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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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thebullkf

dazza_480 wrote: »

the wheel of time series
those books aren't good

yeah they keep going round in circles:D

seriously though......they're not small books...you read them ALL????

even though they weren't good?

Funkfield

Breakfast At Tiffanys.

Holly Golightly?

The most god awful twunt I ever read about.

Acacia

Reading Anne Enright's "The Gathering" is akin to having your pubes pulled out slowly... dear god, it was awful.

jackcee

Acacia wrote: »

Reading Anne Enright's "The Gathering" is akin to having your pubes pulled out slowly... dear god, it was awful.

You are so right.

questioner

jackcee wrote: »

You are so right.

thats on the shelf at home waiting to be read. perhaps its best if it stays there.

FoxT

Nuff said.:D

Morlar

Blasphemy. I must re-read Peig at some point. Re 'the gathering' - haven't read that yet but would expect it to be at least good.

xoixo

'A Million Little Pieces' by James Frey, you know the book that became huge on account of Oprah Winfrey's word, and then turned out that the true story was more fictional than the author had led on and people went insane.

Whether the story was real, fake or what - it was the most tedious read of my life. Main character was an absolute idiot, when I should have been in awe of his rebel ways.

Also two Brett Eason Ellis books I've read - Less Than Zero and the Rules of Attraction. Hated them.

thebullkf

xoixo wrote: »

'A Million Little Pieces' by James Frey, you know the book that became huge on account of Oprah Winfrey's word, and then turned out that the true story was more fictional than the author had led on and people went insane.

Whether the story was real, fake or what - it was the most tedious read of my life. Main character was an absolute idiot, when I should have been in awe of his rebel ways.

Also two Brett Eason Ellis books I've read - Less Than Zero and the Rules of Attraction. Hated them.

surprised @ that.....i loved it.

each to their own though.

i wasn't too fond of the danté club...matthew pearl.....

tHE vAGGABOND

surprised @ that.....i loved it.

agreed, I enjoyed it too [regardless of its honesty!]. But as you say, each to their own.

sidelines

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead
Torture doesn't begin to describe it.

Kold

Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes

I hate hate hate his style of writing. He has a way of using 50 boring sentences where one would have sufficed.

HavingCrack

The Kindly Ones by Jonathon Littell-absolute rubbish.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series-possibly decent in Swedish but the translation to English reads strangely (The rape scenes are overly graphic also..)
Brooklyn by Colm Tobin. Critics raved about this book but I just found it rambling and inconclusive with lots of gaps in the storyline.
Last Train to Liguria-I skipped every second page..

Eoin

I thought I had posted this earlier, but "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. Found it hard work.

Optimalprimerib

the millenium trilogy. Well the 2 i read anyway. I was hoping to like them and struggled through them, but they just bored me. It took me almost 7 months to read the second one. I think ill avoid the final addition

Monkeybonkers

I don't know how critically acclaimed it is but I hated At Swim Two Birds by Flann O Brien.

Your Airbag

Atlas shrugged, long and pointless.

fillefatale

Giselle wrote: »

I've abandoned nearly everything by Jane Austen that I started, but apart from Emma I haven't been able to sustain enough interest to finish anything.

Its boring chick-lit with added corset, and the characters are annoying as hell.

Absolutely. I'd watch an Austen adaption though just for the well heeled dashing eye candy they predictably dish out.

I like Emily Bronte as her heroine isn't so wooden.

pappyodaniel

Anything by Kerouac,
1984,
The Count of Monte Cristo,

Can I include the Bible?

Malari

pappyodaniel wrote: »

Anything by Kerouac,
1984,
The Count of Monte Cristo,

Can I include the Bible?

Ach, was thinking of starting this tome. Maybe I'll try to find something else

hacked

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

I'm sorry, but he wrote in so many different accents that unless you were scottish, or knew the accents it was just hard work to read. I got 100 pages in and quit because I felt like I was working waaaay too hard for something that was supposed to be for pleasure!

Aglomerado

Kate Mosse's Labyrinth was a load of arse. (not sure if it comes under the heading Critically Acclaimed or not though)

Malari

Aglomerado wrote: »

Kate Mosse's Labyrinth was a load of arse. (not sure if it comes under the heading Critically Acclaimed or not though)

Oh yeah, that was truly awful. The characterisation was laughable.

hacked

Funny you say that cause i'm actually just about to start reading it! I started reading it last year, but didnt have the concentration. I remember it being a little slow and had a hard time getting into it...

OxfordComma

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I just absolutely loathed James's writing style... It's really awful, so awkward and convoluted, and makes what could have been a good read into something horrendously boring that I struggled to finish. And I have a sneaking suspicion that most of the curiosity surrounding the plot is a result of James being deliberately vague. The characters really annoyed me too!

cobsie

I really disliked The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak. I thought it took FOREVER to tell what was essentially a pretty simple story. It was emotionally manipulative, too, really playing on your sympathy for the children at the centre of the narrative. The device of having it narrated by Death was very overwrought and some of the prose absolutely made me cringe. "a breakfast-coloured sky" still stands out in my mind! I only read it because my 14yr old nephew gave it to me and I wanted to be supportive!

tHE vAGGABOND

The Count of Monte Cristo

Must say its one of my all time fav's - but each to their own

af_thefragile

cobsie wrote: »

I really disliked The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak. I thought it took FOREVER to tell what was essentially a pretty simple story. It was emotionally manipulative, too, really playing on your sympathy for the children at the centre of the narrative. The device of having it narrated by Death was very overwrought and some of the prose absolutely made me cringe. "a breakfast-coloured sky" still stands out in my mind! I only read it because my 14yr old nephew gave it to me and I wanted to be supportive!

I thought that book was one of the best written books I read. There was so much emotion in it, you could really feel sorry for the girl and see the world through her eyes.

But well, everyone has their tastes.

hacked

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Loved the musical, but the book? Two massive vloumes worth hours and hours of headache! Hugo must have been reallllly trying to get something out of his system when writing this. I Was in a school production of the music when I was 16 and decided to read the book afterwards. This was probably my first mistake, as once you know the story you KNOW that the Vicar, while an important character, has a very small role....hardly worth the hundred plus pages given him!! Waaaaayyyyy too much detail!

Giselle

Your Airbag wrote: »

Atlas shrugged, long and pointless.

I HATED that book, long, pointless AND stupid.