s/o: What books (that you were supposed to love) did you hate?

[notjustmamie]

Spinning off from "When Do You Give Up On A Book?"

What books were highly recommended but you just really disliked?

Ooh, and WHY?

[Sailor]

Terry Goodkind - at one point, it seemed like everyone around me was reading him and just loving his series. I got through the first book in his Sword series, and then I couldn't do it any more. I thought it was one of the worst series ever. Too much focus on rape ... I thought the second book might be better, but no - back to more rape. Ugh.

Richard Adams for a similar reason in Maia. A lot of people recommended that book to me, and I just couldn't get past the first few chapters.

Diana Gabaldon - the Outlander books. Again, too much rape.

Hmmm ... I'm seeing a theme in my dislikes! I just can't handle books where there is SO much violence against women in it. I can handle one scene or one bad event, but at one point it just becomes too much for me.

[Princess ConsuelaB]

Wuthering Heights is a piece of cr*p:

Also I hate everything by Barbara Kingsolver...I just don't dig it(I'm sorry Barbara Kingsolver)

[HappilyEvrAfter]

Originally Posted by Princess ConsuelaB

Wuthering Heights is a piece of cr*p:

Lol. I tend to agree. Finished it, but didn't overly enjoy it. The movie, ok, yes, but the book was "meh".

Maeve Binchy. I know tons of people that enjoy her books, but I can't get into any of them.

[philomom]

This book I nearly threw out. I would have like to burn it. I though it was a horrible piece of drek... I cannot believe this won so high of an award.

http://worldliteratures.suite101.com...r_wao_a_review

[AuntNi]

The Poisonwood Bible. I found it so deeply disturbing, and developed a debilitating snake phobia after reading it.

I thought the Twilight books were horribly-written crap. And James Patterson. And most of Anne Rice's books.

I agree about too much rape in the Outlander books. But I was so entranced with the story premise that I tried to overlook it.

[zinemama]

Pretty much every thing by Robert Heinlein. I find his books annoyingly sexist and boring.

And yes, as an English major and a Bronte fan in general it pains me to admit this, but I just could not feel the love for Wuthering Heights. The characters got on my nerves.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by Sailor

Diana Gabaldon - the Outlander books. Again, too much rape.

Hmmm ... I'm seeing a theme in my dislikes! I just can't handle books where there is SO much violence against women in it.

I find that interesting. IMO, the most violent rape in the Outlander books has nothing to do with women. There is a bit much of it, overall, though. Mind you, I honestly remember more attempted rapes than ones that succeeded, especially in the early books.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by zinemama

Pretty much every thing by Robert Heinlein. I find his books annoyingly sexist and boring.

I'm always interested by this. Heinlein's been my favourite author since I was 11. While I can see how some people find him boring (different people like different writing styles), I don't get the "sexist" thing. I've heard it before, though.

[Storm Bride]

For me, the ones I "should have liked" are both fantasy series (naturally).

Wheel of Time. Ugh. Recommended by everybody in the universe, and I have no idea why. I call it the "Wheel of Tedium". Overwrought writing. Flat characters who go nowhere. Annoying sexual stereotypes coming out the wazzo (I have no idea why this series gets so many kudos for "strong female characters", unless it's intended as a joke). They're just soooo bad.

A Song of Ice and Fire. Fantasy can be brutal and violent. I get that. I love Conan. I actually enjoy Terry Goodkind, although he gets pretty brutal sometimes. George Martin goes way too far for me. REALLY nasty stuff. I hate almost every character. There are too many characters and there have been so many massive plot changes that I'm not even sure what the point is, anymore. They just don't work for me.

[LaLaLaLa]

"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. Get a job, ya bum. I read it three times--once myself in high school, once myself in college, and once for a grad-school class. I hated it all three times, and kept trying really hard to see in it what so many others see in it.

I second the "Outlander" book, although what did it for me was not the rapes but the fact that the guy (Jamie?) beat the girl (don't remember her name at all) and she was pissed for, like, a day, but then forgave him. Because it was for her own good and all. If anyone ever feels justified in physically punishing me, there's not a chance. I was so mad at her character that I couldn't possibly read any more.

[Fyrestorm]

I have always been a HUGE Steven King fan and have tried at least half a dozen times to get through the Gun Slinger series. I have yet to make it through the first book!

:and will I get tomatoes thrown at me for saying.......:

Lord of the rings? I mean really...3 pages describing walking through a field? Really?

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by LaLaLaLa

I second the "Outlander" book, although what did it for me was not the rapes but the fact that the guy (Jamie?) beat the girl (don't remember her name at all) and she was pissed for, like, a day, but then forgave him. Because it was for her own good and all. If anyone ever feels justified in physically punishing me, there's not a chance. I was so mad at her character that I couldn't possibly read any more.

What's really off the wall is that in some ways, she's an incredibly strong character. I liked her romance with Jamie...except for how it started. I have to agree it was pretty nauseating. Those books actually present some interesting thoughts on different times and places. I don't know if I'd have forgiven him (can't imagine I would have), but she really would have been much, much worse off with almost anybody else she'd have met.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

:and will I get tomatoes thrown at me for saying.......:

Lord of the rings? I mean really...3 pages describing walking through a field? Really?

I actually found them really mediocre the first time I read them. Then, I read them again, and they just...clicked. Awesome. I love them so much now.

[Kritto]

I have never been able to get all the way through The Catcher in the Rye without throwing the book across the room multiple times. Holden is just so shallow and infuriating to me that I get fed up. I keep hoping I'll be more mature about it, so I try to read it again (every 5 years or so). But no, I still throw it and swear to never try again.

[kirstenb]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

:and will I get tomatoes thrown at me for saying.......:

Lord of the rings? I mean really...3 pages describing walking through a field? Really?

I've never been able to get into them either. Love the movies though!

[Teensy]

Lord of the rings? I mean really...3 pages describing walking through a field? Really?

I could handle the descriptions in English. It was the many pages of Elvish that drove me nuts.

My I-hated-it-book: The Fountainhead. I had suggested it for my book club one month so I forced my self to continue reading until the end, but ugh, what a long, uninteresting story. It you are going to write an allegory to portray your (very bad, IMHO) philosophical views, make it a short one.

[KYCat]

I find this fascinating. Everyone is affected by things so differently.

The most recent one for me is [U]The Road[U] by Cormac McCarthy. I could not relate to the main character at all and it was so desolate I could hardly stand it. I only finished it because I had to believe that any second things would change. My bookclub read it and many others loved it and recommend it to people, leading me only to say wtf????

Kritto - I picked Catcher in the Rye for my book club selection. With school starting I decided to go with a short classic. I'll let you know if I throw it across the room.

On the flip side -- I was sure that I'd hate the Twilight series. It isn't well written but the story grabbed me and carried me through the whole series (many times )

[AoifesMom]

Edgar Sawtelle. Was so mad I trudged all the way through for nothing.

[Chamomile Girl]

Oliver Twist. What a work of shallow moralistic crap. Actually, everything by Dickins rubs me the wrong way...pity since he is my hubbie's fave.

On that same note the book Bleak House sucks but the recent mini-series is great.

I third the Wuthering Heights diss. Heathcliff is not an antihero, he's just a jerk.

I also couldn't stand Beloved.