# Books you thought you'd love, but didn't **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529 "2011-04-07T15:25:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/81 "2011-04-16T18:28:37Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Other Banks fans with more familiarity with the Culture series chime in—I haven’t read Matter, Excession or Look to Windward—but I don’t think his style/tone changes that much between Phlebas and Weapons. In which case, it doesn’t sound like he’s the writer for you. De gustibus again. > > I’m still trying to get into _Foucault’s Pendulum_, which everyone says I should just love, and I just can’t do it. This, despite really liking _The Name of the Rose_. Go figure. I couldn’t finish Phlebas either. I started it after reading his Algebraist, which is as good as any book I’ve ever read. I think Matter is part of the Culture series and it was pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/82 "2011-04-16T20:06:22Z")
_Rant_ and _Snuff_ (both by Chuck Palahniuk). I love Chuck Palahniuk’s earlier works, and had every single one of his novels on my bookshelf. _Rant_ didn’t have nearly the same appeal that his previous novels had, but I figured it was a fluke and still got terribly excited when _Snuff_ came out. That book was so horrible that I’ve just completely stopped reading Chuck Palahniuk. I’m amazed at how quickly he went from my favorite author to on my shit list. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/83 "2011-04-16T20:10:35Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > His Dark Materials (and I’m an atheist, I should’ve loved this) I’m a conservative Christian and I rather liked His Dark Materials. He starts to get a bit too…“preachy?” if you can call it that in the final book, but I liked the story quite a bit. I also have to say that while Dune is a bit difficult to read, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune are excellent and easy to read. Never been able to get past that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/84 "2011-04-16T21:35:22Z")
Pynchon, _Gravity’s Rainbow_. Tedious, undistinguished prose. I like his other stuff, though, generally. Gaddis, _JR_. I love _The Recognitions_, but this is like listening to insane people jabbering away on acid while drinking pain[t] thinner in a maggot factory. Tolstoy, _Anna Karenina_. Big fan of his better books. Not this one, so much. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/85 "2011-04-16T21:57:52Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Apparently not. I think a lot of the posts in this thread say more about the readers and a lot less about the books in question. Threads like this are invariably say far more about the posters than about the books they post about. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/86 "2011-04-16T21:59:48Z")
John Nichols’ _New Mexico Trilogy_ was a disappointment. I loved _The Milagro Beanfield War_ (the book that is, not the movie which was bad). Was looking foreward to reading the rest of the trilogy, but _The Nirvana Blues_ was such a downer I barely got through it and never even tried _The Magic Journey._ I’ve always been a big Steven King fan, but the whole _Gunslinger/Dark Tower_ fantasy bit just left me cold. Jack Kerouac’s “The Dharma Bums” came so highly recommended by so many people that I was sure I’d love it. It was a big disappointment. Anything by Cormac McCarthy. I keep thinking I _ought_ to love his books, and indeed each of them has a few pieces of really fine writing. But as a whole, I’ve always found them difficult to get through. SS ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/87 "2011-04-16T22:05:11Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > _Rant_ and _Snuff_ (both by Chuck Palahniuk). I love Chuck Palahniuk’s earlier works, and had every single one of his novels on my bookshelf. _Rant_ didn’t have nearly the same appeal that his previous novels had, but I figured it was a fluke and still got terribly excited when _Snuff_ came out. That book was so horrible that I’ve just completely stopped reading Chuck Palahniuk. I’m amazed at how quickly he went from my favorite author to on my shit list. God, yes, Snuff was HORRIBLE! My god, it was horrible! I was so disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/88 "2011-04-17T00:07:30Z")
