Books that disappointed you

judgefudge

Just wondering what books people have been disappointed or felt let down by?

Mine would be One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. For the first 100 pages I LOVED this book, I was so happy it was in my life. Then slowly it just got so convoluted... I could just about keep up with the characters (and that's with a family tree in front of the book) and I didn't feel like I really got to know any of them.

I'm so disappointed. I couldn't finish the book, and I always finish books! Maybe somebody will tell me it gets fantastic at the end?

HeadPig

Agree on One Hundred Years of Solitude. And no, it's not fantastic at the end.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
1984
The Grapes of Wrath
The Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
Jane Eyre

I'm not saying these are bad books, but they disappointed me given the hype about them. Apart from The Road, which I utterly abhorred. Then again my taste is peculiar and rather specific.

coffee_cake

Moby Dick
Just no

Snickers Man

judgefudge wrote: »

Just wondering what books people have been disappointed or felt let down by?

Mine would be One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

It's not just me, then.


It's so important to be honest about one's feelings with regard to a piece of art or literature. Just because something doesn't resonate with you is no indication that you are unintelligent, or lack intuition or sympathy. It's the skill of the artist or writer to connect with their audience that makes art memorable.

I know several people who think 100 Years of Solitude to be one of the most rewarding books they've ever read. I suspect most of them are genuine. But the ones who can't make head nor tail of it and SAY they think it's marvellous are the sort of pretentious twats that give artsy fartsy people their bad name.

indough

bluewolf wrote: »

Moby Dick
Just no

I actually think 'Moby Dick' is one of the worst books i've ever read, it's so long winded and feels as though there is perhaps 30 pages of story in there at most. It must almost have taken me longer to read than it took him to write it.

To add my own, 'The Trial' by Kafka. Whether or not it was just a poor translation I have no idea, but I found it utterly boring. 'The Magic Mountain' would be another example - I couldn't even bring myself to finish that one.

judgefudge

HeadPig wrote: »

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
1984
The Grapes of Wrath
The Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
Jane Eyre

I'm not saying these are bad books, but they disappointed me given the hype about them. Apart from The Road, which I utterly abhorred. Then again my taste is peculiar and rather specific.

My god, I loved the road! Apart from that I'd agree with you on To Kill a Mockingbird. I can see why it was an important book but having only read it recently it didn't really resonate with me all that much. 1984 I haven't read in years but I might go back and re-read it. You reminded me of another one A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Loved it at the start and some of the ideas are so ahead of their time, but the second half of the book was just rubbish. Also many Stephen King books fall into that trap too.

Bluewolf - why Moby Dick?

Jimmy Iovine

The Catcher in the Rye - I found Caulfield to be just plain annoying. I might get around to it again and my opinion may change.

tampopo

I also found The Catcher in The Rye disappointing. Read it about 4 or 5 years ago. dull as ditch water.

Allround Predator

Would love to read Moby Dick but just cant follow it! Jaws was brutal, the movie is much better same with the Shawshank Redemption film was brill but the book is a big disappointment?

coffee_cake

I got as far as the main character in moby dick trying to enter a pub, except he went off rambling about his life story Grandpa Simpson "onion on my belt as was the style at the time" style and took far too long to describe entering a pub. So I gave up... waffle waffle waffle

Tom Joad

Another vote for 100 years of solitude - most disappointing book ever.

mav79

I think I heard too much hype about Life of Pi and The Alchemist, after reading them I just felt a bit meh. I can understand why people thought they were great, just not for me.

ThirdMan

Another vote for The Catcher in the Rye. I thought it was awful. Danny the Champion of the World is a better book. No, really.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

Dirty Dingus McGee

HHHH by Laurent Binet

I started reading it last week but gave up after about 30 pages, based on the cover it looked like a terrific read but the narrative structure is very annoying and I decided not to persist with.

longshanks

1984
Catch 22
Moby Dick

I couldn't finish any of those.


I read Birdsong a couple of years back and while some of it was ok I was left underwhelmed by most of it.
Shantaram is still the worst book I've ever read.

tim3000

Id agree with the above posters The Catcher in the Rye was awful. I was also distinctly underwhelmed by Kafka and Vonneguts Slaughterhouse 5. Slaughterhouse 5 was one of the worst books I have ever read I reckon he was writing it as a joke. Atlas Shrugged was a mammoth read with a disappointing end some good characters though.

im invisible

loved Slaughterhouse 5, read 1984 and liked it, definitely not disappointed by it..
couldnt finish catch 22, got halfway through it about 5 years ago, left it down and havn't picked it up since
a few Chuck Palahniuk novels disappointed, i like the stories, but he's not the best at telling them

--Kaiser--

I'd have to say Catch 22. It's a a funny book but it is way too repetitive and took me ages to finish because the tedium got to me after a while.

