# What famous works of fiction, popular with readers and critics both, do you not care for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659 "2019-09-22T20:28:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/101 "2019-09-24T21:40:21Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > And the title of this thread is…? The thread title is asking you to identify which famous fiction you personally don’t care for, **despite** its being genuinely popular with readers and critics. You claimed in post #15 that _Dhalgren_ is **not** genuinely popular with readers and critics but merely “famous because Chip [i.e., the author Samuel Delany] is black”. That’s what **RealityChuck** was disagreeing with you about in post #45. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/102 "2019-09-24T21:51:01Z")
Another vote for _On the Road_. What a huge pile of feces. I got through about 50 pages before I couldn’t stand one more story about the characters going out drinking and sleeping with women. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/103 "2019-09-24T21:51:49Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Yeah. I speedballed through much of Hesse as a teenager, but never got around to **The Glass Bead Game,** the novel that got him a Nobel. I picked it up at age 40 or so, read a hundred pages, then put it back down. > > Oddly enough, I still love **The Journey to the East,** and reread it every few years. That’s funny. I devoured _The Glass Bead Game_. But it took me several attempts to get through _The Journey to the East_, short though it is. Its language is very abstract. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/104 "2019-09-24T22:12:30Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **Dhalgren** - At the risk of getting all sorts of PC flak, this novel is famous because Chip is black. Cuz the novel is shit. This. I don’t know how I eventually made it through this book. In spite of my insomnia, it put me to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/105 "2019-09-25T00:59:43Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > Another vote for _On the Road_. What a huge pile of feces. I got through about 50 pages before I couldn’t stand one more story about the characters going out drinking and sleeping with women. Yeah, going out drinking and sleeping with women is SO 1940-50s. NOBODY does THAT anymore. Personally, I’m not big on **On the Road** myself. The Kerouac novel I love is **The Dharma Bums.** ---
**Author:** ![tuesdayweld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@tuesdayweld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tuesdayweld)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/106 "2019-09-25T01:42:06Z")
Page 3 and no mention of Ayn Rand. I can’t be the only one who suffered through Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/107 "2019-09-25T02:50:14Z")
Ah, Ayn Rand. No, I haven’t read very much of her famous books – indeed and alas, life is too short. Anyhow, she was quite the bombastic tyrant, considering the philosophical point she tried to make. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/108 "2019-09-25T03:07:21Z")
Ayn Rand may be popular with readers of a certain political and philosophical stripe, but she’s not admired by most critics. And add me to the list of people who dislike _Lord of the Flies._ One book not mentioned here yet is _The Bell Jar_. I’d heard about it for years and I do find Sylvia Plath’s poetry to be very striking, so I was expecting to be impressed by the book. But when I finally read it last year I didn’t find it at all compelling. It was just meh, which wasn’t at all what I expected of Plath. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/109 "2019-09-25T08:55:48Z")
Put me on the ‘Don’t like Shakespeare’ list. Dune has already been mentioned. Seconded. I’ve struggled with Graeme Greene as well. It’s just hard to care about his characters. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/110 "2019-09-25T14:44:41Z")
Shakespeare. Cannot stand anything he’s written. I’ll happily pile on _A Confederacy of Dunces_. Never even got a smile out of me. _Good Omens_. Sorry, I like Pratchett, but this book was horrible. _Lord of the Rings_. First time through, I got to the third book, not long before they reached Mount Doom, and stopped. I simply could not force myself to read any further. When the movies came out I gave it another go. When I got to the whole Sharkey business I wanted to throw the book across the room. I would have, but it wasn’t mine. Superhero comics. I just can’t get into them because the popular bad guys have to keep coming back. Batman captures the Joker, the Joker kills a bunch of guard and escapes, the Joker kills a bunch of civilians, Batman captures him and takes him back to prison, and guess what… the Joker kills a bunch of guards and escapes. Lather, rinse, repeat with any of a number of villains. Just put a bullet in his fucking head already. ---
**Author:** ![Vic\_Parrish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Vic\_Parrish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vic_Parrish)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/111 "2019-09-25T15:07:22Z")
My girlfriend had me read some John Grisham novel to her as she drove while we were on a road trip. What a terrible, terrible writer. Just appallingly bad. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/112 "2019-09-25T15:08:57Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > I \*\*loathed \*\*_Tom Jones_ (which I never finished)… > [@Eonwe](#): > > It’s not unusual. Ha! Good job! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/113 "2019-09-26T03:06:55Z")
