# Disapprove of a book list-Don't read these! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132 "2013-04-19T13:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/101 "2013-04-23T12:59:20Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Could have been worse, could have been [Shardik](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shardik) … Yeah, it’s weird. _Watership Down_ is one of my favorite books ever, but after reading [The Girl in a Swing](http://www.amazon.com/The-Girl-Swing-Richard-Adams/dp/0451163060) I decided not to try any more of Adams’ stuff. TGIAS was boring as shit, and if that was supposed to be a twist at the end, well, it wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/102 "2013-04-23T13:17:26Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Could have been worse, could have been [Shardik](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shardik) … Not only did that book piss me off all the time I was reading it, it was so bad that I avoided reading the very wonderful **Watership Down** for 20 years. (Yeah, I read **Shardik** first.) ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/103 "2013-04-23T14:15:57Z")
**Out of the Dark** by David Weber. boring, boring book with a “twist” out of nowhere that could maybe have been a good premise if it was at all hinted at earlier than the last few chapters. earth is saved from alien invasion by… vampires??? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/104 "2013-04-23T14:32:39Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > And speaking of long, long treks through literature, the longest I’ve ever plodded was through Mervin Peake’s **Gormenghast**. I made it almost halfway through the first book. “And he lifted up his foot, which was adorned by a boot (six pages on how the boot was made, on the leathermakers’ guild, and on the curious placement of the tongue of the boot), and set it down on the floor (seven pages of discussion of the type of wood , the lumberjack camps, the market in wood, and the spiritual implications of the nails).” Heh, lots of people hate, hate that series, and I can understand why - but I love it. He creates a genuinely different and very strange universe, and the wierdness of it all is intoxicating (to someone in the right mood). There are no scenes in literature as bizzare and horrible - yet strangely comic - as: [spoiler] The duel between the grossly obese cook Swelter and the skeletally thin butler Flay … where Swelter torments his victim by placing a cupcake just a little closer to Flay’s head as he sleeps every night … Or, the successful plot by Steerpike to isolate and murder the twin sisters, and then him dancing over their decayed corpses while trying to persuade himself that he’s not insane … Or, the daughter Fuschia’s perverse book of nursery rhymes that would make Freud run, screaming [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/105 "2013-04-23T14:48:00Z")
> [@Hottius\_Maximus](#): > > “Tropic of Cancer” and “Tropic of Capricorn”—I was truly amazed that perverse sex acts could be so boring. And NO I did NOT finish either of them. Oh - good one (I’ve only read _Cancer_). The naked torso on the cover was about 15 times as hot as the whole rest of the book. Augusten Burrough’s _Running with Scissors_. OK, you had a weird childhood. I’m not sure why I’m supposed to care. It comes across as you wanting to impress us behind the high school where we’re sneaking cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/106 "2013-04-23T15:16:20Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Anything written by Terry Pratchett > > Since **Thud**. 😛 > > Sadly, his illness has robbed him of what made him special. Not true. Since then his stuff has been readable, fun, etc. just only flashes of the brilliance he had before. Still, even his worst after then is better than many other authors best. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/107 "2013-04-23T15:20:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Not true. Since then his stuff has been readable, fun, etc. just only flashes of the brilliance he had before. > > Still, even his worst after then is better than many other authors best. I really enjoyed **Dodger**. **The Long Earth** , however, did not keep my interest. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/108 "2013-04-23T16:27:43Z")
> [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > Maria V. Snyder’s series about the glass blower. they all have “glass” in the title. The Poison Study series was entertaining if a bit bubblegum-y. The glass series was overwrought, crazily plotted, and ruined completely in the last 30 pages of the last book when the main character made one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen in a novel (well dumbest decision that the reader is supposed to sympathize with and support.) I wanted to reply to this because romance-y novels that aren’t by such beloved authors as Georgette Heyer get ignored around here. I’ve only read the Poison Study series, but if you say this glass series is even worse in terms of plotting and stupid ideas, then I ain’t touching it. I spent enough time wondering WTF people were doing in Poison Study. This can probably be explained by Snyder being one of the flagship authors for Harlequin’s trendy new teen line… ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/109 "2013-04-24T00:46:41Z")
Another one! **Gerald’s Game** , by Stephen King. I love King, don’t mind his overblown, verbose, overlong stuff even, but that book made me crazy. I just kept waiting for something to _happen_. I think it would’ve made a great short story, though. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/110 "2013-04-24T01:56:02Z")
> [@papergirl](#): > > Another one! **Gerald’s Game** , by Stephen King. I love King, don’t mind his overblown, verbose, overlong stuff even, but that book made me crazy. I just kept waiting for something to _happen_. > I think it would’ve made a great short story, though. Here’s another one for the “Kings to Avoid” file: _ **Insomnia** _. I read it because it was supposed to have a major role to play in the Dark Tower-verse. And, well… I just kept waiting for something to _happen_. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/111 "2013-04-24T11:20:02Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Lord of the Flies. Blech. Unreadable. I really enjoyed pretty much all the classic literature I had to read in high school… but Lord of the Flies is completely unsalvageable. I disliked it when I first read it at school, until I read _Coral Island_- the book it basically parodies. That is one of the most glurgy piles of rubbish I’ve read, the boys (who share names and approximate ‘roles’ with the boys in LOTF) have all but started a cricket team and opened a tea shoppe by the time they’re rescued from the island, having all had a jolly splendid time. After reading that, I really wanted nasty things to happen to the lot of the prissy little gits, and it vastly improved my re-reading of Lord of the Flies 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hottius\_Maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ab097/32.png) [@Hottius\_Maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hottius_Maximus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/112 "2013-04-24T12:05:19Z")
“Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris. The first appearance of Hannibal Lector in a story and the basis for that awful movie “Manhunter.” I couldn’t believe how boring and predictable it was. Sadism for the sake of sadism. ---
**Author:** ![Hottius\_Maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ab097/32.png) [@Hottius\_Maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hottius_Maximus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/113 "2013-04-24T12:06:25Z")
Oh - good one (I’ve only read Cancer). The naked torso on the cover was about 15 times as hot as the whole rest of the book. Congratulations! At least YOU got to see a HOT COVER! Mine just had the title and the overrated author’s name on it! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/114 "2013-04-24T14:31:48Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > I really enjoyed **Dodger**. **The Long Earth** , however, did not keep my interest. Mostly Barnes. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/115 "2013-04-24T14:42:40Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Here’s another one for the “Kings to Avoid” file: _ **Insomnia** _. I read it because it was supposed to have a major role to play in the Dark Tower-verse. And, well… I just kept waiting for something to _happen_. 😕 Okay, I’m probably going to get strung up by my ears for this one, but…the _Dark Tower_ series. Especially the first one. _Especially_ especially the first one. Talk about waiting for something to _happen_. I couldn’t even get through it reading–I had to listen to it as an audiobook during my commute as a captive audience. I wasn’t particularly crazy about any of the DT series (and I love King normally) but the first one was by far the dullest. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/116 "2013-04-24T15:43:24Z")
I also could not make it through A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Seriously, I wanted to slap the main character at every other page. I just had to stop reading because the only emotion the book evoked in me was pure annoyance. There are very few books that, once started, I have not finished. I even read the Twilight series (well, most of it; I skipped the third book). It’s crap but entertaining enough that I made it to the end (although I laughed my way through most of it). The Sword of Shanara series was crap as well, yet I still read it till the end. I’m not sure why. One of the very few fantasy books that I have not been tempted to re-read. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/117 "2013-04-24T15:49:55Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > The Sword of Shanara series was crap as well, yet I still read it till the end. What end? he’s still cranking them out: > **[Shannara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannara#Chronological_list_of_novels)** > > Shannara /ˈʃænərə/ is a series of high fantasy novels written by Terry Brooks, beginning with The Sword of Shannara in 1977 and concluding with The Last Druid which was released in October 2020; there is also a prequel, First King of Shannara. The series blends magic and primitive technology and is set in the Four Lands, which are identified as Earth long after civilization was destroyed in a chemical and nuclear holocaust called the Great Wars. By the time of the prequel First King of Shan The... I read the first 3 when I was too young to realize how crappy they were. By the time I got to book 6 (Elf Queen of Shannara) I had grown up enough to look back at myself in disgust and “what am I reading?” I think I finished off that batch with “Talismans of..” and then give it up. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/118 "2013-04-24T15:52:24Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Eventually Anthony was just crafting his plots around bad puns sent in by his fans. But they were still better than the borderline-kiddie porn of the _Bio of a Space Tyrant_ books… Ugh - yeah, I made the mistake of reading the first of those and couldn’t understand why in hell there were sequels. Actually, I tried reading a number of other Anthony books (outside the Xanth series) and universally loathed them. Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series. I forced myself through the first book of the first trilogy and hated it. It was depressing, with a thoroughly unlikeable main character. Yes, the world was painted very richly but I just wanted to slit my wrists by halfway through. I couldn’t manage the rest of the trilogy. Then he wrote another one. Egad. Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (the book the musical was loosely based on). I forced myself through about half of the book before deciding that life was too short. Again, richly drawn world with tons of detail, but just not READABLE. I had similar “luck” with his version of Cinderella (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister). And Gormenghast. A friend gave me the trilogy and I tried forcing my way through the first book. Gave up after 3-4 chapters. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/119 "2013-04-24T19:46:52Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Ugh - yeah, I made the mistake of reading the first of those and couldn’t understand why in hell there were sequels. Actually, I tried reading a number of other Anthony books (outside the Xanth series) and universally loathed them. > > Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series. I forced myself through the first book of the first trilogy and hated it. It was depressing, with a thoroughly unlikeable main character. Yes, the world was painted very richly but I just wanted to slit my wrists by halfway through. I couldn’t manage the rest of the trilogy. > > Then he wrote another one. Egad. Well, I _did_ manage to slog through to the end of _Lord Foul’s Bane_, and then I rewarded myself with a Trough Sundae at Farrell’s, I suppose just to convince myself that OCD wasn’t _all_ downside. When I heard tell of a second trilogy, I wasn’t even tempted. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/120 "2013-04-24T22:37:52Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Ugh - yeah, I made the mistake of reading the first of those and couldn’t understand why in hell there were sequels. Actually, I tried reading a number of other Anthony books (outside the Xanth series) and universally loathed them. Nearly 30 years ago I ordered Anthony’s Pornutopia, figuring that sf/fantasy porn would be great. Boy was I wrong. Baptists should order that book to encourage chastity. Long out of print, I’m sure, so everyone is safe. FM Busby has a series starting with Rissa Kerguellen, which is immensely long and could be half the length if he didn’t feel the need to write about each character’s every trip to the bathroom. I have the sequel, but one advantage of having a lot of unread books is that I can avoid things like this. It is now scheduled to be read two weeks after I die, which isn’t a minute too soon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132.md?page=7)