Books you should like...but don't.

[Mockingbird]

I don't mean least favorite books, but the books where you just don't see what other people see in them.

...I should explain what I mean by 'should' before it gets dissected. I just mean books that your friends/critics/teachers/literati/history just adore and you just don't.

For me, it's the collected works of Shakespeare, I can't really explain why, I'll think about it. I also hate Catcher in the Rye and I understand what the author was trying to do, but to me it's just:

Holden Caulfield

Angst angst angst swear curse swear crazy crazy angst swear curse, society sucks, and I'm a stupid jerk.


THE END

<3 Book-A-Minute

[Laura]

The same thing happened with me and Catcher in the Rye. First of all, I didn't find Holden sympathetic. Second, the book was a disappointment. everyone said it was great. My teacher spent a whole class period prefacing it, and telling us all what a great book it was. I read it and kept waiting for it to get great. It never did. I really don't understand what all the fuss is about.

Another book I could never get into was Alice in Wonderland. Tons of my peers at college said it was their favorite childhood book. I tried to read it--several times, both as a kid and an adult, but never got into it. Carroll's poems (Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter) are wonderfull though.

edit--just been browsing that book a minute site, and this is genius!

http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/king.shtml

[cassingtonscholar]

I would have to say first, this serries of mysteries with a talking cat by Shirley Rousseau Murphy that my grandmother gave me. She loved them and went through a lot of trouble to buy me the first eight. But they're not that good. And now I feel guilty for not liking them or even reading all of them.

For a lot of my friends (curse them!) this is true for TGC. "I read the whole thing and I didn't like" or "Nothing happen after 80 pages and I put it down" or *grinds her teeth* "It got boring after a while, I don't remember where, and I put it down. I think they were in a wardrobe or something, listening to a speech." Hello?! This scene ends on page 28! How can you judge a 400 page book after reading less than 28 pages of it!?

Ugggh! People sometimes.....!
*reminds herself not to be judgmental*

[Mockingbird]

Another book I could never get into was Alice in Wonderland.

I read it for the first time recently and I adored it...I expect this is going to happen a lot in this thread. I thought it was so funny and quite insightful.

Book-A-Minute is awesome; if you don't like a book, the site probably sums up why. I'll link some of my favorites later.

[bee]

What tragic replies. I liked Catcher in the Rye, I loved Alice in Wonderland.

Jane Eyre, though... Could not understand the appeal.

And a few more. Must remember them...

[Anoria]

I liked Jane Eyre the second time I read it (had to be very familiar with it for an English project), though the end annoyed me.

Pretty much any teen fantasy book out there is on my list. Ones like Blood and Chocolate especially - omgwerewolfies!!11 i wanna b 1 lyk her!!1

I thought Catcher in the Rye was meh, but that's probably because I read it for school, and school nearly always makes things meh.

My mixed feelings about Dickens might belong here - I snored through a third of Great Expectations and never even glanced at the rest, but I loved A Tale of Two Cities and rather like A Christmas Carol. But I know there are people for whom it's the exact opposite.

[Mockingbird]

This scene ends on page 28! How can you judge a 400 page book after reading less than 28 pages of it!?

I think I put down both Wuthering Heights and To Kill A Mockingbird after 3 pages only to fall in love with them years later. You should warn your friends about TGC/NL. My friend warned me that it wouldn't get good until about 30 pages in...I was nearly a third of the way through before I knew I liked it.

I forgot to mention that I hate Ernest Hemingway, especially The Sun Also Rises. I hate his style and characters.

Stock Hemingway Narrating Character

It was in Europe after the war. We were depressed. We drank a lot. We were still depressed.

THE END

[furbaby]

Jane Austen. Sorry. It's all too trivial for my taste, and nothing much ever happens. Sorry.

[Riali]

Wuthering Heights... it just did nothing for me. I read it when i was fourteen or so and went 'bleh' and thought i was too young. but then i read it again a year or so again and still went 'bleh'

Also Franksenstein. I was not scared and it did not have a single likable character.

[Laura]

I forgot to mention that I hate Ernest Hemingway, especially The Sun Also Rises. I hate his style and characters.

You and me both! I couldn't stand For Whom the Bell Tolls, and didn't like The Sun Also Rises either. His male characters are never interesting, and his female characters are always portrayed as whiny bitches. Bret in tSAR is the epitome of this.

I've had Eragon recommended to me many times, and I should like it, becasue it's got swords and dragons and all sorts of nifty fantasy stuff. But I got halfway through it and realized there were waaaaay better books out there waiting to be read, so I left it in the dust. Where it belongs.

[Mockingbird]

Jane Austen. Sorry. It's all too trivial for my taste, and nothing much ever happens. Sorry.

It's a good thing you apologized twice because I was planning to beat you up after class? You're right but that's what's funny about her and I don't really read her for her plots anyway.

Female Lead

I secretly love Male Lead. He must never know.

Male Lead

I secretly love Female Lead. She must never know.

(They find out.)


THE END

...I'm nearly done with the ultra-condensed texts, I swear.

[rats_rox]

LOTR, love the movies, hate the books. 150 pages through and they are still boring!

[furbaby]

Female Lead

I secretly love Male Lead. He must never know.

Male Lead

I secretly love Female Lead. She must never know.

(They find out.)

THE END

I rest my case.

[Jaya]

Shakespeare + Alice in Wonderland <3 for me.

However, To Kill A Mockingbird is a book I find fairly average, unspectacular, and overrated - just because it's about RACISM doesn't make it good literature. And my opinion is that it isn't awesome literature...It's okay as far as books go. But just ok.

[furbaby]

I'm inclined to agree with you about TKAM. Never wrote anything else, did she?

[Blossom]

I didn't like The Catcher In The Rye until I decided to write an essay on it, which made me totally chang emy mind. It's one of my favourite books now.

I don't like anything by H G Wells really, but i want to:(

[Mockingbird]

However, To Kill A Mockingbird is a book I find fairly average, unspectacular, and overrated - just because it's about RACISM doesn't make it good literature.

Now it's personal.

There are plenty of novels about RACISM. I think this one is amazing because for such a simple story, the characters and setting are so rich and her style is nearly flawless. It’s one of those stories that almost seems to have been born instead of written.

She probably never finished another because how can you live up to that kind of critical and popular acclaim?

Di edit: My own grammar fixed.

[Annernanner]

Couldn't stand LotR books. Halfway through and they're still at the Prancing Pony. Liked the Hobbit though, wonderful stuff. But the Simiarlian, oi vay. Took one look at that and said "NO"

[Aletheia Dolorosa]

Dickens for me. I liked A Tale of Two Cities, and I love the names and the BBC adaptations, but you can really tell while reading Dickens that he was paid by the word.

I also loathe Of Mice and Men. It was the only book I had to study for English during 17 years of eductation that I actually hated.

[Qu Klaani]

Anyone who hates Catcher in the Rye has almost certainly never been a teenage boy, or if they were they were a happy one.

Heart of Darkness took me about three months to read, I mean it wasnt bad, it was just so hard to read, I only kept going because I felt I had to.
Ive been reading Don Quixote for months, and everytime I do, I seem to make no dent at all in it, even though I think its great. I echo the sentiments about school killing books, I hate Lord of the Flies, even though I know its an amazing book, because of how we studied it. Oh and I dont care for Dickens...at all, and Chaucer is just annoying.