Books you can't bloody stand...

The only book I can think of that I really hate is The Great Gatsby.  I've read it four times, because I keep thinking there must be something I'm missing.  I just don't find any of the characters sympathetic, and don't really give much of a d*mn if they live or die.  I sort of feel the same way about Madame Bovary, except that I can appreciate Flaubert's style even  while loathing his main character.   

Awwww... I loved Gatsby! I wrote a ridiculously long paper on the T.S. Elliot Wasteland themes present throughout the novel.

I didn't like the Golden Notebook. I really tried, but just couldn't get into it. 

I didn't like the Golden Notebook. I really tried, but just couldn't get into it. 

Whew, that's a relief, I thought it was just me!  It's one of those books I really wanted to read because I liked the idea of it, but I couldn't get into it either.

I feel better now about my plans to freecycle it or give it to a charity shop!

Whew, that's a relief, I thought it was just me!  It's one of those books I really wanted to read because I liked the idea of it, but I couldn't get into it either.

I feel better now about my plans to freecycle it or give it to a charity shop!

Yeah, it was pretty daunting. I made it through a few chapters and decided I would rather do something else with my time. 

Yeah, it was pretty daunting. I made it through a few chapters and decided I would rather do something else with my time. 

Indeed, life is too short.  After reading all the books I had no choice about reading whilst at school, I am enjoying my freedom to drop anything I'm not interested in reading all the way through - yippee!

East of Eden by Steinbeck. I just didn't like anybody in it, didn't like the life they were living. (I think I must have had some sort of Little House on the Prairie past life because I have such a visceral reaction to it.)

And Heart of Darkness. I had to read it three times and I hated it each time.

I really hated Between The Acts by Virginia Woolf.

You should all get on newcomer link: http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx [nonactive]
I use it all the time and I've been reading so much more since I discovered it

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates.  What a complete load of shite.  Will use it to light a fire in the fireplace.

I didn't enjoy Kite Runner  There were so many times I wanted to shake Amir and slap some sense into him. Twilight too, I tried reading it before the craze while I was just browsing through a book store one day. Wasn't impressed then or the other four times I tried to get through it. I tried for the sake of all my friends in high school.

For my swooning romance I prefer Tolstoy , especially Family Happiness  For the beach or if I want something dramatic and glamorous, I get my copy of Saffron Skies by Lesley Lokko. Every time I read it though I always get the feeling that she wants me to move to Africa  .

I liked Anthem...maybe because it was short and my pain reflex hadn't kicked in yet.  So then I read Fountainhead and it started to get very quasi-philosophical and dull.  I think after Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, she stopped fiction writing and focused only on her...thinking...wait a minute while I run to Wikipedia...Objectivism.

Maybe it was because the latter two books had some plot interspersed throughout, but Anthem is all dogma all the time. My reaction to it was "I got it! And then, I got it!" Communist Menifesto felt nuanced by comparison.

Anything Miils & Boon or Jacky Collins - Urrghh trash

Awwww... I loved Gatsby! I wrote a ridiculously long paper on the T.S. Elliot Wasteland themes present throughout the novel.

I think my feelings for GG depend on my state of mind when I read it. Sometimes I absolutely love it. Sometimes, I want to slap every character in it. I don't think I've ever felt this way about another book except Anna Karenina.

I really hate fantasy novels of the "swords and sorcery" genre.

For my swooning romance I prefer Tolstoy

I think my feelings for GG depend on my state of mind when I read it. Sometimes I absolutely love it. Sometimes, I want to slap every character in it. I don't think I've ever felt this way about another book except Anna Karenina.

I like Tolstoy (at least until he converted, or repented, or whatever he did) and Anna Karenina.  Sometimes liking a book and wanting to slap the characters silly is not mutually exclusive.

Two books that people have named as their least faves are two of my all-time favourites! "The Corrections" and "Confederacy of Dunces." Both fabulous. Absolutely amazing writing.

My least favourite would have to be "Tuesdays with Morrie" or anything by Nicholas Sparks. Utter and complete drivel. Ugh. I can feel the bile rising in my throat at the mere thought.

I'd also throw in anything by Danielle Steele or those other women who all write exactly the same way. Crap. All of it. Crap. A waste of perfectly good trees.   

 I know this is from 2005, but I must agree! "The Corrections" and "Confederacy Of Dunces" are two of my all-time favorites. Also, I can't palate anything by Nicholas Sparks, and I only got to page 10 or so of "Tuesdays With Morrie". Ugh. Cheeseball crap.

 I recently tried to read "A Clockwork Orange" but I couldn't be bothered. I'm sure that a lot of people think that it's a profound book, I just found it annoying.

 I don't even qualify this as a real book, but "The Secret" was.....errr....."bathroom reading material" at my house for a while, and it should have been flushed before publication, in my opinion.


 I really disliked "To Kill A Mockingbird", but probably because I was required to read it. I swear I'm not a bad person.
 

 
 

I think I am pretty much the only person I know who is NOT a Harry Potter fanatic.