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Anyone regret reading a book?

[Deleted User]

Not because it was dreadful but because it was disturbing, toying with reading If This Is a Man Survival in Auschwitz) is a memoir by Italian Jewish writer Primo Levi.

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Oink

pauliebdub wrote: »

I've just finished Gone Girl and found the ending very unsatisfying and just implausible.

Loved it until I read the end. Then I just wanted to punch the character. And the author.

One book that let me down badly is Purity by Jonathan Franzen. I really, really liked Freedom before that, but then I read half of Purity, and I realised them was not point bothering with the rest.
Deeply disappointing.

Great thread OP.

beveragelady

mariaalice wrote: »

I thought Gone girl was quite a nasty book a lot of protectionism going on by the author I would think.

I don't understand what you mean by this.

I read Gone Girl recently, and I've just finished Sharp Objects. They're both quite nasty but in a way that is very detached from reality so I'm able to get a kick out of it.

AllForIt

The Greatest of These. http://sources.nli.ie/Record/PS_UR_065459

Prescribed reading for English, Leaving Cert, exam 1989.

If if could ever find the person who thought this was a good book for a teenager to read, to get them interested in reading, I'd nut them. It had the complete opposite effect.

My younger sisters prescribed reading for her Leaving cert 3 years later was To Kill a Mocking Bird, which I found in the house and read. And what a great read that was. Great movie too incidentally with one of my all time favorite male actors, Gregory Peck.

jack of all

Irreverent wrote: »

BTW I thought That they may face the rising sun was a superb book. Different strokes I suppose...

I loved that book myself.

Ipso

AllForIt wrote: »

The Greatest of These. http://sources.nli.ie/Record/PS_UR_065459

Prescribed reading for English, Leaving Cert, exam 1989.

If if could ever find the person who thought this was a good book for a teenager to read, to get them interested in reading, I'd nut them. It had the complete opposite effect.

My younger sisters prescribed reading for her Leaving cert 3 years later was To Kill a Mocking Bird, which I found in the house and read. And what a great read that was. Great movie too incidentally with one of my all time favorite male actors, Gregory Peck.

I remember Hard Times being one of the books for the 95 Leaving Cert. At the time I thought it was horrible book to read.

Oink

mariaalice wrote: »

The bible is a very interesting book full of allegory and myth.

More than that, it is full of love, passion, pain, lust, hate, violence, I mean - love or hate the religion, no one can deny the power and beauty of the words.

Psalm 23 still sends shivers down my spine. Imagine walking through the actual VALLEY OF DEATH. Jesus H.

granturismo

At Swim Two Birds and A Brief History of Time are two books that I couldnt get past the halfway mark.

QuintusFabius

alchemist33 wrote: »

American Psycho. Sadistic as f*ck and not quite as clever as it thinks it is.

I was about to post that, f*cking really really vile detail in that book.

I wouldn't recommend it.

[Deleted User]

I'm at the stage where if I'm finding a book not enjoyable/good or badly written I just don't bother with it..Pushed through one too many books that I regretted finishing..I don't bother anymore..

bob b

Different Seasons by Stephen King. The Shawshank redemption is good (but can only read it with Morgan Freeman's voice in my head) but the other stories are dark, especially the one with the SS guard. Thinking about it any book by Stephen King is ultimately depressing.

Nigel Fairservice

American Psycho (read it as a teenager years ago, enjoyed it) was the most messed up book I read for many years until I read snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. That was a messed up book!

I slogged my way through Shantaram a couple years ago. It was a torturous read but I started it so I had to finish. What bugged me the most about it was Roberts being intentionally vague on what is fact and what is fiction. Yes, he was a heroin addict that escaped from prison in Australia and fled to India but all that nonsense in Afghanistan...I don't think so.

bigar

mariaalice wrote: »

The bible is a very interesting book full of allegory and myth.

Indeed, the first part is one of the better fantasy novels and at times hilarious as well. It gets quite preachy near the and and loses its linear story telling. It is like a Stephen King novel: he often seem to have problems with how to end it properly.

Collie D

QuintusFabius wrote: »

I was about to post that, f*cking really really vile detail in that book.

I wouldn't recommend it.

