@InfinityMan LOL My college roommate, who is a brilliant engineer, used to keep Harlequin novels all around the house we rented senior year. She would sit down and pick one up for a bit to unwind. No bookmarks in any of the books. When I asked her how she knew where she was in each book her comment was - it doesn’t matter.
@Scipio, I adore O’Brian. The Nutmeg of Consolation, hint hint.
This thread has made me laugh out loud repeatedly.
But I love LOTR and The Hobbit.
People who don’t read make me twitch.
I forgot about “The Red Badge of Courage.” Loathe, loathe, loathe that book.
Also any book with talking animals, cats that solve mysteries, historical characters (Queen Victoria? Queen Elizabeth? Really?) solving mysteries, or sequels or reuse of fictional characters by anyone but the original author (Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, etc).
The da Vinci code was entertaining. Great or even good literature? Hardly, but entertaining. I always have to suppress a shudder when Leonardo is referred to as Da Vinci.
Too late to chime in on The Giving Tree and all things Berenstain? Really, some books should be burned and banned.
When I was going through one of my phases of reading books I had heard of for years but really didn’t know anything about, I decided to try John Updike. Rabbit and the Witches of Eastwick can all go jump in the fire with the giving tree.
There’s a good plot thread in the Outlander novels about bodice-rippers. Nice to know authors have a sense of humor about their craft and colleagues.
I also tried Between the World and Me, and decided that was not the book for me to gain insight about anyone, and best if I didn’t finish it.
Isn’t the ultimate unreadable novel (well, besides Finnegan’s Wake) supposed to be Musil’s Man Without Qualities? I haven’t attempted it and have no plans to do so. Has anyone here read it?
OK, I have to add Jude the Obscure, and everything else I read by Hardy (which is only a couple other novels.) His whole schtick seemed to be: pile on the tragedy and call it literature.
OTOH, My Antonia is among my all-time faves… it could be because I read it on my own and not in high school.
Speaking of high school, I remember TAKING FOREVER to get through Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady. It was an insufferable slog and I hated every moment and every page. (And there are hundreds.) Years later, I thought to myself, I should revisit Portrait of a Lady. It took me a couple more years to actually do it and – I loved it. Raced through it. Reading it on my own, as a more mature person, made all the difference. But Jude the Obscure. Not on your life. Never again.
A modern writer I can’t stand – but many people love: Gore Vidal.
One summer I spent a cold winter on the Dorset Coast (aka Hardy country). I got sucked into reading three of his books. Jude, Mayor, and Tess. I don’t know if it was the countryside or the cold beer drunk in the warm corner of the local pub but I loved every page. (or was that the warm beer drunk in the cold corner of a local pub?)
My mom’s rule about the “try-out” period for books: subtract one’s own age from 100 and read that many pages. This rule acknowledges the greater value of time as we age. Mom’s try-out length is now at 13 pages.
I read *The Lord of the Rings/i every year for 20 years straight from the time I first read it at 12. The 21st time, (which was after a bit of break due to being busy with babies), I thought, “Hunh, I don’t think this is the best book in the world any more.” But I still read it every few years. You have to put up with the deliberately old-fashioned style and the fact that the plot/world didn’t give women much to do for the most part. But I’m still think it’s about as good a book as there is about friendship and courage and not giving up and trying to see the best in flawed people.
I enjoyed the ickiness of* Lord of the Flies* , and the nostalgia of A Separate Peace , but I’m glad I didn’t read them for school.
@NJTheatreMOM ,Please continue to list books you hate, since the ones on your list which I have read are all ones I loved! Bel Canto, Let the Great World Spin, Little Bee, The Sparrow, Norweigian Wood–all books I enjoyed.
Others I like which others listed as having disliked–We Were the Mulvaneys—which both my D and I consider one of the best books we’ve ever read, Gone Girl, Nostromo, and the Lisbeth Salander (Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, etc.) books–including the new one.
Can we have a category for books we thought were just okay but everyone else thought were amazing? The Goldfinch, Go Set a Watchman, Cloud Atlas, The Snow Queen (Cunningham) are in this category for me.
Books I loathed—Ashley Bell (Dean Koontz), 1Q84, Tom Jones (Fielding) and Auster’s City of Glass.
I also could not finish Emma, because Emma Woodhouse annoyed me SO much. Luckily this wasn’t for school. Although, I guess me not liking Emma was sort of Jane Austen’s point. I did like Knightley, though, quite a bit more than I liked Darcy, but he was not enough to make me want to finish.
Berenstain Bears and Captain Underpants. They conveniently disappeared as soon as possible.
I am more of a non-fiction person. Thank goodness! I read a few of the books from S2’s IB program. I don’t know how he could stand it.
^ A few years ago I pulled up amazon and under the “recommended for you” section was Captain Underpants. Now I know I enjoy light reading sometimes but still…
Haha, there are not too many books I’ve read that I’ve hated. There are some books I’ve started that I haven’t liked enough to read more than a chapter or two of, like The Da Vinci Code.
I liked Nostromo, and I thought We Were the Mulvaneys and the Lisbeth Salander (Dragon Tattoo) books were more than okay.
@FallGirl , too funny!! (trying to supress my laughter at my work desk…)
Most anything in high school literature. Just the thought of the incessant analyzing and dissecting over every.dang. sentence.for . forever…still sticks in my gut .I always thought then (and still do) that it was some dead people’s opinion about what a dead author wrote, and what he may, or may not have, meant when he wrote said book. Ug.
Getting good grades in those classes had a lot more to do with writing what the teacher wanted to hear than anything else. Sort of amazing lots of people still loved reading after those classes.
@emilyskates,
I loved movie Knightly. (blushes)
https://sophiemcdonald.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2015/10/mr-knightley1.jpg
Why the hate for the Poisonwood Bible? Thought it was interesting and well written
Hated Gone Girl and Eat Pray Love - self-indulgent and narcissistic. Refused to read 50 Shades.
Books other in book group or elsewhere but I did not:
Wolf Hall
Bel Canto
Little Bee
Blink by Gladwell Did not think his insights were very enlightening.
Brooklyn
Wild
Also was creeped out by Love you Forever.
OTOH, Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors and i really liked Prince of TIdes (and other Conroy books). And a big fan of The Things They Carried and My Antonia (having read it as an adult).
Jane Eyre is the worst book I’ve ever read. Breaks my heart that so many of you didn’t like Catcher in the Rye… my favorite book.
Good lord, 50 Shades of Gray. Honestly, the subject matter was not interesting to me at all and she is a terrible writer. Awful writing. Someone actually chose it for a book club I used to belong to. @@
Let’s see. Someone upthread mentioned The Bridges of Madison County. I really disliked that one as well.
I usually don’t finish a book if I’m hating it so I can’t remember any others.