I haven’t read a whole lot, but so far: Madame Bovary. We had to read it in high school, because it was culturally significant and because it caused a large amount of controversy when it came out due to its subject matter. When I was reading it though, it felt like I was reading a literary version of every TV soap opera ever. It was a slog to get through and I was bored and annoyed throughout.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The sookie stackhouse books that got turned into true blood have such a fun premise but are appallingly written. A friend and I used to play the audiobooks at parties for laughs.
Twilight
I am not sure about ‘ever’ (I am old and have been reading for over 4 decades now), but a book I hate-read recently was Foucault’s pendulum by Umberto Eco. It is meant to be a satire on conspiracy theories and as such it is still a relevant book after 35 years or so. However, the point of satire is to get to the point eventually, preferably within 500 pages. It was pompously written and sometimes felt like a showcase of ‘look how much I know!’.
Art of War in the Middle Ages. Just fucking interminable.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/44308/pg44308-images.html
It’s also FULL of errors
Ayn Rand’s fountainhead, by a fat mile. I was young and didn’t know better
I listened to Atlas Shrugged as an audio book and it was ok at best. One massive criticism of communism and how it doesn’t work but suggested anarchist society as the solution. Weird rape-y sex scene in the middle also. Should have stuck with the social criticism instead of anarco capitalism utopia stuff and it’d have been good.
God, me too. I thought I was too dumb to “get it”.
the Piers Anthony novelization of the movie Total Recall. it’s very bad!
I haven’t read that, but his original novel Firefly is the only book I ever threw away instead of adding it to my collection shelves or trading it back to the used book store. It’s horrifically gross. One of the main characters is shown in a flashback enthusiastically participating in her rape as a five year old. Anthony is a problematic writer already, but this was way worse than I could have guessed.
I read all the Xanth novels as a teenager and it probably made my brain mushy. More mushy.
My brain is just very mushy. The first few books were okay…ish, but they just got worse. And not just in a sexist way, but also a poorly written way.
Read the first book as a kid, thought it was pretty good, but was put off by all the sex stuff. Started reading the second book when I saw it in a library when I was about 15, and couldn’t get through the first chapter because of how sexist it was.
Yeah, they were fine for my low standards as a young teenager, but I reread a couple and they aren’t great. Heck, book one has the MC making an amicus brief on the wrong side of a rape trial.
Yeah, its a book series I’ll leave in the past where it belongs!
I was far too young to read Animal Farm. I thought it was going to be like Charlotte’s Web. I did not have any of the historical or political context for the metaphor. It just made me angry.
Moby Dick is the book I hated the most. Just the worst slog that i remember making it through.
Oh fucking hell, yes! How could I forget!? It’s so loooonnnngg. There’s a whole chapter that’s an encyclopedia of whales.
Two chapters, IIRC.
I picked it up from the library years ago on a whim and surprisingly really enjoyed it.
Well, except maybe the multiple pages long chapter about varieties of whales. That was a bit much.
Noooo :( I love Moby Dick.
Granted I listened to the audiobook
I know there are a lot of people who love it for the same reasons I hated it, people have different tastes.
I love Lord of the Flies because it gets to the point!
Game of thrones, for me. Made for a good basis for a show. Fucking terribly dull to read.
Yeah I finished the first book and put it down and said fuck this shit.
I enjoyed the suspense of wanting to see what would happen but then I realized that the author is a sadist who only wants the readers to suffer and that was enough to end the entire series for me. I got roped into watching the first episode of the first season and I was like oh it’s the entire first book in one hour fuck this shit and I’ve not watched anymore of it.
I hope you’re joking.
Martin knows how to write people. He can create the most vile, repulsive, irredeemable characters known to man and then teaches them mercy, honour, and sacrifice by forcing them into situations where they have to question who they are.
He redeems the irredeemable, not only in the text, but also outside of it by merit of the sheer humanism he expresses in his works.
I learned a lot about humanity, mercy, and forgiveness just by reading his books. No other author has come close to reaching me in such ways.
I don’t know if he’s joking, but seriously they sucked. I barely made it through them
I think it is great that you were able to gain so much from reading his books. I personally did not. That is not to say the values you drew from them are invalid in any way. It’s not an assault on you personally. You liked his books, I didn’t. Both of those things are ok. So no, I am not joking. While I have read other works that impress me to the level that you describe, Game of Thrones did not do so for me.
I think I’m bad at communicating the usual wink I have in my tone when I disagree with people: https://lemmy.ml/post/21428751/14330685
Hmmmmmm
I’m not sure about that“whilst I concur wholeheartedly with the detailed rebuttal you have given, I alas remain uncertain, caged by the incongruous gut feeling that compels me.”
I read them all (so far anyway) and they’re decent enough.
I don’t think he redeems anyone who is irredeemable or has any special insight into humanity. There are some awful people who are complicated and there are his favorites who get away with anything and come back from death multiple times. They all make good decisions and bad decisions and get good consequences and bad consequences and those don’t always line up.
I don’t want to diminish your experience but I really don’t see it.bah, humbug
The Alchemist, I had to read it for a community college class. It’s probably the most predictable book I’ve ever read, but not in an entertaining way. Just painfully boring.
I read Siddhartha for highschool a couple years before, I would say that the books are almost identical, except I liked Siddhartha more.
You want a book with similar themes but actually amazing? The wizard of Earthsea.
I know the books aren’t literally the same. But the vibes feel very similar. I want to say they have very similar structure, but my memory doesn’t work that great.
A fan translation of the Redo of Healer light novel.
If you know you know.
There are books I started and did not finish that I do not remember. However, there a few that I finished but hated. The worst was:
Reverie - this was a lgbt book club thing in Libby. The protagonist was a whiny incapable teen that never redeemed themself. I kept thinking it would get better and it never did. Things resolved because magic, so poor/lazy writing.
The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Its technically a novella but still. Hated it.
Oh sad face. It is one of my favorite books and also think the movie is a piece of art.
Might be different for me today if I reread it but I just mean from my first and sustained reaction reading it that was how I felt at the time, but I was also quite young
