Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet

baconsarnie

RubyRoss wrote: »

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño is cruel. His Amulet was fantastic but the SD is three times the size, recycles the characters from Amulet and I could not be bothered finishing it.

The Savage Detectives is far superior to Amulet. But it may depend on what sequence you read them in.

Monkeybonkers

I really struggled with Moby Dick. Just couldn't get interested in it at all.

sudzs

The Gathering - Ann Enright. Barely got through the first few chapters.

sudzs

hatful wrote: »

Skippy Dies, I started reading it because it was hyped up by lots of readers on this forum, surreal and abstract yes funny no, gave up after 100 pages.

oh no.... I got into it early and right through untill the last fifth, when I had a bit of struggle to get through to the end, but overall I liked it and found it very funny in parts.

Flash86

Mistaken by Neil Jordan was torture to read.

What could have been an interesting story very poorly executed and instead of attempting to set any kind of scene or atmosphere he just names a load of places. Terrible.

emeraldstar

sudzs wrote: »

oh no.... I got into it early and right through untill the last fifth, when I had a bit of struggle to get through to the end, but overall I liked it and found it very funny in parts.

Me too. Thought it was really enjoyable all the way through.

daithi1970

"The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas

A truly awful book..no character with any vestige of sympathy, 2 characters which seemed to be completely interchangeable,protracted depictions of middle class Australian women whingeing about their lives,and a plot which petered out for no particular reason..it's a pity, as I thought the original premise was an interesting one.
If you like Australian soap operas,it may be the book for you, however..................

Thargor

Everything by HP Lovecraft, ugh.

old gregg

Thargor wrote: »

Everything by HP Lovecraft, ugh.

Blaspemy! Expect a tel call from Cthulhu

Miss Fluff

daithi1970 wrote: »

"The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas

A truly awful book..no character with any vestige of sympathy, 2 characters which seemed to be completely interchangeable,protracted depictions of middle class Australian women whingeing about their lives,and a plot which petered out for no particular reason..it's a pity, as I thought the original premise was an interesting one.
If you like Australian soap operas,it may be the book for you, however..................

Oh what a pity, I bought it yesterday and thought it looked like it might be a really good story

flyaway.

daithi1970 wrote: »

"The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas

A truly awful book..no character with any vestige of sympathy, 2 characters which seemed to be completely interchangeable,protracted depictions of middle class Australian women whingeing about their lives,and a plot which petered out for no particular reason..it's a pity, as I thought the original premise was an interesting one.
If you like Australian soap operas,it may be the book for you, however..................

I agree completely! I'd been drawn in by Waterstones displaying it all over the store, but ugh, it was bad! All the characters were so unlikable. It just went on and on and on. I thought the book was supposed to be about the slapping and the court case surrounding it?! They barely mentioned it!

gudwan

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

Everyone was raving about it a while ago. It's awful.

smooshmonster

I didn't finish any of these books. At some point I just started skimming through and skipping whole chapters. It made no difference.

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. Avoid like the plague! I was curious after watching the Television Series based on the book. I regret it.

Eragon, by C. Paolini. It's Star Wars rewritten in a Fantasy setting by what seems to be a 12-year-old fanboy.

Twilight. Very boring and the writing style is very simplistic and... actually just utterly terrible.

This one's probably not going to sit well with everyone: Anything by Stephen King. I can't stand his writing style, even though he has good ideas, and the movie adaptations of his books are not bad. He is just a terrible writer.

Hermy

smooshmonster wrote: »

This one's probably not going to sit well with everyone: Anything by Stephen King. I can't stand his writing style, even though he has good ideas, and the movie adaptations of his books are not bad. He is just a terrible writer.

Can you say what it is in particular you dislike about his books smoosh?

smooshmonster

Hermy wrote: »

Can you say what it is in particular you dislike about his books smoosh?

I dislike his style. I quite like the content, but I find his style bland and functional. I have therefore had trouble getting far in his books.

Admittedly not quite on the level of the other three I mentioned, and probably not 'avoid like the plague' material.

Hermy

smooshmonster wrote: »

I dislike his style. I quite like the content, but I find his style bland and functional. I have therefore had trouble getting far in his books.

