never been able to read more than about thirty pages of Pride and Prejudice. Nothing happens, except one of the characters' getting a little mud on her hem while going to visit a sick friend--and she wasn't even sick with boredom.
As for Wuthering Heights, I've never even picked it up. After reading comments in reviews and hearing about it from English majors, I know I couldn't stand the main characters, whom I'd like to see die. Quickly.
Anna Karenina is a book I've actually finished twice, once during a catch-up-on-literature phase, and once during a period in Cairo when I just needed something to read. But I didn't care any more about Anna and her Count the second time around. They seemed like boring, shallow people.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was a big disappointment; the prose seemed to drag and the characters were neither interesting nor likable.

On the other hand, I'm sorry so many readers found The Historian disappointing. I loved it, have read it several times, enjoyed the travel and liked the heroes. Since I've done some historical research myself, I found myself nodding from time to time as I recognized the experiences of the characters. Although, I must say, the subjects of my research were mere garden-variety sinners--a bit of adultery here, a spot of larceny there, skipping work to go drinking with their buddies. I'll know what not to do if any strange books ever show up in my collection.

> 54 & 178, 441
So I am not the only one that doesn't like Jane Austen? I am so relieved .... her stories bore me - to tears - and I end up quitting half way through. Now, if only I could muster up the courage to tell my English teacher aunt that I've never read a whole Austen book ......
> 423 I read The Great Gatsby and can't remember much ...

Tried to read Catcher in the Rye - gave up; although one of my closest friends raves and says its her favorite book

As far Gone With the Wind - the only redeeming thing about good ol' Scarlett was that she supplied some good material for a classic Carol Burnett skit : )

Hmmm...
Twilight and Harry Potter spring instantly to mind...IMO they are parodies of real literature. I also dislike Jasper Fforde's novels for the same reason.
Honestly, I don't really like Jane Austen's books very much, they're all too "witty" and plodding for me. I've only read one or two and didn't care to read the others. I thought The Canterbury Tales were just vulgar, they didn't impress me at all! And as others have mentioned I wasn't really crazy about The Great Gatsby, either.

I'm going to have stop reading this thread--the books everyone loves that you hate are turning out to be books that I love! Austen is one of my favorite authors; I loved Gone with the Wind and have read it many times; Anna Karenina I liked a lot; and I admit to being a fan of Harry Potter.

*slinking away in shame now*

Not really; and I don't mean to imply any criticism whatsoever for all the posting of what is, after all, the point of the thread!

Harry Potter books are definitely not my cup of tea (though I don't like YA books in general).

Catch 22 - I really want to read it but can't get through it... just can't.

I couldn't finish To Say Nothing of the Dog which I had really wanted to like.

I really liked The Da Vinci Code

And Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell and The Historian are on my beach vacation reading list for the summer, but it looks like a lot of people didn't like them. I might have to rethink.

#445: I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. Try reading a few pages - that will give you an indication of whether the style is for you or not.

#444: Anna Karenina, like War & Peace, are enjoyable when you employ judicious skipping. Tolstoy did love a good ramble.

I'm with the other posters on Water for Elephants. It sounded good and everyone seems to have loved it, but I got 1/3 of the way through it and couldn't connect at all to the characters or story (was there even a story?--It seemed like nothing happened).

I had the same problem with Away.

I may be the only one, but I've had a hard time with anything by Zadie Smith. I own a couple of her novels, and I'm determined, so I'll give her another try. I deplored The Shipping News. The Da Vinci Code was overhyped. I'm having a hard time with Catch 22, but it's sitting on my shelf, so one day I will conquer it. I read a couple pages of Atonement and couldn't get into it, but I'll give it another try. I adored The Poisonwood Bible, but hated Prodigal Summer. I really enjoyed Me Talk Pretty One Day, but you may have to possess a certain dry wit to really like that one. Kind of like Lapham Rising. Most people gave it poor reviews, but I loved it. I liked it so much, I bought Beet (TBR). I hope that doesn't speak volumes about me. I'm disappointed to hear about Sacred Games. I just bought it and now I'm giving it the side eye. The Corrections is on my shelf, beckoning me, but I'm ignoring it right now. I'm a little surprised to see Anna Karenina in some posts. I'll highly recommend it to a dear literary friend to read first; how I love human guinea pigs. What about the behemoth 2666, is it worth the energy?

->448 petersonvl:
Hey, petersonvl, don't say "hope that doesn't speak volumes about me" like it's a bad thing. We each like different things and have our own guilty pleasures which is what keeps these conversations interesting. I am alway grateful that we are not limited to a world of Walmarts and Borders where only books of mass-culture appeal will survive.

