Books That You're Supposed To Like But Don't...

[Tempra]

Ditto [i]The Awakening[/i]. Also, [i]Invisible Man[/i] by Ellison.

[MinDonner]

Gormenghast. I know it's a great fantasy classic etc etc, but boy was it a struggle. By the end of the second book I'd just started to get into it, and then got smacked round the head by the weirdness that was [i]Titus Alone[/i] :stunned: - after all that, to fall at the final hurdle...

[Rubies & Jade]

[quote name='MinDonner' post='1307632' date='Apr 9 2008, 11.53']Gormenghast. I know it's a great fantasy classic etc etc, but boy was it a struggle. By the end of the second book I'd just started to get into it, and then got smacked round the head by the weirdness that was [i]Titus Alone[/i] :stunned: - after all that, to fall at the final hurdle...[/quote]

I'm impressed that you got that far with it. I got about 150 pages into that mess and wanted to shoot myself. I just don't goet the Gormenghast love. *shudder*

[MattD]

I have a pretty well-developed sense of which books I'll like and which I won't, but every now and then it lets me down. Caitlin Kiernan's [i]Threshold[/i], Emma Bull's [i]War for the Oaks[/i], and David Anthony Durham's [i]Acacia[/i] are three books that I thought I would like -- based on author circles, other works, blurbs, marketing targeting, word of mouth, etc. -- but out of boredom or annoyance I never finished any of them.

[Wine-skin changer]

[quote name='Triskele' post='1306779' date='Apr 8 2008, 17.29']I read [i]Lions of Al-Rassan[/i] and I don't know if I've ever had moer trouble deciding if I liked a book or not. Sometimes I think it was beautiful and sometimes I think it was pointless.

I did not care for [i]Gatsby[/i] or [i]Of Mice and Men[/i] when I was forced to read them in high school. And I wasn't some rebelious kid who hated reading, I actually preferred having to read some classic lit over any other form of homework.[/quote]

I wasn't either, at least not in the stereotypical way. Reading assignments were easy as hell for me, and english in general didn't give me all that much trouble. I mostly didn't like the idea that "oh, well this is awesome, we all agree." I questioned whether anyone sincerely believed that the classics were so good, or they just agreed so they could be "in" like some kind of academic hipster. I didn't find anything awesome about them at all. I suppose I'll go back for a second round and check them out, it may very well be that life experience has changed what I will enjoy.

[Eponine]

Oh I agree about Stephen King. I was so disappointed with IT and I couldn't finish The Stand. Even though he's creative, his writing has the maturity of a 12 year old. I did like the Gunslinger, but it went rapidly downhill from there. The Blain cliffhanger had just about the most obvious, anticlimactic ending ever- I didn't even care about getting the next book since I already knew what was going to happen and worse, HOW it would happen.

[Ormond]

[quote name='The Journeyman' post='1306537' date='Apr 8 2008, 16.28']Ormond,

When it comes to the literary world it just seems, to me at least, that there is an in-crowd and an out-crowd. Some books are considered just so damn good or sold a bajillion copies so it must be worth reading.[/quote]

I get the reputation part, but it seems really odd to me to think you "should" like something just because it was a bestseller. It seems to me that there are a great many "in-crowds" that automatically believe that something which is a bestseller can't really be any good and so they should hate it, not like it. (That of course is no more logical than the other way around, but "in-crowds" aren't known for being logical. :) )

[Shryke]

[quote name='Eponine R' post='1307917' date='Apr 9 2008, 13.56']Oh I agree about Stephen King. I was so disappointed with IT and I couldn't finish The Stand. Even though he's creative, his writing has the maturity of a 12 year old. I did like the Gunslinger, but it went rapidly downhill from there. The Blain cliffhanger had just about the most obvious, anticlimactic ending ever- I didn't even care about getting the next book since I already knew what was going to happen and worse, HOW it would happen.[/quote]

At least read Wizard & Glass. It's a really great book. After that, it goes downhill a bit, then alot. But the first 4 are very good.

[Eponine]

I did read the whole series, and I didn't like Wizard and Glass at all. I was disappointed at how... boring and shallow the people from Roland's past turned out to be.

[alguien]

[quote name='Shryke' post='1308019' date='Apr 9 2008, 14.57']At least read Wizard & Glass. It's a really great book. After that, it goes downhill a bit, then alot. But the first 4 are very good.[/quote]

I take back what I said, we're not literary opposites at all. Wizard and Glass ruled!!!

