As a companion to the “What books do you recommend often” thread, what books have people raved about to you that you ended up either throwing across the room or were just profoundly indifferent to?
In the other thread, one poster mentioned two books, * The Master and Margarita * and * The Man Who Was Thursday * that fell into the latter category for me.
The Master and Margarita is supposed to be a classic of philosophy and humor and I read the entire thing thinking that I must have gotten a bad translation because nothing was funny and nothing made sense.
Same thing with The Man Who Was Thursday. I read it feeling like the only person in the room who doesn’t get the joke. And the one actual joke in the book, which was most of the anarchists on the council were actually also secret policemen, wore pretty threadbare after the first few revelations.
To appreciate the Master and Margarita you need a notebook handy throughout to keep the characters and points straight. If you do that it’s a fairly good read.
I found Starship Troopers pretty much unreadable…a political essay with thin characters and little in the way of a plot (for as much of it as I managed to get through, anyway).
Anything by Terry Pratchett. Given that I love comic fantasy, I don’t understand why I can’t get into him. I keep trying, but I just don’t get it. All his books come across as thick and dull to me.
It is very disappointing actually, as I really enjoyed Good Omens and I somehow feel like some character flaw is keeping me from joining this great club everyone else is in ;).
Watership Down. Never understood the love for it. The Man Who Was Thursday and A Confederacy of Dunces are two of my favorite books, but I rarely recommend them to anyone because I can understand that most people wouldn’t like what I like about them.
Of the Terry Pratchett books I’ve read, there are 3 that were excellent, 3 that were good but not special, 3 that were ok I guess, and 7 that were “meh” (and no, despite your desire to know, I won’t reveal which are which).
The Secret History. It’s on that book recommendation thread and I read it a little while ago because of a recommendation that made it sound right up my alley, which it should have been. But it was about 3x too long and the whole thing was just meh. I finished it by sheer willpower.
My boy Boozahol Squid P.I. recommended The Diamond Age to me. It was the only Neal Stephenson book I hadn’t read. He recommended it so much that he BOUGHT a copy and SENT it to me (we’re not even that close!)
Anyway I was really mad at myself for totally not liking the book. It was good enough but I would put it at the very bottom of my Neal Stephenson list. Not sure how we came to be at different ends of the Stephenson spectrum but there you have it.
I think Carmady’s experience is probably typical. Pratchett is (was? ) very prolific and very patchy. I made the mistake of deciding to go through discworld in order of publication, and as anyone who has read Colour of magic will attest, this is not a smart move. I persevered though, and find that some of his books are positively delightful(The Wee free men pops into mind), while others are difficult to enjoy.
As for the OP - I found 100 years of solitude by Marquez to be very dull, even though it came highly recommended by friends.
The most awful book I’ve ever read in the history of time was an Oprah pick (and I’m not saying this as a disciple of Oprah or something, but usually I would like or not hate most of her choices.) It was called “Deep end of the Ocean” and I wont tell you the author lest you want to look it up. It was irredeemably bad. The preposterous climax happened halfway through the book, then for no apparent reason the author kept writing for 200 more pages. I was on a holiday to my parent’s house at the time and flung it against the wall when I was done. I left it behind and my mom happened to pick it up and read it.
She went out of her way to make a special call to me to berate me for leaving that horrible, horrible book in her house for her to read.
Aside: I like A Confederacy of Dunces, but I like things that are weird.
I rarely ever read popular fiction, but I do enjoy the occasional historical mystery, and was talked into reading the Da Vinci Code when it was wildly popular. That was a waste of an evening.
**The Art of Racing in the Rain ** The least dog-like character ever. It’s supposed to be written from the dog’s point of view or some such shite. they lost me early on when the dog was happier with his toy or blanket after it was washed. Yeah, nothing lights up a dog’s sensitive nose like the rich bouquet of bleach and fabric softener. Didn’t make it more than 30 pages.
) very prolific and very patchy. I made the mistake of deciding to go through discworld in order of publication, and as anyone who has read Colour of magic will attest, this is not a smart move. I persevered though, and find that some of his books are positively delightful(The Wee free men pops into mind), while others are difficult to enjoy.