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Topic: Books you can't bloody stand...  (Read 54319 times)

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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #30 on: July 30, 2004, 09:50:24 PM »
Anyway most disappointing book? The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer - not really her fault I  read it 25 years after it was first published but it seemed very "dated" to me, and as for the bit about tasting your own menstrual blood - YUKKKK!!!

Ok.. thanks for killing my appetite for the rest of the YEAR!!  Ewww.. who would even THINK of that?   [smiley=puke.gif]  Good God.. I'm sicked out now.  lol
Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its doors as early in the spring. Cultivate property like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts…


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #31 on: August 02, 2004, 09:41:16 AM »
kcg, I'll take some of the "hits" intended for you by saying that I MUCH prefer Chelsea Quinn Yarbro to Anne Rice...always have. 

Now I suggest we both duck! :o
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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #32 on: August 02, 2004, 10:30:48 AM »
For me, I'd have to say anything by Mary Higgins Clark. I like a good mystery/thriller read once in a while and she is such a huge success that I always have great expectations for her books, but they are like chinese food for me.....greatly anticipated but leaving me feeling sickly and a bit disappointed.

Don Quixote was a bit of a disappointment for me as well, as was Wuthering Heights. Thought they might be the kind of books that if I read them now, I may like them, it may have been the time was wrong when I read them the first time around (college student, too many books to read at once etc.)


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #33 on: August 02, 2004, 01:19:19 PM »

Don Quixote was a bit of a disappointment for me as well, as was Wuthering Heights.

I too was very disappointed with Wuthering Heights. I thought it was a bit crap to be honest and I've never been able to get into the story, not even the movies. I'm bored stiff.
There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared:  twins.


Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #34 on: August 02, 2004, 01:38:52 PM »
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who couldn't get into Wuthering Heights! I even tried watching two different movie adaptations but they just lost me.  (Although I do like the William Hurt movie version of Jane Eyre-never read the book.)

And Ann Rice-well, I like Lestat, and Queen of the Damned.  Interview was OK.  Then I tried to read whatever the "Witches" one was (or was it a ghost one?), the first one-couldn't get through it.  I tried, but I just didn't interest me.  And I haven't read any of her books since. 

And Mary Higgins Clark- well, I agree they're like literary Chinese food.  I sort of enjoy them, because they're usually fairly involving and I can finish them in a day.  Plus, I usually guess who the villain is by about chapter 4 so it's fun for me to see if I was right. 


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #35 on: August 02, 2004, 01:42:59 PM »
Heart of Darkness?  Paradise Lost?  The Scarlet Letter??  You people are killing me!!   ;)

But if you want to read a truly terrible book, go for "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.  Always touted as the "quintessential" New Orleans book, I read it when I was living in NYC and missing the Big Easy.  What a complete load of crap.  The main character is just so awful, it's pointless - and as far as I can tell, there is no story.  I don't even think I finished it - rare for me.  I've been told I don't "get it" because I'm not a local, but still, that shouldn't matter.  I loathe this book with a passion.


Heh, I LOVED this book! It was a perfect blend of pissiness, cynicism and wit. It's definitely sort of a "downer" b/c the main character is just ...well he's ****ed, isn't he? But I laughed my way through the entire book - and I've never set food in New Orleans!
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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #36 on: August 02, 2004, 01:48:14 PM »
Oh, yeah, and I loved the Scarlet Letter.

I went out and finally bought a copy of The Secret History.  I am trying to get into it.  It's not proving easy.  I just have a problem with books that force me to read pages of peope having conversations about non-fictive topics.  In other words, I am quickly growing bored by the lengthy conversations about ancient Greek.  I have little familiarity with this stuff beyond the mythology, so reading lots of analysis of Euripedes is getting irritating fast.



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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #37 on: August 03, 2004, 10:07:28 AM »
kcg - gotta love a woman who quotes Victor Kiam!   ;)
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #38 on: August 03, 2004, 05:53:27 PM »
Okay, I'm about to divulge some info about myself that many many MANY people are not aware of because I am downright AFRAID to let people know.  But since none of you fine people can physically harm me  ;), here goes:  I do not like Anne Rice. 

You.  Me.  3 o'clock, in the schoolyard!! 

 ;)


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #39 on: August 03, 2004, 08:10:38 PM »


You.  Me.  3 o'clock, in the schoolyard!! 

 ;)


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #40 on: August 04, 2004, 03:55:41 PM »
Another book I hated-The Horse Whisperer.  I SO hated that book that I couldn't even finish it.  I didn't care what happened to those people I hated it so much. 


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #41 on: August 04, 2004, 05:44:51 PM »
Another book I hated-The Horse Whisperer.  I SO hated that book that I couldn't even finish it.  I didn't care what happened to those people I hated it so much. 

Can't say I've read it. I didn't even go see the movie. Just not my thing.

Another book I was dissapointed about was one we read in the book club "Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card. I thought the story was good but the timeline was crap. It should have been longer and let the characters progress more and slower. It's like one page they hate each other and the next they're madly in love. I kept reading it and wondering where the character development was.
There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared:  twins.


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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #42 on: August 04, 2004, 06:24:33 PM »
Gotta be the bible. Difficult. Long. Boring in many places and I'll be damned if I can figure out if it's fiction or non! ;)
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Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #43 on: August 05, 2004, 10:54:24 AM »
Gotta be the bible. Difficult. Long. Boring in many places and I'll be damned if I can figure out if it's fiction or non! ;)

 :o   ;)   ;D ;D
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

- Benjamin Franklin


Re: Books you can't bloody stand...
« Reply #44 on: August 31, 2004, 02:31:52 PM »
Oh!  And I can't believe I forgot this one before.

"Johnny Got His Gun."  Awful!  Awful book!  With the worst ending EVER.


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