A Popular Or Well-Respected Book You Just Didn't Catch On To...
StratusSphere
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Has there been one for you?
Mine would definitely be the Catcher in the Rye - I could NOT get into it because the narrator-protagonist was such a whiny thing, really destroyed any connection I could have to the book.
I'm a pretty avid reader but I found it really, really hard to get into at all and I gave up about halfway through. Tried it several times too. In fact, when we were studying it in school I wrote about a book we hadnt covered in the exam because I couldnt stand it that much!
Another one of my pet hates is Heart of Darkness by Conrad.
What would yours be?
Mine would definitely be the Catcher in the Rye - I could NOT get into it because the narrator-protagonist was such a whiny thing, really destroyed any connection I could have to the book.
I'm a pretty avid reader but I found it really, really hard to get into at all and I gave up about halfway through. Tried it several times too. In fact, when we were studying it in school I wrote about a book we hadnt covered in the exam because I couldnt stand it that much!
Another one of my pet hates is Heart of Darkness by Conrad.
What would yours be?
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I generally don't like period dramas but I do like some Dickens / Austen film / TV adaptations so it's not that I dislike the stories... My aim is to try again one day but so far my attempts have all been unsuccessful!
For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway were both a huge struggle, I just can't get along with his writing style.
Honourable mentions to John Le Carre's Smiley novels which are stunnigly dull IMO and Moby Dick which made for very, very slow reading.
I started it because i felt like reading something funny.
I am not finding it remotely funny or interesting.
I keep hoping it will perk up. Still, I don't actually hate it, so I'll probably finish it.
Also never been able to catch on to Lord of the Rings. I start it, get to Tom Bamburdil's house and then get incredibly bored and just can't move on.
Even LOTR addicts sometimes skip Tom, worst part of the books by a mile
Never really understood the appeal of Dickens either.
I've had an unsuccessful go at Jane Austen aswell, the really embarrassing bit is I only got one page in and couldn't follow some of the language.
I just find it boring, to be honest
Really? I think that although Mantel's style is somewhat poetic, it flows very naturally. We get a great insight into Cromwell's inner world due to her technique of saying 'he' instead of 'Cromwell'. It reduces the distance between the reader and character so we feel more sympathy for him. Wolf Hall is much more of a page-turner than I thought it would be but each to their own.
Oh I think Austen is so witty. You have to understand that she's nearly always satirising social attitudes and snobbishness or foolishness e.g. Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins from Pride and Prejudice - or Mary Crawford from Mansfield Park. I have ended up chuckling before now at some of her characterisations - she's very perceptive given the fact that she was rather unworldly.
I knew I shouldn't have come in this thread 'cause I can't help sticking up for my favourite authors!
To be honest, I probably haven't got far enough into any of her books to fully appreciate them. But that's kinda the problem - the beginnings always just put me to sleep and it becomes incredibly hard to keep going so I end up giving up every time.
Moby dick: im not sure what part of an epic novel about hunting a whale i thought i would enjoy.
Life of Pi: only the ending made it bearable
LOTR: made it half way through the fifth book. Thoroughly bored, confused by who people were and just gave up
Lord of the flies: Its possibly because i studied it for school, but found it a poorly written, uninteresting book. Would be slightly tempted to give it another go to see if it was just my surging hormones caused me to hate it so much. Also in literature in school that i hated: Macbeth, call my brother back, Juno and the paycock, war poems, tess of the d'urbeyvilles, the silver sword. Is it obvious i didnt like english literature in school?
Really did not get on with it. I've been using the star rating on Goodreads for the last 2 years and it's the only book in that time I've given a 1 star.
1984
Brick Lane
(Most Tom Clancy books)
The Lovely Bones
The Kite Runner got very spurious and unbelievable by the end but i enjoyed reading most of it.
Kenilworth - Walter Scott. Don't, just Don't.
Most Dickens stuff really and anything like Wuthering Heights, Tess of The Durbervilles, Jane Eyre just cant seem to get past the first couple of chapters.
Cloud Atlas - although love Mitchell's other books.
Catch 22 - complete drivel.
Catcher in the Rye - made me want to saw my arm off.
Time Traveller's Wife - just WTF? Heinously grim.
Small Island - Andrea Levy - boring and overrated
We need to talk about Kevin - the ending was just:rolleyes: although love Shriver's other novels.
I also couldn't get into Possession by AS Byatt. Lots of people rave about it, but I just found the book to be tedious and pretentious.