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Books that disappointed you

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    #62
    Tabnabs
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 15,692 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tabnabs


    Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau. A few paragraphs of interest followed by pages of :confused: and :rolleyes:.


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    #63
    How Strange
    Registered Users Posts: 6,339 ✭✭✭How Strange


    Salman Rushdie's Midnights Children
    I couldn't get past page 100 anytime I tried to read it.

    Anne Enright's The Gathering
    Oh my god, what intolerable, self indulgent drivel. There's a few weeks of reading time that I'll never get back.

    Flann O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds and The Third Policeman
    I just never got the humour no matter how often I tried. I loved his Myles na gCopaleen stuff so thought I'd love his novels.

    Jack Kerouac On The Road
    I just gave up.


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    #64
    adrian522
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 16,093 Mod ✭✭✭✭adrian522


    Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian.

    Sorry, but a lot of this is incomprehensible. I get that he likes to use words that are no longer in use and use overly complicated sentences. I just don't get why he does this.

    For the record I love some of his other books, but didn't really enjoy this at all.


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    #65
    Davyhal
    Registered Users Posts: 455 ✭✭Davyhal


    Allen Carr's Easyway to quit smoking - No action sequence, no love interest, and overall a little bit preachy


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    #66
    Plowman
    Registered Users Posts: 2,630 ✭✭✭Plowman


    This post has been deleted.


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    #67
    wandatowell
    Registered Users Posts: 8,435 ✭✭✭wandatowell


    adrian522 wrote: »
    Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian.

    Sorry, but a lot of this is incomprehensible. I get that he likes to use words that are no longer in use and use overly complicated sentences. I just don't get why he does this.

    For the record I love some of his other books, but didn't really enjoy this at all.

    That book was a nasty read


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    #68
    adrian522
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 16,093 Mod ✭✭✭✭adrian522


    wandatowell wrote: »
    That book was a nasty read

    Indeed, but that wasn't what annoyed me about it.


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    #69
    binncheol
    Registered Users Posts: 117 ✭✭binncheol


    Swiper the fox wrote: »
    I loved both those although Gatsby had moments that seemed like hard work at the time, I wouldn't ever consider On the Road boring even if it's not your cup of tea.

    What kind of books do you normally like?

    I think I found both books boring because I wasn't invested in the characters as I didn't really care what happened to them or what they did.

    My taste in books tends to change, it's a bit all over the place, but definitely not these two! Also not Angela's Ashes. (:


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    #70
    HeadPig
    Registered Users Posts: 332 ✭✭HeadPig


    adrian522 wrote: »
    Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian.

    Sorry, but a lot of this is incomprehensible. I get that he likes to use words that are no longer in use and use overly complicated sentences. I just don't get why he does this.

    For the record I love some of his other books, but didn't really enjoy this at all.

    Some people love him, some people hate him, some people love some of his work and hate the rest of it.

    I have read two of his books: Blood Meridian and The Road. I was honestly so shocked after reading The Road that it was so acclaimed that I had to go on to read Blood Meridian, which I found even worse.

    McCarthy tries too hard, his overly convoluted sentences lend his work a contrived air and his writing seems like the effort of a budding writer going haywire with an experimental style.

    Just couldn't enjoy him at all. A chore to read, and there's very few books I don't enjoy.


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    #71
    Whispered
    Registered Users Posts: 14,772 ✭✭✭✭Whispered


    On the Road. The only book I've started but not finished. Hated it.

    I know it's supposed to be great but I just don't get it.


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    #72
    binncheol
    Registered Users Posts: 117 ✭✭binncheol


    Whispered wrote: »
    On the Road. The only book I've started but not finished. Hated it.

    I know it's supposed to be great but I just don't get it.

    High 5!
    (although I forced myself to finish it - thinking there had to be something there... I never found it)


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    #73
    gubby
    Registered Users Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭gubby


    The woods by Tara French...... I actually threw it across the room in temper when I finished it!!


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    #74
    SouthTippBass
    Registered Users Posts: 1,292 ✭✭✭SouthTippBass


    Another vote here for Moby Dick, what a chore to read. I got about 1/3 through and just wasnt enjoying it so gave up. Same with David Copperfield, read a good 400 pages of it (I gave it a fair chance) then I started wondering... where the feck is he going with this story? Nothing of any interest was happening so I quit that as well

    I'm surprised to see 1984 get mentioned here, it did dip for me a bit in the middle, but all of part 3 was just fantastic.


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    #75
    Swiper the fox
    Registered Users Posts: 6,745 ✭✭✭Swiper the fox


    TommieBoy wrote: »
    On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

    just plain bad reading
    ...the more you read, the worse it gets

    That is one of my favourite books ever, the final chapter is absolutely incredible and makes the whole book worthwhile, it can be tough going at times but I can't believe I'm seeing it in this thread.


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    #76
    TommieBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,273 ✭✭✭✭TommieBoy


    Swiper the fox wrote: »
    That is one of my favourite books ever, the final chapter is absolutely incredible and makes the whole book worthwhile, it can be tough going at times but I can't believe I'm seeing it in this thread.

    I respect your viewpoint and withdraw it from the thread, perhaps I simply had a bad reaction... :)


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    #77
    Stepping Stone
    Registered Users Posts: 370 ✭✭Stepping Stone


    Catch 22. I gave up pretty quickly.
    The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Finished it and regretted it.
    Blue Eyed Boy by Joanne Harris. So disappointing. Completely different to her usual writing style.
    The Unconsoled by Kazou Ishiguro. Found it hard going. I just could not get into this book.


