Current Events > What's a book you didn't like?

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Star Wars books The Empire Strikes Back and The Truce at Bakura.

Empire was in the mid-90s before I saw the movie, the part with Han and Leia in space felt like an eternity.

Bakura I read a couple years ago and I really liked the setting and story but too many names of the characters were just disruptive to read. Like how snack mixes used to have much thicker rye chips that you really had to bite into when you only had to chew the rest of the mix.

My Antonia

It was just unrelatable and boring.

MacadamianNut3 posted...

Now this is one of my favorite books and we're gonna have to fight probably

Probably, perhaps we can have a feisty tsundere arc.

We had to read Pride and Prejudice in school. I don't even remember anything about it other than hating it.

Surprisingly, Jurassic Park.

It's too cynical about the dinosaurs. The novel is aware of what the movie makes you forget: they're not real dinosaurs, they're just lab-created imitations. They appear, they disappear, and it's back to ranting about capitalism and the commercialization of science. The characters are threadbare as well. Michael Crichton himself admitted that he was not good at character writing. Ian Malcolm and John Hammond were entertaining, but Alan Grant had more personality in his opening scene in the movie than he had in the entire novel upon which it was based.

I respect it for laying the groundwork for a movie that I've seen nine times at the theater alone. But, yeah, I wasn't a big fan. The sequel is better, but it's really trying to follow the same tone as the movie and not the first novel. It's a shame because the second movie disregarded 95% of what was in the second book and just did it's own thing anyway.

Jurassic Park (movie) > Lost World (book) > Lost World (movie) > Jurassic Park (book)

Feel free to tell me I have terrible opinions.

tommybel89 posted...

I'm like 25 pages into A Clockwork Orange and I am not liking the dialect of the book. F***ing hard to follow and I've seen that movie like 3 times at least. My only saving grace is that I SORTA know what's happening due to remembering the movie, kind of.

I was never able to get very far in that book for the same reason.

The edition I tried to read even had a list of all the slang and what it meant, but I still wasn't interested in reading beyond the first little bit.

Powdered_Toast posted...

We had to read Pride and Prejudice in school. I don't even remember anything about it other than hating it.

A lot of shit they made us read in school was just lost on high school me. I was never interested in much of anything they wanted us to read.

Anthem is so fucking barf.

Not counting books I had to read for school.

Dracula immediately comes to mind. It had some moments but it was kind of a trudge. Plus having consumed at least 5 versions of it before actually attempting to read it didn't help.

The one and only Warcraft book I attempted back around WC3/WoW days. I don't even remember the title.
I enjoy fantasy, have made it through 14 or so of the Drizzt books, a bunch by Simon R Green, etc, but I just can't do anything Blizzard or even SWEU.

I guess in hindsight, I really didn't like the final book of The Dark Tower series. It was just an unsatisfying mess. Eddie dies, and his last words are to...warn them about the next big bad they're going to encounter on the road? Jake dies in order to bring the series jumping up its own ass full-circle? Susanna...okay, maybe this is inappropriate and contrary to the spirit of the character and coming to terms with her disability, but if I were in her position and met a magic artist who could make anything reality with pen and paper, my first thought would be 'give me my legs back, dammit!' The Man in Black is unceremoniously killed by Roland's spidery love-child, who then unceremoniously kills Oy and quickly gets unceremoniously killed himself? We finally meet the Crimson King and he's...got nothing better to do that lob Harry Potter-themed grenades at Roland, and is quickly dispatched by the party newbie who literally erases him from existence?

Ironically, the only thing I did like was what everyone else hated: the true ending of Roland being stuck in a time loop.

A series of Unfortunate Events

Fuck The Great Gatsby.
Stupid ass book, I don't care if it's a "classic" it fucking sucks and I hate it.

Recently - Mexican Gothic, the premise looked great and it won a bunch of awards so I was excited. Didn't like it one bit

Lol, I read 12 Rules for Life and it was fine. It's fairly bland is the issue, although I did like the scenes where he would describe the desolate Canadian winters where he grew up.

I tried reading Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky but could only get 3 chapters in.

Dracula, ended up mostly skimming to the end.

TerraSeeker posted...

A series of Unfortunate Events

Thats disappointing. Ive wanted to read that ever since Stephen Merritt did an album with a song for each book.

ArchNemo posted...

Dracula, ended up mostly skimming to the end.

I like the book, but have to admit it loses a LOT of its mystery and momentum once it's outside of the castle. Hell, Harker even says the castle itself is worse than the Count. IOW, that castle has a story but Stoker wasn't interested in telling it.

It goes from creepy and atmospheric to love letters and "chase the vampire."

SiO4 posted...

I knew someone would say that.
It always comes up in these discussions.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is a great author.
I suppose I wish School pushed The House of The Seven Gables, more.
Chippings With a Chisel, is amazing as well.

I like Hawthorne too.

I like Anne Rice's work but Queen of the Damned just didn't click for me. Very disappointing.

The Gunslinger, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower were the first books that came to mind. Loved Drawing of the Three, Wastelands, and Wolves of the Calla (and Wizard & Glass after a slooowww early-middle), but those other three...

Ready Player One was hot garbage and I cannot understand the love some people have for it. I'm very forgiving of bad writing but jesus that was bad.

Mega_Mana posted...

The Gunslinger, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower were the first books that came to mind. Loved Drawing of the Three, Wastelands, and Wolves of the Calla (and Wizard & Glass after a slooowww early-middle), but those other three...

I swear I'm the only person who loved Song of Susannah >.>;

FortuneCookie posted...

Surprisingly, Jurassic Park.

It's too cynical about the dinosaurs. The novel is aware of what the movie makes you forget: they're not real dinosaurs, they're just lab-created imitations. They appear, they disappear, and it's back to ranting about capitalism and the commercialization of science. The characters are threadbare as well. Michael Crichton himself admitted that he was not good at character writing. Ian Malcolm and John Hammond were entertaining, but Alan Grant had more personality in his opening scene in the movie than he had in the entire novel upon which it was based.

I respect it for laying the groundwork for a movie that I've seen nine times at the theater alone. But, yeah, I wasn't a big fan. The sequel is better, but it's really trying to follow the same tone as the movie and not the first novel. It's a shame because the second movie disregarded 95% of what was in the second book and just did it's own thing anyway.

Jurassic Park (movie) > Lost World (book) > Lost World (movie) > Jurassic Park (book)

Feel free to tell me I have terrible opinions.

I do like the book but that's a decent criticism tbf

RuneterranSnap posted...

Ready Player One was hot garbage and I cannot understand the love some people have for it. I'm very forgiving of bad writing but jesus that was bad.

It's fun at times but yeah, it's probably one of the worst books I've ever read.

RuneterranSnap posted...

I swear I'm the only person who loved Song of Susannah >.>;

My problem is I just don't remember much of it; length-wise it's a fart in the wind compared to the other books.

Mega_Mana posted...

The Gunslinger, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower were the first books that came to mind. Loved Drawing of the Three, Wastelands, and Wolves of the Calla (and Wizard & Glass after a slooowww early-middle), but those other three...

Was The Gunslinger part of the Dark Tower series too? I dimly remember starting that one as a teenager but I dont think I finished it, let alone the series.

dracula was boring af. don't get the hype.

Tampa by Alissa Nutting

Wild af.

The Red Pony by John Steinback

Also, while Rendezvous with Rama was great, the follow ups were terrible.