Books You Don't Quite "Get"

[Rowsbette]

I can't imagine this'll get anything more than a lacklustre response, but I'd be interested to see what books disappointed you lot. Be it a bestseller that didn't live up to the hype, an apparent classic that had you snoozing, or one of those frustrating reads that just didn't make sense. Warn us!

Martin Amis - Dead Babies
Everyone told me Martin Amis was amazing, and I did quite like this up until the end. Maybe I was too young to "get" it, but the damage is done, I'm now convinced I shouldn't waste any more of my life on his books.

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Had me wondering if its classic status was a joke, and if eventually the powers that be will jump out and laugh at anyone who fell for it. Again, it might've been that I was too young to appreciate it, but I found it truly yawnsome.

Ian Rankin - {I can't even remember what this one was called, all his titles seem horribly similar}
Could've been that I just picked up a bad one, but it left me wondering how the actual fuck this guy's so popular. Stilted prose, a predictable ending, and an annoying desire to inflict his music tastes on the reader. I just couldn't bring myself to care about anyone in the book.

[johnnie walker]

Raymond Khoury - The last templar.
My dad recommended this one to me for some reason. It was actually quite good up until the end. It has the worst ending of a book ive read so far. The ending renders the rest of the book pointless.

[Zippy]

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.

[Devastator]

I read 'Lord of the Flies' for my Advanced Higher English, actually the worst book I've ever read. I was sorely dissappointed

[Wicked]

Originally Posted by Zippy

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.

Same. Although I persevered and made it all the way to the end. But it was just so damn boring! i'll stick with the movies.

[Semprini]

Originally Posted by Rowsbette

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Had me wondering if its classic status was a joke, and if eventually the powers that be will jump out and laugh at anyone who fell for it. Again, it might've been that I was too young to appreciate it, but I found it truly yawnsome.

I despise this book with all my heart. I honestly think Tom Joad is the most hate-inspiring character I've ever seen committed to paper.

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.

[Addy]

Anything by E M Forster, in particular Howard's End and A Passage to India. Utterly turgid books, reading them is like wading through treacle. When my AH English teacher in 6th told us the latter was his favourite book I almost literally burst out laughing.

[Devastator]

My teacher did tell me "You won't like it by the way, you might want to pick something else". I SHOULD'VE LISTENED!

[Will_Couper]

Originally Posted by Zippy

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.

Skip that bit; it has nothing to do with the story really. It's just very self-indulgent, dull and does nothing but stop the story dead.

Speaking of self-indulgent, that's the overall feeling I get when I'm reading a Stephen King book. Slogging through over-written prose for a so-so story? I don't get it.





Will

[LesMTS]

Originally Posted by Devastator

I read 'Lord of the Flies' for my Advanced Higher English, actually the worst book I've ever read. I was sorely dissappointed

I liked Lord of the Flies.
Biggest disappointment was probably "Trainspotting", ages before the film was out and it was being hyped as the best book ever written. I thought it was generally shite with some fleetingly amusing vignettes.

[severinskiss]

Quicksilver: Volume I of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, dear God let there never be a Volume 2

[Devastator]

Originally Posted by LesMTS

I liked Lord of the Flies.
Biggest disappointment was probably "Trainspotting", ages before the film was out and it was being hyped as the best book ever written. I thought it was generally shite with some fleetingly amusing vignettes.

Ah well I liked Trainspotting, different strokes eh?

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.

This was what I was going to post. I tore through this, expecting that the next chapter would be the one to explain this book's cult status and it failed to deliver.

Alex Garland's The Beach for me - just bland chewing gum for the brain.

Also - I quite liked Trainspotting too, but I think it was just because it was the most shocking literature I'd stumbled across, being that I was 14 when I read it.

[Devastator]

Seriously?!?!?!

I fucking LOVE that book!

[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.

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!