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Book Anti-Recommendations


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Luftschlosseule
19 hours ago, fuzzipueo said:

That kind of thing can be fun, because you're not under pressure for a grade or to impress the teacher, but to enjoy the story and to hear other peoples opinions about what you're reading. And it's fun to speculate the 'what if?' scenarios. I would love to have someone to discuss the Magnus Chase books, also by Riordan, which visit Norse Mythology, for similar reasons. Or Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence - which predate Harry Potter by a good 30+ years.

Well, if you have Discord, I am sure I could share the link with you. Won't do that here out in the open, though, it would come via pm.

 

Another book everybody seems to like but I didn't: Anna Karenina. I didn't like the random tangients of more than 100 pages about one character helping on a farm. And the horse race? Ridiculous.

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Amethyst Raven
On 8/12/2019 at 3:05 AM, SkyenAutowegCaptain said:

@Amethyst Raven, I agree with you about books being forced upon school children putting them off that author. Especially as most books they call "literature" I call "over-analysed to find things the author probably never intended and we can't ask them because they're dead" 

Exactly!

Just because it is mentioned that the curtains are red does not mean that they stand for anything.

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1 hour ago, Amethyst Raven said:

Exactly!

Just because it is mentioned that the curtains are red does not mean that they stand for anything.

But that clearly stands for communism... :P 

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On 8/12/2019 at 1:05 AM, SkyenAutowegCaptain said:

@Amethyst Raven, I agree with you about books being forced upon school children putting them off that author. Especially as most books they call "literature" I call "over-analysed to find things the author probably never intended and we can't ask them because they're dead"

I believe this is why I am resistant to many so called literary "classics". I also believe the teacher was trying her hardest to turn us off to science fiction by having us read the most depressing of Ray Bradbury's short stories...

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PolgaraTheSorceress

Definitely, Lord of the Flies (any adaptation as well), the characters are annoying to begin with and progressively get more irritating. However, I'm guessing this was the author, William Golding's, original purpose for the book as the ending contradicts other books of the time that have the same premise. It's just not an enjoyable read.

 

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On the Road by Jack Kerouac. It’s been required reading for a couple of different literature or writing classes I have taken.  It’s awful. 

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Artistofnoname

The Catcher In The Rye

 

Made no sense and was just some brat wandering around and lying to people. When I got done with it I just left it in the waiting room of the doctors office I was in with a note saying "Free book, Your welcome" cause I didn't want to even take it back home with me.

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On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 10:11 PM, KuraTheChibiCrystalKitty said:

 

The Handmaid's Tale. :evil: 

 

Agreed. I had to read it for my A-level English and hated. The main character is just so passive and I would much prefer if it was told from the perspective of Moria, her best friend or literally anyone else in the book, they seem to have much more interesting stories than her. I would say Hunchback of Notre Dame, great concept but the book spends so much time on unnecessary details, I read 60 pages and it all seemed to be about this completely irrelevant party! Same with Frankenstien, it spent 5 chapters detailing the main charecters schooling and childhood and I was screaming the whole time "Just get to the F***king monster already!". 

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On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 10:16 PM, Lichley said:

 

The original Jekyll and Hyde if you were looking for a cool story about transformations and murder this isn’t for you. Instead it’s about his buddy trying to investigate without actually asking him or actively doing much at all, and then trying to cover it up afterwards. 

Awww! Really? I had that book when I was little and gave it away because I did get bored of it, but after watching the ITV series again (I know it's only loosely based but it just made me think of the book) and I wanted to see if the I would be more interesting to me now I'm older. Thanks for warning me off, that kind of reminds me of Frankenstein, I only read 5 chapters because it wouldn't get to the monster. 

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The Kite Runner. :evil:

The story is quite silly, but what I hated the most was feeling like I was being given moral lessons. This part was one of the main things that I remember of the book, because I hated it so badly (I couldn't find the exact quote, but someone summed it up):

 

Spoiler

Another example of Hassan's integrity comes when Amir decides to 'toy' with Hassan. Amir and Hassan are sitting under a tree together when Amir asks Hassan if he would would ever lie to him. Hassan comments that he would rather eat dirt. Instead of accepting this as display of loyalty, Amir asks Hassan if he would truly eat dirt if Amir asked him. Hassan responds with, ''If you asked, I would.''

Amir admits that he was shaken up by this and he drops his eyes to avoid looking at Hassan. Throughout the story, Hassan is portrayed as being unintelligent because he cannot read or write, however, after telling Amir that he would eat dirt, he asks him, ''Would you ever ask me to do such a thing...?'' With this question, Hassan puts the ball back in Amir's court and forces him to think about whether or not he is the kind of person who would make someone eat dirt just because he can.

