Curmudgeons unite!

Inspired by this conversation. LizzieD didn’t like The Luminaries, rated The Garden of Evening Mists a mere 4 stars, and wondered “Am I now so curmudgeonly that nothing is going to work for me?” I replied that her comments were nowhere near as curmudgeonly as mine about Shards of Honor. Then others chimed in... So here’s a thread devoted to the cause. Did you hate a book/author that “everybody” else loved? Or react with “meh” and wonder what others were seeing? Have you tried to read a classic or prizewinner and just can’t get through it? Is there a genre that you avoid? A style that puts you off? If the cover blurb says ___ you place it back on the shelf?

I will invite myself in to Curmudgeon corner and make myself comfortable.

A couple of titles I seem to have been less taken with than others would be The Night Circus and Where'd you go, Bernadette. In both cases the subject matter or plot too me too far out of my cedibility zone to accept them. In the former, the use of magic to keep the circus running was the stumbling block. In the latter it was a combination of the characters involved and the trip to Antarctica.

I gave both 3 stars (and that was probably being generous) which is a good whole star below the average and less than the rave reviews both seem to recieve initially. I do note that both have had more balanced added, so it's not just me - although it can feel like it when faced with a deluge of positivity.

2: It's difficult to be the lone dissenter. I'll start wondering is my brain missing a crucial part?

I've tried Lord of the Rings several times, books and movies, and never gotten far. sibyx said that a friend of hers described it as 'Tromp, tromp, tromp, fight, fight, fight." and that’s about my reaction too.

The title of your thread is quite hilarious. (grin)

Oh. I thought this was an alternate thread created by Richard.

For what it's worth, I loathed Annabel by Kathleen Winter, and Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore, both of which were shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

>3 qebo: I've tried Lord of the Rings several times, books and movies, and never gotten far. sibyx said that a friend of hers described it as 'Tromp, tromp, tromp, fight, fight, fight." and that’s about my reaction too.

Oh come now, that's not fair! There's also extended poems in made up languages!

I'll start with Wuthering Heights. I hated the characters. Got about a third of the way through the book and quit. If I were a book thrower, I would have thrown it against the wall in disgust.

Felt the same way about Gone Girl.

If I can't stand any of the characters, I can't read the book. Why would I want to read something that unpleasant? Yuck.

Contrary to what I said on Peggy's thread, I'm always quite relieved when I end up really loving a book which everyone else seems to adore. Especially when it's friends and people whose taste you usually agree with who have recommended those books. Sometimes I cheat a bit and tweak my rating slightly in the wish not to offend. I remember doing that for Hugo Cabret which I liked well enough but didn't blow me away. I actually preferred the movie, which is sacrilege coming from an artist in love with b&w drawing.

More recently, I did not at all enjoy An Unnecessary Woman, which I predict will get universal blessings. Couldn't finish it but took the pains to write a review explaining why. Life After Life never got off the ground for me and I gave it only 3¼ stars (the ¼ as an afterthought). The Luminaries: 4 stars, and grudgingly at that. TransAtlantic: meh, 3.5 stars, which implies I 'almost' loved it, when really, it did nothing for me. I was dismayed when The Giver by Lois Lowry failed to grab me. My 3⅓ star rating was overly generous considering how disappointed I was. Same thing for The Golem and the Jinni. Not overly disappointed there, because fantasy isn't my comfort zone, but 3.5 stars is too high considering it's left a negative impression on me.

On the other hand, I was genuinely delighted with Lonesome Dove. A heartfelt 5 stars, and I then rushed to read the whole series. Never thought it would appeal, I mean... A Western?? so you just never know.

I'm another person left cold by Transatlantic - it was ok but I'm still baffled by why some people loved it so much. Same with The Luminaries although there I have more of an idea why I didn't like it quite as much as others did.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared was a book people told me was hilariously funny. I thought it was puerile and boring.

5: I thought this was an alternate thread created by Richard.
I’m waiting for a rant about Dickens.

6: There's also extended poems in made up languages!
And that’s why I keep thinking I _should_ like it.

7: I thought Wuthering Heights was a slog, but I quite enjoyed Gone Girl. So it’s not a matter of unpleasant characters for me; it’s more style. With Wuthering Heights, I kept waiting for the narrator to finish with the backstory and get to the present, but the backstory was essentially it. With Gone Girl, the story was unfolding now, and I wanted see what would happen next.

I have issues with Dickens novels. I understand why they are great books. I get why everyone likes them, but that caricature style grates on me and it is always a struggle to read past it.

Surprisingly - since I like pretty much everything else he's written - I just don't care for Gaiman's Stardust. I absolutely love the movie, since well, Robert Deniro for starters. But the book just leaves me feeling meh every time.

>12 drneutron: Jim, for what it's worth, I think not loving one or two books put out by a favourite and very prolific author shows a sense of discernment. You have my blessing. ;-)

>8 Smiler69: I'm always quite relieved when I end up really loving a book which everyone else seems to adore AMEN to that! I want to wave both my Kermit arms and shout, "See! I am normal!!! I really am!!!!!"
>5 kidzdoc: Darryl, what is going on with the recent Orange judges????? I'm accustomed to liking some long-listed books better than the ones on the short list, but I think The Lacuna is the last winner that I had any enthusiasm for at all. That's 3 years when I'm not sure that I would even have short-listed the winner (and those winners are The Tiger's Wife, The Song of Achilles and May We Be Forgiven?). One thing it does is make me wonder what wonderful books were never on my horizon because those readers didn't choose to recognize them and I, therefore, don't know about. Yet another reason to value LT!

