Books that I resent

Recently, I saw a copy of The Quincunx by Charles Palliser in a used book store. I red that last year at the request of a friend who wanted a second opinion on the book. I finished it, and I consider the time it took to read it time that was wasted. While on a sentence-by-sentence level the book was fine, as a whole it was void. The the characters were thin, and the plot was absurd. Unfortunately, there are a large number of books published that have nothing to them, like the proverbial Chinese that leaves you hungry as soon as you finish.

Do others have this problem with some books, and which are they?

That's why I like novels that are like 100-200 pages. They cut out the crap and leave nothing but action.

If you want to feel that you have wasted a vast chunk of your life that you're not going to get back, any Harry Potter book ought to do it!

My teacher fulnked the planet, I'm willing accept books that address the flaws of humanity as long as they're not insulting as this. Wnat me to elaborate further?

Though it does take a lot to get me to quick a book I started, I usually do stop reading them before getting to the point of feeling resentful for having read them.

I have to say I did find Of Mice and Men a bit resentful! I had to read it for school, and I personally am not a huge fan of Steinbeck's writing style, and I really did not enjoy that book, and did not like having to read it, and I am not one of those people who just don't like assigned reading, most the stuff I read for school I enjoyed but I personally did not feel as if it were necessary to have an entire chapter just talking about scenery.

Also I did find All the Kings Men pretty god awful boring, after reading the book, I understood why I didn't enjoy the movie, because the book was not much of an improvement. One of the only reasons why I didn't give up on that one, was because I was reading it for a group read so I made myself stick to it, but it became a chore picking it up everyday to read, and I didn't feel like it was worth it by the end.

Two books which I hated and loathed with all of my being? Wise Blood and Love In The Ruins.

Recently I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo(as a compromise to get a book club going)--and would have loathed it if it had taken more than the two days it took to read. As it was, it wasn't a huge investment--it just wasn't very good---and the payoff is now I have a bunch of people reading great books they wouldn't have otherwise read--Dumas and Dostoevsky and Tracy Kidder...

I also really didn't like Love In The Time of Cholera--but it wasn't the same level of loathing as I had for those first two books, one of which (Walker Percy)I threw against the wall while reading-not once, but twice.

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Originally Posted by _Shannon_

Recently I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo(as a compromise to get a book club going)--and would have loathed it if it had taken more than the two days it took to read. As it was, it wasn't a huge investment--it just wasn't very good---and the payoff is now I have a bunch of people reading great books they wouldn't have otherwise read--Dumas and Dostoevsky and Tracy Kidder...

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Oh there you go my bookclub is reading that this month (I am in the middle of exams so i am not reading it.) as a compromise I went and saw the movie. I know that you can not compare movies and books but if the movie was anything to go by I can imagine what the book was like and I have no intention of ever picking it up. The violence which seemed to me just for the sake of it was enough to turn my stomach.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

Though it does take a lot to get me to quick a book I started, I usually do stop reading them before getting to the point of feeling resentful for having read them.

I have to say I did find Of Mice and Men a bit resentful! I had to read it for school, and I personally am not a huge fan of Steinbeck's writing style, and I really did not enjoy that book, and did not like having to read it, and I am not one of those people who just don't like assigned reading, most the stuff I read for school I enjoyed but I personally did not feel as if it were necessary to have an entire chapter just talking about scenery.

Also I did find All the Kings Men pretty god awful boring, after reading the book, I understood why I didn't enjoy the movie, because the book was not much of an improvement. One of the only reasons why I didn't give up on that one, was because I was reading it for a group read so I made myself stick to it, but it became a chore picking it up everyday to read, and I didn't feel like it was worth it by the end.

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I loved that book. It was short and too the point with a good story. Sucks he had to get put down.

Book clubs always involve a compromise. Mark Haddon's "A Spot of Bother" for example, was a waste of my time and effort, but some in my club enjoyed it.

I do resent reading a poor book, knowing there are loads of good ones out there. When I was younger I didn't mind so much, but now I'm old and crochety.

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

Mark Haddon's "A Spot of Bother" for example, was a waste of my time and effort, but some in my club enjoyed it.