 

It reminded me of when I was a small kid and complained about not wanting to eat something. My mom (as most moms, I imagine) would lecture me about how many people were starving in Africa, say that I should be grateful and thank God that we had food on our tables, and blah blah blah. :rolleyes: I read the book so fast just so I could be done with it as soon as possible. A few years later, I lent it to one of my friends, and she and her mom loved it. I didn't even bother to get the book back, tbh.

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On 8/8/2019 at 1:23 PM, Ardoise said:

What books did you dislike so much that you would advise others not to read them?

 

I would say the majority of books I was forced to read in high school would fall into that category.

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1 hour ago, Evobessive said:

Awww! Really?

I know, I was so hyped that we might actually study something interesting at school, and we got Jekyll and Hyde, I was so disappointed when I actually read it. That being said, the copy I had came with some short stories, and there was one I absolutely adored called Markheim, and honestly just read it - it’s really short but really really good!

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1 hour ago, Lichley said:

I know, I was so hyped that we might actually study something interesting at school, and we got Jekyll and Hyde, I was so disappointed when I actually read it. That being said, the copy I had came with some short stories, and there was one I absolutely adored called Markheim, and honestly just read it - it’s really short but really really good!

That is disappointing, thanks for the recommendation though. I would watch the ITV series of Jekyll and Hyde if you can, it basically just takes the intresting concept (a guy turning into someone else) and basically make it into a kind of period superhero/ fantasy T.V. show. The show's actually from the perspective of the grandson of the original Dr Jekyll and has him have to deal with his other side (who isn't completely evil) and all these other monsters and evil organisations try and fight over him. I don't know where you live, so I'm unsure if you'd be able to see it, since it was shown on English t.v., but if you can I would definitely recommend it 

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Well I would recommend Brave New World to any and everyone, except those who are sex repulsed. I read it the first time with a mixture of disgust and interest. It is a great book. Just a bit gross in my opinion

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If people don't want gross books then don't read American Psycho by Brett Eason Ellis, it's so graphic that the original version fell foul of the Obscene Publications Act in Britain and had to be censored 

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Ready Player One. Worst book I've ever read. It's basically just the author trying to prove his worth by throwing random bits of nerdy trivia into somewhat cohesive format. The main character is an annoying know-it-all who also happens to be the wittiest and most popular social outcast ever. I have no good things to say about this book except how much fun it is to rant about it.

 

The Witcher short story collections. I think that every second novel is really good, and every second is meh, but the first two collections are just so bad. They're basically stories about how Geralt travels around the Northern Kingdoms boning women and repeating the story's name on every single page. He kills a few things on the side, because that's what he's kinda supposed to do. They just felt so juvenile and pointless to me.

 

The Road! I made it into 13% according to my Kindle. I read one page at a time, as I just couldn't handle more boring pretentiousness with nothing happening, but I really wanted to read something besides fantasy for a change, and this won a Pulitzer, so I thought it was going to be good. A bad idea. And speaking of bad ideas...

 

Call Me By Your Name. He fucks a peach. Yeah... good stuff.

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Crazycrazycultist

All that A Raisin In The Sun contained was a family arguing!

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J. van Deijck

actually anything by Paolo Coelho, maybe except for Veronica Decides to Die, although it's not my favourite book on Earth. I just think it's one of his least boring books.

also, 50 Shades of Grey. like, really. 😕

recently I was reading a book (I don't know if it was ever translated to English, the original language is French) with a title that would probably translate as something About a Girl Who Swallowed the Cloud As Big As the Eiffel Tower. the story itself was quite beautiful, but I couldn't make it to the end because of the language or writing style the author was using. there was something incredibly... naive in the story, too. I can't even explain it well.

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Hermit Advocate

Far From the Madding Crowd I could not stand this book. 

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WanderingKate

I think The Kite Runner and The Bluest Eye were both obviously well written but horrifically difficult to read...both had really disturbing rape scenes that I didn't see coming...even if they are technically well written and profound books, all the characters in both stories are either *horrible* human beings or so abused that you feel awful for them to the point that it's just depressing to open the book. 

 

But besides that...as both an aromantic and a human with a functioning brain I found Romeo and Juliet to be horrid :D (not to bash anyone who did like it! But the characters were...to put it lightly...not the brightest, no?)

 

Also a lot of James Patterson novels, especially the more recent ones...just formulaic and predictable. I think he's written so many books he's run out of ideas. 

 

 

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Romeo and Juliet. 

 

There are better examples of good Shakespeare and the hubris of prejudice and stubbornness. It's a horrible love story though and I can't help but cheer on anyone who stands in the way of their relationship. 

It's a worse love story than Twilight because they're younger, know each other less, and actually die for one another. 

