All of the books by Terry Goodkind. It sucks when people who do not know how to write are given publishing contracts.
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All of the books by Terry Goodkind. It sucks when people who do not know how to write are given publishing contracts.
Of Mice And Men.
I dared to cross a Patterson novel once. I watch my step now.
A friend of mine used to have a glden rule: "Be weary of books where the name of the author is bigger than the title". ´My english teacher once made us choke down The Crocodile Bird by Ruth Rendell; I believe on her homepage it says she strives to write two books a year. It was awful, and a complete waste of my time. I'm never reading anything in that genre again.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I enjoyed it, but what the "point" was I don't know. Then again, I don't think books need necessarily have a "point".
No one look clever by reading books and i don't read chick lit.As for foreign countries settings,if only local literature sound genuine to you,fair enough.Every on choose his own borders.Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
There is many moderne novels that have the construction of classic.I mention Fitzgerald and Andrei Makine,but i could add many more Richard Yates,Amin Maalouf,Cormac Mccarthy,....that i would not call trendy.
Back to pointlessness with Jonathan Coe -the closed circle that i finished few days ago.It felt like watching a British sitcom.
I wrote a blog entry last year on my re-read of the Great Gatsby that you may or may not find helpful in making sense of the novel. Many of the comments here seem spot-on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bastable
Harry Potter recasts world myths into the framework of a boarding school coming-of-age story. The main characters are really Voldemort and Harry Potter who are mirror reflections of each other, but who ultimately take very different paths because of different choices in how they will respond to their life situations. The story is mainly about "Choice." Love and friendship (caring for others) are shown to be superior choices to controlling others fear and obedience (selfish acts). Some have pointed out that Harry always survives because of some deus ex machina, pointing this out as a flaw. However, I would argue this is partially the point. Harry isn't an overly talented wizard. He relies on his friends to survive, to solve his problems; he relies on others and that is his strength. Voldemort relies only himself, but is in fact one of the most talented wizard to have ever lived.Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinthediltz
You also have a critique of racism, fascism, school life, and government bureacracy. It brings these issues to life again through the fantasy world that parallels our own.
I'm not trying to start another "Harry Potter - teh awesumz/Harry Potter = teh sux" thread, but I did think it was worth addressing what I think some of the point was of Harry Potter.
None.
Every seemed to have a point even if it was never to read any book by the same author again! :p
m Hugo's point of view I would have to say Les Misérables, because it was supposed to come out of dust and fade away in it (the verses on Valjean's grave at the end)... Although, there he missed his own point, because it makes a point about the underclass.
But at the end you do feel like, 'what was the point of those lives anyway'...
I suppose that is to the point and pointless?:p
Thanks for the Blog entry on Gatsby. It is laid out in a way that makes it particularly pertinent to this thread: ie. First a synopsis that asks "But what does it all mean?" and then a brilliant exposition of the novel itself. For anyone who doesn't understand what all the fuss is about,a reading of the Blog will tell them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drkshadow03
I extremely enjoyed The Sun Also Rises but at the end of it I found myself asking why Hemingway felt the need to write it. It's been a long time since I've read anything by Hemingway, but I find his narrative powerful and compelling. I can also see why some may find his style not to their liking. However, I just couldn't see the point. I'm not sure I needed one to enjoy it, but I couldn't help reflecting on what the heck I was supposed to take away from it.
Another candidate would be The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. That novel I hated on so many levels, but at the end of it I wondered what was the point? The depths that a human being could stoop to swindle someone else out of their money? And get away with it? So what?
And while y'all are picking on poor Scott Fitzgerald, I have the similar reaction to This Side of Paradise. I loved the book and found Fitzgerald's writing to be lyrical. But in the end I couldn't see the point in the story of a young man who missed the point of his entire history as told throughout the book.
Dark Muse, thank you for this spin on the "negative" reading experience. I'd read the Hemingway and the Fitzgerald works again despite my finding them pointless.
I also found The Case of Benjamin Button to be a pretty pointless story. I just did not get the whole point of the character reliving his life backward when it did not seem as if he learned anything from the experience of gained any insight from it.
I love Jane Austen but I found Love and Freindship a little pointless. I like her style and all. So it's probably because I found it raw...
As a novel concerning American expats in post WW1 Europe, The Sun Also Rises has an authentic ring to the writing, but then it should do considering the author's background. I do agree with PabloQ, however, about the seemingly pointless plotline. It has been suggested on other entries to this forum that the story has a subtext relating to Eliot's The Wasteland and I couldn't see any direct connection to the poem, but perhaps that is the point of the story; ie. that life with all of its various experiences is ultimately pointless.Quote:
Originally Posted by PabloQ
Similarly with This Side of Paradise, although beautifully written, the story followed the protagonist's deveopment from adolescence to adulthod without coming to a satisfactory conclusion. If he had got married or run over by a bus, at least there would have been a falling of the curtain, but the curtain just stayed up; leaving the reader to wonder what the point of the story was. Then again, perhaps point is that there wasn't one.
The Shadow of the Wind was recommended to be as a "good mystery." After reading more than half if it, though, it just wasn't going anywhere or doing anything, so I gave up trying.
If you thought that Godot was pointless, what about Endgame. I attach an extract from Wickipedia's summation of the play.Quote:
Originally Posted by andave_ya
The implication in the play is that the characters live in an unchanging, static state. Each day contains the actions and reactions of the day before, until each event takes on an almost ritualistic quality. It is made clear, through the text, that the characters have a past (most notably through Nagg and Nell who conjure up memories of tandem rides in the Ardennes).
