Books you don't "get"

[Crazydog7]

We used to have a good thread on this but I went 11 pages back and didn't find it. I was trying to find it to post my thoughts on a book I had tried to read (rather struggled through 120 pages and couldn't get into it)

A Confederacy of Dunces

don't like it didn't understand it thought the main character was annoying and completely unlikeable. If I had to try to read that story about the bus trip one more time I would have screamed. This is strange I haven't felt this hostile towards a book I have tried to read in a long time.

I can remember the last time I was 14 and one of cousins told my that Flowers in the Attic was a great read needless to say it left me with lifelong physiological scars.

So what was the last book that you read that came highly recommended but you hated?

[oar]

Black Man by Richard Morgan...

I read Altered Carbon and loved it. But this being my second novel of his, i'm quite disappointed. People seemed to be recommending it everywhere on the internet, but i've just not been able to get into the story, the character or anything. It's currently been sidelined just after 3 quaters through for a Stephen Erikson novel because I was more interested in continuing the malazan series after Memories of Ice.

[Swordfish]

I never understood the appeal of Infinite jest.

I thought it COULD have been a decent book, but instead he ruined it with some self indulgent gimmick just for the sake of using a self indulgent gimmick.

[Commodore]

Malazan, I had no clue what was going on after the first one hundred pages, so I gave it up.

[hadaad]

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey. Everyone says how wonderful and lovely they are and I just felt dirty reading the first one. I gave it up before it was half-over.

[The Pita]

1984 bored the shit out of me.
The Catcher in the Rye was the only book I felt bad about finishing. I really should have read summaries on the 'net.
Notes from the Underground. Dostoyevski is hard to read, but usually he pays off rather well in his thrilling ends, except for in White Nights where the entire story is a joy. Notes was just irritating. I gather that was the point, but I just couldn't connect.

[Whiskeyjak]

Same with 1984.

And i cannot finish anything by Stephen Donaldson no matter how I try.

[Myshkin]

[quote name='Crazydog7' post='1375386' date='May 29 2008, 10.41']A Confederacy of Dunces

don't like it didn't understand it thought the main character was annoying and completely unlikeable. If I had to try to read that story about the bus trip one more time I would screamed. This is strange I haven't felt this hostile towards a book I have tried to read in a long time.[/quote]
Really? I loved this novel. To each his own I guess.

[quote name='Crazydog7' post='1375386' date='May 29 2008, 10.41']So what was the last book that you read that came highly recommended but you hated?[/quote]
Dickens. Anything and everything by Dickens. Sooooo boring.

[Yana]

[i]Never Let Me Go[/i] by Kazuo Ishiguro (awful book, for me at least) and everything by Hesse, Kafka and Paulo Coelho. What's the big deal?

[Blaine]

[quote name='Commodore' post='1375415' date='May 29 2008, 13.56']Malazan, I had no clue what was going on after the first one hundred pages, so I gave it up.[/quote]
Word. I suffered through the whole first book. Then because everyone said the second one was soooooooo much better I read it too. It wasn't all that much better. And I realized that I was being some sort of masochist by continuing to try and read that crap.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

[quote name='Myshkin' post='1375562' date='May 29 2008, 13.57']Dickens. Anything and everything by Dickens. Sooooo boring.[/quote]

That just makes me sad inside. Dickens has so much to offer. Try Great Expectations, it's wonderful. Or for commentary on formal education read Hard Times. It is as true today as it was when it was written.

[Serious Callers Only]

Paul Auster.

*Everything*

[Luzifer's right hand]

[quote name='oar' post='1375397' date='May 29 2008, 20.47']Black Man by Richard Morgan...

I read Altered Carbon and loved it. But this being my second novel of his, i'm quite disappointed. People seemed to be recommending it everywhere on the internet, but i've just not been able to get into the story, the character or anything. It's currently been sidelined just after 3 quaters through for a Stephen Erikson novel because I was more interested in continuing the malazan series after Memories of Ice.[/quote]

You are not alone, that book sucks donkey balls compared to Altered Carbon.

[Korr]

Books I didn't get, eh? There was one, I think it was called [i]A Game of Thrones[/i], it was horrible!

. . . Kidding! Don't crucify me.

Count me as another one for Malazan, I tried [i]Gardens of the Moon[/i] and was bored to tears. Also, [i]Brave New World[/i] was a dull slog throughout.

While I'm on it, I'm not that keen on either Robert Rankin or Christopher Brookmyre despite my girlfriend telling me they're great and very popular. Although I suppose I'd give Brookmyre another shot if I knew it had a less shitty ending than [i]Not the End of the World[/i].

Regards,
Ryan

[Jacen]

Blood Meridian.... I only got about 50 pages in. The protagonist is so remote and removed, the book so unrelentingly grim and dark that I just couldn't get into it. On the other hand, the prose was beautiful I suppose, but it was not enough to keep me turning pages.

I'll give it another try when I'm in a more bleak mood, since it's supposed to be such a masterpiece.

[zakalwe7]

The Bible

[Tempra]

[i]Invisible Man[/i](Ellison)

[i]Vellum[/i](Hal Duncan)

[Werthead]

[quote name='Korr' post='1375888' date='May 29 2008, 23.30']While I'm on it, I'm not that keen on either Robert Rankin or Christopher Brookmyre despite my girlfriend telling me they're great and very popular. Although I suppose I'd give Brookmyre another shot if I knew it had a less shitty ending than [i]Not the End of the World[/i].[/quote]

It took me ages to get into Rankin. My dad kept recommending the [b]Armageddon Trilogy[/b] and it did nothing for me. I then picked up [i]The Book of Ultimate Truths[/i] and almost had major organ failure as I was laughing so hard. The Hugo Rune books are genius, but pretty much everything else is very hit or miss.

[Crazydog7]

[quote name='Myshkin' post='1375562' date='May 29 2008, 15.57']Dickens. Anything and everything by Dickens. Sooooo boring.[/quote]

Amen he writes the worst dialog and his children characters are annoying as hell. If the convict had just killed Pip it would have saved us all a great deal of frustration.

[Myshkin]

[quote name='Simon of Steele' post='1375686' date='May 29 2008, 12.49']That just makes me sad inside. Dickens has so much to offer. Try Great Expectations, it's wonderful. Or for commentary on formal education read Hard Times. It is as true today as it was when it was written.[/quote]
I've tried [i]Great Expectations[/i] and just couldn't push myself through it. Like I said, boring. But it's not just Dickens, I can't stomach most of the supposedly great 19th century English authors. Give me a good Russian author and I'm happy, but the English are just so dry, so boring, so unrelentingly [i]English[/i].

[quote name='Crazydog7' post='1376042' date='May 29 2008, 16.07']Amen he writes the worst dialog and his children characters are annoying as hell. If the convict had just killed Pip it would have saved us all a great deal of frustration.[/quote]
Yes, Dickens should have killed most of his main characters within the first few pages of his novels. But sadly he didn't. One can only imagine that he was trying to punish his readers for reasons unknown.