Books you don't "get"

[Fleeing Finn]

The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Totally unamusing and meaningless waste of potential lavatory paper. Maybe I just didn't "get" it.

[strongboar]

[quote name='Fleeing Finn' post='1379061' date='Jun 1 2008, 08.28']The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Totally unamusing and meaningless waste of potential lavatory paper. Maybe I just didn't "get" it.[/quote]

Quite probably, yes.
It was hilarious.

[Black Wizard]

I could never get into Philip Pullman's Dark Materials.

[Werthead]

[quote name='needle' post='1378060' date='May 31 2008, 09.34']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).[/quote]

Wolfe I like, but I couldn't read him every day. The [b]Viriconium[/b] books are howl-inducingly awful and cannot be taken seriously. I guess I'm missing something based on what reception he gets elsewhere, but that is a very poor series.

[Young Wolf]

I'll say it again here, Brasyl is utter shite. If I had an opportunity to punch Ian Macdonald in the throat, Id do it...twice.

Anything in the Ender series other than Ender's Game. Didnt give two fucks about pig aliens or that little bald fuck who was Mini Ender.

YW

[Arthmail]

[quote name='williamjm' post='1379022' date='Jun 1 2008, 07.01']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.[/quote]


You make a very good point. I did get bogged down very guickly, but i must admit, i'm not sad to see the Aardvark character go. I thought he was a twit.

[IheartTesla]

[quote name='Arthmail' post='1378546' date='May 31 2008, 16.03']Personally, i thought that the complex numbers plot device was a Deus ex machina of the worst kind.[/quote]

Yeah, it just didnt seem real to me, know what I mean?

[Lady Blackfish]

*chuckles*

[Lord of Oop North]

[quote name='Arthmail' post='1378546' date='May 31 2008, 16.03']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.

As for the laughs, you are welcome.[/quote]

Until you have written a mathematics textbook, then perhaps you should keep your lazy comments to a minimum.

[Scuba Steve]

[quote name='Lord of Oop North' post='1379259' date='Jun 1 2008, 12.21']Until you have written a mathematics textbook, then perhaps you should keep your lazy comments to a minimum.[/quote]
:rofl: :rofl: You dastardly Limecat, you haven't written a mathematics textebook either, so you should start listening to your own advice. :P :P :P ;)

[Lady Blackfish]

Guys, don't take this so lightly, I think there's a real serious undercurrent here. I hate to say this, but I think this board needs to shut down. None of us have written ASOIAF, isn't it kind of disingenuous after what just transpired to continue talking about it? Please, be serious for once.

[Arthmail]

I'm sensing some back lash for previous comments.

Meh.

[add-on]

[quote name='Myshkin' post='1377438' date='May 30 2008, 13.27']Try Hesse, Mann, Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak, and Bulgakov for the earlier part of the century, and Rushdie, Garcia Marquez, Kundera, Grass, Naipaul, Cortazar, and Saramago for the latter part.[/quote]
I've read at least some of Hesse, Mann, Bulgakov, Rushdie, Marquez and Saramago. Hesse was the only real disappointment. Read Siddhartha for a class. I liked it okay, but I really couldn't see what all the hubbub was about. So I guess that's another book I didn't 'get'.

[Myshkin]

[quote name='add-on' post='1379497' date='Jun 1 2008, 18.28']I've read at least some of Hesse, Mann, Bulgakov, Rushdie, Marquez and Saramago. Hesse was the only real disappointment. Read Siddhartha for a class. I liked it okay, but I really couldn't see what all the hubbub was about. So I guess that's another book I didn't 'get'.[/quote]
While [i]Siddhartha[/i] is perhaps the most famous of Hesse's works it was my least favorite. I strongly suggest you try [i]Steppenwolf[/i] or [i]Magister Ludi[/i] before you give up on Hesse

[Scuba Steve]

[quote name='Lady Blackfish' post='1379355' date='Jun 1 2008, 14.24']Guys, don't take this so lightly, I think there's a real serious undercurrent here. I hate to say this, but I think this board needs to shut down. None of us have written ASOIAF, isn't it kind of disingenuous after what just transpired to continue talking about it? Please, be serious for once.[/quote]
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I love you. ;) :lol: :cheers: Good show.

[The Wolf Maid]

Mervyn Peake's [i]Titus[/i] books. *ducks knives and hides from Dylanfanatic*

Of coure, Rothfuss' [i]Name of the Wind[/i]. I couldn't read through the whole thing.

[Crazydog7]

I'm going to duck some thrown knives myself and say Terry Pratchett. I find his books funny and even witty but I must have read half of them in my time and now can't remember any of them.

For some reason Guards! Guards! stuck with me but thats the only one.

[Happy Ent]

[quote name='Towarisch Snjeg' post='1378485' date='May 31 2008, 21.51']As for the maths hate, you should have continued until the cunning plot device of complex numbers was introduced. That made the rest worthwhile.[/quote]
Bah, I say. In the next volume, by Hamilton, the Quaternions are pulled out of the author's proverbial hat. The notation? [b]H[/b]. An authorial self-insert! Maybe we should call him Sir [i]Marty Stu[/i] Hamilton!

[sparky]

[quote name='Swordfish' post='1375409' date='May 29 2008, 14.53']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.[/quote]

Oh, my aching heart. My favorite book ever.

What gimmick? The footnotes? If so, it's not like Wallace invented footnotes in a novel. And while some of them are useless, quite a few of them are stories in and of themselves.

[Ratatoskr]

I read a few of the stories in "I, Robot" and didn't get at all why everybody seems to think this stuff is so damn significant. I had a hard time finding it even mildly interesting.