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Books you don't "get"


Crazydog7

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[quote name='Arthmail' post='1547442' date='Oct 8 2008, 05.36']Recently i read Atonement, by Ian McEwan...this is possibly one of the few instances were the movie is FAR superior to the book. I found his descriptions overly long, his plot overly symplistic, and most of his characters dead in the water. They over-analyzed everything in ways that people do not do. The entire idea that people who secretly love each other, but don't know it, so they treat each other like bags of burning poo, is cliche and, to be brutally honest, fucking stupid. The entire book felt like an attack on my intelligence, from the over-wrought description of buildings, to the quick and anti-climactic revalation at the end of the book. This is a book that deserves to be burned.[/quote]

Preach.


[quote name='Crazydog7' post='1550287' date='Oct 10 2008, 02.35']I've been trying to read a series recently and saying I don't like it will probably get me killed but The Albery/Maturin books by Patrick O' B. I am three books and ready to go insane when the author isn't describing the food or wind speed he names parts of the ship as if everyone were an 18th century salior with a frame of reference. Someone P.M me and help me understand these books before I go crazy!!!

I picked these up because I liked Flashman so much, well Flashy was much more interesting.[/quote]

If you ignore all that crap they are actually quite good. I did like that bit in book 3 when Maturin goes mental at Aubrey for complaining about what type of rope is on a plate, a nod to his readers I think.
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[quote name='Bolton Bastard' post='1554626' date='Oct 14 2008, 00.30']Harry Potter. And yet I kept reading them... It was painful.

Not sure if there are any comic book fans, but The Killling Joke. Don't know what it was, but I always expected more than it gave out.[/quote]


Like me and comics in General I got Watchmen for Christmas, didn't get it (except for Under the Hood that was badass)

Got the Dark Knight Returns (also didn't get it)

Got a beautiful book for the continuation of Angel by Joss W. but I have to say that if the comics are what he had in mind for season 6 there wouldn't have been a season 7. Someday i'll learn.
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[b]Malazan Book of the Fallen[/b]. Maybe I am not smart enough to get this book but I really want to like it because so many people seem to love this series. I tried GOTM for the 3rd time this week and I just couldn't get into it. I don't know what the hell is going on when I am reading it.

[b]Lies of Locke Lamora[/b]. I just find the humor sort of juvenile. Couldn't get into the story or the charcters much.

And I love Bernard Cornwell's [b]The Warlord Chronicles[/b]. One of the best things I have ever read. But I just started [b]The Saxon Tales[/b] and I thought the first book was good but I am finding it harder and harder to finish the second book in this series. Nothing much is going on and Uhtred seems so mean to me. I want him to die and have Ragner as the main charcter.
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[quote name='TakLoufer' post='1532803' date='Sep 26 2008, 11.44'][i]Game of Kings[/i] by Dorothy Dunnett: I [i]tried[/i] and I [i]tried[/i] to like this, but it was simply too pretentious. Dunnett seemed more interested and showing off her obscure knowledge of 15th century Scotland and her command of different languages rather than engage the readers with her characters and story. All it made me feel was that I wasn't smart enough to enjoy her books, which frankly means the author did something wrong, as I'm reasonably sure I'm not a stupid man. That was a few years ago, but I don't any desire to give it another go.[/quote]

Dunnett's Niccolo books, imho, are far superior in that Nick is much less of a Gary Stu (though he's still fascinating and tends to land on his feet, but his character is more like Locke Lamora than Lymond) and the supporting cast are somewhat more interesting. Opinions vary, but if you hated Lymond you might still want to give Niccolo a try.
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[quote name='Crazydog7' post='1555485' date='Oct 14 2008, 14.17']Like me and comics in General I got Watchmen for Christmas, didn't get it (except for Under the Hood that was badass)

Got the Dark Knight Returns (also didn't get it)[/quote]

You didn't get Watchmen? huh, I loved all of it. And the Dark Knight Returns was also pretty good. Oh well, to each there own.
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[quote name='add-on' post='1377396' date='May 30 2008, 13.58']But I'd really rather read the stuff the Brits and Americans were putting out in the 20th Century than any of the stuff listed above. It's hard to top Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Woolf and Joyce, IMO.[/quote]

Hemingway and Steinbeck make me want to punch babies. Such garbage. Faulkner has a couple of good pieces, but that's about it. Fitzgerald is the only American novelist of the early 20th century worth a damn, and half of his stuff isn't very good either. Joyce is fine but overrated. I never "got" Woolf, personally.

