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Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 15 aoifeme


    its been said already but the da vinci code


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,305 ✭✭✭quazzy


    Anything by connolly the crime writer, what a lot of rubbish...avoid!!!

    Is that John ( the Irish guy ) or Michael ( The American ) ?

    'Cause I really like John's novels.

    Anyhoo back on topic.

    One of the worst book I have read was Spycatcher by Peter Wright.

    ugh


  • Registered Users Posts: 888 ✭✭✭Merrick


    Amongst Women by John McGahern.
    I had to study it for school. It led to some of the worst English classes I have ever experienced.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 411 ✭✭Faerie


    Earthhorse wrote:
    Dracula - influential and incredibly boring.

    Terry Pratchett - unfunny and can't write to save his life.

    Charles Dickens - bloated prose and heavy handed social commentary! Fun!

    Lord of the Rings - the template for fantasy literature and a seminal book but it's lack of proper characterisation coupled with the infinite detail makes for a slow and uninspiring read.

    Tom Clancy - just write essays about the CIA so we can cut out the crap.

    Ok I have to disagree with everything on your list! (Except Tom Clancy - I haven't read any of his books.)

    Dracula is one of my favourite books, I love Terry Pratchett and Charles Dickens and Lord of The Rings is amazing!

    Anyway my list:

    Anything by Anita Shreve
    I normally love historical books but I hated Kingdom of Shadows by Barbara Erskine
    The Country Girls by Edna O Brien
    Already been mentioned, but the Rule of Four is really boring
    Anything by Maeve Binchy
    Actually most 'chick lit'


  • Registered Users Posts: 17,398 ✭✭✭✭r3nu4l


    Anything by connolly the crime writer, what a lot of rubbish...avoid!!!

    Yeah, which one?

    John Connolly or Michael Connelly?

    I like them both but John Connolly's stuff is better!

    Avoid Isle of Dogs by Patricia Cornwell even if you really love her other stuff!

    Definitely avoid Labyrinth, rave reviews for a really poor book!


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 87 ✭✭The Long Fellow


    Earthhorse wrote:

    Mentioning the likes of Brown on these threads is an insult to the reader's intelligence. I think it would be better if people focused on literature that's been popular for sometime rather than faddy stuff which is easy to avoid.


    It's an insult to what readers intelligence???
    What would you say of the quite literally thousands of people if not more who would never have picked up a book to read out of their own free willuntil the Da Vinci code and who are now trying to read maybe a book a month and trying to rediscover a joy from reading they didn't think they had? You think it's a bad thing? can a book not just exist for people to read, enjoy and forget about? does it have to have underlayers of meaning and innuendo?

    this is not just directed at you, or anyone here, but i can't understand the backlash by people who would regularly read to the Da Vinci code. Especially by the very people (usually in the media) who moan and give out that people aren't interested in reading and when a book comes along that has everybody reading it it's not good enough either. am i missing something??


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,715 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    It's an insult to what readers intelligence???

    To the reader of this Literature forum, specifically the reader of a thread entitled "Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet".

    I absolutely agree with what you say about Brown. I can't understand why well read people seem to be personally insulted by his book and its success. Indeed, the reason I posted what I did about Brown was to prevent this turning in to ten pages of "The Da Vinci Code - crap" type replies. Bashing Brown is something of an international pastime on the net, and probably in certain quarters of the press, so anyone who has the skill to navigate here and read this thread will have been warned by the time they arrive. That, and only that, is the reason it's insulting to their intelligence.

    I specifically posted the authors I did because they come highly recommended and when I read them I found them wanting. I think that warning might be useful to a reader, new or old. We could let this become another Dan Brown bashing thread but I think that would be quite redundant, don't you?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 87 ✭✭The Long Fellow


    Earthhorse wrote:
    To the reader of this Literature forum, specifically the reader of a thread entitled "Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet".