The other thing I've found, is that I can be tremendously drawn to a book because of its story, even if it is not told well. Kids will do that with fairy tales, where "Three Little Pigs" will fascinate them at a certain age and they want no other story--certainly not a princess/prince story. Then one day, they have no desire to hear it any more, and that's *it*. Never again. I've found with some books I loved, loved LOVED, that when I re-read them, they just didn't hold up. But it still can be a good ride.

Ain't it great to be able to read?!

Linda

Off the top:
Kite Runner--too predictable
I would love to get through Catch-22 but I am not sure I will live long enough.

I like Jodi Picoult but never seem to finish any of them. It's like beer; I hate the taste but gee eveyone drinks it ...

Savage Beauty Dissappointing. I love St. Vincent Millay's poetry but this book was boring. didn't want to finish.

William Styron's Darkness Visible I felt too much of him, it just didn't ring true, something was off.

Dante Club No one lives long enough to finish!!

Wuthering Heights I liked yet was very depressing and brutal.

I didn't even bother with The Thirteenth Tale after a few pages.

Although, in defense of Rigler I loved Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict!!!!

I agree with the very first post about The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. I also was not at all enthralled with The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, or My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Piccoult. Oh, and I loved The Hobbit, but could not bring myself to read The Return of the King--it got so dark and depressing that I couldn't face the last Ring book!

I find myself disliking:
Life of Pi - never finished it
One Hundred Years of Solitude - I only finished this because I had nothing else to do. Each word was like chewing on some disgusting food I was forced to eat and swallowing it.
Interview with the Vampire
Ender's Game I don't get why everybody likes this. I was 15 when I read it, so it's not as if I was too young or old. I loved Orson Scott Card's Characters and Viewpoint, but for some reason I really just didn't care for Ender!

I hate overrated books! I hate great promises of great readings that ultimately fail and dissapoint!

As several people before me, I hated the Da Vinci Code. I actually felt insulted while reading it, both as a reader and as a French person.
Sophie's World - I don't understand what would compel someone to write a book so huge about something that can so easily be learned through infinitely more entertaining means.
Lord of the Flies - I thought it was going to be entertaining, and then it wasn't.

The following are French classics and/or best sellers and I'm not sure how popular they are outside of France, but I always felt like the black sheep for disliking them:
The Red and the Black by Stendhal - Even the characters are bored in this one. This didn't help my own case.
The Kill by Emile Zola - Oh, the gratuitous angst and ten page long descriptions of ceiling mouldings.
Les Fourmis and its sequels by Bernard Werber. Actually, everything I've read by him - Werber just cannot write dialogue, and constantly insults his readers' intelligence by implying he is smarter than them.

>453 Alloutofwords:
"Oh, the gratuitous angst and ten page long descriptions of ceiling mouldings."

LOL!

#434 MrAndrew - if only the Them I read by Joyce Carol Oates had had giant mutated ants in it, I'm sure I would've enjoyed it much more! Sometimes the movie really is an improvement on the book. :-)

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

Does it mean anything that I didn't remember that I read Wicked a few years ago until I saw it posted on this thread. A repressed memory? I kept waiting for it to get better ..... After reading it I remember clicking my heels together three times and saying "I will never torture myself with a book again. I will never torture myself with a book again..."

I couldn't get through Wicked. It was the reading equivalent of watching paint dry.

I got thru Wicked; I never felt compelled to read the sequels. It's not really one that I hated, but I sure didn't like it as much as the hoopla around it.

It's nice to know I'm not alone : ) Somebody I know saw the musical and loved it; how they squeezed a musical out of the book is beyond me, but, hey, more power to 'em!!!!!

I attempted to read Wicked before we saw the musical. I enjoyed the musical--something has to happen every couple of minutes when you only have your audience for two or three hours.

I really disliked the book Wicked, but the musical is definitely worth seeing. I had a real blast!

Hate is a pretty strong word. There are several books I've disliked The Time Traveler's Wife, Angela's Ashes and The Corrections, which seem to be very popular.

The closest I can say I have come to "hating" a book is probably As I Lay Dying.....and perhaps.......The Deerslayer. Read both of these for a face2face book group.

I am of an age and my TBR stack is so large that I don't keep reading if I don't like the book. I do the 50 page thing....if not hooked, I don't read the book. Really doesn't give me much time to get emotionally involved.

Right now I am struggling through The Egyptologist by, Arthur Philips I've made it to page 68 BUT, I am struggling......I love the writing style but am not sure the story line will hold my interest........what to do ? what to do ???

#464 faceinbook - I read The Egyptologist but it was a struggle.

I've read The Egyptologist twice. It's a bit gimmicky, but I enjoyed it. Subtle humor and parody.

464,
As I Lay Dying is one of the greatest books in American literature.

I've seen a ton of negative comments on LT, about Mr. Faulkner.

