# Books you threw across the room in disgust **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 18, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006 "2000-07-18T19:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/101 "2000-07-19T18:59:23Z")
Thanks Necros. Gee I really wish there was at least one positive post about AS. I kind of promised my dad I’d read it (he made me promise), but it’s a helluva long book to read just to appease someone. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/102 "2000-07-19T21:40:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Necros \* > \*\*I’m shocked at other people in this thread who are criticizing books like _The Sound and the Fury_, _Moby Dick_ and _Ulysses_. I don’t want to sound pretentious or anything, but I would think most people would have the dignity to say they weren’t smart enough to understand the book, instead of saying it was crap. But I guess not. Gotta save face at all costs, even if it eventually makes you look like an idiot, I guess. \*\* All right, how about someone who’s read (multiple times) and loved practically every word of both _Moby Dick_ and _Ulysses_ but who can’t stand _The Sound and the Fury_ or much of anything else by Faulkner. I’ll stand up and shout from the mountaintops that I possess some cranial defect, some cortical lesion so placed that I am incapable of appreciating Oxford’s Own at his true worth, while at the same leaving intact my ability to deal with the even denser and more allusive Joyce or the wider-ranging Melville without having to sit down in the middle of the road and take my shoes off to rub my feet even once. I don’t think there’s anything, particularly any book, I’d call someone an idiot for not liking. There’s lots of things I really enjoy that other people have no patience for at all, and vice versa, and tempting as it to assume that someone just doesn’t get it because they’re not bright enough, it seems a more congenial way to get along in the world to assume that it’s a matter of differing taste rather than inferior intellect. ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/103 "2000-07-19T22:22:45Z")
**Moe** , you can read it just to say you’ve read it. It’ll be like climbing Everest without oxygen. Or going wandering in the desert with no food or water and living to tell about it. Then, at erudite cocktail parties, while others around you are discussing Arthur Rimbaud, you can let fly that you read **all** of _Atlas Shrugged_. They’ll be very impressed. 🙂 **rackensack** said: > [@](#): > > I don’t think there’s anything, particularly any book, I’d call someone an idiot for not liking. Well, I would call them an idiot of not **respecting** it, but then, I’m a snob. And is it that you _dislike_ Faulkner – which I can understand – or that you honestly think his work is crap? ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/104 "2000-07-20T00:54:32Z")
The **Malloreon** series by David Eddings. I can’t remember exactly which one got tossed… probably the second one. After wading through that steaming pile of pap, the **Belgariad** , I had the bad taste to try the next series. I could almost take the story reprising the previous series… right up until one of the characters basically says: “Hey, haven’t we done all of this before?”. Excellent idea; plagiarize your own books, and then rub the reader’s nose in it! :mad: PS: **Saint Zero** , Yep, _Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers_ is indeed a parody of the works of \*E.E. “Doc” Smith, \*, specifically the _Skylarks of Space_ series. First time I read Harrison’s book I hadn’t even heard of Smith… it made the starship engine that runs on chesse even harder to swallow – if you’ll pardon the expression. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/105 "2000-07-20T05:26:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bluepony \* > \*\*Rilchiam, > > I’m also a big AH fan. I love most of Turtledove’s work, but I damn near threw his collaboration with Richard Dreyfus, _The Two Georges_ into the ceiling fan. I was just so distracted by their (it must’ve been Dreyfus’ input) recitation of every item on their meal menus, _ad infinitum_. Essential to the story, I think not! > > The premise was interesting, British North America in the 20th century, 200 years after Washington’s surrender. I could’ve done without the attention to detail of every last food item each character ate throughout the story. That was weird. > > For the most part, his solo efforts are much more fascinating, like the _Great War_ and _Civilization, In The Balance_ series. > > \*\* I didn’t like **Two Georges** either. The British Empire is half the world, so with no competition, everything sucks. No long distance companies, no hamburgers, Levis, or soft drinks, no TV, and more importantly, no freedom of speech or freedom of the press, and no right to representation, remain silent, or fair and speedy trial. And we’re supposed to root for the guys trying to preserve this, instead of the rebels? Also, it never explained how alternate this universe was. Did we lose the Revolutionary War, or did it just not happen? I don’t know what all that food jazz was about either. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/106 "2000-07-20T06:20:45Z")
