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Critically acclaimed books you hate?

BLITZ_Molloy

Everybody likes different things so it's only natural that some people hate what are generally regarded as classic pieces of literature. I'm probably going to be a bit vague cos I haven't read these books in ages.

Catcher In The Rye
The protagonist is boring, pretentious and just drifts about in a morose angsty teenage fashion. He's a mopey, self pitying little tosser and I'd rather not listen to his moaning. The 1950's dialogue is horribly dated. It feels 10 times longer than the 250 or so pages.

Lord of the Rings
Admittedly I'm not a huge fan of fantasy novels in general, but the ones that I do enjoy like Wizard of Earthsea ramble less and make a hell of alot more sense. Gandalf is the only good guy who's able to take care of himself, yet he tends to feck off at various points for no reason, despite the ring being the most important thing to him. So you've got the Hobbits left to save the world by themselves, which they do through pure luck because they're utterly powerless, or because Gandalf decides to magically reappear and save the day.

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Dades

skybluejay wrote: »

I can't stand Tom Wolfe - I really hate the way he writes.

In recent times I've encountered so many people who've read Catcher in the Rye and reckoned it was massively over-rated. I adored the book when I read it, but I was about 14 at the time. I wonder is it a book you can only really relate to when you're an angsty teenager yourself?

Must be. I was well out my teens when I hated it.

In my teens I was too busy reading and re-reading Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities.

buck65

Anna Karenina - booorrriiinnng
Ulysses was ok (read half)

skippy26

catch 22
dubliners
tender is the night

Chinafoot

fasterkitten wrote: »

The Gathering infuriated me.

Oh god! I hated that book. It was a real struggle to finish it and all I kept thinking was "what a selfish, self-indulgent, moany cow".

North and South was another one for me. She was SO irritating.

john77

Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes. Someone wrote a review of it on Amazon wishing that they could sue the writer for wasting their time. I'm sorry I hadn't read their comments before picking up the book.

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk wasn't quite as bad but still i thought it'd never end.

The Sportswriter by Richard Ford was also a huge disappointment.

theCzar

I read Catcher in the Rye recently and didn't think it was so hot, not bad... just not that memorable. I also had a hard time getting through My Name is Red, I liked the idea of the book and the way the story was told but I couldn't get into the asian minaturist painting stuff and found myself willing it to end so I could find who-bloody-dunnit.

K4t

I think it's become common, even popular among literary snobs to bash 'Cather in the eye' :rolleyes:

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

Zaph

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway - possibly the dullest, most boring book on the planet

Of Mice and Men/The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - close runners-up to Hemmingway

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre - proof that just about any old shíte can win a literary award these days. I kept reading in the hope it would get better. It didn't.

cautioner

Catcher in the Rye = bollocks.

I'm really pleasantly surprised that it's been mentioned so much in this thread, always thought I was the only one who didn't see the big deal.

Greyfox

BLITZ_Molloy wrote: »

Catcher In The Rye
The protagonist is boring, pretentious and just drifts about in a morose angsty teenage fashion. He's a mopey, self pitying little tosser and I'd rather not listen to his moaning. The 1950's dialogue is horribly dated. It feels 10 times longer than the 250 or so pages.

Lord of the Rings
Admittedly I'm not a huge fan of fantasy novels in general, but the ones that I do enjoy like Wizard of Earthsea ramble less and make a hell of alot more sense. Gandalf is the only good guy who's able to take care of himself, yet he tends to feck off at various points for no reason, despite the ring being the most important thing to him. So you've got the Hobbits left to save the world by themselves, which they do through pure luck because they're utterly powerless, or because Gandalf decides to magically reappear and save the day.

I'm absolutely delighted to see this post as I couldn't agree more!

I think with catcher it comes down to wheter or not you liked Holden and I didn't like him as all he did was whinge and moan...no wonder he had no friends...he slags all these peoplle off calling them phoney that he meets on his journey but it's clear that all these people would of thought that he was a complete loser!

I absolutely love fantasy books but for me the Lord of the Rings is very, very overratted. The descriptions of things went on and on and on and on...I don't care about trees, mountains, rivers, caves etc I care about bleedn characters...the pages and pages of descriptions drove me mad as their were times when you were reminded that its a very good initial plot or that Gollun was a good character but their were no plot twists or surprises, Sauron didn't do a lot in the end and Sam never stopped moaning!

Charles Dickens's books are almost as boreing as the ultra reliable sleeping pills known as Ulysees!

missmatty

Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Had it for the LC and absolutely HATED it, most depressing pointless book ever

Hermy

I thought The Great Gatsby was terribly overrated. I was expecting something really memorable and instead it was utterly forgetable.

nervous_twitch

I read Catcher in the Rye when I was about fourteen as well; I thought it was the bees knees back then.. now I'm afraid to re-read it in case I hate it.

+1 for The Road. Perhaps my expecations were too high after hearing all the semi-orgasmic adulation it received, I just found it dull and entirely forgettable.

Phototoxin

Shadowmarch (its a trilogy apparantly.. waay too drawn out)

Dan Brown in general.. just a toser who basically writes tabloid level stuff.

Priestess of the white

Terry Pratchett.. can see the attempts to be funny and it spoils it. Also not interesting.

Didn't like Philip Pulman - His Dark Materials.

victoriaa

the great gatsby by fitzgerald.

leprehaungirl

The Gathering was god awful.. I battled through it then gave up about 75% in. Just couldnt hack it.

Its been said that if you read Catcher in the Rye after the age of 16 you'll hate it... although before hand you'll love it. I read it when i was 12 and liked it although must pick it up sometime again to see!

IronMan

I found the master and the margarita to be a very difficult read. Like many Russian novels, it may have been down to the translation I read.

The_Minister

Phototoxin wrote: »

Terry Pratchett.. can see the attempts to be funny and it spoils it. Also not interesting.

Smack.

The_Minister

cautioner wrote: »

Catcher in the Rye = bollocks

That need to be a t-shirt.

Lone

fasterkitten wrote: »

The Gathering infuriated me.

Me too, there were some lovely passages but the overwhelming tone of self pity killed it for me.

Reganio 2

Lord of the rings. Just couldn't get through it no matter how hard I tried. Must have tried about 3 times and just can't get past like the 50th page.

Ed D.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. The story behind its publication is pretty amazing and I wanted to like it for that alone. Instead I thought it was heavy-handed and self-satisfied, a broad lampoon with nothing beneath its cartoonish plot and characters. People I respect raved about this book, but I just didn't get it.

silvine

Lots of Catcher in the Rye haters here! I haven't read it yet. I loved the Road, thought it was very well written.

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre - Tries too hard, not that funny and not that clever.

The Historian - boring indulgent slow moving tripe.

The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole - The only good one was the first one.

kincsem

I would have preferred Hitchikers Guide To The Ford Galaxy. :pac:

oponodon

I found Farenheit 451 extremely dull. I cant believe people talk about it the same way as classics like 1984 or Brave new world....

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

superconor

Harry Potter.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Psychedelic

Herman Hesse - The Glass Bead Game
Homer - The Odyssey
Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

Incredibly boring the lot of them.

Re: Catcher in the Rye, i first read it as a teenager and have read it several times since and still love it.

Stevieo

Sandor wrote: »

Oh ya, Jane Austin. Though I don't know if that's just because I'm a man. Probably not worth mentioning.

Incredibly unfair comment methinks. I thought Pride and Prejudice was outstanding, and I'm a guy. Just because your genitals aren't the same as the protagonist's or the author's, doesn't make a book of lesser quality as a piece of literature!

That said, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is BALLS...