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    #78
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Stepping Stone wrote: »
    Catch 22. I gave up pretty quickly.
    The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Finished it and regretted it.
    Blue Eyed Boy by Joanne Harris. So disappointing. Completely different to her usual writing style.
    The Unconsoled by Kazou Ishiguro. Found it hard going. I just could not get into this book.

    Never liked Joanne Harris' work, but I liked The Blind Assassin :).

    I agree on Catch 22 though, really overrated in my opinion.


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    #79
    binncheol
    Registered Users Posts: 117 ✭✭binncheol


    Stepping Stone wrote: »
    Catch 22. I gave up pretty quickly.
    The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Finished it and regretted it.
    Blue Eyed Boy by Joanne Harris. So disappointing. Completely different to her usual writing style.
    The Unconsoled by Kazou Ishiguro. Found it hard going. I just could not get into this book.

    I finished Catch 22... I didn't get it, a lot of the terminology/rankings/etc went over my head :-/


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    #80
    Hotcuppa
    Registered Users Posts: 32 ✭Hotcuppa


    Vernon god little !!!! Awful just awful


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    #81
    Gneez
    Registered Users Posts: 522 ✭✭✭Gneez


    The World War Series by harry turtledove, truly awful series of four books.

    The man in the high castle, Philip K. Dick is overrated.


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    #82
    adrian522
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 16,093 Mod ✭✭✭✭adrian522


    HeadPig wrote: »
    Some people love him, some people hate him, some people love some of his work and hate the rest of it.

    I have read two of his books: Blood Meridian and The Road. I was honestly so shocked after reading The Road that it was so acclaimed that I had to go on to read Blood Meridian, which I found even worse.

    McCarthy tries too hard, his overly convoluted sentences lend his work a contrived air and his writing seems like the effort of a budding writer going haywire with an experimental style.

    Just couldn't enjoy him at all. A chore to read, and there's very few books I don't enjoy.

    Have to say I've loved everything I've read by him other than Blood Meridian and it wouldn't put me off reading him again.


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    #83
    Censorsh!t
    Registered Users Posts: 1,121 ✭✭✭Censorsh!t


    On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Found this really boring. I liked the last paragraph....that was about it!

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was good...but it just didn't hit me hard enough.

    Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. I really liked Fahrenheit 451, and although it was a completely different genre, I expected a bit more. The writing was way too florally for a horror and it just made it dense and confusing.


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    #84
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    The Life of Pi. It started off so well but turned to crap.


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    #85
    HeadPig
    Registered Users Posts: 332 ✭✭HeadPig


    The Road
    Blood Meridian
    Catch 22

    The first two were truly awful. Can't remember which I thought was worse. Probably BM but The Road was more of a disappointment as I read it first and it had quite a reputation.

    Catch 22 is a decent book both it didn't live up to it's great name for me.

    Jane Eyre - horribly boring. On the other hand I liked Wuthering Heights by her sister.

    Grapes of Wrath - nice prose, but tedious on the whole.

    The Great Gatsby - TBH it's a very good book, but it's reputation would lead you to believe it's the best book ever written. Preferred Tender is The Night.


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    #86
    nc6000
    Registered Users Posts: 3,224 ✭✭✭nc6000


    +1 for Catch 22.


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    #87
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,957 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    adrian522 wrote: »
    Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian.
    Ditto - the lack of punctuation was just annoying. It led to confusion about who was talking at any moment - the narrator or one of the characters.

    Another disappointment was Don deLillo's Underworld. It's been called one of the great American novels, regularly appearing in best-of lists, but I didn't get through the first part with all the baseball stuff, totally lost interest.

    The biggest in the last year has to be A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. His only novel, published after he took his own life, and highly recommended as a cult comic masterpiece. He was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for it. I managed about a quarter: the characters were just bad people: eccentric and difficult for the sake of it, especially Ignatius J. Reilly, the main character. If I met him in real life, I would have my hands round his throat within minutes, but they probably wouldn't fit ... :mad:

    P.S: uh-oh!
    dudara wrote: »
    I think that anyone who reads A Confederacy of Dunces, and fails to find humour in it should be shot!! Seriously. It's really good.

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #88
    whupdedo
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,513 ✭✭✭whupdedo


    Anything by paulo coehlo, life is just too short


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    #89
    ankles
    Registered Users Posts: 1,286 ✭✭✭ankles


    bnt wrote: »

    Another disappointment was Don deLillo's Underworld. It's been called one of the great American novels, regularly appearing in best-of lists, but I didn't get through the first part with all the baseball stuff, totally lost interest.

    Wow, talk about opposing tastes. The opening section of Underworld is a piece I regularly recommend as one of the best opening pieces to a novel I've ever read. Totally wound me in and dragged me through the rest of the novel, which doesn't always achieve the same heights but is nevertheless one of the finest attempts at the Great American Novel.

    Also On Chesil Beach was a book I got for Christmas a few years ago and I eventually appeared mid Stephens Day after being literally unable to put it down. And I'm not necessarily a McEwan fan either


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    #90
    biZrb
    Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭biZrb


    I tried to read Underworld but couldn't get into it. Some books take a second go so I'll get around to trying to complete it at some point.


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    #91
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    whupdedo wrote: »
    Anything by paulo coehlo, life is just too short

    I'm flummoxed by his popularity.

    I read The Alchemist, hated it and was bored stiff, wondered if any of his other work deserves the effort, got Veronika Decides To Die and lasted about 70 pages. I just don't get why his books sell, and in particular I don't get why The Alchemist sold so well.


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