Don’t think I’ve seen “Watership Down” on here. Folks, it’s a book about rabbits, okay? It might have been readable if the nouns weren’t replaced by various undefined non-English words. The movie, however, was excellent. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/114 "2019-09-26T04:04:45Z")
Wasn’t a huge fan of either The Hobbit or LOTR books as a teenager. Didn’t actively dislike them, but was more, “Meh.” Some bits were a real slog to get through. ---
**Author:** ![EarlGrayHot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e480ec/32.png) [@EarlGrayHot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EarlGrayHot)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/115 "2019-09-26T14:04:49Z")
Anything written by the French author Balzac. We were supposed to read it for English class and finally, after trying to be interested I told my teacher I just couldn’t get through it. She informed me I would basically fail at everything and never get into college if I didn’t read it and do a report. I said I could accept that. I mean, I’m a very good reader, I love to read, And I couldn’t do it. She was also wrong about everything else. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/116 "2019-09-26T14:20:31Z")
Anything written by Henry James. I’ve complained about him before on this Board – he writes incredibly long, run-on sentences with lots of subordinate clauses. You inevitably lose your train of thought before you get to the period at the end. James could make even a ghost story boring – and he did (_turn of the Screw_). but my greatest hatred is for _the Beast in the Jungle_, a novel which has neither a Beast nor a Jungle. It’s like _Seinfeld_ – it’s about nothing. The whole point of the book is that _nothing happens_ \*. the problem is that it takes forever for that nothing to not happen. I also can’t stand _Pride and Prejudice_, which I had to read for a course in “Comedy”. I found it to be torture. \*The titular “Beast” was supposed to be a metaphore for Something to Happen, jumping unexpectedly out of the Jungle. Only – there’s not even a metaphorical Beast in this Jungle of words. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/117 "2019-09-26T15:05:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Anything written by Henry James. I’ve complained about him before on this Board – he writes incredibly long, run-on sentences with lots of subordinate clauses. You inevitably lose your train of thought before you get to the period at the end. James could make even a ghost story boring – and he did (_turn of the Screw_). but my greatest hatred is for _the Beast in the Jungle_, a novel which has neither a Beast nor a Jungle. It’s like _Seinfeld_ – it’s about nothing. The whole point of the book is that _nothing happens_ \*. the problem is that it takes forever for that nothing to not happen… > > \*The titular “Beast” was supposed to be a metaphore for Something to Happen, jumping unexpectedly out of the Jungle. Only – there’s not even a metaphorical Beast in this Jungle of words. No disagreement on Mr. James and his lack of readability. I remember reading \*The Beast in the Jungle \*in college. As dislikable as it (and especially its protagonist) was, it has haunted me ever since. What if one’s greatest happiness was so close it wasn’t detected? What if one was so stubbornly insistent on something that they missed something else of much greater importance that could have given great meaning and value to life? What if one only realized all this as the person who could – and should – have been one’s great love lay dying or dead? That would totally suck. I don’t think I have ever read a story that scared me more. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/118 "2019-09-26T17:02:47Z")
> [@EarlGrayHot](#): > > Anything written by the French author Balzac. We were supposed to read it for English class and finally, after trying to be interested I told my teacher I just couldn’t get through it. She informed me I would basically fail at everything and never get into college if I didn’t read it and do a report. I said I could accept that. I mean, I’m a very good reader, I love to read, And I couldn’t do it. She was also wrong about everything else. My English teacher’s obsession was Thomas Hardy. I like some of his poetry but dear god, I never want to read any of his books again. _The Return of the Native_ is just dreck. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/119 "2019-09-26T17:37:14Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > \ _The Return of the Native_ is just dreck. [Well, if _you_ had to write a novel–reality-TV-show style–in front of a bank-holiday crowd, it would probably suck, too!](http://www.wepsite.de/Novel%20Writing.mp3) ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659/120 "2019-09-26T18:08:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > James could make even a ghost story boring – and he did (_turn of the Screw_). _Turn of the Screw_ is another book I dropped, somewhere before the second turn. Or maybe it was the second sentence - there isn’t much difference. > [@](#): > > I also can’t stand _Pride and Prejudice_, which I had to read for a course in “Comedy”. I found it to be torture. You are dead to me! Dead!If it had been anything else by Austen, I could overlook this. But not P&P! Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-works-of-fiction-popular-with-readers-and-critics-both-do-you-not-care-for/840659.md?page=7)