[Lord of Oop North]

[quote name='Nadie' post='1308048' date='Apr 9 2008, 16.21']I take back what I said, we're not literary opposites at all. Wizard and Glass ruled!!![/quote]

So is your Avatar still going to be a Pint Glass inside a Kitten?

Or are you no longer the Anti-Shyrke, for sure now?

[alguien]

[quote name='Lord of the North' post='1308053' date='Apr 9 2008, 16.24']So is your Avatar still going to be a Pint Glass inside a Kitten?

Or are you no longer the Anti-Shyrke, for sure now?[/quote]

Nah, I'm nobody. Although a pint glass inside a kitten would be an interesting photgraphic image. Perhaps if I found the right Garfield cartoon...

:cheers:

[Anatole Kuragin]

[quote name='Quoth' post='1307344' date='Apr 9 2008, 06.20']Am I alone in disliking Stephen King's body of work? I find myself asking at the end of the stories "Huh? What?"[/quote]

I'm not much of a Stephen King person either.

I thought the Da Vinci Code was pretty lame. I also hate the Harry Potter books (despite reading them all) and the Narnia books bored me to tears.

[delete this account pls]

Thomas Convenant. Got halfway through the first book and couldn't manage anymore.

The Silmarillion. I love Lord of the Rings but hated this. Too dry. It read like the Bible, and I understand that was the point, but it wasn't for me.

Gates of Fire. I'd read Pressfield's Alexander book, and the Afghan Campaign and thought they were great, so I expected his most famous work to be fantastic, but it ended up being fairly disappointing.

As far as classics go, War and Peace. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't take it.

[ThRiNiDiR]

[quote name='Brady' post='1308441' date='Apr 9 2008, 21.17']Thomas Convenant. Got halfway through the first book and couldn't manage anymore.[/quote]

yes...I actually read all three of them, of which only the second one managed to entertain me at moments (usually when the covenant itself is far away from narration =) )

[The Pita]

1984 was a drag, to me.
So was The Catcher in the Rye, for which I only passed page 8 because I'd fail literature if I didn't read it.
I'm failing Literature.

[Lyanna Stark]

Another one here who didn't fancy Ghormenghast at all. Didn't help that I got the story MASSIVELY and randomly "spoiled" on this board. :(

I also hated Zelazny's "Amber" series. Read 1.5 of the books and thought it was dreadful. The characters are annoying, non-sympathetic, self-serving, exploiting, often chavunistic gits. I guess it didn't help that my expectations were sky high since everyone I knew who had read it praised it to the skies.

When one of the main characters get thrown into a prison cell, I hoped the rest of the book would take a turn for the better, but sadly, he got out.

As for classics....can't stand Balzac, but I guess you don't have to like him? I normally like Dickens' works as well, but "Great Expectations" is really dull.

[add-on]

I don't like a lot of the classic epics. The Iliad, Beowulf, Gilgamesh and the Song of Roland all failed to do it for me.

Pretty much any novel written by Thomas Hardy probably fits here as well. Though I don't know if anyone is naive enough to go into a Hardy novel thinking they're going to have a good time with it.

I couldn't get into Don Quixote either, which is pretty much the sin of sins, I'm given to understand.

[Exa Inova]

[quote name='Lyanna Stark' post='1308830' date='Apr 10 2008, 14.34']<snp>

I also hated Zelazny's "Amber" series. Read 1.5 of the books and thought it was dreadful. The characters are annoying, non-sympathetic, self-serving, exploiting, often chavunistic gits. I guess it didn't help that my expectations were sky high since everyone I knew who had read it praised it to the skies.
<snckt>[/quote]

I love the series, mostly for the same reasons you hate it.

I am not hot on A game of Thrones. I know its strange writing this on this board but I couldnt finish it. Still havent. I promissed myself I would give it another try but if it still fails to grip me Ill just stick to this board and diss Goodkind to balance the karma.

[Isis]

[quote name='add-on' post='1308976' date='Apr 10 2008, 16.11']Pretty much any novel written by Thomas Hardy probably fits here as well. Though I don't know if anyone is naive enough to go into a Hardy novel thinking they're going to have a good time with it.[/quote]Yeah, they're not awfully sunny stories, but I still find them worth reading.

I had no problem finishing [i]Catcher in the Rye[/i] - I just never got what's so great about it. :unsure:

And I just CAN'T get through anything by Dickens. That's probably the only example of something I can't read that I actually do feel a failure for not reading.