Books You Should Like But Don't

[RickRoll'D]

Most of Charles Dicken's books. There are some that I can get into like David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, and Nicholas Nickleby but other than that I can't read him. I guess it's from being forced to read Great Expectations back in high school. It was just so boring to me. I had to force myself to finish the book. I've barley touched anymore Dickens since.

 

[J-Sun]

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. (3 pages later.) It was the most obvious of parallelisms; it was the most redundant of parallelisms. It was the most boring of books; it was the most tiresome of books. -- A Tale of Two Clauses.

I don't like Dickens either. But, regarding Dickens/Salinger, I think this thread is supposed to be about SF/F classics. I don't have enough bandwidth to list the non-SF/F fiction I should like that I don't.

 

[Lurk]

For me The Eye of the World from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has been kicking my butt for the last three years. I know its the first installment in whats been alleged to be one of the greatest fantasy series of all time, but I've only been able to make it about 100-150 pages the past three or four times I've tried to pick it up.

I feel like his writing is just too wordy and the sentences just start to lose meaning after awhile. Not to mention the fact that everything happens so slowly. I'm not the kind of reader that needs action all the time to get through a story, but I do need some action some of the time to keep from being driven insane. Jordan's style is just too drawn out for me.

How that for a guilty non-pleasure? (And speaking of guilt I'm ripping on a dead guy for crying out loud!)

 

[Heather Myst]

Wheel of Time and the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series are books that a lot of people seem to like that were not favorites of mine.

 

[soulsinging]

For me The Eye of the World from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has been kicking my butt for the last three years. I know its the first installment in whats been alleged to be one of the greatest fantasy series of all time, but I've only been able to make it about 100-150 pages the past three or four times I've tried to pick it up.

I feel like his writing is just too wordy and the sentences just start to lose meaning after awhile. Not to mention the fact that everything happens so slowly. I'm not the kind of reader that needs action all the time to get through a story, but I do need some action some of the time to keep from being driven insane. Jordan's style is just too drawn out for me.

How that for a guilty non-pleasure? (And speaking of guilt I'm ripping on a dead guy for crying out loud!)

If you feel this way 100 pages into Eye of the World, quit now. If you think things happen slowly now, 4-5 of the later books have even less happen in them than you've read already!

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

For me The Eye of the World from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has been kicking my butt for the last three years. I know its the first installment in whats been alleged to be one of the greatest fantasy series of all time, but I've only been able to make it about 100-150 pages the past three or four times I've tried to pick it up.

I feel like his writing is just too wordy and the sentences just start to lose meaning after awhile. Not to mention the fact that everything happens so slowly. I'm not the kind of reader that needs action all the time to get through a story, but I do need some action some of the time to keep from being driven insane. Jordan's style is just too drawn out for me.

How that for a guilty non-pleasure? (And speaking of guilt I'm ripping on a dead guy for crying out loud!)

I think I read 4 books in this series. I really tried to like it; its my brothers favorite series and I wanted to like it, but just couldn't get into it. The further in the books you get, the less things happen and the more annoying the writing became.

 

[J-WO]

From book 4 you may as well read Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse.

 

[JustPassingThrough]

Catcher in the Rye.
Earth Abides.
Mmmmm, I'm trying to think. Usually I don't like to give up on a book so it takes a lot. I mean, I will even put it down for a bit and then come back to it to try and finish it.

 

[MartinJH]

I wish I liked John Crowley more. There seems to be a subtle magical quality to his work, just the sort of thing I’d expect to like, similar to Ray Bradbury, but while I really enjoy Bradbury, with Crowley most of the time it seems to be too subtle or elusive for me to catch.

I started “Little, Big” and liked it at first but my reading fizzled out after spending most of the time feeling that something was about to happen if I just read a little further…

I read “Engine Summer” all the way through, but with the same constant feeling that something might be about to happen... I liked the ending, but the rest of the book just seemed to be a very long build up to the ending.

I’ve also read “Aegypt” all the way through (the book itself, not the rest of the series) but again there was that feeling that something was going to happen soon… and then the book ended.

I’d really like to like him; I just don’t seem to “get” his books as much as I feel that I should.

Martin

 

[JustPassingThrough]

I gave up on the Bible. It had some interesting characters, but the plot was just all over the place, man! And that ending- that's the ending they go with. Just couldn't finish it.

 

[LittleMissy]

Two books that immediately come to mind here are Raymond E. Feist's Magician and, dare I say it out loud (or even just type it here), The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells!

Magician I just found so slow. It's one of only two books I have found myself putting down and not picking back up again (I can't even remember what the other book was called). This book has been highly recommended to me by various friends over the years, so I figured I'd give it a go! It's still sitting on my bookshelf... unfinished!!!

And, The War of The Worlds. I should have loved this book! I liked the original film and I love, love, love Jeff Wayne's musical version. But, the book... I found I just couldn't relate to the charcters at all and, although I did finish reading the book, I was left feeling somewhat deflated by the end... So I put Jeff Wayne's version on to listen to instead and found the love of the story from there all over again from when I first listened to it as a child

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Books you *should* like, but don't...?

After posting in a related but opposite thread, I though I'd start this for the heck of it.

