• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

What books have you hated?

Lately, I'll start skimming books I dislike. I feel like at least I've given them a chance to get better, but without wasting too much of my time
 
Violanthe said:
I'm still trying to talk myself into reading the DaVinci code
Click to expand...
Everybody seems to hate Dan Brown. I rather like him. I don't care about all the controversy either...its just a fictional story. He has a great writing style too, the kind I can't put down. If you're just looking for a fun story..I'd recommend it. However, do avoid citing it in a thesis.
 
Catch-22.. I hated it. This was not a book I chose to read, but an assignment. We then spent a good 3 weeks analyzing it to death. The whole paradox thing just wore me out.
 
I think the books that I've hated reading were all in English.

1. Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech
2. My Brother Sam Is Dead - A bad writer I don't remember
3. The Pearl - John Steinbeck
4. The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald

The last two I can begin to appreciate from a writing stand point, even if the characters made me want to slap everyone within a five foot radius. Sharon Creech needs to get over herself. Gah, that book makes me angry.
 
Conrad

Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, anything by Conrad as you see. I finished them because I had to do so for the exams, but I didn't like the world they take you to. I don't mind the style and language, it's a subjective point of view, but I didn't like them at all.:confused:
 
Hate is a strong word, if I dislike a book enough I would simply stop reading. Now humans on the other hand...;)
 
I hate Hemmingway. Every now and then I feel bad and try to give him a second change, but it never works. I still hate him. Enough said.
 
Everybody seems to hate Dan Brown. I rather like him. I don't care about all the controversy either...its just a fictional story. He has a great writing style too, the kind I can't put down. If you're just looking for a fun story..I'd recommend it. However, do avoid citing it in a thesis.
Click to expand...

I listened to the unabridged audiobook. It was fine, as plot-centered books go. The characters were wooden and a few of the twists pretty predictable.
 
I think I'm the only one on the planet who hates Gregory Maguire. I read Wicked a few years ago, and only finished out of guilt since the book was a gift from my father. I tried again with Son of a Witch but had to give up. Maguire still writes in the same grating way he did 10 years ago. Anyone else hate his books?
 
alice in wonderland-lewis carroll(the guy was serious on drugs when he wrote this! and alice is an idiot..."o look a baby, hey i think ill just steal this baby, o hey the baby turns into a pig, bye bye pig..) (sorry i just really need to vent that out...)

Jane Erye-Charlotte Bronte (pointless whinny girl...)
 
raffaellabella said:
Pride and Prejudice. The characters are phlegmatic and stolid. And I beleive this novel was considered a great love story. *huh*?
Click to expand...

You're kidding, right? Firstly, it's not a love story, it's social satire. And the characters - some of the very best in English literature. Mrs Bennett - the original 'airhead' perhaps? Lizzie Bennett - one of the best female protagonists ever. Mr Darcy - not what you first think, turns out to be a real 'good egg', integrity is his middle name! Mr Bennett - such a dry sense of humour. Lady Catherine - an 18th century Lady Bracknell. Just a few examples.

Read it again please!
 
I had not yet met someone who hated Alice in Wonderland :eek:

Just for your information, since you're clearly wrong!, it's the greatest book ever written!!!

:)
 
Mattyj said:
Catch-22.. I hated it. This was not a book I chose to read, but an assignment. We then spent a good 3 weeks analyzing it to death. The whole paradox thing just wore me out.
Click to expand...

Okay, I know that this comment is a tiny bit late, but I'm just surprised that no one commented on this being THE FUNNIEST BOOK EVER written in the history of man!

But I have to admit that books tend to depreciate in enjoyment value when it gets shoved down one's throat.

DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterlay's Lover hands down. No one is as clueless about women as Lawrence was...
 
I found Lady C quite alienating. While the plot drives her actions forward on a macro level, I couldn't grasp the way she thought or act. She was strangely un-woman.

And the "sex scenes" for which the book was infamous? Pleeeeaaasssee... look who's playing guessing games now. I don't like reading books that were written on "educated" guesses.

Either that, or Lawrence's wife was a really good liar despite their disappointing marriage. :)
 
Jane Eyre. Hated it!! But I guess this is my own fault. I kept hearing that it was a "gothic novel," but never really bothered to find out what that means, exactly. So you can pretty much follow how confused I got as the book went from seeming like a love story to seeing it turn into some kind of Dracula-ish thing (people getting stabbed and almost burned at night? Seriously. . .). I also didn't like Bronte's depiction of the mentally deranged (she described Bertha Mason as savage), mainly because I have a family member in that position and felt insulted by the description.

And I hated Jane. She's just so humorless. I know the book wasn't supposed to be funny at all, but I really hate it when the main characters don't have any form of humor. Jane wasn't funny, or mildly funny, or remotely funny, and she wasn't sarcastic. Not even in one little scene was Jane funny. She was just this little poor orphan who knew right from wrong everywhere and was always morally superior to everyone. Give me a break.
 
oh my bookworm27. That is a reaction if I've ever seen one! Such a shame that it was presented to you as a gothic novel and not a gentle feminist classic. Heroines dont' need to breathe fire or wave wands in order to be magical. ;) Let's see....I hated Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler. Mundane people in a car. Give me Jane scrounging on the moors anyday.
 
i'm not sure what you expected from 'gothic novel' but it's not a modern vampire story where everyone dresses all in black. AT the time this was written, this was an entire genre meant to be romantic and slightly scary(although to modern readers it isn't). I think the biggest problem for you was that you expected it to be something that it wasn't, because you're used to reading things that are more modern.
 
Notibuti said:
I found Lady C quite alienating. While the plot drives her actions forward on a macro level, I couldn't grasp the way she thought or act. She was strangely un-woman.

And the "sex scenes" for which the book was infamous? Pleeeeaaasssee... look who's playing guessing games now. I don't like reading books that were written on "educated" guesses.

Either that, or Lawrence's wife was a really good liar despite their disappointing marriage. :)
Click to expand...


My mother is a great fan of DH Lawrence and she was telling me the other day that many speculate that he was gay.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top