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That's the worst book I've tried to read in the last five years, if not ever. The literary equivalent of watching the England football team at this world cup.

Resentment might be overstating it, but Ian McEwan's Saturday is a novel that exhausts negative superlatives.

To Kill A Mockingbird. Yeah, fine to study when you're about 11 but when you're 15...you kind of want to study adult books.

And On Chesil Beach was dreadful. How they're going to make a film of it, I don't know.

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Originally Posted by spookymulder93

That's why I like novels that are like 100-200 pages. They cut out the crap and leave nothing but action.

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The would work well, if there were many 100 to 200 pages books, but hardly anything gets published that is less than 60,000 words, or about 325 pages. It isn't just a matter of the size as much it's the mater of a bad plot and bad characters.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

Though it does take a lot to get me to quick a book I started, I usually do stop reading them before getting to the point of feeling resentful for having read them.

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I usually stop after a few pages, if it's really bad, but sometimes it doesn't become clear soon enough.

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I have to say I did find Of Mice and Men a bit resentful! I had to read it for school, and I personally am not a huge fan of Steinbeck's writing style, and I really did not enjoy that book, and did not like having to read it, and I am not one of those people who just don't like assigned reading, most the stuff I read for school I enjoyed but I personally did not feel as if it were necessary to have an entire chapter just talking about scenery.

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Those overly long descriptions really take the pleasure out of reading.

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Originally Posted by _Shannon_

Two books which I hated and loathed with all of my being? Wise Blood and Love In The Ruins.

Recently I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo(as a compromise to get a book club going)--and would have loathed it if it had taken more than the two days it took to read. As it was, it wasn't a huge investment--it just wasn't very good---and the payoff is now I have a bunch of people reading great books they wouldn't have otherwise read--Dumas and Dostoevsky and Tracy Kidder...

I also really didn't like Love In The Time of Cholera--but it wasn't the same level of loathing as I had for those first two books, one of which (Walker Percy)I threw against the wall while reading-not once, but twice.

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I haven't read those, but Wise Blood appears to be pretty dull.

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Originally Posted by kelby_lake

To Kill A Mockingbird. Yeah, fine to study when you're about 11 but when you're 15...you kind of want to study adult books.

And On Chesil Beach was dreadful. How they're going to make a film of it, I don't know.

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Really bad novels are ofen made into movies. Good novels are too complicated to convert to film, but the bad ones don't have as much.

Of Mice and Men, I couldn't read beyond first few pages. Finished reading The Pillars of the Earth yesterday and I resent this, one of the most 'successful' books in recent years.

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Originally Posted by Kafka's Crow

Of Mice and Men, I couldn't read beyond first few pages. Finished reading The Pillars of the Earth yesterday and I resent this, one of the most 'successful' books in recent years.

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I'll keep that in mind. The title, The Pillars of the Earth, turns me off; it may be too pretentious.

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Originally Posted by PeterL

I usually stop after a few pages, if it's really bad, but sometimes it doesn't become clear soon enough.



Those overly long descriptions really take the pleasure out of reading.

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Yeah I remember in The Grapes of Wrath, which I acutally did like more than Of Mice and Men, there was like 20 pages talking about a turtle crossing the road. It took as long to read about it, as it would take for the turtle to actually acomplish the task.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

Yeah I remember in The Grapes of Wrath, which I acutally did like more than Of Mice and Men, there was like 20 pages talking about a turtle crossing the road. It took as long to read about it, as it would take for the turtle to actually acomplish the task.

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Was the turtle even significant to the story, or was that piece just filler? Using filler didn't become widespread until recently, but some authors used it in the past.

The first time i tried to read Grapes Of Wrath i gave up after the turtle business :D second time i plowed through and now it's one of my favourite books :P

I agree about 'On Chesil Beach', though I should admit that I haven't actually read the entire thing. I read a few chapters and just found it immensely annoying. I might give it another go to be fair. I keep buying McEwan's books but I don't know why, as I really don't think I like the guy as an author. Everyone else is always so full of praises for him, but his style just irks me.

