I didn't finish it.:( I've read half of it and gave up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
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I didn't finish it.:( I've read half of it and gave up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
Couldn't agree more, Moira.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moira
There have been lengthy discussion on this book if you would like to have a look:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...highlight=road
Lord of the Flies. every single second of it. absolutely the worst I have ever read. I don't even like to think about it, that's how much I hated it.
Thanks Scher,Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I enjoyed the disussions:) and feel better now for not liking the novel.:lol: :lol:
Reading On The Road was the literary equivalent of viewing "realism" in film.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moira
I still haven't finished Cat's Cradle, I would rather bang my head against stones than torture myself through Vonnegut's drivel against the religious ... see the cat, see the cradle.
That's a bad thing?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stieg
Absolutely not but this novel has about as much excitement as watching paint dry. Very mundane content.Quote:
Originally Posted by NickAdams
Bland content, but how's the prose?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stieg
Didn't care for it, no milieu blasting off the pages IMO for a book of this nature. I think that is essential. Quite circular, redundant in subject matter a la "same things just different day".Quote:
Originally Posted by NickAdams
I don't know about Cat's Cradle but i'm enjoying Slaughterhouse 5 very much at present.:thumbs_upQuote:
Originally Posted by Stieg
I loved Slaughterhouse-5 but I did not find Cat's Cradle nearly as funny and the philosophical commentary, though layered on, is too tedious and not nearly driven home as deeply than in the previous novel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moira
Though there is a few chapters (3 or 4) taking satirical jabs at Albert Schweitzer, his literary works, and some popular culture associated with him that ROCKED. Otherwise, the novel came across a soap box rant a dull one at that.
I didn't like Madame Bovary at all when I read it. I didn't like the plot nor Flaubert's writing style...
And I'm not too fond of Dickens either, but that's probably just because of personal taste, since long descriptions bore me.
I could never really fully appreciate Faulkner's work. I read three of his novels - three! I think it hurt me deep inside. xD I don't ever want to read a Faulkner novel again.
I read, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Intruder In The Dust.
*shudders*
I just skim the passages with long descriptions if they get too boring. Otherwise I love Dickens - except "The Pickwick Papers". I never finished them, although I tried several times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sibyl
Another book I couldn't finish was "The Plague" by Albert Camus. But then I generally have a problem with French authors - we just don't seem to speak the same language, if you know what I mean ...:) I prefer German, British and American writers.
I agree with Sartre...wow...I've only just started it a couple of days ago...Quote:
Originally Posted by Turk
Grapes of Wrath was the worst for me. There was an entire chapter about dirt and a turtle. I'm sure this had some significance, but blech. I couldn't even bring myself to finish the book.
Ooooh yeah. The Plague kept putting me to sleep. It took me an entire summer to read. Seriously. Argh. It was when I came back to school that I learned about existentialism and lalala. It's still a boring book to me, too. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by barbara0207
Now here's an opportunity. While in university, after my third major change, it was Enligh Lit. One of the courses I signed on for was "Restoration Literature" and that was a mistake. Should have sampled it more first. It was really a dip in the quality of EL (e.g. "She Stoops to Conquer") and I voiced this in a final (essay question). Of course the prof. thought this not to be the case and failed me on that test. Although i pushed through the course...this didn't help. quasimodo1
I don't see how you can criticize a book merely because the author didn't finish a work, as in Dead Souls case. That means that The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Amerika, The Castle and many others are automatically devoid of any literary merit because they were not finished. I don't agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Turk
Do i have to like a half-novel? It's very natural to get disappointed when you finish the book in the middle of story.
Agreed! I think it was Capote who said, "That isn't writing - that's typing!" :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Stieg
I didn't enjoy it myself... Which is disappointing - you'd think that a text that sprang from a drug binge would have produced something that enhanced every day events, rather than dulled them down.
I loved the Grapes of Wrath. I think the part you mentioned was one of the chapters where none of the characters appeared, and it described the dust bowl, the famine, the earth and humanity in general. Those chapters (which appeared in between every chapter of the Joads' saga) were my favorites - I thought they depicted the tragedy and suffering of the time beautifully, and drew empathy from the reader. I hated every single one of the Joads, was annoyed when any of them had dialog, but somehow I couldn't stop reading. Someone I discussed this with once said that the Joads are not meant to be liked... Maybe, with that in mind, more people would enjoy the book?Quote:
Originally Posted by mkhockenberry
I think the book was effective because the Joads were unlikable... I can't imagine I would be too likable under their living conditions either.
Alright, I didn't read all the proceeding posts, but for me Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was the most boring story on the face of the earth!!! It made me want to rip my hair out!