Wasn't it the great Jerry Garcia who said the Grateful Dead is like licorice. A lot of people HATE licorice. But then again there's another small group of people who really LOVE licorice.

Enough trite comments for now. Speaking of trite, I actually just grabbed The Alchemist from the library. I guess I want to see what all the fuss is about.

I never understood how The Road by Cormac McCarthy could have been a "great" book. It was hard to understand and because of the lack of modern grammar and dialogue, I had a hard time understand it! I know that it was post-apocalyptic and what the general idea was, but I found it way too disturbing and difficult to read. I am currently reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire and I must say, it's hard getting through that book. Every little detail is glorified into a whole paragraph. I don't know if I can finish it.

message #465 and #466

I am sticking with it.....primarly because I enjoy the humor. As I said, I like the writing style. I will finish the book.

#467

Faulkner's books would not have hung around this long if they weren't of value. Just not my taste.
I LOVE licorice ;>)

I could not stand All Quiet on the Western Front. The book did not appeal to me in any manner.

I also could not get into Reading Lolita in Tehran at all.

And The Hobbit.

Angels and Demons - It's only saving grace was that by the last 100 pages or so, it had reached so-bad-it's-good status. Talk about unintentional comedy. I really don't understand how people can take it seriously, though.

A Prayer for Owen Meany - Didn't hate it, but generally underwhelmed. The solid part is the story of two outcasts growing up in a small town, but when it roams farther afield it loses its footing. And the ending revelation: cathartic act of selflessness or contrived and overly telegraphed plot twist? I lean towards the latter.

To say nothing of the dog by Connie Willis. I've been hearing amazing things about it, but I mostly found it weird. I didn't hate it, precisely, but the book got dumped on my "donate/sell" pile as soon as I finished it, which is saying something (for me, anyway).

Oh no ive been looking forward to reading Water for Elephants!!

Black and Blue - One of the few books that i have given up on after a few chapters.. it was crap!

The Eyre Affair - Tons of interesting ideas, zero style. A 150-year Crimean War? The complete stagnation of British literary culture? A heroine who gets several people killed in her first serious assignment? This is a comedy?

Gone with the Wind was a big disappointment to me - if I hadn't had to read it for a class, I would have put it down after about two hundred pages. I also found Catcher in the Rye to be underwhelming, but I might read it again to see if I appreciate it more now.

I tried to read The Life of Pi...just couldn't get into it. Got to page 50...does it get better? Because if someone tells me to keep at it, maybe I will pick it up again. This was in the YA section of the library...I really can't imagine any teenager slogging thru it.

>476 theretiredlibrarian: Stick with it for a bit and see if it doesn't grab you. I read it about a year ago and, as I recall, it starts slowly. I really liked it, for whatever that's worth.

I was looking forward to reading Julie-Julia, but put it aside after a few chapters. The language was offensive and little writing skill shown. It was a clever idea and could have been really good. On the other hand, the Julia Child biography is great.My Life in France. The movie will undoubtedly be great with Meryl Streep.

476 - I just finished reading Life of Pi and I would recommend that you continue reading it. It is really quite a story. Bit of an odd ending I thought but well worth reading. Very entertaining and insightful.

Having enjoyed C. S. Forester's Hornblower series, everybody recommended that I read Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. I tried, but at last gave up at page 169.

With Forester, it felt as though you were there on the ship, with clarity in his imagery. O'Brian's scenes felt too cluttered and I was irritated by his naval lessons. I wanted to read a story, not a text book.

I can't stand anything by Mitch Albom, Stephenie Meyer and Dan Brown.
Also some classics include Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye. I want to like them, but just can't get much out of them. Guess I should wait another 5 years to start reading them again.

Emily1: lol...while I was married, my then-husband raved about the O'Brian series and begged me to try at least the first book. What a snore-fest! What a long few weeks that was (it took that long to slog through the thing). My husband insisted on discussing it each time I closed the book, so there was no skipping ahead. In hindsight, maybe that was the beginning of the end...of our marriage. Ha! One of the few instances when the movie is better than the book. In this case, the movie took out all the boring parts (read: most of the book) and left us with Russell Crowe. Not a bad trade. As for the book and series: maybe it's a guy thing.

The Twilight series, Adrian Mole

> - Nope not a guy thing. I loved the entire series, although I have to admit the first one was the heaviest going. You can, of course, skip all the maintopgallant-crossharping jargon. Maybe that is the difference between men and women?

I don't know how anyone could like this book. I found it boring and uncomfortably creepy at the same time.

We must be kindred spirits. I found the charactors in Pride and Predjudice so shallow I couldn't make myself finish it as a young girl--but I devoured everything by Dickens and George Elliott. I had a hard time getting through the Great Gatsby. I guess my books need a strong character to make them enjoyable.