    I absolutely agree with what you say about Brown. I can't understand why well read people seem to be personally insulted by his book and its success. Indeed, the reason I posted what I did about Brown was to prevent this turning in to ten pages of "The Da Vinci Code - crap" type replies. Bashing Brown is something of an international pastime on the net, and probably in certain quarters of the press, so anyone who has the skill to navigate here and read this thread will have been warned by the time they arrive. That, and only that, is the reason it's insulting to their intelligence.

    I specifically posted the authors I did because they come highly recommended and when I read them I found them wanting. I think that warning might be useful to a reader, new or old. We could let this become another Dan Brown bashing thread but I think that would be quite redundant, don't you?

    well in fairness i cant dissagree with anything you've said there, but i just didn't get the same impression from the first post to be honest, maybe perception was the key? i mean it's hard to have a discussion anywhere in the world about reading without the name coming up. whether thats a bad thing or not, i wouldnt be prepared to decide.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,715 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Perhaps my initial post was a little curt as you're not the first person to get the wrong impression from it. Don't worry though, if ever there was a thread where it's popular to disagree with me, this is it!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,203 ✭✭✭Attractive Nun


    The Trial by Franz Kafka. Oh God that was uninteresting, never have I read such a slow-moving and bland novel. Oh God. His short stories are good though.

    And, not that anyone would, or that it counts as 'literature', but 'Israel & Palestine' by Bernard Wasserstein is absolutely the worst book I've ever read. I have no idea why I finished it, and I can still recall the feeling of sheer relief as I finished the last words and threw it across the room. Dire.

    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a pretty poor book as well, despite many swooning reviews, although my central complaint would be that it's overrated, rather than terrible, which is hardly the book's fault.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 15,914 ✭✭✭✭tbh


    For the love of God, don't go near this one: THE RAPTURE: In the Twinkling of an Eye Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins. I bought it on a whim in Atlanta airport and it stinks to high heaven.

    I mean look at the blurb:

    Time seems to slow as the clock ticks down. Pan-Con Airlines captain Rayford Steele prepares for a flight to London with beautiful flight attendant Hattie Durham. Because of his wife's newfound faith, Rayford looks forward to time, and the possibilities, with Hattie. Journalist Cameron "Buck" Williams is in Israel when the Russians attack, and he experiences for himself the miraculous deliverance of the Holy Land. Buck cannot deny Chicago bureau chief Lucinda Washington's insistence that the event was prophesied in Scripture, though he dares not consider the personal ramifications.Meanwhile, Nicolae Carpathia eliminates any obstacles in his path to power. As the newly appointed president of Romania, Nicolae is invited to speak before the U.N. Without warning, millions disappear and are welcomed into the unspeakable presence of God
    http://www.armageddonbooks.com/behind.html

    what was I thinking?!?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 317 ✭✭Geranium


    Terry PRATchet. And of course, Pride and Prejudice, just a bad chick flick style book with no actual happenings and a confusing style of writing. Unfortunately, someone once decided that it was a "classic" and poor scholars have been subjected to it ever since.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,076 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    Confusing style of writing...you sure ripped it apart!
    Nobody disses teh legen of Terry... :/


  • Registered Users Posts: 990 ✭✭✭galactus


    As a rule I am not in favour of burning books but I'd like to make an exception: Ulysses which for belongs on the bonfire next to The DaVinci Code.

    Joyce - "It'll keep the professors busy for years". What a con man.


  • Registered Users Posts: 136 ✭✭fasterkitten


    I would like to sue Nicola Barker for the time it took me to read the pretentious waste of paper, Clear: A Transparent Novel.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 897 ✭✭✭oxygen_old


    I just finished Dean Koonz "The Taken" last nite, only finished it cause I couldnt get to sleep. Im actually a lesser person now for having read it.

