Books you can't bloody stand...

Ugh.  Ever since being forced to read From Bauhaus to Our House for an art history class I have been very down on Tom Wolfe.  When Bonfire of the Vanities was published I read it in hopes that he would be better with fiction than he was with non-fiction.  I really didn't like it.  When it comes to Tom Wolfe, I can never tell if I'm not intellectual enough to enjoy him or too impatient to deal with his intellectualism... if that even makes any sense.

Yeah it makes sense.  I had a really hard time understanding what the heck was going on in 'Bonfire of the Vanities' and I work in finance for crying out loud.  But I worked a bit at it and he started growing on me.  I was pretty excited when 'I am Charlotte Simmons' came out and it was a pretty good read, although as I said earlier, sometimes his writing style/choice of words is just too over the top.

'We Need to Talk about Kevin' should be in the Sci Fi section, it's so far from anything remotely resembling reality.

I was forced to read it for a book group as well.  I renamed it 'We Need to Talk about Lionel's Psychosis'.

My book group has forced me into accepting this as our April read (I still have a couple of months to work myself up to it!). Just this morning I re-listened to Radio 4's Book Club discussion of Kevin with Lionel Shriver as guest. She is the most self-absorbed person I've ever heard speak! But, I do have to say that I'm now intrigued enough to actually want to read the book.

Fascinating listening if anyone else is interested:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/

belindaloo: a coworker gave me her copy because she couldn't get through it. She found it too verbose. It is a bit, and difficult at first to get into. But after reading the book I'm a great proponent of it. The writer has, I thought, a great insight and it seemed to me she worked quite hard to present a scenario which is a very good attempt at understanding the psyche of children who commit these crimes.

I thought it was interesting as well ('Kevin').  I can't remember it clearly right now (read it a while ago I think but I found it good enough to read it at least twice (I usually read books twice though....).

Thanks, twisted & geeta. I've been dreading having to read this book, so you've reassured me! My second-hand Amazon copy is on its way to me right this minute!

Ugh... decided one summer I should read some of the classics that i hadn't read in high school.  Wuthering Heights sucked.  So i spent the rest of the summer reading chick lit instead 

Ugh... decided one summer I should read some of the classics that i hadn't read in high school.  Wuthering Heights sucked.  So i spent the rest of the summer reading chick lit instead 

I thought it sucked, too.  Heathcliff was a w*nker and she was a conceited b&^ch.  They were made for each other.

Probably anything by Herman Melville.   I read Moby Dick in high school and Billy Budd my freshman year in college.  I took a NP for my college course due to my distaste for Melville.  We had to read and the do some journalling of our thoughts.  After chapter 2, I decided it was worth the NP.

Probably anything by Herman Melville.

Everyone in my Americal Lit class in high school threatened a riot when our teacher announced that she wanted us to read Moby Dick.  We, as a group, absolutely refused.  We ended up reading Bartelby the Scribner as a compromise.  It was near impossible to get through that, I can't imagine how much of a pain a full-length novel would be.

belindaloo: a coworker gave me her copy because she couldn't get through it. She found it too verbose. It is a bit, and difficult at first to get into. But after reading the book I'm a great proponent of it. The writer has, I thought, a great insight and it seemed to me she worked quite hard to present a scenario which is a very good attempt at understanding the psyche of children who commit these crimes.

I liked it too! I was pleasantly surprised!! I like verbosity, so that wasn't a problem.

I liked it too! I was pleasantly surprised!! I like verbosity, so that wasn't a problem.

she probably loved Moby Dick.  300 pages later and they were still in bloody Nantucket.  I remember flipping through it despairingly, desperate for dialogue.  But it was up there w/The Scarlett Letter.

she probably loved Moby Dick.  300 pages later and they were still in bloody Nantucket.  I remember flipping through it despairingly, desperate for dialogue.  But it was up there w/The Scarlett Letter.

I actually liked The Scarlett Letter.  Believe me, I was just as surprised as everyone else!

'heart of freaking darkness' & 'moby bleeding dick'

fie on the pair of them.

and 'ulysses' made me feel like the biggest moron on the planet, with the attention span of a brain-damaged gnat.

I know its sometimes tough reading but I quite enjoy a classic from time to time.  I attempted War and Peace and only made it halfway through.  Gave up cause I had to return the book to the library and never tried again. But I have just started on Wilkie Collins "The Woman in White". 

As for books I really can't stand.. please, don't hate me but I absolutely can not stand Harry Potter and especially can't stand seeing adults going crazy for teenage lit!  Also am not a big fan of The DaVinci Code

As for books I really can't stand.. please, don't hate me but I absolutely can not stand Harry Potter and especially can't stand seeing adults going crazy for teenage lit!  Also am not a big fan of The DaVinci Code

I couldn't stand The DaVinci Code either. And that's the only reason I'll forgive your irrational hatred of Harry Potter!