Books You Don't Quite "Get" - Page 3

The Colossus · 6th August 2006, 3:46pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCastrator

William Burroughs - Naked Lunch
I liked Junky. It was ace. This was terrible. The cut-up technique is interesting, but doesn't make for good reading. 'Art', perhaps. Book? Terrible.

I felt a bit the same.

The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks bored me but everyone else ever in the history of book reading seems to love it. Go figure.

Rev Scapegoat · 6th August 2006, 4:34pm

I loved Dune.
The first few sequels were great.

But the closer you got to book 6, the harder the going got.

Still looking forward to book 7 if Herbert's sone gets round to it, as if it goes where I think it's going after reading the prequels, it's gonna be good.

Kenny · 6th August 2006, 4:39pm

Dune is good, but I thought the second and the third were progressively worse. Can't imagine how bad they must be by the sixth or seventh!

lirazel · 6th August 2006, 4:47pm

Thomas Hardy, Mayor of Casterbridge. I've gotten half way through this three times and can't bring myself to finish it. eugh.

Foxglove · 6th August 2006, 4:54pm

I agree with Tam - LOTR is not something I could get into despite reading The Hobbit when I was really young. Then again, fantasy is not really a genre I have ever appreciated so it is probably more that I don't like that type of story as much as anything.

Neil Gaiman - American Gods is a book I just can't get into. I have read 2/3 and keep thinking it is something I ought to like but I just can't finish it.

lol93 · 6th August 2006, 5:14pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCastrator

[b]
Aleister Crowley - Moonchild
Perhaps I will re-read it and think it ace. Perhaps I needed more background occult knowledge. But this was terrible. No. Not terrible. Dull.
Chapter X:
They went over there and then did this, then did that.
Chapter Y:
They did another thing.
Chapter Z:
Yet another thing happened. 93!

Lol!

I could never get past the second page of Clockwork Orange. Too much concentrating required to enjoy the book. Film was quite good, though.

*blaine* · 6th August 2006, 5:19pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semprini

One I never understood the appeal of was The Catcher in the Rye. Struck me as far too many pages of Caulfield moaning about how everything is someone else's fault, and generally being a whiny little bitch.

i bought this book a few months back, and in all honesty i found it hard to get through for that exact reason, i also felt that the book went nowehere fast, i just cant understand how a book with no discernale plot that i could see, be considered a classic

UncleDave · 6th August 2006, 5:21pm

I've said this before and I will damn well say it again.

James Joyce - Ulysses. 600 odd pages of rambling shite, where scarcely any three consecutive pages are connected to one another. Classic, my foot. Sheer tripe, avoid at all costs.

Cheers!

Seph · 6th August 2006, 5:33pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by lirazel

Thomas Hardy, Mayor of Casterbridge. I've gotten half way through this three times and can't bring myself to finish it. eugh.

I adore that book

My location on my alt profile is Casterbridge as I adored it so. Still would rate 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' as largely a waste of space.

For my Advanced English I had a bash at 'The Old Man and the Sea', but just ended up feeling largely confused and filled with the sensation of missing the point - I'm going to label myself too young for it because I feel trapped in a room full of people who grasp some subtle genius through it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devastator

It was for a comparison with a book I can't remember the name of, it was about incest though, (they kept their mum's dead body in a trunk in the basement? Anyone?). We had to totally analyse every bloody word, there was a lot to do and it was good for it - I just didn't particularly enjoy the way it was written.

Dunno why, but I thought that was The Butcher Boy...

Will_Couper · 6th August 2006, 5:50pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by lol93

Lol!

I could never get past the second page of Clockwork Orange. Too much concentrating required to enjoy the book. Film was quite good, though.

I found the language easy to pick up. And once I did I found it's a very swift read.

I know what you mean though, sometimes books just don't grab you.

Will

mysterio · 6th August 2006, 6:51pm

Quote:

LOTR - I've seriously tried reading it 3 times and every time I get to the 'House of Tom Bombadil' and get so bored that I can't carry on.

Hah - I thought that was the best part in an otherwise boring book!

*LesMTS* · 6th August 2006, 8:27pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleDave

I've said this before and I will damn well say it again.

James Joyce - Ulysses. 600 odd pages of rambling shite, where scarcely any three consecutive pages are connected to one another. Classic, my foot. Sheer tripe, avoid at all costs.

Cheers!

Finnegan's Wake. Gobbledegook. Completely unreadable.
Also in agreement with Castrator on Naked Lunch. A lot of higgeldy piggeldy shite.

Pantgirl · 6th August 2006, 8:54pm

I'm finding "Fear and Loathing" really hard going at the mo. I was alos slightly let down by "1984" - thought the ending was gash and much preferred "Brave New World" in comparison.

xph0ria · 6th August 2006, 9:03pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleDave

James Joyce - Ulysses. 600 odd pages of rambling shite, where scarcely any three consecutive pages are connected to one another. Classic, my foot. Sheer tripe, avoid at all costs.

Yup, I gotta agree with that. It's one of the few books I've been really disappointed in, going into it with high expectations and not being able to finish it.

Seph · 6th August 2006, 9:17pm

I couldn't get into 1984 at all...

Clockwork Orange is probably my favourite book ever.