    Pure rubbish, he just lumps fantastical event on fantastical event, with no even science fictiony explanation. And then just sticks a band aid on at the end of the novel which is dissapointing


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 411 ✭✭Faerie


    oxygen wrote:
    I just finished Dean Koonz "The Taken" last nite, only finished it cause I couldnt get to sleep. Im actually a lesser person now for having read it.

    Pure rubbish, he just lumps fantastical event on fantastical event, with no even science fictiony explanation. And then just sticks a band aid on at the end of the novel which is dissapointing

    TBH I have found every Dean Koontz book I've read boring, unexplained and disappointing since I read From The Corner Of His Eye - which is amazing!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 304 ✭✭Dagnir Glaurung


    Geranium wrote:
    And of course, Pride and Prejudice, just a bad chick flick style book with no actual happenings and a confusing style of writing. Unfortunately, someone once decided that it was a "classic" and poor scholars have been subjected to it ever since.

    Since when were chick flicks satires?

    I wish I had avoided Lolita. Repulsive characters, plot peters out after 120 pages or so and the lavish writing style really grates from that point.


  • Registered Users Posts: 136 ✭✭fasterkitten


    Since when were chick flicks satires?

    I wish I had avoided Lolita. Repulsive characters, plot peters out after 120 pages or so and the lavish writing style really grates from that point.

    I agree. I attempted it a few times because it's often lauded as a classic but gave up


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,969 ✭✭✭buck65


    S by John Updike
    Good as Gold - Joseph Heller
    Pagan Babies -Elmore Leonard
    Ulysses - Joyce
    The Banyan Tree - Christopher Nolan
    The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl(?)

    Don't agree with Dickens - loved Great Expectations


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,969 ✭✭✭buck65


    oh forgot the biggest pile of crap
    Saturday - Ian Mc Ewan


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,553 ✭✭✭Demetrius


    Geranium wrote:
    Terry PRATchetQUOTE]

    You don't mean that.:)

    "Rincewind often had orgasms, sometimes in the presence of other people...":)

    Pratchett, in my opinion, is a genius:his creation almost surpassing Tolkien's roundworld. (Was Tolkien's world round?)

    Anyway, books to avoid like the plague:

    Closing Time by Heller.

    Cell by King.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,575 ✭✭✭elivsvonchiaing


    Joseph Heller's "Closing Time" made me think about Waugh's last book - but it wasn't as bad as that. (I can't remember Waugh's last book! IT was that bad!).

    I really think if I was an author, I'd like to be eaten by the circus animals; before they desert me!:eek:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 304 ✭✭Dagnir Glaurung


    buck65 wrote:
    oh forgot the biggest pile of crap
    Saturday - Ian Mc Ewan

    I totally agree. I couldn't even be bothered to finish it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 265 ✭✭Anton17


    The good life was one of my least favourite McInerney books,but i was still surprised i enjoyed as much as i did, seeing as it was about the affairs of middle aged people. The whole 911 thing didnt bother me as much as i thought either.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 443 ✭✭Sgt. Sensible


    Anything by Will Self. Shockingly dull Oxbridge junkie bore marketed successfully as a clever interesting person. Nothing ever happens in his books. Nothing.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 67 ✭✭elqu


    dudara wrote:
    I tried to read Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, and I got 300 pages into it, but I had to give up. It moved at the pace of a very very slow snail on crutches.

    oh i love neal stephenson! Reading The System of the World at the moment and have read Cryptonmicon (fantastic book READ IT). They are big reads tho - need a crane to carry them around :rolleyes:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 67 ✭✭elqu


    buck65 wrote:
    oh forgot the biggest pile of crap
    Saturday - Ian Mc Ewan

    Dant Club YES shocking pile of rubbish as was the Da Vinci Code but Saturday? :confused: that was good surely?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 67 ✭✭elqu


    I agree. I attempted it a few times because it's often lauded as a classic but gave up

    Agreed, lolita is horrible - maybe that's the point tho?


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  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 9,469 Mod ✭✭✭✭BossArky


    I loved the style of writing in Lolita.


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