Shit Books

I read Fear and Loathing when I was about sixteen.
I didn't have any trouble understanding it.
But then, I have always been a little weird.

 

I had no problem following it. I just kinda found it shitty. I've read most of Gibson's work too, and really enjoyed most of it. But Neuromancer? I dunno, it was just an annoying read that wasn't very enjoyable for me, which is somewhat strange since I usually really enjoy cyberpunk (and Gibson's work in general - Pattern Recognition was fun, so was Zero History).

Happy to see I wasn't the only one who couldn't get through it. Though, I'm not usually one to tough it through books just because of some external significance applied to the work by critics, and I've given it enough tries to know I don't like it. This could also be my entry for the "Things you hate that other people love" thread

 

I'd agree with the statements that a knowledge of Hunter's other works definitely helps, though it was the first of his books I ever read (before seeing the movie) and I didnt have trouble with it. Then again I can see how some people (even more so if you haven't seen the movie) would be like "What the fuck???"

 

definitely. once you develop a taste for how he goes about saying things, its easier to understand, but that first time through.... fuck me

 

Anything by Gibson, seriously. What an ass.

Mason & Dixon by Pynchon can blow me.

And I'm heartily sick of David Foster Wallace.

 

I read many of the Agatha Christie books in my teens, because my mother was reading them a lot. Not so long ago she gave me a book of Christie's disappearing during Christie's early author years, which pictured me a whole other side to her character and personal life than I had imagined. It was an interesting story, but I felt deceived by her earlier stories, because the book revealed her real life problems were entwined with her stories and showed that many of her stories were written under financial pressure.

 

I see what you mean... I used to read Agatha Christie too, but not any more, I had enough of it

 

i'm undecided on I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. on one hand, its funny. on the other hand, it reads like a frat-boy exaggerating his stories so he can get approval/$ from things he wish he had done.

 

Is it safe to say anything you're forced to read in school might be a hated book?

I wasn't forced to read To Kill a Mockingbird.... but it turned out to be one of my favourite books because I actually surprised the teacher by how much I knew about what was going on in it.... I read it before that so that helped....

 

The Armies of the Night or whatever by Norman Mailer is in the same vein

 

Why would you attempt to read any of her books?
She's barely tolerable on her show or any hosting duties she's done.
I can just imagine trying to slog through one of her attempts at written witticisms.

 

Hmm, I've heard of her. I think I saw a movie about her starring Candace Bergen.
You say you read that as a kid? Duuude.

............

Was it any good?

 

Great Expectations made me want to hang myself.

 

This thread makes a worthy companion to the What books are your reading right now? thread.

In America by Susan Sontag. I slammed it in the reading thread, but it deserves another slam. I don't know why she wrote it, and I don't know why it was published. Perhaps somebody involved in the theatre can explain this self-indulgent boring POS.

 

Silias Marner, the most annoying, dull, tedious, and just flat book I have ever had to read.
Even a character with a seizure disorder couldn't make it interesting to me.

The weird part is Middlemarch is pretty good.