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Ok. This is my first post here, though I have been watching silently for a while. I am making a very personal, very opinionated list of books that I did not like for one reason or another. I realize full well that many of these books have quite a following, so it is fair to say that I am trying to evoke some posts with different opinions than my own . Perhaps an agreement on certain points would be interesting aswell, or even someone elses lists of disliked books. That said, flaming is not neccesary. I am not saying I am right, I would simply like to hear some reactions to my opinions.
From not-so-good to flat out bad:
First, I did not much like The Postman by David Brin. Didn't any one else recognize it as a post apocalyptic Wizard of Oz? I actually liked the movie better than the book, since they removed said elements.
Second, I did not like Hitchikers guide to the galaxy, I did not find it funny, just predictable and blah. Though, I could only stomach reading the first one. Let me say however I am a fan of brittish humor in general even the occasionly potty-flavored humor of the Red Dwarf books. which I find a riot. The show is not bad either if one is a fan of campy SF comedies.
Finally and I have a feeling I am forgeting one here, I hated Rim by Alexander Besher. Cyberpunk-lite, with laughable prose (zzzzzz...) and a twist of Star Warsesque force action going on. YUCK!
Thank You for your time.
[This message has been edited by PE_Sharp (edited June 09, 2003).]
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This could be a good discussion to get started....as long as everyone is careful to mention WHY they didn't like the books, like Sharp did. That way we might even see things that could help us in our own writing!
You didn't like the Hitchikers Guide to the GAalaxy!!!!! Aaaaaaahhhh! That is one of my all time favorites. Then again, if you don't like British humor, I do understand. I loved Red Dwarf, Monty Python, and nearly every page of the entire FIVE part TRILOGY(There, isn't that funny right there?) made me laugh.
I to, loathe cyber pung books, although I can't think of the names of any off the top of my head. When I run into one, usually by accident, I soon forget both name and author.
As for me, the popular one I found myself disliking it the George R.R. Martin series. I was intrigued enough by him killing off the main character in the first book (gutsy) that I continued to read into the second book, but there things went bad. I realized that he had killed of one of only 2 characters I liked at all. Plus, the constant point of view switches were dizzying. But the biggest problem was that I was soon bored. I was sick of waiting for something interesting to happen, so I put down the second book midway through.
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The SF book that most drove me crazy was Jack McDevitt's "Ancient Shores." It's a great book for the first 90%, with lots of interesting plot lines going on after the discovery of an ancient alien space ship. Alas, in the last 10% of the book, he completely drops the majority of his storylines, including some of the most interesting ones, and only concludes one of the many plotlines. Call me old fashioned, but I think that unless you market the book as part of a series, there is a real obligation on the part of the writer to finish the *%$#! story.
However, the worst book I've ever read is a "literary" work by Mary Karr called "Cherry." Some chapters are actually written in second person, present tense, which has to be the least readable way of writing ever devised. There may have been a plot, I don't know. I used it mainly to fall to sleep to. Any two pages would put me out like a light.
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I don't actually read books I don't like. By that I mean that I usually give a book fifty pages. If it hasn't gotten interesting by then, I don't continue with it.
Having said that, I have been in situations (such as school) when I have had to read books I didn't like. I think the only book I have ever really disliked enough to be vocal about was Catcher in the Rye. I've had to read it for three different classes throughout my school career. First time was in 8th grade. Didn't like it. Second time was for a lower division college English course. Really didn't like it. Third time was for an upper division popular fiction class. Practically couldn't get through it, I hated it so much - but it had been several years so I had to wade through it again.
I suppose the reason that I don't like it is because I cannot find any sympathy for Holden Caulfield. I don't see him as a messiah figure, as some have claimed he is meant to be. I don't even see him as a symbol of indivdualism in a conformist world. He's just a smartmouthed brat as far as I can see. I don't buy any of Salinger's rationalizations for how he got that way. Maybe the character could have been written in a way that I would have found him sympathetic, but Salinger sure didn't manage to do it.
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While I found the Hitch-hiker's guide comical in many ways I remember feeling the distinct sensation that I was reading over the same joke again and again. The books wore old quickly, and as far as plot is concerned, .... there obviously wasn't one. I don't much care for that series either.
