Jan 7, 2009
Are there any good books you don't like?
What supposedly good books do you dislike? Do you read them anyway?
Do you find it rewarding to read books you dislike?
* * * * *
© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
Jan 7, 2009
What supposedly good books do you dislike? Do you read them anyway?
Do you find it rewarding to read books you dislike?
* * * * *
I can’t come up with anything. I’m afraid this means I don’t read enough supposedly good books.
In high school, people raved over “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Ugh! I hated that book.
Also, people promoted the “Left Behind” series as the great breakthrough Christian fiction. But I disliked the writing and couldn’t make it beyond the third book. I found books somewhat boring.
In college, people raved over the “Harry Potter” series. I made it through the first book, but couldn’t make it through the second. I don’t get the excitement.
These are some of the books that I did not like, but were advocated as great reads. But I still love to read. I promise. I’m convinced, though, that many people don’t enjoy reading because (at some point during their education) they spent hours and hours reading unenjoyable literature that was supposedly great.
I have dislike literary Classics such as Great Expectations and Moby Dick. I’m not sure if they are “supposedly good” or just classics.
The reward is in the ego. I can now say I’ve read those epically boring tomes.
I keep hearing the Shack is, like totally, the new Pilgrim’s Progress, but I find it too boring to read more than 20 pages.
1. I have read over and over that Middlemarch is the greatest English novel. So when I was in England I started it. And that’s all–just started. I TRIED. But I got so bored and bogged down. Same with trying to ease into it by watching the BBC miniseries–couldn’t get beyond the beginning.
2. I didn’t like Moby Dick when I had to read it in HS. I suppose I ought to try it again, since it’s the most influential book for so many people. But I don’t suppose I actually will.
Give me five, Barnabas!
I tried to get into A Tale of Two Cities. It was a while ago; I was a young teenager. I suppose I should give it another try. Like Mom, I don’t suppose I actually will.
The Grapes of Wrath and Moby Dick.
I remember being excited to read both. My professors were really excited for us to read them. I felt really guilty that I didn’t like them.
I figured that it meant I just didn’t really get it. Now that I see the Barnabas and Mom didn’t like Moby Dick either, I’ll give myself a pass on that one
My friend is an English Lit major and has a bookshelf full of “good books.” Her first recommendation to me was “Tess of the D’Urbervilles.”
Most.depressing.book.ever.
After reading 2/3′s of the book I finally put it down and said enough.
I’m sure there was beautiful imagery, deep symbolism and on and on . . . but I just couldn’t see it through the deep fog of depression the book put me in.
Heart of Darkness
Daisy Miller
…Most of the books I read in high school english.
Yikes! I’m plodding through Middlemarch as we speak! I keep falling asleep during the chapters. If it wasn’t for book club, I’d put it down. BUT, the joy of a night without kids and the company of wonderful women, I’ll plod through just about anything they ask me too!
I also agree with The Grapes of Wrath. East of Eden is another matter entirely. I LOVED that book, while expecting to hate it.
That Hideous Strength and Out of the Silent Planet (but Perelandra was good).
The first two books of Harry Potter sucked, but the rest were good.
Blue Like Jazz was so popular with so many folks, and I found it dull and a bit self centered.
Dickens’ Bleak House was an bore. The beginning was like listening to an acquaintance describe at length his most mundane family tree.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin. BLECH!
I might get some flak for this one but I’m not a fan of The Great Gatsby. Also I concur on Blue Like Jazz……and I wasn’t a fan of Donald Miller’s prayer at the Democratic convention but that’s on a completely different track altogether.
I don’t like The Great Gatsby. Depressing.
Also, the Nobel Prize Winning book “Blindness”. Blech.
Basically, any book that espouses a postmodernist viewpoint or just points out the hopelessness of life drives me crazy.
Prayer of Jabez…when it was popular. Father in law gave it to me even though he isn’t saved – tried to justify materialism. I read about twenty pages of the book, declared it a heresy against the election and will of God and got rid of it.
I guess I don’t read popular book because if it is popular, it is tickling the ears of so many for a reason, a la DaVinci Code, Your Best Life Now, Anything by Joyce Meyer, The Shack, T.D. Jakes, etc…
But what is really important? Christ and Him crucified. The indicator of “deep as a frisbee” “Christian” thought, not going to lay MY life down until I get what’s mine writing is when the author’s picture is on the dust jacket.
Wuthering Heights: a love story-seriously?!
Blue Like Jazz: The Christian “Catcher in the Rye” in my opinion.