I know tastes are always subjective, and to that end perhaps there is no such thing, really, as a book you *have* to like. But what books are there that you feel you *should* like -- because they seem like they are right up your alley; because they are critically acclaimed; because they are almost universally liked by readers of that particular genre, including here in The Chrons; or any other reason -- but you not-so-secretly can't stand?

I'll start, of course, since I started the thread.

Even though he has won a slate of awards, has all the critical acclaim one could want, is considered by many to be one of the most imaginitive writers around, and seems to be very popular here in The Chrons (that's right - my choice hits all the criteria!), I really don't care for him and will certainly never read any more of his novels.

Step up and take a bow, China Miéville!

I've read his Perdido Street Station and The Scar and found them slow-going, cumbersome, filled with characters I couldn't possibly care less about, and all in all a bit of a chore to get through. And I don't mean that in the sense that they were so 'intellectually challenging' so as to give me a difficult time. I mean it in the sense of, "Good God, why am I reading this? Why? WHY?!?"

You've had a lot of success, Mr. Miéville, and God bless you for it. Keep on doing what you're doing, it certainly seems to be working for you. And for a 'nerdy' SFF sort of writer, you sure look like a mean SOB.

But the next time I come across your novels in a bookstore, I'm gonna go ahead and pass.

 

[HareBrain]

Re: Books you *should* like, but don't...?

Er, wasn't the "related but opposite" thread, of which you speak, itself created as a response to one exactly like this?

When will it end ...?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Re: Books you *should* like, but don't...?

Ah...

I didn't see that. I guess we are doomed to repeat history.

Such is the circle of life.

 

[soulsinging]

Re: Books you *should* like, but don't...?

Even though he has won a slate of awards, has all the critical acclaim one could want, is considered by many to be one of the most imaginitive writers around, and seems to be very popular here in The Chrons (that's right - my choice hits all the criteria!), I really don't care for him and will certainly never read any more of his novels.

Step up and take a bow, China Miéville!

I've read his Perdido Street Station and The Scar and found them slow-going, cumbersome, filled with characters I couldn't possibly care less about, and all in all a bit of a chore to get through. And I don't mean that in the sense that they were so 'intellectually challenging' so as to give me a difficult time. I mean it in the sense of, "Good God, why am I reading this? Why? WHY?!?"

I imagine they will merge this into the other thread, but I had to respond and say I got about 15 pages into Perdido Street and had the same reaction.

 

[j d worthington]

Re: Books you *should* like, but don't...?

Yes, I (or some mod) will be merging the two in a moment, but I had to respond here. My reaction to Mieville isn't as strong as yours; I'll still read his work now and again, when I have both the time and inclination; and I certainly see him as having talent and ability... but (with rare exceptions) his work does leave me, personally, cold. (At least, as far as his fiction is concerned. Having read his introduction to HPL's At the Mountains of Madness in "The Definitive Edition", I must say that I think he is a fine writer there, and in similar works I've come across.)

 

[soulsinging]

Re: Books you *should* like, but don't...?

Yes, I (or some mod) will be merging the two in a moment, but I had to respond here. My reaction to Mieville isn't as strong as yours; I'll still read his work now and again, when I have both the time and inclination; and I certainly see him as having talent and ability... but (with rare exceptions) his work does leave me, personally, cold. (At least, as far as his fiction is concerned. Having read his introduction to HPL's At the Mountains of Madness in "The Definitive Edition", I must say that I think he is a fine writer there, and in similar works I've come across.)

The fact that this thread now has a post calling it a duplicate of another thread which is linked and brings you right back to this thread is giving me Back to the Future style brain wrinkles.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

My reaction to Mieville isn't as strong as yours; I'll still read his work now and again, when I have both the time and inclination; and I certainly see him as having talent and ability... but (with rare exceptions) his work does leave me, personally, cold.

I think it's because I tend to be very black-and-white when it comes to my tastes. For example, I like Italian food. And I have been to several places where I thought the food was terrific. But if you asked me to rank them, I would struggle. My taste isn't 'fine-tuned' enough to keep track of subtle variations. So all I know, then, is that I like Restaurant X.

Similarly, I either like certain books, or I don't. The same holds true for movies (I am one of the few people I know who thought The Departed was overrated, and the only one I know [at least under the age of 30] who didn't find The Hangover the least bit amusing) and music (I never quite understood the fuss over The Beatles or Elvis).

The fact that this thread now has a post calling it a duplicate of another thread which is linked and brings you right back to this thread is giving me Back to the Future style brain wrinkles.

It's a psychological experiment to test our mental fortitude.

 

[j d worthington]

Sorry about that folks, but it was a compromise between leaving people who had contributed wondering where the thread had gone (no redirect), and leaving things open too long. Hence, a temporary redirect. It should disappear in about a week's time....

 

[Connavar]

Reading lit classes i tend to come up against literary classics that is canon, popular but also some dated badly, not to my taste as other classics i have read.

I read The Ambassadors by Henry James last week and it was an unfortunate first read of James. I was impressed by his elegent prose, his literary techniques like the way he wrote the dialouge, how the writer/narrator came in to the story. "our friend Mr Strether" here and there.

The surface storytelling didnt work at all to me and the themes he wrote about have been done better imo. I wont judge this writer by a late period book that is maybe more important to literary scholars than regular readers,critics.

Still i'm disappointed you want to know why a writer like is classic literature. Not like some who just wrote at the fortunate important times in literary history.....