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Originally Posted by dicer

I agree about 'On Chesil Beach', though I should admit that I haven't actually read the entire thing. I read a few chapters and just found it immensely annoying. I might give it another go to be fair. I keep buying McEwan's books but I don't know why, as I really don't think I like the guy as an author. Everyone else is always so full of praises for him, but his style just irks me.

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Oh, you'll enjoy (or not) the climax of the novel. (there's a pun intended in there)

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Originally Posted by PeterL

Was the turtle even significant to the story, or was that piece just filler? Using filler didn't become widespread until recently, but some authors used it in the past.

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The turtle had no real point or purpose within the story, after that one moment of crossing the road it never re-entered into the story, and I do not see as to any role it had within the story. It was just a random turtle crossing the road.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

The turtle had no real point or purpose within the story, after that one moment of crossing the road it never re-entered into the story, and I do not see as to any role it had within the story. It was just a random turtle crossing the road.

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hat's a rotten thing to put into a novel. Everything should relate to the story in some way. I was thinking it might have been symbolic, but that should be clear.

Perhaps the turtle was trying to beat the chicken to the other side.

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Originally Posted by PeterL

hat's a rotten thing to put into a novel. Everything should relate to the story in some way. I was thinking it might have been symbolic, but that should be clear.

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If it was symbolic it was rather obscure. I think it was intended to help set the scene of the landscape, but I think that could have been accomplished without describing the turtles every single footstep going across the road.

It has been a while since I read the book, but I remember after reading the scene I just thought to myself, what the heck? And there was no point in the book in which I suddenly felt like the turtle was of any significance.

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Originally Posted by Brian Bean

Perhaps the turtle was trying to beat the chicken to the other side.

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:smilewinkgrin: :smilewinkgrin: :smile5:

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

If it was symbolic it was rather obscure.

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I remember puzzling over this as well but I think it is foreshadowing of the trying journey the family is to take in order to carry on their existence. Just like the turtle, they endure many hardships to cross (the country) against all odds (however cliche that might sound). They survive many obstacles put in their way not only by nature but also by men (like the turtle).

This is one of my favorite novels. :D

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

If it was symbolic it was rather obscure. I think it was intended to help set the scene of the landscape, but I think that could have been accomplished without describing the turtles every single footstep going across the road.

It has been a while since I read the book, but I remember after reading the scene I just thought to myself, what the heck? And there was no point in the book in which I suddenly felt like the turtle was of any significance.

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That would be a good reason for resenting having wated the time it took to read it.

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

I remember puzzling over this as well but I think it is foreshadowing of the trying journey the family is to take in order to carry on their existence. Just like the turtle, they endure many hardships to cross (the country) against all odds (however cliche that might sound). They survive many obstacles put in their way not only by nature but also by men (like the turtle).

This is one of my favorite novels. :D

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I don't want to give anything away, but at the end of the book I was just like what the hell? That was just disturbing and not in the good kind of way, more in the way when someone is giving you way too much information about thier personal bussiness.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf - I harbor such ill will towards that book.

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Originally Posted by papayahed

Orlando by Virginia Woolf - I harbor such ill will towards that book.

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You haven't said why.

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Originally Posted by papayahed

Orlando by Virginia Woolf - I harbor such ill will towards that book.

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I loved that one... And I loved 'Of Mice and Men', which so many of you seem to have disliked...

I'm not going to get even close to that league or quality of book (I mean, we all have our opinions about specific works, but I think no one can seriously argue that either Woolf or Steinbeck are good writers) --- but I once read a book by a Swedish author around whom there'd been a great hype, Marianne Fredriksson. The book's called 'Dear daughter' (or something like that) and it's the most patronizing, clichéd and smug thing you could imagine! :puke: I was seriously annoyed by her smugness, condescending tone and stereotypes.

I am also usually very annoyed by authors with patronizing attitudes towards the Third World or less developed countries. A pet hate of mine is when they try to introduce characters with foreign names --- say, a Spanish name for a Latino character --- and they misspell them or just choose a name that is unlikely or downright unbelievable. I'm curious --- do any of you hate that kind of thing too?