@NJTheatreMOM Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, really??? It’s amazing.
“H couldn’t get started on “Hawaii” by Michener. I told him to do what I did–just skip the first 100 pages or so to get to the actual story.”
I loved all Michener’s book - especially the first history bits. They were my go to beach reads back in the day.
@MidwestDad, I’ve read six or seven other Murakamis and liked them all a lot (I agree that, in general, he’s amazing), but there was a certain sad occurrence that kept repeating in Norwegian Wood, and it was just too much for me.
I’ve been wary of Colorless Tsukuru… because I’m afraid it might be too similar.
Fun thread! People have mentioned many books I loathe, but also many I love.
The Steven King book that turned me off him was Cujo. Super depressing.
More recently, I really hated the final Hunger Games book. Yuck.
Probably my all-time most hated book (that I finished) was Atlas Shrugged. Bad in every respect–poorly written, and pernicious in its outlook.
But now for two books that I read for noble reasons, wanting to expend my understanding of those with experiences different from my own, etc. But I strongly disliked both of them: The Women’s Room, by Marilyn French, and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I found both of them profoundly unpersuasive.
I read both The Davinci Code and Angels and Demons and can’t decide which one I hate more. I wish I could be like those of you who can put down a book once you know you don’t like it, but once I commit I have to finish.
I was also so disappointed in Tom Hanks and Ron Howard for putting out that stupid movie. I expect better from both of them.
The DaVinci Code was so absurdly written and plotted that I finished it out of a kind of fascination. Recently I checked out an audio book of Inferno, in the hopes of being entertained but it was, if possible, even more stupid, so I skipped to the end–something I almost never do. Yup. Ending also stupid. I can’t help laughing over the concept of a world-famous Harvard symbologist.
@Joblue, I take a checkpoint at page 50 on books I am not loving. Might go on to 100 if it has promise, But if you have not gained my interest and/or affection by page 100, I quit. Life is too short to read bad books. And there are so many books and so little time…
I almost always force myself to finish books, but Inferno was one I just couldn’t continue. Now it sits on the armoire in my bedroom mocking and annoying me.
Still not sure why I kept reading Da Vinci code after the “world famous Harvard symbologist” was even momentarily flummoxed by mirror writing. Add that to the night that never ended ( one night of scenes in Paris, London, and other places all starting after midnight!) and the what-the-heck level was very high. I guess I kept thinking something would explain it to make it worthwhile. But no. Incredibly dumb ending.
Cured me of ever starting another of his books.
Read the last 20 pages. Trust me, you’ll be glad you didn’t read the whole thing.
Ok, I will. Then I’ll toss it. Thanks, Hunt!
-Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49
-Twilight (Read when D was in middle school. Blech. Even she agreed it was terribly written.)
-The early Magic Treehouse books, the first editions of which were filled with word choice and subject-verb agreement issues that infuriated me. D loved reading them to me in first grade, and I just cringed.
- Leviathan (Hobbes) - required reading for a philosophy course I took. Just an awful treatise by a man who hated people and liked kings only because people couldn’t be trusted.
I never finished the Da Vinci code – but I did enjoy the earlier and mid-series Tom Clancy books even though the writing was formulaic and in desperate need of an editor with scissors.
I just have a hard time with the idea of reading more than 10 pages of a truly bad book.
A book that starts out badly written isn’t going to get better written as it goes on. Sometimes, however, a book that starts out boring or annoying can get a lot better–I found this with Cloud Atlas, for example.
The Crying Of Lot 49! Yes, thank you. Couldn’t stand it. But I know soooo many people who just adore that book more than anything.
Pynchon is so great at the sentence level. It’s when he starts stringing those sentences together into paragraphs and chapters that things really start to go off the rails.
I walk out of bad movies as well. Though I will admit, sometimes it takes me at least a half an hour—besides, I need to finish my popcorn.
Oh, I forgot another recent one: Gone Girl. People liked this? I thought it was awful.
I also now give books to Page 100. I started a series and the first 100 pages were so slow…but it caught fire and I gobbled up all 8 books.
Oh man, I totally agree on The Magic Tree House books. So many sentence fragments! And nothing ever really happened. Luckily my policy was to only read out loud books I liked and generally that were beyond my kids’ current reading level.
@Hunt, I admit that I did not give Gone Girl even 50 pages. I hated every character by page 20. Decided I did not care if any of them were murdered, they could do whatever they wanted to each other.