Books you really, really **HATE**

[Silent]

Anything by Margaret Lawrence. I was forced to read "The Stone Angel" and "A Jest of God" in high school.

I found all the male charcaters were one of three types; A) Weak and spineless B) Brutal and selfish C) Perfect and unatainable.

And the heroines were completely unfathomable to my adolescent male mind.

I just kept getting more confused and pissed off the more I read.

[Slartibartfast]

Originally posted by wolf

"Novelizations" of movies, rather than books that movies were based on.

Thanks wolf, you've reminded me of another book I utterly hate. Piers Anthony wrote a novelization of Total Recall. He wrote in work-arounds to the obvious and not so obvious plot holes in the movie to make it all more consistent. However, these patches stand out of the narrative the same way white out corrections stand out on canary yellow paper. Sure, you fix some mistakes, but now you've got these smudge all over the place.

So real crappy writing combined with glaring plot correction efforts put this book in the crapper for me.


I should have known better than to even start reading it.

[Chewbaccus]

Originally posted by Cam
I refuse to read anything Clancy, I've tried but for some reason I can not stand his style of writing.

I find Clancy's a fantastic battle writer, he can craft a conflict very well. However, it's when he attempts to do political writing that he falls short. He's just so naive, it's sad.

Case in point: I read "Executive Orders"; everything outside of the political realm was quality work. But within the political realm, the overuse of deus ex machina and just oversimplification of the landscape makes the book incredulous to read at times. Again, a shame.

[Razorfish]

Crossing Antartica

Book based on the true story of a group of people crossing the entire width of Antartica by foot. Courageous adventure but absolutely BORING in book form. The entire thing thing can be summed up as follows:

"It was cold, we are hungry, one of our sled dog had puppies (most interesting moment), it was really f**king cold."

Pretty much the entire book right there. Any Dean Koontz fans out there? Good, I don't like him either.

[Torrere]

"Distance Haze"

I have no idea who wrote it and no interest in remembering, either. It had a cool-looking cover and what looked like an interesting premise (what if science investigated religion?). I was also too young to know better.

Incredibly big mistake. It was an awful book about a man's mid-life crisis and a drug-addled prostitute he became enfatuated with. I shredded it, soaked it, and burned it. Then I took a cold bath and considered myself cleansed.

The day before, I had read "A Calculus of Angels", by J. Gregory Keyes. It also qualifies as a hated book. It was useless and stupid.

[wolf]

Originally posted by Slartibartfast


Thanks wolf, you've reminded me of another book I utterly hate. Piers Anthony wrote a novelization of Total Recall.

Just read "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick. It's all you really need to do.

You reminded me of something else ... any book after the second one in any series written by Piers Anthony. LAME.

[OnyxCougar]

Have I mentioned the Stephen R Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" Series of CRAP I wasted my time on?

I read ALL SIX thinking, this HAS to get better!! (Donaldson's "Mordant's Need" Series is way way WAY better, so I held out hope.)

It never got better.

And my kids like "Eyes of the Dragon". So I let them have it.

I think I'm gonna put the "100 Years of Solitude" on my shit list. I quit reading it. I'm really disappointed in it, and since I bought it primarily to see what Oprah was pushing in her book club, I can safely say I'll never purchase another book from her recommended list. She was fawning all over this thing, practically drooling on it, and it sucks. Ick.

[BryanD]

Stephen R Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever"

I waded through those - found them pretty depressing at times.

When I ready the first book in the Sword of Truth (?) series, I quickly decided I'dnot begin another series where the hero whined more than my little sisters did.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally posted by BryanD
When I ready the first book in the Sword of Truth (?) series, I quickly decided I'dnot begin another series where the hero whined more than my little sisters did.

Good call. They've gotten worse and worse. But through some annoying quirk in my personality, I have to keep reading them to see the end of the story.

[jinx]

Originally posted by Razorfish
Crossing Antartica

Book based on the true story of a group of people crossing the entire width of Antartica by foot. Courageous adventure but absolutely BORING in book form.

Ah, this sounds like my experience with

Blue Latitudes Boldly Going Where Captian Cook Has Gone Before.

I was hoping someone would jump (or even fall) overboard just to add some interest.

[russotto]

Forced to read as a student:
"My Antonia" (DULL, dull, dull dull dull)
"Moby Dick" (Does the term "turgid" mean anything to you)

Anything stream of consciousness, though I did manage to grit my teeth and enjoy one of Greg Bear's SoC offerings ("Queen of Angels", I think)

SF written in "futuristic slang" dialect usually results in a book bouncing off a wall, though I haven't gotten any complete books like that lately. Some stories have resulted in a bouncing anthology.

[Slartibartfast]

Originally posted by russotto

Anything stream of consciousness, ...

SF written in "futuristic slang" dialect usually results in a book bouncing off a wall,

Sound like you would just love A Clockwork Orange

[ladysycamore]

Originally posted by wolf
Books I hate, usually beyond redemption, include

Romance Novels. Anything with Fabio on the cover, or that can be described as a bodice ripper.

Ha, and I thought I was the only one! I stay away from those novels too. I just cringe when I see the covers with women swooning in the arms of a piece of man candy. I like books that aren't so...obvious, y'know?

Interview with a Vampire, or anything else written by Anne Rice.

Slow. Tedious. Lousy Plotting. Ick.

Aw, and I'm such an Anne Rice 'ho. I even have the books that she wrote under another name (Anne Rampling and A.N. Roquelaure).

I don't really have a list of evil books, but the only one that I can think of that's in my collection is The Dark Lady by Richard North Patterson. For some odd reason, I.just.can.not get past a certain point of that book without resisting the urge to just throw it across the room! I sort of feel bad for saying that, as I scope out his website. Something about the writing...*shrugs*. I must have started over a dozen times, and I can't finish it!

[Chewbaccus]

Originally posted by Slartibartfast
Sound like you would just love A Clockwork Orange

Heh, indeed.

I read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce senior year, and rather liked it. Though to be fair, one book isn't enough to pass judgement on the SoC genre as a whole, one way or the other.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally posted by russotto
SF written in "futuristic slang" dialect usually results in a book bouncing off a wall, though I haven't gotten any complete books like that lately. Some stories have resulted in a bouncing anthology.

Heh. I love Larry Niven, but he can't invent slang to save his life. "Tanj" and "Tanstaafl" are amusing acronyms, but far too unpronouncable to be believable as slang.

Then again, I like "Smeg" and "Frell".