Tandem rides in the Ardennes ? He had to be kidding.
Agreed in regards to Waiting for Godot. I know I'm supposed to say I found it meaningful and emotionally tragic; I just thought the written play was boring and the stage version even more so. As far as existentialism goes I prefer Camus.
I've never found any book "pointless." I usually take something away from every novel I read, even if it just the knowledge that I will NEVER read it again because I hated it for :insert reason:
Endgame was....weird. But I think Waiting for Godot would be more boring. The stage is not a place for your own musings.
Big Sur by Kerouak and The Trial by Kafka. I read both with no distaste but when they were over, I went, Hmmmm, And??
I love existentialist type novels, but I must be the only person who doesn't like Kafka. I've tried, read a few but he does nothing for me. Oh well, you can't please every one.
"The portrait of a lady" was a pretty pointless book for me. Whatever it was that the heroine realized at the end made no difference, as she chooses to act as if she didn't know any better, so... And it was so obnoxious too with all that complicated style and long sentences that never delivered anything worthwhile. A common story said in an awfully long and worded way.
If you haven't read The Metamorphosis, you must. It's Kafka at his best, and the best example of emotions physically manifesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by grotto
The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick - the synopsis was very interesting for my taste, but when I started reading it, I slowly began to dislike it. Through the beginning, I have speculated probable ideas in my mind of what the ending might be, then by the time near the climax, I just knew where it was going. I closed the book, hid it at the back of my shelf and never again let it see the light of day.
I was very disappointed. I even wished I haven't bought it. The story was a complete failure. It was predictable, the one you would label as typical. I want twists. Every book I read is expected to make me impressed and say, 'I didn't see that coming!' and 'wow!'. That book didn't even make me say anything at all! I haven't even discussed it with any of my friends and family. I won't recommend it to anyone.
Wagner the Werewolf, by Reynolds.
If you are even vaguely curious, if you see it in the discount bin, if you want to find out for yourself why the man defines "penny dreadful" and decide to read it...
Do yourself a favour and just don't. Trust me.
I am, unfortunately, afflicted with the common ailment of being a teenager. Thanks to well meaning, teachers, parents, friends, and librarians I have been subjected to reading books made for teenagers. My least favourites thus far have been "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (a story in which half of the girls lose their virginity and nothing is accomplished) and the Twilight series (Buffy the Vampire episodes that not only steal their plot lines from great literature but even quote the books they steals from.) I've given up on reading books written for my age group and am sticking literary classics.
Probably Jeam M.Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children) series. The first book was neat, just to learn about plant properties, but also incredibly improbable. The heroine, Ayla, could not possible have invented as much as she did, and also be single handedly responsible for the domestication of both wolves and horses. After the first book, every single other book is just caveman pornography... and repetetive caveman pornography, at that!
There just seems to be no greater point to the story. It's all empty description, and sex, and jealousy.
Nobody said The Old Man and the Sea. I,however, did enjoy it, but I'm not sure why.
What's the point of A Farewell to Arms? Is there one?! Curse you Hemingway!
I think you will agree that "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" should get full marks as an original title, but I am curious to know how you can claim that nothing is accomplished in the story when half of the girls loose their virginity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reread
I think you can wring a point from any novel. Even if that point is to not have a point.
It is interesting that so many people have mentioned The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye because these were the first two books that popped into my head when I started reading this thread. I'm not surprised by Hemingway being mentioned so much either (read one of his for the first time recently).
But I think the book that I felt most cheated by when I finished it and left me exclaming, "What?...Why?...Why?...I don't understand!!!" has to be Wuthering Heights.
The Old Man and the Sea. Title pretty much describes the story.
I don't get all the praise for Hemingway..
What's the most pointless book I've ever read? The Brothers Karamazov, which I re-read several years ago and completely failed to get any point or message out of it. This was a bit surprising to me because I have a BA in English Lit & read & liked a lot of Russian literature in college, but I guess it's easier for some of us to like literature that we're studying and not just reading on our own. Except for D.H. Lawrence that is, I had to read one of his crappy novels for some English course and totally hated it. I can't even remember which one it was, which is fine by me.
I'm also surprised to find out that not everyone loves The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye as much as I do. Maybe I've been leading too sheltered a life these days. Anyways, The Great Gatsby certainly makes my "Top Ten American Novels" list.
:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
Factotum by Charles Bukowski...but a strange thing- after finishing that i thought that's it...i'm never gonna read any Bukowski again(factotum was my first by the way)...but now i miss Chinaski....i think i'm gonna read another pointless book by him soon...
and Tarantula by Bob Dylan....Although he is my favorite songwriter, that book was a torment...
no they don'tQuote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
Cal. some British author wrote it, it was cheap and the title was simple but it was very boring and left nothing...
Good point. :smash:Quote:
Originally Posted by sixsmith
Really? When I read that book, every five minutes was a revelation.Quote:
Originally Posted by bazarov
For me, I had a lot of trouble discerning a point in Joyce's Dubliners. After almost every story I was asking "so what?" (Araby especially. It took me a lot of time to figure out what the kid's problem was). If I can't figure out what the author is saying on my own, I seek a second opinion. I've learned that there's always something.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fb0252
WHAAA?!? I thought that the "point" of those novels were EXTREAMLY obvious (that's why they pass them out in the tenth grade).Quote:
Originally Posted by Annamariah
Murphy-Beckett
Even though I've enjoyed it,i thought it was pointless.Or it's just that i didn't get the point.
And i still think that Unbearable lightness of being was just empty.