> [@](#): > > the whole Gunslinger/Dark Tower fantasy bit just left me cold. I kept hearing about the Dark Tower fantasy, and I picked up the first graphic novel. Nope, not for me. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/89 "2011-04-17T00:27:01Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > Gaddis, _JR_. I love _The Recognitions_, but this is like listening to insane people jabbering away on acid while drinking pain[t] thinner in a maggot factory. Yes! I’ve been trying on and off to read this, since I also love _The Recognitions_ - pretty darn difficult, though. One of these days I’ll take the plunge - there’s a good website out there edited by Steven Moore that lays out the basics of what actually happens - but not now. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/90 "2011-04-17T06:21:02Z")
> [@jordanr2](#): > > Yes! I’ve been trying on and off to read this, since I also love _The Recognitions_ - pretty darn difficult, though. One of these days I’ll take the plunge - there’s a good website out there edited by Steven Moore that lays out the basics of what actually happens - but not now. Do you mean _JR_ is the difficult one? If so, that’s what I’d call it as well. But none of my friends have even made it through a smidgen of _The Recognitions_, because of all that furren speaking and weirdness. To me, it’s the strangeness of the English in _JR_ that makes it so unsettling. I guess this makes me a bad man, but even though I manfully and on oddoccasions jubilantly was ecstasied by _Finnegan’s Wake_, it’s not a book I treasure. I’m not exactly a plastic paddie, with a lot of family history on one side from Ireland, and some heavy political interests inherited and gathered for myself, but it’s too much for me. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/91 "2011-04-17T16:13:40Z")
_A Confederacy of Dunces_. I’d heard nothing but praise for this novel, and it’s set in New Orleans, so I reserved it at my library ($0.25 fee to hold a book). Started reading on the commute to work, and eagerness quickly turned to puzzlement which morphed into irritation. I even flipped ahead to see if it got better, but no. Hated all the “quirky” characters and wanted them to die. I spent the rest of the ride staring out the bus window, which was more entertaining than the book. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/92 "2011-04-17T17:55:19Z")
_My Name is Red_ - by Orhan Pamuk Love the setting and the idea of it. I’m Ms Multicultural musically as well as literary. Finished it once. Didn’t do anything for me. Figured I must have missed something and tried again a few years later. Tellingly couldn’t remember anything from the first time. Gave up halfway through. China Mieville books that aren’t _Perdido Street Station_ or _The Scar_. We’re talking thought you’d _love_. I still like most of Mieville’s output and I like it very well but Perdido is one my favourite books ever, re-read and recommended numerous times. I just haven’t been as excited by what he has written after The Scar. I don’t get any of Banks either. He’s a cold fish IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/93 "2011-04-18T01:19:00Z")
Re: Guns, Germs & Steel > [@Toxylon](#): > > I wonder when did you read the book, as you "already agreed with the basic premise, " “knew how it ended” etc.? For me, reading the book in 1997, having grabbed it on a whim from a local bookstore, was a revelation. First half of the 2000s, though I don’t recall exactly when. But by then it had already been tossed around as nearly gospel here on the SDMB for a while. I grabbed it mostly to see what the fuss was about and to fill in gaps in the broad theory. Also because I assumed I’d find it interesting reading… which is where I went wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529/94 "2011-04-18T03:40:04Z")
> [@plankter](#): > > _A Confederacy of Dunces_. I’d heard nothing but praise for this novel, and it’s set in New Orleans, so I reserved it at my library ($0.25 fee to hold a book). > > Started reading on the commute to work, and eagerness quickly turned to puzzlement which morphed into irritation. I even flipped ahead to see if it got better, but no. Hated all the “quirky” characters and wanted them to die. I spent the rest of the ride staring out the bus window, which was more entertaining than the book. Bingo! I had this book avidly pressed into my hands during college (more than once), and I was barely able to finish it - not because of boredom, but because of irritation with the (yes) quirky characters and the obvious humor. At the time I was half-convinced that the pathos of the back story about the author was what made the book attractive, but in retrospect that was probably unfair…it was just a book that didn’t hit my sweet spot, but which somehow charmed my friends. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-thought-youd-love-but-didnt/577529.md?page=4)