Admittedly not quite on the level of the other three I mentioned, and probably not 'avoid like the plague' material.

I think I know what you mean. I really think he has a great story telling ability but this is let down by descriptive passages that seem to go on forever. I really enjoyed his earlier books - Thinner, The Shining, Carrie etc - but later works really suffer from this long-winded approach to prose.

loved catch 22.

hp lovecraft agreed- awful.

anything by terry brooks is also awful

gingernut79

No plot, jumped back and forward in time, different characters. awful.

flyaway.

My list of books I wish I hadn't wasted my time on:

We Need to Talk About Kevin
Never Let Me Go
The Death of Bunny Munro
The Slap
No Country for Old Men
Girlfriend in a Coma
Prozac Nation

iguana

smooshmonster wrote: »

Eragon, by C. Paolini. It's Star Wars rewritten in a Fantasy setting by what seems to be a 12-year-old fanboy.

I'm pretty sure that book was written by a 12 year old.

Just checked, it was a 15 year old.

izeult

Angela's ashes. Worst book I have ever read.

smooshmonster

iguana wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that book was written by a 12 year old.

Just checked, it was a 15 year old.

Yikes! I feel bad dissing the book now. It's a good effort for a 15-year-old.

iguana

smooshmonster wrote: »

Yikes! I feel bad dissing the book now. It's a good effort for a 15-year-old.

If you didn't like it, you didn't like it. It might have been written by a 15 year old but it wasn't published by a 15 year old. A number of adults green-lighted it's publication, so really it's them who you are dissing.;)

sorifinh

Have to agree regarding any James Patterson books. I got some from my local club where people bring down books they have read to pass on. I couldn't bring myself to return them when I (didn't) finish them so as not to pass on the misery to other unsuspecting readers.

Harry Angstrom

Kerouac's "On The Road". Drivel from start to finish.

"That's not writing, it's typing" - Truman Capote

Hermy

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Kerouac's "On The Road". Drivel from start to finish.

Seriously?

"That's not writing, it's typing" - Truman Capote

There's a lot more to On The Road than Capote's infamous quote - I think he was just jealous.

David109

When God Was A Rabbit, by Sarah Winman

Recommended by a bookshop so gave it a go.

First half was fine and thought it might be a good read. Oh dear. Second half degenerated into sloppy - I know that's not a noun, I wish it were.

The Sex Scene was one and a half pages of excruciating I-think-I'll-slide-my-eyes-over-this-bit which, in fairness, may have been designed to put Blaze Mills and Boon in it's place but only managed to be embarrassing.

There were feisty females but no recognisable male figures I've ever met, which was annoying. Does this woman get out much?

Also, it was set in England 1950s to present and the language kept straying into modern American here and there, helping to undermine the whole thing.

So, the three choices.

Keep, 2nd hand/charity shop, or Compost Heap?

Compost Heap.

Harry Angstrom

Hermy wrote: »

Seriously?

There's a lot more to On The Road than Capote's infamous quote - I think he was just jealous.

I tried to give this book every chance possible, but in the end I gave up on it. It's one of the most monotonous books I've ever read. In fairness to Capote, I don't think he had much to be jealous about. I doubt that Kerouac could have written anything that comes even close to In Cold Blood.

Kerouac was a piss poor writer. The only reason he has any credibility is because he was part of the Beat Movement and is still considered to be part of the "cool set".

Hermy

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

I tried to give this book every chance possible, but in the end I gave up on it. It's one of the most monotonous books I've ever read. In fairness to Capote, I don't think he had much to be jealous about. I doubt that Kerouac could have written anything that comes even close to In Cold Blood.

Kerouac was a piss poor writer. The only reason he has any credibility is because he was part of the Beat Movement and is still considered to be part of the "cool set".

I'm a fan of Kerouac so naturally I disagree - I think his writing is fantastic and certainly goes way beyond merely typing as Capote would have us believe. Yes he is probably best known for his association with the Beat Generation but his writing is far from piss poor and is in my opinion a key part of the American literary canon.