The Da Vinci Code: I never understood the hype b/c I didnt care who the bad guy was.
Anything by Nicholas Sparks or Francine Rivers. I would rather eat my toenails.
I have a deal with myself that if I read 50 pages of CS Lewis, I get to treat myself with an Agatha Christie book (or 2).
Did you try Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers?
My wife disliked lots of ‘classics’ because she was made to read them for school. Do you think people may feel differently if they didn’t read them under compulsion?
I would have to go with:
1. “London” not so good.
You see, I like history…. I like to read… I, according to the person who recommended it, have a man-crush on all things British and should therefore love it… but i found it tedious… and the more i read the more upset i got because i blew a Barnes and Noble giftcard on it when frankly a new Old 97′s cd was calling my name… stupid history book… stupid man-crush.
I was underwhelmed with “I became a Christian and all I got was a t-shirt” and “The Shack”;
Without question….The Shack
I loved A Tale of Two Cities and All Quiet on the Western Front. I just read The Iliad and even enjoyed it. But I did NOT like The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. No siree, not one bit.
I love to read but if something isn’t working for me, I’m fine with putting it down and moving on. I admit I will work harder at a book that people I trust have liked.
Oooh, I absolutely hated “An American Tragedy” on all counts, had to read it at school. Hated Moby Dick in school, but loved it when I read it again decades later.
There are books that I think are good, well written, even genius, but I don’t like because they are too dark/depressing/etc. like a lot of Steinbeck’s books. And Faulkner – absolutely brilliant, but made me literally naseaus (especially “As I Lay Dying”).
And I disliked (for a lot of reasons) the popular books I’ve read by people like Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, John Eldredge, T.D. Jakes…well, you get the picture.
I’m willing to push myself through ‘classics’ becuase they often get better as you get into the story and get used to the style, but I’m no longer willing to read newer, ‘popular’ books (like “The Shack”) if I don’t think I’ll like them.
I dislike reading Rob Bell’s books because of the pacing and the excessive whitespace (and some of the content of course)… but I read them anyway because they’re short reads and people often refer to them.
Oh yes! There are also “supposed worthless books” that I enjoy for my own reasons.
I enjoy the Gutenberg websites that specialize in presenting digitized books, mostly of publications over 75-125 years old. A lot of them are “quite worthless”, I suppose, but I enjoy the insights in both the authors’ purposes and subjects.
I loved the Good Earth and I’m a little surprised that it was mentioned. Everyone has different tastes though, so I guess I shouldn’t be to shocked.
Anyway, I could never get into the Tale of Two Cities either. I’ve started several times and just couldn’t keep it going.
I’m reading the Brothers Karamazov right now, however, and while I’m finding bright diamonds in there it’s still a tough book to get through. I’m not sure yet if it’s falling into this category. The story is just so slow in the setup and takes place in a context that I’m just having a tough time with.
Alice in Wonderland…
The character of Alice is so annoying it makes it hard to get through more than a few pages at a time.
Most comments so far have been of bad books you don’t like…
A Call to Spiritual Reformation by Don Carson is, evidently an excellent book, I just really don’t get on with it. Similarly, Packer’s Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.
i tend to really like the classics, and one of my favorite books is A Tale of Two Cities, but i cannot abide by most of Dickens’ other stuff. Great Expectations, ugh. also, gothic novels (like the Brontes) – super boring. and . . . Romeo and Juliet.
also: “Anything by Nicholas Sparks or Francine Rivers. I would rather eat my toenails.” HA! yeah. just don’t tell most of the older females i know. :]
Lord of the Flies. I refuse to start a book and not finish it, even if it’s not my most favorite. Except for Lord of the Flies. I have started and stopped reading it 5 times now.
In College I had to read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. It’s deceivingly short and laboriously dense.
I love reading, but I’m OK with this one collecting dust on my shelf.
Adam Bede – totally into it all the way through then the ending seemed forced and false. So frustrated.
One Hundred Years of Solitude. It interested me at first and I expected it to be another East of Eden…no such luck. I’m glad I read it (once), though, because it’s such a different style than I’m used to, though I certainly didn’t feel edified when I finished it. I can see how it was groundbreaking, though.
I have never been able to get going on either The Jungle or Oliver Twist. Tried, and can’t do it.
It’s funny how there are book that I love (The Scarlet Letter, The Good Earth, Great Expectations), but I can totally understand how they would bore other people (much as Tale of Two Cities and Of Mice and Men bored me). Sort of like the fact that I love grapefruit but get why people don’t like it.