I didn't like Anne of Green Gables much either, but by the 3rd one or so it got to be halfway decent (I received the entire series for christmas one year).
I'd like to toss One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on the dung pile.
I'm going through narrative therapy with Mr. Beckett at the moment.
Finnegans Wake
I did not really care for all the 'word-play'. I understand to really get something out of it, I would have to study it more in depth. But I don't find it as impressive as some scholars. I believe Joyce said he wrote it to give them (scholars) something to write about for 200 years.
My favorite thing about it is the first and last sentence (which are the same - - begins with the end and finishes with the beginning).
I have to admit I loved the quartet you mentioned, even the inner chapters of "Moby Dick" (they are quite funny.)
the worst "classics" I was assigned to read (back when I was in school, during the Jurassic Era) were:
Jalousie by Robbe-Grillet (if you take Ambien, etc. and have problems, just read that book. You'll be stacking zzzs
before you can say "Mon Dieu!")
and
Lord of the Flies by William Golding. God, what a boring book, and yet I hear one of the networks is basing a reality show on it! Wow.
p.s. Cf. the blog site of yours truly, w. prior permission to post from the Forum's administrator
journals.aol.com/auntshecky711/aunt-sheckys-news-without-clues
I can't put my finger on why, but I wasn't terribly fond of "Heart of Darkness"
Oh! I thought of another one! I hated The Great Gatsby. I had to read it for my lit class last year. Everyone else liked it, but for some reason I just couldn't stand it...but I did like Fitzgerald's Winter Dreams...
I sort've agree with that one. I didn't hate "The Great Gatsby", but I left wondering what the big deal with it was. I thought it was OK, but I don't see why everyone fawns over it so much. And I very much like the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald.Quote:
Originally Posted by SnowQueen189
Quote:
Originally Posted by quasimodo1
God, yeah, I had the exact same experience in my English Lit. classes at university. Things really took a dip after Shakespeare died. But then again, Pilgrim's Progress was written around then, and I like that. And Paradise Lost.
Worst Classic Ever [tm] has to be The Scarlet Letter. Awful, turgid, dreary nonsense in page-long sentences full of words like "visage" and "interrim". I've never spent a longer two days than the ones I spent on that.
Huckleberry Finn and Pride and Prejudice. So over rated.
I can easily understand why someone wouldn't like that. It was written by a man who didn't really understand English, and he was trying to describe situations that were dark and unpleasant.Quote:
Originally Posted by metal134
Same here, hated the book. :crash:Quote:
Originally Posted by SnowQueen189
Pride and Prejudice.
I keep trying to read it and can only get half way through. I just don't care about the characters. I will try other Austen though.
Silas Marner. I remember having to read this in high school, and how bleak and depressing I found it. :bawling: I really enjoyed George Eliot's other masterpiece, The Mill on the Floss, but not this one.
You found it depressing? Did you to the end? Silas regains his faith in humanity and Eppie gets married. I don't think there was a happier way to end that story. The last words Eppie says are, "O father, what a pretty home ours is! I think no one could be happier than we are". The Mill on the Floss ends with the drowning of the protagonist. Which is more bleak?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mary Sue
That being said, I do like the Mill on the Floss better. Yet, it's not because of the mood that I like one over the other.
I can name some classics that I had to read with anger (some books I read because I'm stubborn):
- I'm sorry Virgil, but "Aeneid" is a very, very dry book... nothing to do with Homer's works (I just loved The Iliad and the Odyssey!)... this is a really boring book to read...
-"Thus Spoke Zarathustra", by Nietzsche. This was a hard book to read, though I like philosophy a lot.
- "Emma", since I'm not an Austen lover and I just can´t stand those kind of stories. :P
- "The Great Gatsby", maybe because I was too young when I read it, but the story didn't move me at all.
Strangely, books like "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", "Heart of Darkness", "Drakula", "Moby Dick", "100 Years of Solitude" (some of the most hated book mentioned) are some of my favourite.
I love Aeneid in fact I thought the Odyssey,which I read a few years back, really dry and Virgil much better.Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychosis
On the whole I don't think I have ever hated a book. Wondered who on earth would think it was well written, let alone great literature definitely but hated no.
I love Wuthering Heights!!!
I couldn't get through War and Peace Tolstoy...
The Catcher In The Rye. And as for The Great Gatsby, I also feel I'm missing something.
I hated Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. It is so boring compared to the others. And Catherine Morland is so naive, it really gets onto your nerves.
I really love Jane AUsten's style and her wit, but this novel was just way too benign.
I also had to plough through Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, a German classic.