I’ve posted this before on here but I genuinely don’t know what to make of it. It has an effect and stays with you so I suppose it could be argued that’s what a really great book is supposed to do. But on the other hand I thought it was stomach churning, overly graphic and I can’t help but think it was some kind of sick fantasy.

I remember the controversy when the movie came out and when I watched it I thought “I’ve certainly seen worse” and thought the fuss was a bit overblown. Read the book years later and finally understood.

Edit: Actually I do know what to make if it. Hated it.

KathleenGrant

All The President's Men. Mindnumbingly boring.

cannotlogin

I never managed to finish it but Louise O'Neill's Only Ever Yours - I found it distrubing beyond belief and could really get into despite making several attempts to try it.

I had read her other book Asking for It first which was tough but very good read - difficult to read as heavy subject matter but impossible to put down.

Aisling(",)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
Not the worst book I've read but I didn't really enjoy it and the ending frustrated me and left me unsatisfied.

Aisling(",)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
Not the worst book I've read but I didn't really enjoy it and the ending frustrated me and left me unsatisfied.

clunky

'Room', that kid was fair annoying

New Home

New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. I hated that book so much it made me angry. And the Lyonesse series by Jack Vance. Utter tripe.

Also, I really didn't like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel, and although I did like Life of Pi, I found Yann Martel's other books annoying.

The Pheasant2

Gravelly wrote: »

I really liked Pillars of The Earth!

Fwiw I also really liked it at first, but by the end it became very predictable. I wanted myself to like it because of the time investment reading it but I've decided to stop fooling myself. Some of the plot points are ridiculous/dumb.

Corruptedmorals

Catcher in the Rye. I couldn't even finish it I hated it so much. A character has never before or since provoked such hatred levels as that sanctimonious pretentious pre-tumblr knob did.

Danielle Steel, I tried 2 or 3 books of hers. So formulaic you can see the mechanics of the story and plot points because you can't get lost in the characters or story at all.

wiggle16

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.

Intensely unlikable protagonist and a pointlessly anticlimactic plot that leaves you hating him even more. Hesse said that the book was "violently misunderstood" because he was unable to accept how bad it was.

And it's just as bad in German as in English.

EDIT: oh oh oh and Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. If you do read it, remember to feed and water your budgie when spreading the pages across the bottom of his cage.

retro:electro

The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen.

Just totally stupid.

Sgt Hartman

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, definitely not one of his better efforts.

The Elder God's series by David Eddings, By that point in his writing career he clearly didn't give a sh!t anymore.

[Deleted User]

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Catcher in the Rye. I couldn't even finish it I hated it so much. A character has never before or since provoked such hatred levels as that sanctimonious pretentious pre-tumblr knob did.

'Catcher in the rye' was so bad..got maybe 30% through it..

Noodles81

'Jude the Obscure' is the one book I truly regretted reading. That ending. ..[/quote]

Oh God yes, I agree. I'd obviously put that in a dark recess of my mind. I was only 15 when I read it too.

Sgt Hartman

There's a series of childhood memoirs by a Limerick man named Paddy Taylor, the first being called Between the Three Bridges. He really dragged out the series though. There was at least four pages in a row where he just waffled on about Spotted Dick cake. I just gave up after that.

MrMusician18

"Will the real Gerry Ryan please stand up"

He was quite pompous in it. And it wasn't the whole story; biggest foible he admitted to was being a clean freak. Hmm...

Corruptedmorals

wiggle16 wrote: »

EDIT: oh oh oh and Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. If you do read it, remember to feed and water your budgie when spreading the pages across the bottom of his cage.

Oh God, and that's a pretty good one compared to some of the rest. The worst I have read and I've read almost all of them are one about wrongful birth case/brittle bone syndrome and a much earlier one with some Scottish clans in America and a murder case...I think. Awful beyond belief. So cringe worthy and pattern based.

Irish Guitarist

Left Behind. The plot was bad enough to begin with but it's also incredibly badly explained. There's one paragraph where a woman offers someone a lift home. He says no thanks. in the next sentence he's getting out of her car and thanking her for the lift. It completely skips any mention of him changing his mind about taking the lift from her.

That's just one example. The book is full of things that make no sense. I think I only read about a third of it before I couldn't take any more.