I am reading Pride and Prejudice right now. I take it in very small doses as they use a lot of words to talk about themselves....a lot! The whole point seems to get somebody embarassed and at a loss for words. Rarely are they talking about serious issues but they make it seem so. It seems like such a waste of witt.

Ouch! Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books.

To me, the wit of the writing is extraordinary, the insights amusing and on-target, the characters engaging (even the purposefully aggravating ones), and the romance irresistible. But given the book's fame, this certainly fits this thread and shows the differences among readers.

Yes, I have to resist the urge to defend books that I love when someone says they can't stand them--but then I remember that this is the point of this thread . . . (yet I totally agree with jnwelch on Pride and Prejudice, and would go on to say that the apparently trivial concerns of the Bennett girls in finding a suitable husband reflect a very real issue with the most vital question a woman faced in a time when few, if any, careers other than wife/mother were an option. Their futures depended on their ability to marry well, and Lydia's actions, for example, could have imperiled every one of her sisters. It's serious stuff, despite the wit of Austen's writing.) *stepping down from soapbox*

Very well said ejj 1955. It gives me much food for thought. I was certainly looking at P&P from a liberated, modern standpoint. Thanks for speaking up!

>490 scarpettajunkie:

Well, I've just started a nonfiction book called Not All Wives, about widows and spinsters in colonial Philadelphia. The author has made a few points about marriage and the status of women that puts P&P in a certain historical context. It does make one glad to be a woman in the 21st century!

Well put ejj1955 and scarpettajunkie. I agree with the important point you make about P & P.

With P and P, you have to remember that the Bennet girls are in an extremely dodgy position. When Mr Bennet dies they will lose their home and their income, they are down to inherit only £50 a year each and even in 19thC England you are going to have a devil of a job living on £50 a year when you are used to a lot better.

Their choices are:

1. £50 a year
2. Jane and Elizabeth might manage jobs as governesses or companions to elderly ladies but the younger Bennet girls are too badly educated and bad mannered.
3. Marriage or
4. (possibly) prostitution

There is literally nothing else for them. When they think Jane has lost Bingley, she has lost her best hope of a decent marriage for herself with someone who will be kind (there is no divorce for women) and a chance for her mother and sisters to be cared for when Mr Bennet dies.

When Elizabeth turns down Mr Darcy, she is turning down the equivalent of a multi-millionaire who would have seen her entire family safe and she does this out of principle, because she thinks he is a bad man. She is wrong.

Lydia's antics could well have prevented the entire family from marrying anyone respectable and is lucky not to end up a prostitute.

Enjoyed your post above Lady Catherine!

The same point is made by Austen in Sense and Sensibility, when Elinor and Marianne (and their younger sister and mother) are left to the charity of their half-brother, whose wife convinces him that he need not be nearly as generous to them as their dying father doubtless intended. They find an acceptable place to live (though far less grand than the estate on which they grew up) only because a cousin offers it to them.

And (spoiler!) Marianne does not get to marry the man she initially falls in love with because she has no fortune; Elinor is also seen by Edward's sister and mother as being an unworthy match for him because of her lack of a fortune. Things eventually work out for these young women, but there's a nagging suspicion that it's because it's a novel--real life might not be so kind.

I tried to read through this entire thread, but if I missed a kindred spirit- my apologies and my greetings! If I didn’t, why not, I can’t be the only person who hates Ernest Hemingway. Anything and everything by Ernest Hemingway, the run-on sentences, the page long paragraphs, the idealized women, and the overwrought, almost comical macho guyness of it all.

I know a lot of people who love D.H. Lawrence, but I really don't like this author - The Rainbow was SUCH a tedious read, I could barely get through it.
Also, this came up a lot, so obviously I'm not the only one who hates it, but I'm just not a fan of Paolo Coelho, no matter how hard I tried.
Oh and Mitch Albom with his Tuesdays with Morrie... Maybe it was a true story and it might have been touching to him, but I just thought that the whole thing reeked of 'fast-money scheme'. I might actually go to hell for saying that but I'm cynical like that... :-s

I hate "Doctor Who" it really get son my nervous and also Harry Potter and half-blood Prince. I really, really hate it.

Speaking of women's lives in earlier times, both "Portrait of a Lady" and "Anna Karinina" address what could happen once a woman was married both in terms of having all aspects of her life dictated to her by her husband &/or by the "rules" of society.
BTW, I enjoyed reading both books.

ejj1955 post 495, you are correct...real life was not so kind; all we have to do is look at the real lives of such authors as Austen and the Bronte sisters.

Lorritt post 496, I am not a Hemingway fan either, but I find his work (what I've read of it) incredibly misogynistic. Funny how differently we interpret writers. However, his love of cats (and leaving his fortune to their care) saves him from my "hate list".