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I agree with what people are saying about The Kite Runner. Holy CRAP that one scarred me. It was super intense and I really disliked the main character, and I get that he became a better person as he grew up, it was just HORRIBLE reading about him until then.

 

But I remembered another book! The Shack. I have not seen the 2017 movie but I had to read it with my youth group in 2012 and HOLY HELL did I not like it. We were reading it a chapter at a time and I dragged myself through that stupid book. I was losing my faith at the time so took everything with a grain of salt, not enjoying the totally unrealistic and not at all possible story of a person interacting with the holy trinity after the death of his daughter. It being a near death hallucination was the only believable part, though of course the story would have you believe it was real even if it was all in his head. 

Just... there's a reason I don't like Christian books or movies. They make me want to gag.

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How long do you have...

 

I used to read about a hundred books a year (this year I won't quite make 50 though) so I have a lot of books I could recommend as bad, from many genres. 

 

Bad Books:

Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester. I liked the sailing portions, but a lot of other stuff felt off. Not to mention the three shoehorned romances.

Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. Movie was much better, about the only time I will ever say the movie was better.

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Not the worst out there, but it sticks in my head as being a major disappointment (spoiler in case you haven't read it and want to)

Spoiler

when right towards the end you find out the Martians just die anyways. Invasion over just like that. 
I wanted to know how the Martians ruled!

Lots of youth fiction, too much to name. (Where the Red Fern Grows, Indian in the Cupboard, KnutThe Giver, The City of Ember, ect. ect.)

 

Snoozy Books:

Das Kapital by Karl Marx. He does have some interesting points buried inside. Buried deep inside. Buried really really deep inside. Come on Karl, we understand it, stop repeating the same point with different examples...

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien. I actually liked it, but it will put you to sleep and it can be more than a little confusing.

Progress and Poverty by Henry George. So once you muddle through his terminology he does make one interesting point, and then in the final chapters says something that invalidates all he previously said and all you spent forever trying to understand.

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On 8/15/2019 at 8:40 PM, •◡• said:

Well I would recommend Brave New World to any and everyone, except those who are sex repulsed. I read it the first time with a mixture of disgust and interest. It is a great book. Just a bit gross in my opinion

Whoa, I had to read that for my 10th grade English class and somehow I don't remember any sex? Maybe I just didn't comprehend what I was reading, lol..

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The Odyssey - I can't remember hating reading a book more than this one in school; I wanted to burn it by the time we finished it. I couldn't find anything to appreciate in it. It's layout and phrasing were awkward (give me Shakespeare or some old Philosopher instead), it was extremely boring, it lacked a compelling story or point, the "monsters" held no real challenge and didn't build good tension, and I didn't give a damn what happened to the "hero".

 

Grapes of Wrath - Another book that seemed to really lack a plot that held anything of interest. Very dry, slow, and depressing.

 

The Great Gatsby - This entire book felt shallow and vapid, not only because of the characters and their lives but because the story didn't seem to go anywhere and never felt like there was a point even after the ending (which at least had something happen). That said, it was the most tolerable out of these three.

 

Tolkien.

Game of Thrones. I really wanted to like and get into this series but I just couldn't.

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2 hours ago, Moony Lovegood said:

Whoa, I had to read that for my 10th grade English class and somehow I don't remember any sex? Maybe I just didn't comprehend what I was reading, lol..

It is a huge theme in the book. One of the biggest ones. There's even an almost rape scene. I am reading it again which is well... Very uncomfortable. My friends make fun of me because I'm embarrassed to talk about all the sex. 

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Hermit Advocate
10 hours ago, SithGirl said:

Romeo and Juliet. 

 

There are better examples of good Shakespeare and the hubris of prejudice and stubbornness. It's a horrible love story though and I can't help but cheer on anyone who stands in the way of their relationship. 

It's a worse love story than Twilight because they're younger, know each other less, and actually die for one another. 

Ohh, yes. This one definitely belongs on the no read list. 

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6 hours ago, Cimmerian said:

The Odyssey - I can't remember hating reading a book more than this one in school; I wanted to burn it by the time we finished it. I couldn't find anything to appreciate in it. It's layout and phrasing were awkward (give me Shakespeare or some old Philosopher instead), it was extremely boring, it lacked a compelling story or point, the "monsters" held no real challenge and didn't build good tension, and I didn't give a damn what happened to the "hero".

I actually quite liked The Odyssey. I don't know why. I just chose to read it when I was a freshman (I didn't have to, I just did because I was curious) and enjoyed it. Haven't made it through The Iliad though because I kept falling asleep when trying to listen to the audiobook. 

I found most of The Odyssey odd and certainly not for everyone, but I appreciate what it means for mythology and literature. Lots of lore there and if it's not your thing then definitely stay away.

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