Oh, and I don’t care for the Narnia books. Don’t throw tomatoes at me!!
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
As to a lot (not all) of contemporary Christian fiction. I wrote a review of a book in the early 90′s. I said it was poorly written–too many adjectives and treated me like I’m stupid by telling me in 3 different ways what was happening in case I didn’t get it the first time.
(I think) I’m glad it didn’t get published because since then that one book has multiplied to dozens and the author is a millionaire now.
Jane Eyre… ugh.
Desiring God.
And at what point do books that we dislike tell us more about ourselves than the actual books?
That thought always sobers my criticisms.
okay.. I know this borders on heresy… but I have tried and tried and tried and tried to read the Lord of the Ring series… just don’t like them… I got through the Hobbit after about 20 years of trying.. got through the next one and just couldn’t read one more word!
I didn’t like the Secret Life of Bees.
I hate to say it, but “Don’t Waste Your Life” (my issues weren’t with beliefs but were more with the style). It was written by my pastor, so I feel like I should especially like it, but I had trouble getting through it until around the 7th chapter.
But to Jonathan’s point, that may say more about me than it does about the book.
Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaids Tale”.
I will second The Grapes of Wrath and Middlemarch. Also, I could not get through Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Camus’s The Stranger. I learned through that experience that I hate existentialism.
I struggled through The Brothers Karamazov. And I agree with those who said Blue Like Jazz.
I agree with whoever said Tess of the D’Urbervilles was the most depressing book ever. Also I can’t take Dickens’ style, for some reason – possibly the whole paid-by-the-word thing?
It’s funny about The Great Gatsby, we had to read it in high school and I hated it then, but for some reason I picked it up again a few years ago and found I liked it a whole lot better. (Mostly high school was a complete wash in terms of books though… we spent a year and a half on existentialism… I may never recover.)
Re: One Hundred Years of Solitude, I love just about everything by Garcia Marquez, but I understand why a lot of people don’t – I think he’s very much an acquired taste! I had a really incredible Latin American Lit professor at college who I think is the reason I got into Garcia Marquez in the first place. (I also find that he’s better in Spanish; I’ve never read an English translation of anything of his that I liked as much.)
I had to read Jude the Obscure in high school. Even my English teacher agreed it was awful.
Ha, great question.
I was talking about one just today:
The Great Gatsby
Here is one other:
On the Road
For those how struggle with The Brothers Karamazov, I teach it and would say it is something that works much, much better in discussion. I tried to read it twice on my own to no avail, but now I weep every time I finish it.
And see? People don’t like Dickens best stuff … OK, Ok, dead horse. I’m done.
The Notebook.
I made the mistake of seeing the movie first and I could never get into the book.
No Dickens, except Tale of Two Cities, which could have been written by someone else.
Myrddin,
I have exactly one friend that I could have a discussion with about Karamazov, but she’s very much occupied with other things at the moment while I’m already deep into the book.
Are there some places online or elsewhere that you could recommend (like maybe SparkNotes) that would help me appreciate the book more?
Moby Dick (I see I’m in good company). I’m glad I read it though.
Virgil’s The Aenid. I’m still not sure why I finished it.
1. On The Road by Jack Keroac. I’m from the Philippines and have not been to the US, so I find it difficult to relate with the narrative.
2. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I’m not a big fan of Hemingway’s writing style. I like dialogue and conflict and characters that are thoroughly fleshed out.
3. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. Post-modern literature is an acquired taste, and I don’t think I have acquired it yet.
Oh yeah–keep talking everyone. You’re helping me focus on my No list: Moby Dick, Old Man and the Sea, Ancient Mariner. I’m detecting a pattern. And it’s odd, because I’d rather vacation at or on the water than anywhere else.
I liked a lot of the books mentioned in the comments. I gave up on Moby Dick but loved The Old Man and the Sea and All’s Quiet on the Western Front.
One observation I have is that you may not like a book at one time in your life, but later on you may find it enjoyable. Something clicks.
For example, I had started reading The Lord of the Rings several times but never could even make it to Tom Bombadil. Then I saw the first movie and I quickly read through all of them (and then re-read them).
For all those who couldn’t take Moby Dick, I remember my mom saying she intensely disliked it as well. I didn’t have to read it in high school because she was my teacher. :D
Left Behind series — I can deal with the fact that I disagree with some of the theology, but the main thing that got to me was the weak writing. I did plow through ten of them, though.