Posts: 295 | Registered: May 2003
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quote: I don't see him as a messiah figure, as some have claimed he is meant to be
Eh?
quote:He's just a smartmouthed brat as far as I can see. I don't buy any of Salinger's rationalizations for how he got that way. Maybe the character could have been written in a way that I would have found him sympathetic,
I don't think he was ever meant to be really likeable.
Posts: 7 | Registered: May 2003
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brero...don't tell that to the people I took English classes with, or the professors who taught them. From what I heard in class disucssions, Holden Caulfield is seen is some circles as some sort of heroic figure. And, yes, I have seen analyses that cast him as a messiah figure - I guess they take that from the part where he talks in the book about wanting to protect kids from falling over a cliff. Or something, I don't remember all the ins and outs of the theory. I didn't like the book well enough to pay that much attention.
The saving grace of the last class I had to read it for was that, except for Catcher and Othello, everything we read that semester (a book a week) was either science fiction or detective fiction. We read Fellowship of the Ring, we read Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold (now there is a peculiar novel), we read one of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels, we read a Vonnegut novel about Mars, and I can't remember what all else - it was several years ago. For the most part, it was really a fun class.
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All right, let's get past Catcher in the Rye. While classic literature buffs like this and many novels like this I have not failed to notice that many of the students they force them upon don't. (at least in high school and early college)
So.....at this point I'm not liking Tad William's Otherland books very much. (I'm just getting into the second one.) I've been trying to put my finger on why and the best I can come up with is that I don't like the main character (Irene/Rene) all that much and I'm sick of Habu's character. Also, I can't see any purpose for about half the scenes in the books. Now he's taking us through a series of simulations in which the characters get into danger, get through it, and move on without coming any closer to getting out or discovering anything useful. I'm also terribly afraid that in the end I'm going to find out what I think I'm going to find out about the use of the kids, which would be kind of disappointing after so much reading. (I won't say what in case you haven't read it.) The VR world is a good idea, I think, and I like it in a non cyber punk novel (it's been done in syberpunk to death) but the story only needed 1 book to tell. Honestly, unless something turns around really quickly (By the end of the cassette I'm on, since I'm reading on tape.) I'm going to have to move on to something else.
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I loved the Tad Williams series. I couldn't put them down. I did like the younger characters better than Irene, but I found the different worlds fascinating, the story compelling and the ending satisfying. What more could you want I think a long series like that takes a comittment on the reader's part to stick with it.
I am surprised you listen to books on tape if you are a writer. It is important to study the written word, don't you think? And most recorded books are abridged, which drives me nuts.
As far as books I didn't like...Thomas Covent Unbeliever series...I hated the main character and I kept hoping he would get better so I slogged my way through all the books. Donaldson wrote a two volume series after that which was wonderful...about a mirror. The books are at my other house and my memory isn't what it use to be.
And in the immortal words of Douglas Adams...so long and thanks for all the fish.
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I'm legally blind....while I can struggle through written books with magnifiers it's slow and I get frustrated way too easily. Also, there are free UNABRIDGED books on tape provided for free to visually imparied people through the library of congress...so my books are never abridged.
Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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That's great to have that available. Does it provide you with a good selection of books? About 30 years ago I use to read certain books to a friend who was blind because the titles were limited. I am sure it is better now.
Posts: 173 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Watched the movie postman loved it; didn't read the book. But then I liked waterworld too.
An insiration for my decision to write was Piers Anthony. the first novel I read, I put down halfway through. It was also the last novel I read by Piers Anthony.
I've read many novels by Steven King, who has great ideas, but his writing puts me to sleep.
Anyway, two of the novels I dslike most were written by these authors. Don't remember the title to PA's novel but King,s was tommyknockers. It is funny though one of my favorite novels was It.
Actually, what I said was that I DO like British humor, I love it. I was raised on Monty Python and Faulty Towers, they are unbeatable. I tend to suspect that is why I thought THGTTG was reletively so disapointmenting. I think I was expecting more than the single guffaw I recieved from reading it.
Another thing, and I hope I am not being too contradictory here, I have liked some of the "cyber pung" (cute term) I have read, ie Neuromancer, and Snow Crash. I thought they were fun. But that is a bit off topic.
Also on the topic of audio books, I think a large part of ones ability to "study the written word" from an audio book is how well ones mind is attuned to absorbing info through the ears, in this respect we are not all the same. That said they are not my cup of tea, though that may change when I get my licence and a car.