Oh, just wanted to add my vote to the people complaining about Terry Brooks and the Shannara stuff. I tried to read the first one on a vacation, and it was not only hideous, it was a complete knockoff of just about EVERY fantasy epic out there. Man in black in the woods, following our young male protagonist. Where have I read THIS before…? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/107 "2000-07-20T09:41:53Z")
SqrlCub, don’t trust the Jordan fans - they’re wost than Trekkies. The series doesn’t get any better. The reason I hate it so much is because the first three books were so damn good. The climax of book 2, especially, is one of the most rousing passages in fantasy literature. It’s because I know he can write like that that I’m so pissed at him. How _dare_ he rip us off? Robert: Cut out all the useless characters and subplots, cut the crap and cut to the chase. You owe us. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/108 "2000-07-20T10:18:07Z")
Iain Banks- “The Business” It seems as if Banks has given up putting stories into his books. I mean, there were words and sentences on pages, but no distinguishing storyline. this book is by no means “The Wasp Factory” or any of his other books. Catcher in the Rye this book sucks. horrible writing style, characters that plain annoy. If I ever meet anyone like Holden Caufield I will piss in his coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Hayley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Hayley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hayley)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/109 "2000-07-24T16:22:02Z")
Let me post another vote for (against?) Ayn Rand and her horrible attempt at philosophical fiction aka ‘Atlas Shrugged’. I hated it instantly but I felt I wouldn’t be entitled to an opinion, so I finished it, every last, putrid, pretentious word. Humanity is worse off because of it. Please don’t waste your time like I did. (Note: If I hadn’t been stuck in bed with a miserable bout of the flu I wouldn’t have been able to finish it. I just couldn’t reach anything better from my bed. But it was unquestionably the worst time I have ever spent in bed.) ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/110 "2000-07-24T16:39:53Z")
You all are making this very difficult for me. At least if you all lied and said you loved AS, I would be looking forward to it and if I got excited enough perhaps I could have built up enough inertia to get through a good portion before the true struggle began, but Hayley, you actually used your very 1st post on the board to tell me how bad it was. Does anyone have anything good to say about Atlas Shrugged? Please!? I’m begging you all? I promised I would read it. I’m so desperate, perhaps I should just kill myself. Yeah that’s it. If I knew there was one thing good about this book perhaps that would give me reason enough to live, but as it is, I see that rather than suffer, it might just make more sense to end it all. Good bye cruel world, and thank you very much Ayn Rand :mad::rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2000, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/111 "2000-07-24T17:56:56Z")
Alright, alright - just to save your scrawny as…er, neck, **Moe** - I read _AS_ when I was 18 and I _liked_ it. Hell, I even had a “Who Is John Galt?” bumper sticker on my exploding Pinto. (It turned out to be a great way to meet guys - I’d find notes tucked under my windshield wiper from guys who wanted to discuss “philosophy”.) Here’s a novel idea - read it and decide for yourself. If you get as far as the chapter on Tom Bombadil and still hate it - oops, wrong book. If nothing else, it’ll give you something to talk about with your old man. ---
**Author:** ![JavaMaven1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2000, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/112 "2000-07-24T18:04:33Z")
My BF is a conspiracy buff, and for a gift, I picked up a book called _Bloodlines of the Illuminati_, thinking that it would be an interesting read for him. Since he was in the middle of a few books, I picked it up and started reading. My first impression by the first chapter was that this was never even edited–not only was it a rambling mess, but the author has the grammatical skills of a 10 year old. By the second chapter, I had decided that the man who wrote this was using this book to forward his Christian agenda–no matter how loopy he started to sound (i.e. “Santa is an anagram for Satan”) Half-way through the third chapter, I threw it across the room in disgust over the anti-Semitic _dreckhaufen_ it had become. I’m surprised the book was ever published. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2000, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006/113 "2000-07-24T18:11:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aseymayo \* > I read _AS_ when I was 18 and I _liked_ it. :frown turning into a hopeful smile: _really_ You mean you really liked it? I’m gonna start it today! ::crowd cheers as _Glory, Glory Hellelujah_ starts playing in the background:: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-threw-across-the-room-in-disgust/26006.md?page=5)