Books you don't "get"

[williamjm]

[quote name='Fastia' post='1377668' date='May 30 2008, 23.27']You are not alone, but I often feel that way too. I also found most of [i]Altered Carbon[/i] boring and was in general underwhelmed by it. It was an interesting world, but other than that I didn't find it particularly compelling. Morgan has been on my "avoid" list ever since, although I keep wondering if I am missing something.[/quote]

Altered Carbon is fairly typical of his book so if you don't like it then you might not like them either. I think I have heard some people saying in the past they disliked AC but liked Black Man, although personally I preferred AC.

[Crazydog7]

Another one I forgot Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell my Cousin (the same one who recommended Flowers in the Attic) practically wet herself over it.

I love my family but some of them have really shitty taste in books.

[Cuchulain]

I don't know whether many people here like it, but I'm going to mention Hawthorne's [i]The Scarlet Letter[/i]. It's considered a classic and while I don't necessarily disagree, I personally didn't enjoy the book at all.

Another one is [i]Wuthering Heights[/i]. It's another classic, but I didn't enjoy it since some of the characters really pissed me off (Catherine for example).

The last one is [i]Northanger Abbey[/i] by Jane Austen. It's the only Austen I've tried to read, but it really bored me and I gave up (something that rarely happens to me).

[Centrist Simon Steele]

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1377918' date='May 30 2008, 21.03']I don't know whether many people here like it, but I'm going to mention Hawthorne's [i]The Scarlet Letter[/i]. It's considered a classic and while I don't necessarily disagree, I personally didn't enjoy the book at all.[/quote]


I think we can all agree that one sucks balls. Sometimes the books we read in high school we hate because it makes no sense to our lives at that time. When we go back and reread those books, like someone mentioned about The Great Gatsby, we see how good they really are. The Scarlet Letter is one of those books that will never be any good in any context. I mean at the very least you'd think we could read it on the level of understanding that those people lived in an oppressive society, but it is SOOOOOOOOOOOO terribly and boringly written that we can't enjoy it. I guess the only thing Hawthorne did with his horrid prose was recreate the tedium of what it must have felt like to live in that time period.

I'm going to put Shakespeare out there too, though I've certainly lessened my hard stance on this one through previous discussion with our fellow boarders.

[dalThor]

Tad Williams. I've tried a couple but just can manage to get far enough to find anything that catches my interest/attention.

[Elcid]

Great Expectations... Read it for summer reading before Senior year. The most boring... slow... piece of writing which has an action sequence that is drawn out and as long as paint drying. I'm looking at it on my bookshelf, and wonder why I never burned it.


I didn't really appreciate Great Gatsby the first time I read it (soph year). Since then, I have come to respect Fitzgerald's works alot more (especially Winter Dreams). They all have discernable purposes, and I think he was a great American author.

[Lady Blackfish]

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1377918' date='May 30 2008, 22.03']I don't know whether many people here like it, but I'm going to mention Hawthorne's [i]The Scarlet Letter[/i]. It's considered a classic and while I don't necessarily disagree, I personally didn't enjoy the book at all.[/quote]
The board has previously decided that [i]The Scarlet Letter[/i] is the most universally unenjoyed piece of required reading in existence.

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1377918' date='May 30 2008, 22.03']Another one is [i]Wuthering Heights[/i]. It's another classic, but I didn't enjoy it since some of the characters really pissed me off (Catherine for example).[/quote]
There are no likeable people of note in this book, among the main characters there's just a whole lot of lose. That's part of the point I suppose. I like Wuthering Heights a lot better when not actually reading it. I like it in theory, I guess.


Oh you haters, Fitzgerald is great and so is The Great Gatsby :P That's one I wish I wrote instantly upon finishing it. I've seldom fallen in love with a book so fast.

[needle]

[quote]The board has previously decided that The Scarlet Letter is the most universally unenjoyed piece of required reading in existence.[/quote]

I read even though I wasn't required to; and I thoroughly wish that bit of my life back. Same with bloody Moby Dick. I have to say, struggling to think of a 19th C. American great that I enjoyed. (though there are some great 20th C Classics - Yay with the F Scott Fitzgerald love. I have a notion to go dig out Tender is the Night and reread now)

I'm down with the Russian love, but there's a few German and French classics I hated - The Magic Mountain was just painful ( though it has stuck in my head) And Madame Bovary - never got the fuss about that.

In modern genre terms - not really getting the Abercrombie love. Again, okayish, but not great. Gene Wolf - there seems to be this perception that you only dislike him if you are a complete ignoramus. Well, perhaps I am, but I hate his stuff. Same with Virconium (spit on it).

[SkyPirate]

Hmm, Solzhenitsyn and[i] One Day in the Live of Ivan Denisovich[/i], though I willing to believe that the reason I didn't like it was the shitty translation. According to Wiki, Solzhenitsyn himself didn't approve of the first translation (which is the one I read).

[Myshkin]

[quote name='needle' post='1378060' date='May 31 2008, 01.34']The Magic Mountain was just painful.[/quote]
I am shaking with rage at this comment. I believe that I must destroy you now.

[Lord of Oop North]

[quote name='Lady Blackfish' post='1378054' date='May 31 2008, 02.43']The board has previously decided that [i]The Scarlet Letter[/i] is the most universally unenjoyed piece of required reading in existence.[/quote]

Truer words have never been spoken.