Regarding Capote I haven't read him yet but the film staring Philip Seymour Hoffman didn't exactly paint him in a positive light. What are your own thoughts on Capote?

wilkie2006

Sgt. Sensible wrote: »

Anything by Will Self. Shockingly dull Oxbridge junkie bore marketed successfully as a clever interesting person. Nothing ever happens in his books. Nothing.

I completely agree! I think the idea of Will Self is really appealing but I find myself being consistently bored by his writing. I don't know why I keep going back... Although his collection of early articles, "Junk Mail", is excellent (but not fiction, I accept).

I would put "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas forward as one of the most tedious, unpleasant and boring things I've ever had the displeasure of coming across. It's utter sxxxxe! It came of no surprise when the BBC broadcast it as a series, though; it was clear that Tsiolkas had written it so that it could be translated to film easily (which I thought was a bit cynical from a novelist).

I also consider Michel Houellebec's "Atomised" and "Platform" grossly over-rated. Although, despite disliking the former I still read the latter.... so maybe it's my own fault!

wilkie2006

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

I tried to give this book every chance possible, but in the end I gave up on it. It's one of the most monotonous books I've ever read. In fairness to Capote, I don't think he had much to be jealous about. I doubt that Kerouac could have written anything that comes even close to In Cold Blood.

Kerouac was a piss poor writer. The only reason he has any credibility is because he was part of the Beat Movement and is still considered to be part of the "cool set".

I read "On the Road" when I was about 14 and thought it was a real slog. In fact, I don't particularly enjoy any of the beat writers, including William Burroughs, Ginsberg, Bukowski, or Herbert Hunke.

Around the time of reading "On the Road", I came across an article by someone who claimed that Kerouac knocked it out in a marathon 48 hour writing session (or something like that) and remember thinking, "Well that's not really writing, is it?" (when you consider that Joyce would spend a day revising a single sentence's punctuation).

However, 14 years later, I've just heard a track from a Tom Waits album where he recites Buwokski's poem "Nivana" and I'm gonna to give the Beat writers another go.

In fact, what are people's opinions on Charles Bukowski? I've read the Chinanski trilogy ("Post Office", "Factotum" and "Women), his short story collections ("South of No North" and "Hot Water Music") and "Notes of a Dirty Old Man". While I enjoyed them as a teenager, I'm always surprised when I see adults on the train reading him. Perhaps I'm being unfair but I feel he's a writer for adolescents...

Millicent

wilkie2006 wrote: »

I would put "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas forward as one of the most tedious, unpleasant and boring things I've ever had the displeasure of coming across. It's utter sxxxxe! It came of no surprise when the BBC broadcast it as a series, though; it was clear that Tsiolkas had written it so that it could be translated to film easily (which I thought was a bit cynical from a novelist).

Oh, God, it was awful. I really don't get the kudos it was given. The use of multi-perspective was risky but to not have any interesting action to make the gambit worth it? A big disappointment. One of the few books I haven't finished. I gave up about halfway through.

Palytoxin

Doors open- Ian Rankin
It's terrible.

Censorsh!t

wilkie2006 wrote: »

In fact, what are people's opinions on Charles Bukowski? I've read the Chinanski trilogy ("Post Office", "Factotum" and "Women), his short story collections ("South of No North" and "Hot Water Music") and "Notes of a Dirty Old Man". While I enjoyed them as a teenager, I'm always surprised when I see adults on the train reading him. Perhaps I'm being unfair but I feel he's a writer for adolescents...

I've only read Ham on Rye so far, but I did really like it.

born2bwild

Monkeybonkers wrote: »

I really struggled with Moby Dick. Just couldn't get interested in it at all.

Man, I loved it! Call me Ishmael....what an all-engulfing yarn! It literally - pun intended -swallows you up!

wilkie2006

Millicent wrote: »

Oh, God, it was awful. I really don't get the kudos it was given. The use of multi-perspective was risky but to not have any interesting action to make the gambit worth it? A big disappointment. One of the few books I haven't finished. I gave up about halfway through.

I don't know why I finished it... I really don't. I admit that not finishing a book annoys me but still, it's so bad....

wilkie2006

Censorsh!t wrote: »

I've only read Ham on Rye so far, but I did really like it.

