Books that have let you down

[neurochic]

I hated the Hobbit so much I refuse to read LOTR. My high school ex was always on me to read it and...no.

I also hated Grapes of Wrath - I don't give a fuck about spit rolling in the dust and I had no sympathy for the Joads at all. I mean, wasting a dollar on maple syrup even though you know you're going to be out of money the next day? hell no. Don't expect me to feel bad for you if you make stupid decisions. God, I loathed that book. Still do, apparently.

I also read (or tried to read) 120 Days of Sodom. Maybe it was a really bad translation, but first, I thought deSade was just an awful writer. Second, I didn't think it was all that interesting despite all the detailed descriptions of the things the libertines were doing. Third, the word "libertine" was just way overused. A book that is all nasty kinky nastiness just shouldn't be that boring, you know? Blech.

However, count me with the people who liked Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Though I did like Nine Stories better.
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[Gigi]

Aww, this thread is making me sad. I loved The DaVinci Code! It definitely wasn't the most well-written book I've ever read, but I liked the story. And I've been wanting to read On The Road for quite some time, but it's always checked out at the library. I'll probably still read it, but now I'm a little wary.

Add me to the list of people unimpressed by Catcher in the Rye.One of my friends was so impressed by Holden that she was like, "I'd want to date a grown-up version of this guy!" So, inspired by her passion, I read the book and thought, "This guy? Really?" He's so whiny and irritating...I never understand the constant props given to this character.

Not really books, but I have hated everything by Shakespeare I have ever read. Hated Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III. Hated the sonnets, too. I was taught by crappy teachers and amazing teachers, I studied it in class and on my own. I just cannot bring myself to like Shakespeare. Appreciate, yes. Like, no.

The only Barbara Kingsolver book I've read is The Bean Trees, and I absolutely loved it. It was summer reading for my freshman honors English class. I don't think I completely appreciated it at that age (I was 13!) but I reread it a few years later and fell in love with it all over again. I think I'll reread it again, actually...

Oh, and I LOVED The Great Gatsby.

[rahime]

I think everybody should read the Poisonwood Bible! I like Barbara Kingsolver, but the other stuff I've read by her doesn't even compare to PB. (I haven't read anything she wrote since then, except non-fiction - just the early stuff and then Poisonwood Bible, but it's on a whole other level from the things she wrote before it.)
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[Rzngrl]

Barbara Kingsolvers Prodigal Summer was the biggest waste of my time. So boring and pointless.
I haven't read anything else of hers since, and even though I hear good things about The Poisonwood Bible, I'm not sure I can force myself to try her again. So unbelievably boring.
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[smalltowngirl]

A Clockwork Orange.

Good god, any book where you have to look up every other word in the back irritates the hell out of me!

btw nicegirl I ordered Tim Gunn's book for the library and read it. It was a fun read, hehe!

[cloche]

I love this thread, but it reminds me of what a bad memory I have. Catcher in the Rye? Great Gatsby? Grapes of Wrath? Read them all in high school and barely remember anything!

That said, I have started Breakfast of Champions several times and get bored, yet I'm a Vonnegut fan.

I won't even pick up Jane Austen because the descriptions alone make me want to scratch my eyes out!

(edited because I can't type today)

[bellydance]

Aww, I loved A Clockwork Orange! *sob.*

As for LOTR, I loved them all (the Hobbit is kind of dull though, I admit.) However, I too never got through the 2nd one when I first tried at age 12 or so. It's definitely not for everyone so I won't argue with anyone who couldn't get into it!

I also loved The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. But, I have to agree with everyone who mentioned the Bronte sisters. Anybody out there love them?

These two don't really fall into the category of "books that let me down" so much as "books I was forced to read and hated immensely": Dracula and the f'ing Red Badge of Courage. Their crappiness is burned into my subconscious.
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[knitting_pretty]

When I read Catcher in the Rye during that golden 'nobody understands me' period, I loved it, and empathized with Holden, since, you know, we were both so real and everyone else was so phony.

And when I read it in university, Holden came off as a whiny, irritating brat. He is a somewhat unlikable and untrustworthy narrator, but I think that is why I like the book now. So much of the narrative and its humor is derived from being able to read more into the story than Holden is able to.

And I just really love the dialect that J.D. Salinger writes in. All of his characters are so blasé and melodramatic.

I do get really tired of every third book being called "a catcher in the rye" for this generation, or protagonists being "one part Holden Caulfield, one part somebody else" or whatever. So cliché.[/i]

[iskra]

[girlonthewing]

[rachiepachie]

agreed, girlonthewing. i love the bronte's...i remember my housemate at uni once almost stabbing me with a kitchen knife because i said i much preferred the bronte's to jane eyre. (we were cooking, it's not as dramatic as it sounds...but it's all ha ha ha until somebody loses an eye...) i think it's the whole gothic epic thing - i much prefer that to societeh and dancing. the only austen i do love love love is persuasion, though, and i will defend that to the end.

i millionth "catcher in the rye" and "on the road" as being totally disappointing. i think i read "catcher" too late on in life though - i was sort of through my holden caulfield stage by that point...i think if i'd read it at 14 or so i would've loved it. in a similar vein, though, i did like "the perks of being a wallflower" by somebody chomsky (i think)...kind of like a less "goddamn" annoying version of "catcher in the rye." i thought.

other books that let me down.......erm.....thomas hardy. cannot get into him at all, but feel like i should. and margaret atwood only really gets me every other book or so of hers i read. and i really want to like "wicked" and the other gregory maguire fairytales but i just cannot get into them at all. which is a shame.

and in closing i just want to add a little "hooray" for little women...it was getting a bit down trodden in the first few pages, and i wanted to just say cough iloveit cough. but it was one of the first proper books i read, with my mother, and i can't remember the first time i watched the (old, june alyson/elizabeth taylor) film...so i think a lot of my love for it comes form the memories it conjures up of my childhood and family. it's like home in a book for me. but i can dig people being turned off by the moralism (moralisation?) and even i, devotee that i am, can agree that beth is nauseatingly good. bless her little heart.

and...i love this thread :) threads like this are why i love glitter.

[madgeylou]

a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. i found it staggeringly tedious and gave up after about 40 pages.

[daysleeper]

I love love love love love Jane Eyre.

Tuesdays with Morrie Not that I had such high hopes for something so media saturated, but that book was pure crap. We all die.

Heartbreaking... genius I did read the whole thing, but it was another book that I thought was basically crap. It was also 200 pages too long.

I dont commit to books that dont interest me, so I can't really think of any others.

[greenbean]

[alice-palace]

rachiepachie, i totally agree about thomas hardy. ugh!