That’s true of an awful lot of current non-fiction; it must be as long and detailed and padded as possible! (I read a lot of non-fiction.)
So far, everything I’ve read by H.P. Lovecraft. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve liked them all. I just didn’t wildly adore them the way the people who told me to read them said I would. These people had read everything he ever wrote, and I’d ask them which one would be best for me to read and that would make me want to read all the rest like they had. So they’d give me a title.
I’d read it and tell them that it was well written and enjoyable, but didn’t make me go insane (heh) with a desire for more. Then they’d say some variation of, “Oh, that wasn’t the right one for a beginner, you should have read this other one.”
I’ve gone through a similar process with three different Lovecraft fans. And I still haven’t gotten the Lovecraft love.
Room. My wife recommended it. It’s first person told from the point of view of a five-year old, who, with his mother, have been held captive by their abductor for the last six years or so (he’s the child of the abductor and abductee). I really don’t see the point in writing this thing, and the manner in which the boy speaks is distracting to the point of being annoying.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy left me cold. I usually like that kind of thing (I love Pratchett, for example, except that Rincewind kinda sucks), but not in this case. Too cutesy and clever by half.
I’ve never read the Sandman stuff, as graphic novels don’t make it for me, but I think Neil Gaiman’s novels are overrated.
The Fountainhead is one of the dumbest, most naive books I’ve ever read. I guess it’s okay if you’re a teenager, but I’m not.
Yeah, I didn’t like it either. The author was incredibly pleased with how clever he thought he was.
*Blood Meridian *by Cormac McCarthy was terrible, the kind of book a 14 year old would write between glue huffing fits. Cheap cliches awkwardly used to push emotional buttons, when one of the characters threw a bag of puppies into a river and started shooting at them I began to think Cormac was making fun of me.
I took a long while to warm up to liking Terry Pratchett. When I read the first book by him (Equal Rites) it was kind of “meh” (though not recommended to me). Mort was the first one I liked, and I didn’t really appreciate it fully till I read it out loud taking turns with my husband. I found that Pratchett’s work benefits a lot by being read out loud - maybe especially Mort. And that the first four or so books in Discworld are - not bad, but not that great either.
His later books, especially Small Gods, Monstrous Regiment, and Going Postal (for me), are much better. I actually like all the Vimes ones too. A lot of the others (including most of the Witches ones) not so much.
Confederacy of Dunces I also tried to read (also wasn’t recommended to me) and didn’t find interesting at all. My idea of really funny books at that time was more in the vein of P. G. Wodehouse or Tom Holt.
The Demon-Haunted World. It was heavily recommended to me by many people who know how I think and I cannot imagine why. I read the first few chapters saying to myself, 'Yeah, right, uh huh, yeppers, true— what’s your point, Carl?"
Then I realized this book wasn’t meant for me but for those who live in a demon haunted world.
Another book that was recommended that I did not finish was Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men. Gah, what a racist screed! I lost all respect for Moore with that book.
Well, this is another one where I’m really in the minority. **The Hunger Games **is wildly popular. The first thing that jumped out at me was poor writing and grammar. Now, our narrator is a 17 year old girl with little education, so I can let some of it slide. But every other sentence is a fragment. Throughout the entire book. That bugged me. A lot. (See what I did there? Get used to it.) It’s also written entirely in present tense, which isn’t horrible, but I like conventional past tense better.
The other thing is the story is just outrageously unbelieveable. Yeah, ok, it’s YA, so whatever. The plot “twists” can be seen a mile away. They seem to be the result of the writer feeling obligated to manufacture some drama. Oh, and can you say deux ex machina? Everywhere.
All that said, the pace of the action works really well. I mean, it’s pretty nonstop explosions and fighting and killing, which at least keeps things mildly interesting.
God Emperor of Dune. I loved the original *Dune *trilogy, but I’ve never been able to make it through two chapters of this one.
Also, pretty much anything by Harlan Ellison. I’ve heard the guy talk, and he’s very entertaining and intelligent, but his writing just never clicked with me.
This was my post. I had a close friend who felt it changed his world and shook his very soul due to “the intimate father/son connection that only a parent can understand”. :rolleyes:
I have never read a more bland set of characters. There was no relationship in this book that had any meaning, and the only attempt at character was the constant reminder of being a Christian. It only pointed at the barest possibility of having any ideas or themes to explore to the reader, and stubbornly refused to explore any encounter or plot point. You could just read the final two pages of the book and not have missed a thing. In fact, skip those last two pages as well, they only serve as confirmation that, yes, you the reader did not miss a thing.
Water for Elephants is so popular and has such good reviews, but I was underwhelmed. I didn’t hate it, but it was pretty boring. If I’d started reading it without first hearing the hype, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to finish it, but I kept expecting it to get good, and it never did.
I would have to say the book I just finished, The Help. I was prepared to love this book and finish it feeling changed. I…didn’t. I literally said “meh”.
The other is the one I’m currently reading, Game of Thrones. Again, I was prepared to love it. Everyone said if you love Lord of the Rings (which I absolutely do) then you will like this. I…didn’t. But I’m determined to finish it.
I’m in very much the same boat. I have a friend who’s read the entire series and loved it, but after reading The Colour of Magic in high school, I couldn’t get into any of the others. A barely remember anything about it besides feeling underwhelmed. Maybe it’s time I gave it another try.
Yes! I heard a lot of great things about The Pillars of the Earth and gave it a try. I got through maybe two thirds of it before just giving up. I was like the author just set out to make (somewhat) likeable characters and then contrive as many ways as possible to make them miserable over and over again. Eventually, I just decided that I didn’t want to read another hundred-and-some pages of the bad guys getting away with everything and the good guys getting kicked in the teeth. It just got so old.
I liked The Help, but would you (or anyone else) say it’s appropriate for a 6th grader? I don’t know if I should let my daughter read it or not. I read it a couple years ago and don’t remember anything bad in it, but I could have forgotten.
Uh-oh. . .I just started it.
Hijack, since none of these books were actually recommended to me, but I’ve read just two Ken Follett books myself - Pillars of the Earth, and Dangerous Fortune. I don’t remember which I read first, but it doesn’t matter, because they were the same story with different names and a different setting. Same earnest protagonist set up for an undeserved fall, same evil petty antagonists who get their comeuppance in the end, same side characters with the same intrigues…and here you come in and say World Without End is also the same story, too. Hmm. Sounds like Ken Follett just really sucks.
I’m with Blackberry. I actually bought it on the Kindle, and even though it was only $3, I feel ripped off. Totally dull, pedestrian book, with a side of animal cruelty thrown in. Blech.
Eighth or ninthing this. It was supposed to be this big laugh fest. I got a couple of hundred pages in without even a smile, and returned it to the library.
The DaVinci Code I didn’t expect to be any good. I wasn’t disappointed.
And most of Ray Bradbury, I am afraid - his stuff is not to my taste. I don’t hate it, exactly, but I don’t like it either.
Regards,
Shodan
Yeah, lots of stuff happened, but I just didn’t really care. And I hate when they have animal cruelty in books! I almost didn’t read it for that reason.
Chefguy, just know that it’s not one of those books that just takes a while to get into. If the beginning doesn’t grab you, you probably won’t like the middle or the end either.
Well, it’s sort of interesting in the beginning. I got the book from the Kindle lending library, so it’s free and I’m not out anything if I ditch it.