I usually finish every book I start. However, and perhaps this is because I was very young at the time, I could never make much progress in any of the Stephen King novels my step father had in his collection.
I did however recently pick up his Stephen King's "On Writing" and really, really enjoyed most of it. I did find some small details of his philosophy on how and when a writer should write, a bit stiffling. Though to his credit he did not claim to be the gospel on such subjects, and appreciates the fact that we as writers each have our own peculularities (sp?). Also I do plan to give SK's fiction one more chance, and plan to pick up The Dark Half (or is it The Dark Side?), which from what he had to say in OW sounds quite interesting. Any one read that one?
PS Christine have you read all the Red Dwarf books, or only the one released in the US. If that is the case you are missing out on two of them, the lukewarm The Last Human by Doug Naylor, and the Gut-bustingly funny Backwards, by Rob Grant.
[This message has been edited by PE_Sharp (edited June 09, 2003).]
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Sharp...so you did say you liked British humor...oops! Sometimes you see what you expect to see instead of what you do! : )
No, I didn't know about those other Red Dwarfs. I will have to look into them. Thanks!
As for books on tape. I will give critics one thing. Since I began reading books on tape (I wasn't visually imparied since birth) 2 things happened. My spelling and punctuation became worse. I just don't see those things on a regular basis anymore. On the other hand, my detail writing improved a great deal. I no longer had even the OPTION to skim through parts when I wanted to get on to the good stuff (like I'm sure everyone does, at least sometimes).
Anyway...the selection is reasonably good. I can't get current stuff for at least a year because it takes them a while to get them on tape. Also, I still haven't gotten to read Shadow of the Hedgemon, it seems to have gotten lost somewhere in their ILL (I requested it in October!) But overall I have good things to say. I can get almost all of the books on the things to read thread, and, for that matter, this threat too. : ) (And, fortunately for me, if I really want too I can use my magnifiers out and read anything else.)
Now...back to the topic at hand!
Piers Anthony has produced some of my favorite and least favorite books. His Incarnations of Immortality series is very good. But the I recently read (and have not finished) are the Mode series. Yuk! It's full of short, choppy, childish sentences, a "depressed" main character who is the most unrealistic depressed person I've ever seen, and mostly, an extremely sick idea of men, woman, and sexuality.
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IMO one possible explanation for some readers' intense dislike for Hitchiker's Guide is the style of writing. Almost every word is written in omniscient POV. I believe that most readers are uncomfortable with omniscient even in small doses. Entire novels in omniscient could make them downright miserable!
The Dark Half is one of Stephen King's worst novels. I would recommend either Salem's Lot, The Stand, The Dead Zone, or Misery. Personally, It is my favorite by him, but I don't think it's one of his best.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited June 09, 2003).]
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Books I had to put down unfinished (a rare reading choice for me!)
The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind – I’ve blocked most of it, but when I hit the Mud People, and people spend great patches of time asking "Are you my friend?" I just couldn’t take it any more. I tried his short story in Legends as well, and the juvenile, illogicalness of it made me rip it out of the cassette player (Book on tape for roadtrip). His concerns and reasoning just didn’t mix with mine, and the character’s actions didn’t make any sense.
Sabriel by Garth Nix – I picked this up because of an interview I saw in Locus. The character was just going through the motions, pushed around by events, which while progressing action wise at a fair clip, did nothing to progress the story. Even if it was YA, there should be more dimension than that. It was a pity too – I liked the setup, world building used.
The Maltese Flacon by Dashiell Hammett – I know it’s a classic, but I couldn’t get through it. I think it was the POV – Objective. I couldn’t track why the main character did anything he did (since I wasn’t in his head) and all the description of his facial expressions got old.
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BTW – Christine, did you go to UMR? Based on some of the things you’ve said in this thread, and the email address, I think we might have know each other in college. Slounge, 5N TJ, Drawk (misspelled no doubt) mean anything? -- Gina
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I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
Edit: UBB code
[This message has been edited by GZ (edited June 09, 2003).]
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. Perhaps an agreement on certain points would be interesting aswell, or even someone elses lists of disliked books. That said, flaming is not neccesary. I am not saying I am right, I would simply like to hear some reactions to my opinions.
Rim by Alexander Besher. Cyberpunk-lite, with laughable prose (zzzzzz...) and a twist of Star Warsesque force action going on. YUCK!