Lord of the Rings – I actually kind of enjoyed the Hobbit, but the trilogy itself is very long and slow. Every crested mountain brings a new three-page description of the lay of the land, and every new character has a ballad… or two… about his people’s history… in Elvish and English. But I did read all of the books, because I wanted to finish them before I saw the movies.
Redeeming Love (Francine Rivers) – it came highly recommended to me, and I walked away pretty underwhelmed.
Swiss Family Robinson – it was fun at first, but by the end of it, I was very tired of hearing how they made yet another modern amenity in their treehouse.
Moby Dick.
More like Moby ICK.
Moby Dick for sure! Who can read two whole chapters on whale fat?
And anything by Hemingway. I have slept my way through The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, and The Sun Also Rises. boRING!
Sense & Sensibility was terrible. I’m not sure what caused me to dislike it so, since I enjoyed Pride & Prejudice, but the former was just mind-numbingly boring and frustrating.
Tale of Two Cities is the only Dickens work I’ve enjoyed — the rest of his novels are far too depressing and just don’t sit well with me.
To answer the 3rd part of your question (since there were so many good books I didn’t “like”)–yes, I think it’s possible to find it rewarding to read books that I don’t enjoy.
For example, Heart of Darkness is so dark–pardon the pun. There is so much to learn from it, but I would never read such a book for pleasure–or books like Animal Farm and 1984.
But I’m so glad I read them.
For those who gave up on Tale of Two Cities the first time, I would recommend trying to pick it up again (with Cliffs Notes handy if you have to–I know that’s appalling to some, but worth it if it helps you follow and appreciate this great classic).
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Man! Of all the books listed in this thread, the only one I’ve read is “Don’t Waste Your Life.” I loved that book, though. Given the list of “classics” here, I’m feeling pretty under-read or poorly-read or something.
But as for classics from different traditions:
I’d have to go with most of Chinua Achebe’s production.
And I never understood the appreciation for Alice Walker.
Heart of Darkness
Wuthering Heights
Moby Dick
On the Road is definitely on my list, as is Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce and Anna Karenina (which I’ve been trying to “enjoy” for years).
re: Moby Dick–I don’t remember much of it, but I think I liked it. I believe it was more the thought of being at sea that kept me enaged. That might be it, because all I remember of it is a ship, the sea, and something about a whale. And some storms, maybe?
I loved Moby Dick. I just have to put that out there. And I just got an e-mail from a former student who remembered that I had recommended it, picked it up and loved it.
It depends if you like sad books or not and whether not you consider them a “good” book. I just finished “A Grief Observed” By C.S. Lewis and it quite possibly be the most depressing thing I’ve ever read. Lewis’ stuff is always amazing, but I don’t think I’d read it again simply because it put me into a downcast mood afterward.
Shawn,
Stick with the Brothers Karamazov. It gets MUCh better towards the end, as in you won’t want to put it down.
Great Expectations.The story line was incredibly bizarre and dark and Dickens’ writing style is very digressive. I know (think?) it ends well, but I just couldn’t go through all that rambling darkness to get there.
I’ll second Old Man And The Zzzzzzzzzz. : ) Though literature class did help me to appreciate it, I just didn’t think it was anything spectacular.
I agree with On the Road by Kerouac. I was probably too young and ill informed when i first tried but I could not finish Paradise Lost in high school or Dante. I should probably go back and try again in middle age.
Some of the the books or series such as the LEft Behind series surprise me. I can see them falling into the category of ” I like to read this” even though they were dreck but did anyone really think they were reading something that Christians would still be reading in 100 years much less 500?
The Catcher in the Rye.
Wuthering Heights.
Pretty much anything my mother ever recommended that I read aside from the Bible.
(We have vastly different taste in literature.)
If I hear one more person say how great “The Shack” is I will explode. Not only does it contain less than orthodox ideas about God (that’s the nicest way I could think to say it), it is a poorly written, predictable, sentimental piece of fiction.
Knowing God by J.I. Packer. I feel like a little like a heretic for typing that, but I really didn’t connect well with the book.
Sodding Crime and Punishment. Oh the psychopathic ramblings! I thought I was going to have to call a white truck. But I pressed on so I could drop it into high-faluting conversation sometime. (Seriously, I could appreciate what was good about it, but thoroughly disliked it.)
Bleak House – one of the few books I have never finished (liked the BBC series though). I thought dickens was tiresomely verbose in that one, and kept at it for 800 pages, and I felt like the authorial voice was somewhat smug in places, which was irritating.
