Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet

baconsarnie

Kayly wrote: »

Not sure if anyone posted on "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. (similar book name in last post jogged my memory). God this one nearly drained me of the will to live. I like the post-apocolyptic theme, but the unrelenting misery was just so, well, unrelenting.

Again, with the usual caveat of "horses for courses", I thought this was superb- but i can see where you are coming from. It's not exactly enjoyable. It is devoid of hope and relentlessly pounds you of the misery of humans scrabbling for survival. Idiotically i recommended it to a few people after being blown away by it and not giving a forewarning of how bleak it is.

Nearly resulted in divorce, estrangement from family members and friends refusing to return my calls.

fontanalis

baconsarnie wrote: »

Again, with the usual caveat of "horses for courses", I thought this was superb- but i can see where you are coming from. It's not exactly enjoyable. It is devoid of hope and relentlessly pounds you of the misery of humans scrabbling for survival. Idiotically i recommended it to a few people after being blown away by it and not giving a forewarning of how bleak it is.

Nearly resulted in divorce, estrangement from family members and friends refusing to return my calls.

I gave it to my mother in law!
But it's a great book, at first I wasn't too impressed as I was expecting more mad max 2 type action and violence.

Flash86

baconsarnie wrote: »

It is devoid of hope

I thought it ended on a hopeful note, myself. Loved it.

jellybee

Aw 'The Road' is one of my favourites. Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead'. Worst book ever!

Hermy

jellybee wrote: »

Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead'. Worst book ever!

Funny that - I loved it.

Thargor

jellybee wrote: »

Ayn Rand

A mod can lock this thread now.

Hermy

Thargor wrote: »

A mod can lock this thread now.

She's that good - isn't she.:pac:





/runs away

Asphyxia

Huh! I just can't seem to get my head around Firebird by Janice Graham! It's my second attempt at trying to read it but I find it so easy to be distracted, I'm going to take a brake and read something and I might give it another go...

Caitlinn

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind was a book I struggled through. The characters were one dimensional and uninteresting, the plot was uninspired and the style of writing was dull. Perhaps I got a bad translation but dear God - never again.

kickarykee

I know many will disagree but I really didn't think the books "True Blood" is based on are that good.
I mean, I really enjoy the series and I don't think they are as bad as posting in this thread would suggest, but they writer's style really sucks (I'm sorry...) and the story is really shallow. The series wasn't that deep, either, but it's way more than the books are... Basically they are just soft porn in vampire land. I only read three, so maybe they are getting better but I doubt it...

baconsarnie

RubyRoss wrote: »

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño is cruel. His Amulet was fantastic but the SD is three times the size, recycles the characters from Amulet and I could not be bothered finishing it.

The Savage Detectives is far superior to Amulet. But it may depend on what sequence you read them in.

Monkeybonkers

I really struggled with Moby Dick. Just couldn't get interested in it at all.

sudzs

The Gathering - Ann Enright. Barely got through the first few chapters.

sudzs

hatful wrote: »

Skippy Dies, I started reading it because it was hyped up by lots of readers on this forum, surreal and abstract yes funny no, gave up after 100 pages.

oh no.... I got into it early and right through untill the last fifth, when I had a bit of struggle to get through to the end, but overall I liked it and found it very funny in parts.

Flash86

Mistaken by Neil Jordan was torture to read.

What could have been an interesting story very poorly executed and instead of attempting to set any kind of scene or atmosphere he just names a load of places. Terrible.

emeraldstar

sudzs wrote: »

oh no.... I got into it early and right through untill the last fifth, when I had a bit of struggle to get through to the end, but overall I liked it and found it very funny in parts.

Me too. Thought it was really enjoyable all the way through.

daithi1970

"The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas

A truly awful book..no character with any vestige of sympathy, 2 characters which seemed to be completely interchangeable,protracted depictions of middle class Australian women whingeing about their lives,and a plot which petered out for no particular reason..it's a pity, as I thought the original premise was an interesting one.
If you like Australian soap operas,it may be the book for you, however..................

Thargor

Everything by HP Lovecraft, ugh.

old gregg

Thargor wrote: »

Everything by HP Lovecraft, ugh.

Blaspemy! Expect a tel call from Cthulhu

Miss Fluff

daithi1970 wrote: »

"The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas

A truly awful book..no character with any vestige of sympathy, 2 characters which seemed to be completely interchangeable,protracted depictions of middle class Australian women whingeing about their lives,and a plot which petered out for no particular reason..it's a pity, as I thought the original premise was an interesting one.
If you like Australian soap operas,it may be the book for you, however..................

Oh what a pity, I bought it yesterday and thought it looked like it might be a really good story

flyaway.

daithi1970 wrote: »

"The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas

A truly awful book..no character with any vestige of sympathy, 2 characters which seemed to be completely interchangeable,protracted depictions of middle class Australian women whingeing about their lives,and a plot which petered out for no particular reason..it's a pity, as I thought the original premise was an interesting one.
If you like Australian soap operas,it may be the book for you, however..................

I agree completely! I'd been drawn in by Waterstones displaying it all over the store, but ugh, it was bad! All the characters were so unlikable. It just went on and on and on. I thought the book was supposed to be about the slapping and the court case surrounding it?! They barely mentioned it!

gudwan

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

Everyone was raving about it a while ago. It's awful.

smooshmonster

I didn't finish any of these books. At some point I just started skimming through and skipping whole chapters. It made no difference.

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. Avoid like the plague! I was curious after watching the Television Series based on the book. I regret it.

Eragon, by C. Paolini. It's Star Wars rewritten in a Fantasy setting by what seems to be a 12-year-old fanboy.

Twilight. Very boring and the writing style is very simplistic and... actually just utterly terrible.

This one's probably not going to sit well with everyone: Anything by Stephen King. I can't stand his writing style, even though he has good ideas, and the movie adaptations of his books are not bad. He is just a terrible writer.

Hermy

smooshmonster wrote: »

This one's probably not going to sit well with everyone: Anything by Stephen King. I can't stand his writing style, even though he has good ideas, and the movie adaptations of his books are not bad. He is just a terrible writer.

Can you say what it is in particular you dislike about his books smoosh?

smooshmonster

Hermy wrote: »

Can you say what it is in particular you dislike about his books smoosh?

I dislike his style. I quite like the content, but I find his style bland and functional. I have therefore had trouble getting far in his books.

Admittedly not quite on the level of the other three I mentioned, and probably not 'avoid like the plague' material.

Hermy

smooshmonster wrote: »

I dislike his style. I quite like the content, but I find his style bland and functional. I have therefore had trouble getting far in his books.

Admittedly not quite on the level of the other three I mentioned, and probably not 'avoid like the plague' material.

I think I know what you mean. I really think he has a great story telling ability but this is let down by descriptive passages that seem to go on forever. I really enjoyed his earlier books - Thinner, The Shining, Carrie etc - but later works really suffer from this long-winded approach to prose.

loved catch 22.

hp lovecraft agreed- awful.

anything by terry brooks is also awful

gingernut79

No plot, jumped back and forward in time, different characters. awful.

flyaway.

My list of books I wish I hadn't wasted my time on:

We Need to Talk About Kevin
Never Let Me Go
The Death of Bunny Munro
The Slap
No Country for Old Men
Girlfriend in a Coma
Prozac Nation

iguana

smooshmonster wrote: »

Eragon, by C. Paolini. It's Star Wars rewritten in a Fantasy setting by what seems to be a 12-year-old fanboy.

I'm pretty sure that book was written by a 12 year old.

Just checked, it was a 15 year old.