However, I'd have to say the #1 book that I don't "get" is [i]Atlas Shrugged[/i]. What a colossal waste of time.
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[quote name='TheAardvark' post='1556780' date='Oct 15 2008, 20.57']Hemingway and Steinbeck make me want to punch babies. Such garbage. Faulkner has a couple of good pieces, but that's about it. Fitzgerald is the only American novelist of the early 20th century worth a damn, and half of his stuff isn't very good either. Joyce is fine but overrated. I never "got" Woolf, personally.

However, I'd have to say the #1 book that I don't "get" is [i]Atlas Shrugged[/i]. What a colossal waste of time.[/quote]

I saw one of her books in the library and was thinking of maybe picking it up (If only to prove more to myself that I seriously deeply and fundamentally disagree with her - I mean to know that for sure the best thing is to read her work of course:P).
But meh, I couldnt be bothered to get through 600 pages of that shit. There's so much more fun things to do with my time (Like reading BETTER books).
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[quote name='TheAardvark' post='1556780' date='Oct 15 2008, 19.57']Hemingway and Steinbeck make me want to punch babies. Such garbage. Faulkner has a couple of good pieces, but that's about it. Fitzgerald is the only American novelist of the early 20th century worth a damn, and half of his stuff isn't very good either. Joyce is fine but overrated. I never "got" Woolf, personally.

However, I'd have to say the #1 book that I don't "get" is [i]Atlas Shrugged[/i]. What a colossal waste of time.[/quote]

You don't like the "Sun also rises"? Such understated conversation.

*Fanboish sigh*.
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[quote name='Bellis' post='1555917' date='Oct 15 2008, 03.44']Dunnett's Niccolo books, imho, are far superior in that Nick is much less of a Gary Stu (though he's still fascinating and tends to land on his feet, but his character is more like Locke Lamora than Lymond) and the supporting cast are somewhat more interesting. Opinions vary, but if you hated Lymond you might still want to give Niccolo a try.[/quote]
I tried reading both. I'd agree the Niccolo books were slightly better, but I still couldn't get into. Very painful to read.
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[quote name='Serious Callers Only' post='1556992' date='Oct 15 2008, 16.35']You don't like the "Sun also rises"? Such understated conversation.

*Fanboish sigh*.[/quote]

I'm not sure I can really explain properly how much I despise Hemingway and his "writing". I can say I despise it, or loathe it, etc., but none of those scratch the surface of just how I feel about it. I can't stand his "writing style" (diction, pace, etc.), and his subject matter is dreadfully boring to me. Gah.
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Count me in as one that couldn't stand [i]The Scarlet Letter[/i] or [i]Catcher in the Rye[/i]. I never understood why all the books assigned in high school had a very negative outlook on society.

I was a member of the objectivist society at my university, it was about 2/3 male, most of us were pretty typical students, not very outspoken but sure enough in our beliefs that we didn't need to be. Most objectivists I've met aren't that interested in persuading others or being agreed with. The fact that Rand isn't taken seriously in academia isn't really all that surprising, and most objectivists I know could care less. I certainly never met one that was seething with rage, since that' sort of antithetical to Rand's world view to begin with. We sort of accept that in an academic setting, an individualist mindset will be run over by an intellectual mob. It's nothing but insults and ridicule (similar to what has been said about Rand/objectivism in this thread).

But I can see where a certain privileged type as has been described here would misinterpret her philosophy as a justification for their circumstances. Goodkind would be a good example.
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[quote name='PuroGeo' post='1555793' date='Oct 14 2008, 18.35'][b]Lies of Locke Lamora[/b]. I just find the humor sort of juvenile. Couldn't get into the story or the charcters much.[/quote]

This is one of the writers I am interested in initially and sampled a couple of chapters, what kinda of put me off abit is the writing does seem abit juvenile and what is with the excessive profanities. This is fantasy not a Quentin Tarantino film. Jebus. There are a few relatively newcomers I am considering that all have threads on the first three or four pages of this forum.
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[quote name='Bolton Bastard' post='1554626' date='Oct 13 2008, 23.30']Not sure if there are any comic book fans, but The Killling Joke. Don't know what it was, but I always expected more than it gave out.[/quote]
Actually, a friend of mine got it and said it was brilliant, and he hasn't read much Batman.
And the only comic books I've read are Sandman, and even so not so much of it.
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