I didn't like Wolf Hall very much. Do I win? :-) Also The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And Dragonquest.

#1 - I must read your review of Shards of Honor. I recently tried it and stopped, because I wasn't engaged, but I may go back when I'm in a more receptive mood.

I don't like Neil Gaiman's books at all and I can't stand John Steinbeck. Also, as much as I love fantasy and science fiction books and read dozens and dozens of them every year, half the time someone says "me too! what did you think of ____?" it's a book I've never read or couldn't stand.

I finally read The Hobbit several years ago and HATED it. It was the most boring book I've ever picked up. My boyfriend always tries to argue with me about how beautiful the language and imagery is and I just smile and nod, lol. I haven't even attempted to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy because of it. High fantasy is just not really my thing in general, but if I DO read it, I want it to be exciting and fast-paced. I have enough of an imagination to not have to be described in excruciating detail every scene.

In true curmudgeon style, I'm going to say that it's a darn good thing we don't all agree on our likes and dislikes because I can't imagine a more boring world. And taking curmudgeonhood up a notch, I actually distrust any book which is getting raves and swoons, often putting it off for a few years before reading it so that I can see if I like it all on my own, without the cries of the madding crowd in my ears.

Now I loved the Lord of the Rings but I have a powerful affinity for myth, legend, saga and edda, and an especially deep connection to language used in a certain way. But give me a book about the pioneering spirit, of settling the west (or another planet) and fighting the elements, not to mention the indigenous people, with a rugged individualist as the hero and a tough lady interest in a calico dress (or tight fitting space suit), and I want to curl up and go foetal with a migraine or the dry heaves. Cold Mountain was the most crashing bore to me but a friend whom I love to bits claimed it was the best book she had ever read.

I think our cultures have a lot to do with how we get books. Coming from a Highland Scot family possessed of an extremely pawky brand of humour, I feel completely at home with a very dry, understated, underexplained kind of wit whereas pie-in-the-face humour leaves me cold. It's the same with writing. And if I feel like I'm being manipulated by the author to feel a certain way, I get my back up and won't have it...which seems to apply to a lot of books of late.

pawkish brand of humour
pawkish - new to me

Katherine, I changed it to pawky, which is more correct. I was playing with words again, not realising I was being confusing.

>18 tiffin: And taking curmudgeonhood up a notch, I actually distrust any book which is getting raves and swoons, often putting it off for a few years before reading it so that I can see if I like it all on my own, without the cries of the madding crowd in my ears.

One of my least favorite critiques of a book is that it is "overhyped" -- which I think is more a comment on the reader than on the text.

That said, I do find some interest in discovering why I think a book fails when others do not, and whether I would acknowledge the book to be "great" despite my personal dislike. As I said, I can see the appeal in Dickens, although his brand of characterization via caricature is not to my taste.

Oh my YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS, Cold Mountain was such a stunning bore, but I was influenced by all the people who thought it was wonderful and pushed myself through 200 pages of dreadful slog until finally giving up.

I also had to give up on the GR of Doris Kearnes Goodwin's Team of Rivals because I was a lone call in the wilderness who thought it was an overwritten bore.

>21 southernbooklady:: well, it certainly might be a comment on this reader as I tend to stand back from those to let the dust die down.

>22 brenzi:: Bonnie, you've made me feel better about CM. "slog" is the perfect word...I sped read it to the end at about the 1/3 point.

Though I'm normally a big fan of YA sci-fi and fantasy, I thought Divergent was absolutely awful. Just terrible.

I can't stand the Percy Jackson series, though I know I'm not alone in that.

I hated On the Road. I will never ever understand the appeal. No thank you.

And Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson! So much pretension! So little of actual interest!

>22 brenzi:. True to my curmudgeonly ways, I LOVED Cold Mountain. And I have always found DKG to be a bore. Team of Rivals was excruciatingly bad. And yes, I read the whole d***d thing.

Interesting discussion. I'm among those who did love Cold Mountain. But I wasn't crazy about The Night Circus, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Shadow of the Wind, and other beloved favorites. I read The Hobbit aloud and enjoyed it very much, but I abandoned The Lord of the Rings as a read aloud because it was such a slog.

I also couldn't stand Divergent. I thought maybe I had OD'd on dystopia, but I think it was just a poorly written book. I didn't care for two recent Newbery Medal/Honor books either.

DKG?

I think DKG is Doris Kearns Goodwin. I liked her book about the Roosevelts, but I haven't read anything else by her.

>14 LizzieD: Darryl, what is going on with the recent Orange judges?????

I wondered if I was the only one who felt this way! I've become largely disappointed with the books chosen for the Orange Prize Women's Prize for Fiction Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction in the past few years, so much so that I'm losing interest in the award. I loved The Song of Achilles and Small Island and I liked The Lacuna and Half of a Yellow Sun, but I was disappointed by The Tiger's Wife and On Beauty, and I didn't bother buying or reading May We Be Forgiven. I'll still follow the award, but I doubt that I'll read the entire shortlist this year as I did two years ago.

I thought The Goldfinch was Ok, but way too long to get more than 3 stars.

Ack, wrong thread.