I'm not that surprised people mentioned Moby Dick, I think it's a great book but the narrator does go on at great length on a variety of topics (you'll know a lot about whales and whaling if you finish it). Once you get used to his long-windedness it is a compelling and breathtaking book

Psychedelic

I attempted to read Hundred Years of Solitude recently, could only stand it for 50 pages before giving up. Utter rubbish. The only good thing I learned from it is that I do not like this genre known as 'magical realism'. Steppenwolf was another well-known classic I didn't like and had to give up on it half-way through.

Slaughterhouse-Five was also one that I was disappointed with. It was okay, but nowhere near the world class writing I expected from it. The repeated 'So it goes' line on what seemed like every page annoyed me.

Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds was another disappointment, as I really liked The Third Policeman and usually love postmodern meta-fiction stuff but in this book it just didn't work for me. I was also let down by Borges's short stories, I thought I'd love them but they bored me.

Catcher In The Rye is one of my favourites but the other two books by Salinger I read were very poor, Franny and Zooey especially as the characters were extremely irritating.

Matt_Trakker

I'm Catch 22 as well.
Hated it.

I really like On the Road, but couldn't stand to follow-up Dharma Bums. Awful book.

First time I tried Dracula I was annoyed as hell, went back to it again when I was about 19 or so and loved it.

That Stieg Larrson book, christ it was boring.
Da Vinci Code, every raving about it and it was a dire rag.

Angela's Ashes. Snore.
Life if Pi. Nonsense for idiots.
5 people you meet in Heaven. Sanctimonious BS.

echo beach

Psychedelic wrote: »

I attempted to read Hundred Years of Solitude recently, could only stand it for 50 pages before giving up. Utter rubbish. The only good thing I learned from it is that I do not like this genre known as 'magical realism'.

Magic realism isn't for everybody. Only stubbornness kept me reading One Hundred Years of Solitude but about half way through I 'got it' and had to read the rest in one go staying up to the early hours and now enjoy Latin American literature.
I would suggest trying something like Love in the Time of Cholera before jumping straight into Solitude.

Queen-Mise

Thank god, someone mentioned The Road - that was utter tripe.

100 Years - I got about 50 pages into it, before I lost the will to live. It was getting repetitive and really annoying.

buck65

echo beach wrote: »

Magic realism isn't for everybody. Only stubbornness kept me reading One Hundred Years of Solitude but about half way through I 'got it' and had to read the rest in one go staying up to the early hours and now enjoy Latin American literature.
I would suggest trying something like Love in the Time of Cholera before jumping straight into Solitude.

Yes, Love in a time of Cholera is a far superior book to 100 years.

I liked The Road and thought Life of Pi was terrific. I just finished Canada by Richard Ford and was a bit underwhelmed by the experience.

HeadPig

Queen-Mise wrote: »

Thank god, someone mentioned The Road - that was utter tripe.

I love you.

fjon

Aw, there's some books here I really liked - Shantaram, Life of Pi, Slaughterhouse 5.

For me some that spring to mind are:

Harry Potter - I managed to read the first 4 and found it quite tough going
Anne Enright - The Gathering
Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin

Dirty Dingus McGee

Catch 22 - only got 100 pages in to it

Red Harvest and The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett- I loved the Maltese Falcon film and I love Raymond Chandler, but I was hugely disappointed by both of these, I struggled through Red Harvest and just gave up on The Thin Man, I'm not sure what it was but I just didnt really take to either book

MaggieNF

I was very disappointed by Angela's Ashes and Room, couldn't finish either and Angela's Ashes actually put me to sleep.

La_Gordy

Room was one of the worst books I have ever read. An insult to victims of abuse. Kafka's Metamorphisis was probably the most disappointing. The characters are so removed that I couldn't form any connection wi them.

buck65

La_Gordy wrote: »

Room was one of the worst books I have ever read. An insult to victims of abuse. Kafka's Metamorphisis was probably the most disappointing. The characters are so removed that I couldn't form any connection wi them.

You mean you don't know anyone that has turned into an insect?

judgefudge

Room really was a terrible terrible book.