[Arthmail]

There is actually an entire series of books that have not been discussed, but try as i might i could not get into them. I could not get it. Have you heard of them? I was okay with the first couple of books, but man...i got lost after awhile.
Here they are, in order:

Mathematics 1 - So far so good.
Mathematics 2 - Not bad overall, keeping my attention
Mathematics 3 - A little stale, felt like i was reading book number 2
Mathematics 4 - This multiple author idea is not really panning out.
Mathematics 5 - I think i'm starting to like this
Mathematics 6 - Not too bad.
Mathematics 7 - Sweet christ, what is going on? Did i miss something between books 6 and 7?
Mathematics 8 - This keeps sliding sidways. What do i care about trains leaving different cities meeting up?
Mathematics 9 - Who designed this shit? The devil did, thats who. And what the fuck is a hypotenuse? Is that a Wizard of some sort?
Mathematics 10 - God hates me.
Mathematics 11 - I can't tell if this is English or Sanscrit.
Mathematics 12 - Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. The only redeeming feature is that this is the last one.


Oh yea, and Tad Williams. He sucks balls.

[Myshkin]

Which one of those introduces radical square roots? That's the one where this series lost me.

[Arthmail]

[quote name='Myshkin' post='1378312' date='May 31 2008, 13.13']Which one of those introduces radical square roots? That's the one where this series lost me.[/quote]

There are radical square roots? As opposed to what? Law abidding, conservative square roots?

[Myshkin]

[quote name='Arthmail' post='1378316' date='May 31 2008, 10.15']There are radical square roots? As opposed to what? Law abidding, conservative square roots?[/quote]
As opposed to insurgent rectangle tubers. Really, the battle scenes between these two were very well done, sadly those were the only scenes that that can be said of in the entire latter half of the series.

[Ormond]

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1377918' date='May 30 2008, 21.03']The last one is [i]Northanger Abbey[/i] by Jane Austen. It's the only Austen I've tried to read, but it really bored me and I gave up (something that rarely happens to me).[/quote]

Though I'm not a huge Austen fan myself, [i]Northanger Abbey[/i] is generally considered by experts on her to be her least important novel, and as it was written largely to parody another specific book ([i]The Mysteries of Udolpho [/i]by Radcliffe), Austen's motives in writing it were rather different than in her other novels. So you shouldn't decide on whether you like Austen's works in general from your experience with that particular book.

[Mo Sneachd]

I resent being called a heathen as if it was a bad thing :P

Haven't read the magic mountain - this totally fails in translation, Zauberberg is so much more beautiful -, that's another one on the eternal list of classics I still haven't read. I wouldn't say I was overly impressed by his Buddenbroks, but it wasn't a bad book either.

As for the maths hate, you should have continued until the cunning plot device of complex numbers was introduced. That made the rest worthwhile. I do agree that the greater part of the series is rather simple and boring though; you need a lot of perseverance to get to the exciting bit.

The law-abiding conservative square roots provided the much-needed laugh for the day. Thank you.

[Arthmail]

[quote name='Towarisch Snjeg' post='1378485' date='May 31 2008, 15.51']I resent being called a heathen as if it was a bad thing :P

Haven't read the magic mountain - this totally fails in translation, Zauberberg is so much more beautiful -, that's another one on the eternal list of classics I still haven't read. I wouldn't say I was overly impressed by his Buddenbroks, but it wasn't a bad book either.

As for the maths hate, you should have continued until the cunning plot device of complex numbers was introduced. That made the rest worthwhile. I do agree that the greater part of the series is rather simple and boring though; you need a lot of perseverance to get to the exciting bit.

The law-abiding conservative square roots provided the much-needed laugh for the day. Thank you.[/quote]


Personally, i thought that the complex numbers plot device was a Deus ex machina of the worst kind. Poorly implemented, badly drawn, and incredibly confusing. I give the Mathematics books (can't remember which one it is in), a fail for this very point. And many others.

As for the laughs, you are welcome.

[MrSarichFan]

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1377918' date='May 30 2008, 23.03']The last one is [i]Northanger Abbey[/i] by Jane Austen. It's the only Austen I've tried to read, but it really bored me and I gave up (something that rarely happens to me).[/quote]

[quote name='Ormond' post='1378346' date='May 31 2008, 13.56']Though I'm not a huge Austen fan myself, [i]Northanger Abbey[/i] is generally considered by experts on her to be her least important novel, and as it was written largely to parody another specific book ([i]The Mysteries of Udolpho [/i]by Radcliffe), Austen's motives in writing it were rather different than in her other novels. So you shouldn't decide on whether you like Austen's works in general from your experience with that particular book.[/quote]


Northanger Abbey was the last of all Austen´s books I read, and while reading it i thouht that it wasn´t up to the rest of her work, it´s like i was reading a totally linear mediocry "romantic" work not the high standar i was specting. But after finishing it i kind of suddenly realized all the parallels she created bettwen her "real life" story and the one in the book, and i thought it brilliant. And the bits she use from the book of another feminist are really well used in the prose.

[williamjm]

[quote name='Arthmail' post='1378546' date='May 31 2008, 22.03']Personally, i thought that the complex numbers plot device was a Deus ex machina of the worst kind. Poorly implemented, badly drawn, and incredibly confusing. I give the Mathematics books (can't remember which one it is in), a fail for this very point. And many others.[/quote]

You might complain about the plotting in the mathematics books, but at least they're not as bad the whole dictionary genre where the plot is just completely incoherent and fails to follow even the simplest storytelling rules - for example, the Aardvark character is introduced very early on and it looks initially like he'll be an important piece of the plot, but we never hear from him again.