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Topic: Books you can't bloody stand...  (Read 54315 times)

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  • wench
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Books you can't bloody stand...
« on: July 29, 2004, 02:54:52 PM »
Well we've had a list on books we looove...but are there books that really just annoy the bat heck outta you?  Were you really _really_ looking forward to reading it...only to be very dissapointed?

Go on then...share your horror stories.  ;D

wench
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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2004, 02:57:45 PM »
Hmm...most William Faulkner annoys me.  And Tropic of Cancer wasn't all that I thought it'd be.  The book that immediately springs to mind is Heart of Darkness....pointless!   ::)


Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2004, 03:55:18 PM »
The Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries.  I know they were making fun, but I just could not believe there were people so mean out there!  (I know they are fiction, but it made me HATE these books to the point where I did not finish them!!!!)


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2004, 04:25:29 PM »
I actually just looked up at my copy of The Nanny Diaries and thought the same thing...the book got so much hype and it was really just trashy crap that I could have written in high school!


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2004, 05:10:42 PM »
I  read Tropic of Cancer right after reading a bio on Anais Nin, thinking, "Hmm ...sounds like an 'interesting' guy, I'll give him a whirl," and slogged my way through the whole book. It wasn't bad, per se, just not quite what I find interesting.

I'm almost always disappointed when I give into an urge to read any kind of pulp - usually Stephen King.
I know I'm late - where's the booze?


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2004, 06:07:48 PM »
I agree with the Steven King. Being of the goth/horror variety of person, relatives would always buy me Steven King books for presents even though I've never asked for them. I'd give them a go anyway but I really don't like his stories much at all.

Only other book that immediately springs to mind that I really disliked reading was Paradise Lost. (The band, on the other hand, is ace!  :D)


Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2004, 07:37:02 PM »
Oh boy!

"Ginger: My Story" by Ginger Rogers.  I love bographies, auto- and otherwise, but Ginger got right up my nose.  What a self-righteous prig.  Actually, it wouldn't be fair to say I hated the book.  I hated Ginger, but I sort of enjoyed the book because every page gave me a fresh reason to hate Ginger.  It was kinda fun, seeing hw bad she could get and how sarcastic I could get in my head.

Sorry, but I also loathed Madeline L'Engle(sp)'s "A Wrinkle In Time."  I thought it was the most boring, blah, incomprehensible book ever.  Granted, I was about 11...but I think that's the age it's written for isn't it?  Over the years I've wondered if I shouldn't give it another go...but then my hubby reminds me that it was his ex-wife's favorite book, and we hate her, and she also loves V.C. Andrews.  So that does it for me.

"The Natural" by Bernard Malamud.  Would you like me to slit my wrists now, or later?

"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller.  Apparently you either like Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny" or you like "Catch-22."  I'm a Wouk girl all the way.

"Guenivere:  Queen of the Summer Country" by Rosalind Miles.  Look, Rosalind, make up your mind:  If you want to create a world where women are Queens with absolute sexual freedom and power to rule everyone, and they are also Goddess worshippers, you cannot make your character think about all she'll give up when she marries, nor should she spend the entire book whining and looking to her husband to solve all the problems.  If you want a character like that, leave out the other stuff.  Either she's a powerful woman or she isn't.  And by the way, get your dates and times straight. 


There are more...but there you go for now.  What a fun topic, Wench!


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2004, 08:23:25 PM »
Thanks Saf.  :)

I lurved A Wrinkle in Time...but there ya go.  ;)

Sadly...I can't remember the name of the book that I absolutely _loathed_ in highschool....and it was the inspiration for this topic!  How sad is that lol?

wench
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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2004, 08:38:12 PM »
I was really annoyed by The Little Friend by Donna Tartt.   It started off promising  But as the story went on, I found that the predicaments that the main character, 12 year old Harriet, got into, it drew away from the credibility and point that the story was trying to make.

"Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens." -
Douglas Jerrold


Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2004, 08:40:46 PM »
I was really annoyed by The Little Friend by Donna Tartt.   It started off promising  But as the story went on, I found that the predicaments that the main character, 12 year old Harriet, got into, it drew away from the credibility and point that the story was trying to make.



I could not bring myself to read this book because I had heard just what you said!  She wrote one of my favorites years ago, The Secret History, One of those books I passed to all my friends because I loved it so much!


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2004, 08:50:46 PM »
 I didn't read The Secret History, but heard it was a good read.  I belonged to a book club and some of my friends read that one, so we decided to give The Little Friend a try.

It was so disappointing, Stacey! I really got into it at first, thinking that it was going to be inspiring and meaningful.  Apparantly the author took around 10 years to write it?  Don't quote me, but somebody at book club seemed to have gotten that information somewhere.

Oh well, they can't all be winners!
"Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens." -
Douglas Jerrold


Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2004, 08:54:02 PM »
Sadly...I can't remember the name of the book that I absolutely _loathed_ in highschool....and it was the inspiration for this topic!  How sad is that lol?


Bless the Beasts and the Children?

Seperate Peace?

Lord of the Flies?

Animal Farm? 

Just thinking of all the books I loathed in High School.   Why do they make you read such horrible books?   ::)


Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2004, 08:55:23 PM »
It was so disappointing, Stacey! I really got into it at first, thinking that it was going to be inspiring and meaningful.  Apparantly the author took around 10 years to write it?  Don't quote me, but somebody at book club seemed to have gotten that information somewhere.

They are right, it took her 10 years to get the second one out.  Not sure if it took 10 years to write.  I swear, I looked in the bookstores all the time for her stuff.  Then I saw the second one and was going to wait for paperback since I hate hardcovers.  So very glad I waited.


Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2004, 08:57:24 PM »
The Secret History, One of those books I passed to all my friends because I loved it so much!

Apparantly the author took around 10 years to write it?  Don't quote me, but somebody at book club seemed to have gotten that information somewhere.

I read The Secret History when it first came out and I loved it SO much too, Stacey! Oh my gosh it was one of my fav. books of all time!!! But the Little Friend DID lose the plot somewhere along the way - and I was determined to like it, too.  :( Your info. is right Stacey. The speculation was that The Secret History got such amazing accolades and sold so well for a first novel that the pressure was just too much for her and so it took her 10 years to write her 2nd book. But since I've read interviews with her and she comes across as a VERY determined and confident woman - not someone that would buckle under the weight of good reviews and awards!


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2004, 09:00:27 PM »
I'll have to ready The Secret History now!
"Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens." -
Douglas Jerrold


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