Do you have any interest in Tom Waits? There's a few videos on Youtube of him reading Charles Bukowski's poems. I think they're really quite enjoyable...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKSJEv5wRF8&feature=related

Censorsh!t

wilkie2006 wrote: »

Do you have any interest in Tom Waits? There's a few videos on Youtube of him reading Charles Bukowski's poems. I think they're really quite enjoyable...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKSJEv5wRF8&feature=related

I've heard a few of Bukowski's stuff recited by Tom Waits alright. I must try get into him more. I borrowed one of his albums, it's just the effort of putting it on my laptop.


A book that I read (quite a while ago now), but that I really do not get the fuss about is The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The boy was just way too ignorant for his age. It just seemed a bit too much like he was using this disgustingly innocent child to pull at everyone's heartstrings. Maybe I was just a bit too old an audience for this book though.

Bill Shock

I find everything by one of Ireland's most sacred of sacred cows Roddy "smug bastard" Doyle to be unreadable.

Sure some of his works have been turned into very enjoyable films or tv series but his books are garbage.

Oh, Play that Thing the second in his "Last Round-Up" trilogy is the only book i have ever given up on...after 40 pages I put it where it belonged...in the bin.

Millicent

wilkie2006 wrote: »

I don't know why I finished it... I really don't. I admit that not finishing a book annoys me but still, it's so bad....

Me too. I'm usually far to stubborn to let a book best me. :pac: Still, I just couldn't bring myself to get through it.

snow flower and the secret fan

what a load of nothing

catherinej

A History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marian Lewycka - I read it after hearing several rave reviews!! Big mistake as it was one of the few books that I had to force myself to read

magicmushroom

Zooey wrote: »

My contribution to the list is Follett's the Pillars of the Earth, impressive only by its sheer bulk (1000+ pages of utter tripe). That said, I finished it...

Oh my God! This is my favourite book of all time!

wilkie2006

Caitlinn wrote: »

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind was a book I struggled through. The characters were one dimensional and uninteresting, the plot was uninspired and the style of writing was dull. Perhaps I got a bad translation but dear God - never again.

What??! I thought "Perfume" was brilliant!!!

wilkie2006

Zooey wrote: »

I read this while travelling, too *cringe*. My contribution to the list is Follett's the Pillars of the Earth, impressive only by its sheer bulk (1000+ pages of utter tripe). That said, I finished it...

I haven't read this book so am not commenting on it specifically but I think it's incredible how many bad writers have such huge egos that they'll just write and write and write without any self-editing. In my view, you'd want to be writing something pretty impressive if you're going to exceed 300 pages (I'm not, for the record, someone who avoids long novels but I do get frustrated when I think a writer is taking the pi3s)

Has anyone read "Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class"? I'm reading it now and I'm not impressed (but, annoyingly, can't abandon it)

Giruilla

Zooey wrote: »

My contribution to the list is Follett's the Pillars of the Earth, impressive only by its sheer bulk (1000+ pages of utter tripe). That said, I finished it...

If you thought that was bad try reading its sequel.
World Without End by Ken Follett. Just awful.. again 1000+ pages, and just a totally unsatisfying read. He does paint a good picture of medievil life, but size of the book is so needless. I finished reading it just for the sake of it really.

femur61

magicmushroom wrote: »

Oh my God! This is my favourite book of all time!

Ditto , best book I have everyread. The follow up Worlds End was equally was long, maybe too long.

Monkeybonkers

wilkie2006 wrote: »

Do you have any interest in Tom Waits? There's a few videos on Youtube of him reading Charles Bukowski's poems. I think they're really quite enjoyable...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKSJEv5wRF8&feature=related

Sorry this is a bit off topic but if you like Tom Waits you should also check out the 'God's Away on Business' video with the Cookie Monster. Brilliant!

deem79

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - rubbish

Mars Bar

My Sister is reading "When Irish guys are smiling" by Suzanne Supplee.

Sweet lord it's atrocious. She's been telling me all of the stupid Irish stereotypes in the book. Peader is spelt Pather and everything about it is just wrong. It just seems to be horribly researched by someone who has clearly never been to Ireland.