Pride and Prejudice. Sorry, but I can’t stand the philasophic discussions on what love or maybe marriage is or isn’t. Though Austen is a literary artist. ‘Emma’ is her masterpiece.
I tried hard to read The Sound and the Fury like I tried hard to eat cole slaw as a kid. Both were equally arduous experiences.
Moby Dick
War and Peace
Crime and Punishment
Anything by Ayn Rand
Anything by Charles Dickens
Catcher in the Rye
Anything by William Faulkner
Emma and Northanger Abbey (Austen) – although I loved Pride and Prejudice…
Brothers Karamazov – by the time you “stick with it” you’re ready to sit all the way through a chick’s movie for some relief…
Anything by J. R.R.R.R. Tolkein
Anything by John Owen – Yeah, I know, I’m supposed to persevere because he’s so dense…uh, I mean great.
Every Systematic Theology with the surprising exception of Wayne Grudem’s.
Most of the Puritans – Except “The Reformed Pastor.” Sorry, I tried, did my best, can’t hang.
Now with a list like Murf’s we should probably have a question like, “Is there any good book you have liked?”
One of the worst books I’ve ever read is PILLARS OF THE EARTH. I’ve heard so many good things about it, I have friends who’ve read it twice (my head wants to explode just thinking about it), and I think I heard that it was an Oprah’s book club pick. I have hardly ever enjoyed anything less, and it was almost 1,000 pages long. I read about 40 books a year and in general enjoy 38 of them. PILLARS was in the remaining 1%.
For some reason, Packer’s and Sproul’s books just can’t hold my interest. It’s nothing to do with the content of their writings, but for some reason their writing styles don’t mesh with my reading style.
I’m an avid reader. LOVE to read. Devour books THAT I LIKE. But, no I don’t find it “rewarding” to read or finish reading books that I don’t like. Life is too short and there are too many “good” books that I DO enjoy to waste time with those I can’t abide. So if after a few pages and (yes I am shamelessly one of those readers) a skim of the ending I don’t find a book to my taste, I cast it aside for something else.
However, college lit classes did force me to read a few books that I didn’t like. “AGE OF INNOCENCE” was the worst.
One more thing. If something is highly recommended to me multiple times and I know the author’s grid to be sound, I’ll give the book a few tries. Took 3 tries to embrace Lewis’s Space Trilogy. But now I really appreciate them…
Does Matt (1:06PM) win some kind of award for bravery for choosing “Desiring God?”
I didn’t get past the 3rd chapter (day 3) of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life. I also (like Laura) tend to work harder when someone I trust recommends a book.
I read Crime & Punishment in college just to be able to say I was able to finish it ;) I’m not sure I can say the same for War and Peace.
The Screwtape Letters
really don’t care for anything by CS Lewis…
The Shack may be many things, but the next Pilgrim’s Progress it is not.
Wuthering Heights – hated it with a passion!
The Old Man and the Sea. I had to read it twice for school and could not stand it.
Great Expectations was awful.
I hated reading Shakespeare. Especially when we had to act out the parts…
I surprisingly liked a lot of the other “classics” from high school.
Unlike many here, I love Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck’s description of how the factory farms destroyed family farms, men’s ability to support their families, and ultimately their sense of worth still seems relevant today. Maybe it’s growing up in the northern Plains?
I cannot stand Jane Austen. There! I said it. I just don’t understand the obsession. I don’t find it rewarding to slog through her novels, just boring.
I’m relieved to find out that I’m not the only woman who can’t stand Pride & Prejudice.
I know this is an old thread, but I just felt like putting in my two cents.
I love Dickens, but really didn’t like Great Expectations or Oliver Twist. Still glad I read them, maybe just because they are part of the general knowledge and its good to be familiar with them.
Loved Moby Dick but think it should have all the chapters on the history of whaling etc edited out.
Wuthering Heights- Can you come up with two more unlovable characters to feature? What unbridled carnality!
Don Quixote- sigh. Never could get far with this. I just didn’t care what happened to him! Maybe I’ll try banging my head against it again.
I think it it certainly a good idea to read books you don’t like. Rewarding? Maybe in the sense that I’ve conquered it, and my own tendency to reject a book if I don’t like it.
Didn’t respond so long ago, but Les Mis and Wuthering Heights. Tried to get thru both but gave up. I could care less about Cathy and Heathcliff and their disfunctional family, and I know the story of Les Mis so I can’t seem to plow thru all the Hugo wants me to know about the time. And I am French so I should want to.