I had The Satanic Diaries out from the library when the fatwa was announced. I had already decided it wasn’t worth reading.
Also, Dune. Hate it hate it hate it.
The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurty was so excellent, it pains me to admit I thought all of the followups (Texasville, Duane’s Depressed) just stunk.
Then you’ve obviously never started Terry Goodkind’s series. The only series I’ve ever given up on. I STILL hate Richard and Kahlan and the rest and it’s been years since I’ve touched one of his ‘books’.
No. He didn’t. I like Sanderson and his work on this series and his own. Still, no.
I haven’t thought about The Painted Bird in ages, but it’s probably the most disturbing book I’ve ever read. I would hesitate to recommend it for that reason alone.
Jane Austen’s novels are very, very different from Wuthering Heights. It’s entirely possible you wouldn’t like Austen either, but the closest Austen came to a Wuthering Heights type story was when she parodied Gothic novels in Northanger Abbey.
I really enjoy that series, although I wouldn’t generally recommend it to people who didn’t have taste in books very similar to mine. But I think there are two factors which somewhat obviate your criticism:
(1) there’s a version of the anthropic principle (I hope that’s the right principle, the one which argues that it’s NOT such a crazy coincidence that all the physical constants of earth are just perfect to support life, because if they weren’t, we wouldn’t have life, so we wouldn’t be commenting on it). That is, there were millions of people who survived The Change, but we are reading a book about a particularly interesting set of them because those are the ones who go on to play prominent roles in the post-Change society. So sure there are random people in that world who aren’t so glamorous and unique and Mary Sue-ish. But they ended up either dying or living uninteresting lives, so we didn’t start the book out focusing on them.
(2) (spoiler concerning later plotlines)
Also, there’s magic and Gods involved, so it makes sense that they would choose legend-sized Heroes to do their bidding and represent their interests
Oh, and as many others have said, The Wheel of Time sucked for a while (books 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) but it has gotten good again (starting with the last book Jordan wrote).
Indeed. One line described an Atreides munching something. The Atreides do not ‘munch’.
Any of the “sequels” to Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. Stay waaaaaaay way away!
Any of the Gunslinger books by Stephen King after maybe volume 3. Self indulgent wankery.
I’ve reread, and largely enjoyed, most of the books that I read in HS English, but I still cannot bring myself to get near anything by Thomas Hardy, esp Tess of the D’urbervilles.
This, this, a thousand times this. I actually finished it in horrified fascination, how could such an abomination be published? Has anyone read any of the sequals, or seen the movie(shudder)?
Uch, this book. I definitely regretted reading this one. I agree that Timothy Findley is a talented writer, but I just can’t read his other stuff in case it turns out as evil and depressing as this one did.
Take that book off your shelf and dispose of it. Somehow, anyhow. Whatever you do, don’t read it. I say that as someone who liked A Canticle for Leibowitz The sequel was a grave disappointment. Not horrible, maybe, just sort of like nonfat Jello when you were expecting creme brulee.
Although I love the Thomas Covenant books, I don’t think I’ve ever recommended that someone read them when asked about them. Because most everyone who has asked me about them, has been a huge escapist fantasy reader.
And those books, they read as though a diatribe on everything an escapist fantasy reader reads fantasy for. They don’t end that way. But all through the first trilogy, it’s a fairly brutal deconstruction of the genre – every expectation goes horribly, horribly wrong. With a main protagonist who is non-heroic in every sense and utterly unsympathetic for most of the trilogy.
I figure escapist fantasy readers would have more fun setting kittens on fire, so I just recommend they go do that.
:: golf clap ::
I will say merely that I loved Dune, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and the Song of Ice and Fire books, and let it go at that.
I forget which Doper it is who said he will leave handwritten notes a third of the way through library books that he hates, saying, “Stop reading - it doesn’t get any better.” Nice.
It’s O.K. to say no to “Moby Dick”, but “Bartleby the Scrivener” and “Benito Cereno” can arguably be considered as two of the best short stories ever written.
I actually liked the early Shannara books when I read them when they were published I got my daughter’s name out of the books. Of course, I read the *Sword of Shannara *before I read LOTR when I was 15 and starved for fantasy at a time when no one else in my house was reading it and it was thin on the ground at our local libraries.
I quite firmly warned people off The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. It is the only book I have ever thrown across the room in disgust and later tossed in a fire to save someone else from it.
I had bought the whole Mayfair Witches saga at the same time but was able to return the other two. What utter crap.
Anything by John Norman. I really don’t think I need to elaborate.
Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey. Like a lot of his stuff but this is truly the most boring book I have ever tried to read. And probably the only one I’ve never finished. Misogynistic, boring, just awful from such a good writer.
“Classics” to Avoid:
Silas Marner - in which we learn that the life of a peasant is incredibly boring
A Tale of Two Cities – the godfather of romance novels and soap operas, perhaps a historical milestone, but a literary cesspool.
The Great Gatsby – turns out Gatsby wasn’t so great.
Catcher in the Rye – if I ever catch that little shit on my lawn, I’m gonna wring his whiny neck.
In other literary no’s, I second avoiding Dan Brown. Terrible writer. James Patterson and Richard North Patterson both developed word substitution software some years back to produce their new titles. John Grisham has got all preachy.
Exactly what I opened the thread for, along with everything she’s written since. What the happened to her?
Scarlett and Son of Rosemary. Two of the worst sequels ever published.
They made a MOVIE!? I almost want to see it just to see how bad it is.