Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Too weepy, not enough focus. Seems the author couldn’t want to tell us more bad things. Very depressing.
That’s one book (& movie) I did finish and enjoyed it a lot. But yeah, it did suck to grow up in the slums of Limerick in the Depression with an alcoholic father, lots of disease, etc.
I also put down The White Spider - Wikipedia about halfway through. I was into mountain climbing stories for a while but kinda got burned out..this book was very detailed and dense and thick and the German to English translation was somewhat formal-sounding and wore me down.
I never bothered to watch the movie of …Quilt because the book was so bad. I just remember a whole bunch of sentence fragments and nothing else.
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I wonder if Crossing Delancy works better for a straight guy, Sampiro. I enjoyed it mostly because I could fall in love with Amy Irving. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in anything else so good.
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Have you seen Yentl? I thought she was drop dead gorgeous as Hadass.
I agree it was very depressing but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Tis a lot less, however, and have yet to finish Teacher Man after several beginnings.
seriously. What’s wrong with just saying “it wasn’t for me, so I couldn’t finish it” - an attitude I can totally understand? Why the rush to judge others who do find value in something?
A super popular book that came strongly recommended (which almost sounds like a sequel to said book) was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
I know it’s super popular and I like a good memoir but (just speaking for myself- I know it has many fans here) I felt the author was one of the most narcissistic and self-amused writers I’d ever read. When I read his sister’s complaints about the book later it came as no surprise because I was already calling bullshit on several of the claims he made that were not among the tongue in cheek parts (some of which were good) but were obviously meant to be taken literally.
I probably read half the book and skimmed the rest to get the jist of the story. The Adam Rich part was funny and some of the opening notes were funny but most I thought was way too “Ferris Bueller wannabe encounters personal tragedy but is still Ferris Bueller”, and I’m one of the few who always wanted Ferris to be caught and expelled and if possible jailed for a few days.
Tried to read Mansfield Park, also Pride And Prejudice and didn’t get the point nor enjoy the reading. I didn’t get why it was such a big deal that Elizabeth refused the parson and took Darcy… i’d have told both of them to take a hike.
I gave up trying to read Harry Potter about halfway through book four. Kept waiting for a time when I would find JKR’s writing less than painful to read. Friends kept telling me that she got better but I couldn’t spend any more time waiting for it.
Movies - too numerous to list, but Rob Roy sticks in my mind because I usually love costume dramas, Liam Neeson, and Tim Roth.
Yep, same here.
I also quit reading Harry Potter after the second book as I couldn’t take the simplistic writing and story-telling anymore.
I have plenty of other unfinished novels, but that’s just because I’m lazy.
I love Tolkien, but I think his market is way oversaturated. Many more copies of his books have been sold than there are people who really like them.
Add *Yentl *to the list of movies I couldn’t take…