<p>I hated most of Dickens, except Tale of Two Cities.</p>
<p>Great thread. I actually like Conrad, Tolstoy, Dickens, Proust and Faulkner – but I understand WHY people are turned off. </p>
<p>I DO dislike what DonnaL called ‘manly’ writers - Norman Mailer, Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Gaddis, etc. When form is more important than readability, I give up. </p>
<p>I tried and tried, but could not finish and disliked Freedom by Jonathan Franzen even though I read The Corrections in one long fabulous gulp.</p>
<p>Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a struggle - just too poorly written.
Disliked anything by Tolken, and hated Herman Hesse who was so “in” when I was in high school.</p>
<p>Atlas Shrugged … the first half (2 books worth) was Ok but the second half (another 2 books worth) is so over the top it loses it’s ability to sell the idea to anyone not already in the camp (IMO).</p>
<p>PS - I have to admit I really liked the Dan Brown books … interesting stories to me at least.</p>
<p>I have to admit, a lot of the books literary critics go nuts over or give awards to generally leave me cold…Mark Twain once defined so called “Great Books” as books most people think they should read, but don’t want to <em>lol</em>.</p>
<p>If I had to list a book that I absolutely hated that most people go ga ga over, it is “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, it is a case study in mental illness, cruelty and self indulgent tripe, now wonder literary critics fall over it <em>gack</em>.</p>
<p>“The Killer Angels” comes to mind, lot better books written about Gettysburgh, both fiction and non fiction). “Gone with the wind” has to be the worst piece of trash I have ever read (and I love trashy books, have lots of guilty pleasures). Tom Clancy leaves me cold, his books make much better movies then books; “The Color Purple” was another of those. </p>
<p>I liked some of Dickens, but “Great Expectations” left me colder then a piece of meat in a deep freeze, I hated all the characters and couldn’t understand where it was coming from. </p>
<p>As far as the worst written books that I skimmed but never would read, the “Left Behind” books have to be on that pile, while religious writing is not exactly my cup of tea, these fail for having no plots, no character development and some of the lousiest use of the English Language I have come across yet they are big sellers, go figure.</p>
<p>I loved Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations and Hard Times when I read them a long time ago. I’m not a big Dickens fan in general, though; I tend to find the books too agonizingly long (the fact that they were written for serialization shows), the plot coincidences too ridiculous, and the characterizations – particularly of women – two-dimensional.</p>
<p>As for Faulkner, the Sound and the Fury and Light in August were great; they’re two of my favorite books. As I Lay Dying, not so much.</p>
<p>And I do love James Joyce, although I’d never dream of trying to tackle Finnegan’s Wake!</p>
<p>I feel kind of “meh” about Shakespeare’s comedies – and comic interludes – for the most part. I guess you had to be there.</p>
<p>I read the first two “Dragon Tattoo” books – liking the first and skipping over large parts of the second one, which <em>really</em> could have used an editor, but I guess they didn’t want to cut out anything posthumously – and gave up on the third. Not just because of the lack of editing. The graphic scenes of rape and other violence in the books just got to be too much for me after a while.</p>
<p>"Been trying to get through In the Garden of Beasts. About a third into it, and think I am giving up. Anyone who has read it, should I continue to plod through? "</p>
<p>It can be slow at times, but I think it is worth reading (I am in the middle of it), as you get further into it it kind of grows on you…and as an introduction to the rise of Nazi Germany and clearing through the mythology about how Hitler came to power and about what people knew and didn’t know about his regime, the failures to act and so forth, it gives a clearer picture then much of the history I have about it.</p>
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<p>I did finish Freedom, but disliked it, agree with everything else said here.</p>
<p>I really liked In the Garden of the Beast. Very well-researched and gives such a great look at events emerging and how they appear to those experiencing them at the time without the benefit of hindsight.</p>
<p>DonnaL. I think you would be interested in this one, given your recent trip and family’s history.</p>
<p>Birdsong by Sebastian Foulkes. Ugh, ugh, ugh. I love books LIKE THIS but just not this one. I just hated it!</p>
<p>“In the Garden of Beasts” is a bit repetitive in places, but I found it fascinating over all. Just maybe skim over some of the bits where the author goes on and on about how misunderstood Ambassador Dodd was by the powers in Washington.</p>
<p>Although information can be looked up about the historical figures, I thought the book brought them to life pretty well.</p>
<p>The stories about Putzi Hanfstaengel, Rudolf Diels, and Martha’s Russian lover were interesting to follow through to the end.</p>
<p>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
my mother actually had a nervous breakdown while she was reading it, I have never tried so don’t know how connected that was.
:(</p>
<p>I’ve been trying off and on for three years to finish “Infinite Jest.” I WILL finish it someday. But I might be on my deathbed when I get it done.</p>
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Ooh, I hated that book. A friend of mine and I read it when we went off on a road trip across the US. (Her other projects were much better - we read both volumes of the Norton Anthology of American Lit. and ate in every restaurant Calvin Trillen recommended in Alice Let’s Eat.)</p>
<p>I don’t much care for reading Shakespeare (or any playwright), but I am happy to see his plays. I’ve seen a million versions of Twelfth Night (my favorite) including one with music by the guy who wrote John Denver’s hit “Country Roads” and another with Vanessa Redgrave.</p>
<p>Strangely I have much more patience for modernist and post-modernist games in movies than I do in books.</p>
<p>Really like Tolstoy (in the last section of War and Peace now) and liked 100 Years of Solitude (even if you don’t read the book, the ending is one of the best in any book and it’s worth reading the last few pages), but wasn’t a huge fan of Love in the Time of Cholera. I read the entire “Rabbit” series by John Updike years ago and hated it. You may wonder why I kept reading. I honestly thought that sooner or later I’d end up liking the characters, but to the bitter end I did not. More unlikeable characters it’s hard for me to think of. I don’t mean that there aren’t more evil characters in fiction, just that I found these people to be plain unlikeable.</p>
<p>Shalman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses</p>
<p>I have a very good understanding of the issues involved - the book was just BAD.</p>
<p>The Enchantress of Florence- Salman Rushdie </p>
<p>Over written for my taste. Couldn’t get through the whole book.</p>
<p>My son’s friends were in the English class that had to read Love in the Time of Cholera. They HATED it. Son talked often of As I Lay Dying, so I tend to think he liked it. I think it’s an interesting concept, but I can’t imagine having to slough through Faulkner. Son also liked Light in August, but says it’s hard to follow. Husband’s family is from Missississippi, where Faulkner has Sainthood Status.</p>
<p>Catcher in the Rye, from my high school days.</p>
<p>And Great Expectations.</p>
<p>I still remember the torture, 40 years later.</p>
<p>Pretty much anything by Gunter Grass other than Tin Drum. Pretty much anything by Jack Keruac other than On the Road.</p>
<p>^Funny story about On the Road. We were listening to it on a CD in our car - unbeknownst to us the CD Player somehow got set to random tracks. You wouldn’t believe how much we listened to before we realized we weren’t listening to it in order!</p>