Books You Couldn't Finish

[Darth Richard II]

1 minute ago, polishgenius said:

That's just because Stego doesn't really post here anymore.

That name triggers warning bells, didn't he try to get people to read The Night Circus? (Another fuck me I Cant read this shit throw in garbage book).

[Theda Baratheon]

28 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

That name triggers warning bells, didn't he try to get people to read The Night Circus? (Another fuck me I Cant read this shit throw in garbage book).

I had to double check this wasn't the Angela Carter book (bit confused, it's called Nights at the Circus'' because then I'd have my OWN ''omg how can you say this'' moment. 

[Darth Richard II]

Oh The Night Circus is hugely popular and people I respect love it to death, but it contains the phrase "like round spheres", which just gives me a headache.

 

[polishgenius]

58 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

That name triggers warning bells, didn't he try to get people to read The Night Circus? (Another fuck me I Cant read this shit throw in garbage book).

Possibly? But mostly he was (well, he still posts occasionally in genchat but not in here much) a poster in the fine caustic tradition of yourself and Peterbound. And he really didn't like Richard Morgan writing fantasy rather than SF.



Theda, I reckon you'd like The Night Circus, it's your sorta style. DR just has soul-deficiency syndrome.

[Darth Richard II]

Oh come on, just because I lack a soul doesn't mean I can't spot bad purple prose. Round spheres!

[Darth Richard II]

I wonder what happened to peterbound. I assume some third party tie in books became self aware and got him.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Books I couldn't finish, there are a few, mostly school related. As we all know, there's no better way to kill the fun of any book, than being forced to read it in school (no offense to all the teachers reading that. Most notably from that list is maybe TC Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain. I just remember finding the characters terribly flat and simplistic. Or Waris Dirie's Desert Flower. I'll spare you the not so kind words I've in mind for that piece of literature - partly because I know people still feel strongly about that book.

Otherwise I will throw in some Carlos Castaneda book, I can't remember which one, and as you may or may not expect, it's never really been part of my reading diet (I'll throw in some context for amusement purposes). An ex-girlfriend was really into that spiritual/shamanism stuff, so she gave me one of his books, a friend told me, it's not that a bad read, it's just him popping acid and describing his trips (basically a shitty version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). So I started reading it for her, anyway. After the relationship went sour, I felt somehow even more resistance towards reading Castaneda, and as a side effect, I couldn't listen to quite a bit of music I actually used to like... Not so fun times.

[Theda Baratheon]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

Theda, I reckon you'd like The Night Circus, it's your sorta style. DR just has soul-deficiency syndrome.

Hmm. Maybe - I like purple prose anyway LMAO 

[williamjm]

10 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

I really like the Medieval Dogs haha I think they're great! And I love the the little tree things. Damn I need to pick the book up again and finish it - I was really loving it. I just got tired and put it down and now I don't know where it is probably in some backpack I haven't used in months at the back of the closet but yeah for me not finishing books is usually not because I don't like them but because I just get so low even reading is a bit too much for me lol 

The Tines were my favourite part of A Fire Upon The Deep, I did like the bits in the Beyond as well but they weren't quite as memorable.

[Jo498]

"Tortilla Curtain" is probably the only book by Boyle I read twice. It might have been the first of his I read so I did not realize that he is re-using similar tropes in/from most of his books. Sure, the message is sometimes a bit too heavily laid on but I still think that it is quite impressive.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

57 minutes ago, williamjm said:

The Tines were my favourite part of A Fire Upon The Deep, I did like the bits in the Beyond as well but they weren't quite as memorable.

I don't know why I don't like the Tines.  They just never gelled for me.  But I absolutely love the stuff set in the Beyond and OOBII.

[maarsen]

I must be incredibly stubborn or something but I never not finish a book. Except once. Gravity's Rainbow did me in. Not because I found it hard but one scene of coprophilia was enough to make me put it aside. A series of books is different. I read one and give the rest a pass all the time. 

[williamjm]

2 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I don't know why I don't like the Tines.  They just never gelled for me.  But I absolutely love the stuff set in the Beyond and OOBII.

I did like the Galactic Internet bits in the Beyond section, even if they were quite blatantly mid-90s Usenet Newsgroups In Space. The online misinformation campaign does seem sadly topical, and I'm sure we all know a Twirlip of the Mists.

1 hour ago, Notone said:

Books I couldn't finish, there are a few, mostly school related. As we all know, there's no better way to kill the fun of any book, than being forced to read it in school (no offense to all the teachers reading that.

I didn't struggle too much with most of our school reading, but I do remember being unable to finish Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song.

[Theda Baratheon]

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

The Tines were my favourite part of A Fire Upon The Deep, I did like the bits in the Beyond as well but they weren't quite as memorable.

Yeah - I thought they were great! I loved the pseudo-medieval society and just plain imagining what on earth they'd look like and found their packs very interesting. 

[aceluby]

On 9/27/2017 at 3:00 PM, Corvinus said:

More gasps: gave up on Robin Hobb's Ship of Magic after about 40% of the book. I didn't care for the world in this one, even though it's still part of the realm of the Elderlings.

And while I was able to finish individual novels, I cannot bring myself to finish another popular series on this forum, The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham. I read the first 2 books. The first time I tried reading this series, I gave up on it after the first novel. The second time, I re-read the first one, and still didn't improve my opinion of it, but kept going and read the 2nd one. And then I called it quits again. It's mainly the characters for me with this one. I do not care for any of them. 

Oh man, I really get this one.  It took me a while to even warm up to the liveship traders, and even then I think it's significantly worse than the Fitz & The Fool stories.  TLPQ I kept waiting for that moment to really drag me in.  Something.  Anything.  Then I finished and wondered why I spent so much time on it.

[aceluby]

20 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Love those books.

Yeah, Endymion and Rise of Endymion are two of my favorites.  Despite the ret-conning, I think the overall story is beautiful.

[Darth Richard II]

Opinions man. Right?

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1 hour ago, Jo498 said:

"Tortilla Curtain" is probably the only book by Boyle I read twice. It might have been the first of his I read so I did not realize that he is re-using similar tropes in/from most of his books. Sure, the message is sometimes a bit too heavily laid on but I still think that it is quite impressive.

I just remember that I really hated all the characters from the getgo. They all felt like poorly over the top exaggerated caricatures.  Starting from reading the first few pages with that white self-obsessed phoney. I can't even remember his name (which is never a good sign). The only character I remember by name from that novel was Candido, and that's only because the teacher (who also taught Spanish) said, that the characters name also means something like simple.

Anyway, let's agree to disagree on the literary value of Tortilla Curtain. Suffice to say, you would probably need to force me at gunpoint to pick up another TC Boyle novel again. Especially, if that one is considered to be one of his stronger novels.

 

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

8 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Didn't know so many people disliked Land Fit for Heroes(I have not read it yet). The way some people talk about it here you'd think it was a universally loved classic.

I think it a lot like Bakker. Either you love it, or hate it. It isn't Bakker type level gore and controversy though. It's has its share of controversy and reasons some might not like it. I quite enjoyed it.

[Darth Richard II]

Wasn't that one controversial for how non controversial it was? Like I remember the author thinking a gay character in a fantasy would blow people's minds then it turned out fantasy has had gay characters for 20 years or so at least.