There are things I haven't finished, a LOT. I pick up a book and try to read it and just can't get into it. That doesn't mean it's not worth reading. So I can't honestly name those books, I suppose unless I've gotten at least halfway through them.
That being said, there are some that I've finished or almost finished that were awful.
The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel Delaney was horrible. I don't even know what the damn thing was supposed to be about. It seemed so random. Maybe I just didn't get it.
Altered Carbon, which I read solely because of its popularity and reputation as a genre-builder. I've come to realize, though, that cyberpunk just isn't my thing. It was good in that I could see its worth in that respect, but that's as far as it went.
And speaking of genres that are turn-offs, urban fantasy is pretty dull for me as well. Angel of Darkness by de Lint was one of those for me. It was meh, I read it all, but it didn't capture me the way I'd hoped it would.
Classics also very rarely interest me. There are a lot I won't even attempt to read. Some things I couldn't finish despite them having been assigned in classes, like The Metamorphosis and Heart of Darkness. In fact, the latter is probably my least favorite book ever. I have it on my to-read shelf because I just feel like I have to force myself through it one of these days.
Let's not forget the pile of crap that was Crossroads of Twilight. As much as I love Jordan, that book was obviously written for one reason- to make money. More happened in the prologue of the next book than the entirety of that one.
There are tons more, but those are the first things that come to mind. A lot, huh.
That being said, there are some that I've finished or almost finished that were awful.
The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel Delaney was horrible. I don't even know what the damn thing was supposed to be about. It seemed so random. Maybe I just didn't get it.
Altered Carbon, which I read solely because of its popularity and reputation as a genre-builder. I've come to realize, though, that cyberpunk just isn't my thing. It was good in that I could see its worth in that respect, but that's as far as it went.
And speaking of genres that are turn-offs, urban fantasy is pretty dull for me as well. Angel of Darkness by de Lint was one of those for me. It was meh, I read it all, but it didn't capture me the way I'd hoped it would.
Classics also very rarely interest me. There are a lot I won't even attempt to read. Some things I couldn't finish despite them having been assigned in classes, like The Metamorphosis and Heart of Darkness. In fact, the latter is probably my least favorite book ever. I have it on my to-read shelf because I just feel like I have to force myself through it one of these days.
Let's not forget the pile of crap that was Crossroads of Twilight. As much as I love Jordan, that book was obviously written for one reason- to make money. More happened in the prologue of the next book than the entirety of that one.
There are tons more, but those are the first things that come to mind. A lot, huh.
Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position. - Bill Maher
So...what books DON'T you like?
- 06/09/2009 04:57:28 AM
1976 Views
I have a couple I really disliked
- 06/09/2009 05:28:38 AM
1373 Views
Some examples
- 07/09/2009 08:25:37 PM
1174 Views
You think Battlefield Earth is bad, try reading his Mission Earth series. *NM*
- 08/09/2009 02:09:22 AM
683 Views
I read those in high school. I liked them. Stupid comic escapism. *NM*
- 08/09/2009 02:18:31 AM
736 Views
I read them when I was in high school too...at least the first 3 or 4
- 08/09/2009 02:47:12 AM
1292 Views
Re: I read them when I was in high school too...at least the first 3 or 4
- 08/09/2009 04:18:07 PM
1392 Views
Re: I read them when I was in high school too...at least the first 3 or 4
- 08/09/2009 06:26:00 PM
1249 Views
No, thanks. I think all my masochism got spent on Terry Goodkind
*NM*
- 08/09/2009 07:25:41 PM
709 Views
*NM*
- 08/09/2009 07:25:41 PM
709 Views
Political polemics, for one. Utopian novels, for another.
- 06/09/2009 05:29:54 AM
1193 Views
I don't have enough hours in the day to detail this or something even worse
- 06/09/2009 05:45:35 AM
1338 Views
Oh, a lot of things. But I wonder.
- 06/09/2009 07:00:34 AM
1330 Views
Re: Oh, a lot of things. But I wonder.
- 06/09/2009 07:05:51 AM
1296 Views
Oh plenty
- 06/09/2009 09:37:23 AM
1306 Views
I hated Wuthering Heights more than Jane Eyre, but I hated Jane Eyre, too. *NM*
- 06/09/2009 02:54:49 PM
760 Views
I like all books I have ever read.
- 06/09/2009 12:09:51 PM
1348 Views
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. In Ye Olde English, it's harder to translate than ancient Greek. *NM*
- 06/09/2009 05:07:49 PM
733 Views
The Canterbury Tales are not Old English. They are Middle English.
- 06/09/2009 05:59:59 PM
1365 Views
Indeed, translating old english, and reading middle english are very very different
- 06/09/2009 07:11:13 PM
1260 Views
As I'm translating some ancient Greek right now, I call bullshit on that. *NM*
- 06/09/2009 08:45:46 PM
686 Views
I was going to, but I felt I had already been pedantic enough. *NM*
- 07/09/2009 02:34:04 AM
749 Views
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
- 06/09/2009 05:58:39 PM
1288 Views
Catcher in the Rye and Heart of Darkness, among the "classics." *NM*
- 06/09/2009 08:15:12 PM
725 Views
Vellum by Hal Duncan and The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
- 06/09/2009 08:16:12 PM
1339 Views
Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- 06/09/2009 08:24:07 PM
1244 Views
I liked a Portrait of the Artist, personally, though the (lack of real) punctuation grated *NM*
- 07/09/2009 12:18:50 AM
659 Views
I didn't mind Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog...I mean Man
- 07/09/2009 02:40:14 AM
1234 Views
What?
- 06/09/2009 08:28:17 PM
1414 Views
Oh, and maybe it was lost on me, but I never got much joy out of War and Peace
- 07/09/2009 12:22:48 AM
1161 Views
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell.
- 07/09/2009 12:54:41 AM
1301 Views
Don't flame me for saying it....
- 07/09/2009 04:49:40 AM
1356 Views
One last one: Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley *NM*
- 07/09/2009 07:44:48 AM
727 Views
Have you ever seen the mini-series?
- 07/09/2009 05:42:45 PM
1287 Views
Never have I seen such good acting in such a dreadful movie/mini-series.
- 07/09/2009 05:44:47 PM
1185 Views
I love really really bad TV movies sometimes....they make for lots of laughter
- 07/09/2009 06:06:38 PM
1160 Views
Actually, you might like it. As in, think it's good.
- 07/09/2009 06:11:14 PM
1209 Views
I had a couple of issues with the book that I could easily see being removed from the movie
- 07/09/2009 07:01:40 PM
1152 Views
A Confederacy of Dunces.
- 08/09/2009 06:13:59 AM
1293 Views
Crap. That's two people now.
- 09/09/2009 01:42:40 AM
1165 Views
Hitchickers guide to the galaxy and The Good earth by Pearl S. Buck
- 09/09/2009 01:07:01 AM
1261 Views


!
*NM*
*NM*