Catch 22

Rabies

I just can't get in to this book at all. Having heard so much about it, how great it is and all that. Well, I'm not finding it that interesting at all.

Don't get me wrong, there is some great dialogue between the characters at times and some memorable scenes. But over all it isn't living up to the hype.

I haven't picked it up in a few weeks. Currently I'm a little over half way through, but can't see myself reading on again.

Am I the only one that didn't like the book?

tuxy

You are not alone. I managed to read the whole thing on my second attempt.
Yes I got the humour, I got the irony, I could see what the author was trying to do. But it just didn't interest me. I liked the start and as you said some dialogue was very good. It just seemed to drag on way too much. (the author intended to do this?).

Crucifix

I had alot of trouble getting into it myself, but it went on to become one of my favourite books. However, at halfway through, I'd say it might just not be your cup of tea.

shockwave

I was the same, took me 3 attempts to read the thing, could not get into it at all. Hard work!

OfflerCrocGod

Well then don't force it - if you don't like it you don't like it; myself personally it was one of my favorite first time reads ever (just behind LoTR) but I'd doesn't have any re-readability for me. Then again there are very few books I can stomach to read again tbh.

Stark

I only started to enjoy the book when I reached the halfway point of it.

Orizio

I read it first when I was 15 and must have read it at least 5 times since.Considering its size, I find it quite easy to read but if you don't like you don't like it.

Some of the scenes and characters are absolute genius.

Backtoblack

I tried to read it before but its imagery and setting were just too war-ish & dark for me. I will try to read it again though.

Rabies

At least I'm not alone on this one. So many have said it is great book.
Might pick it up again in a few weeks and see how it goes.

quickbeam

Have tried several times, but I've never managed to get through the first the first three or four chapters. Just found it bor-ring!!

Blush_01

I'm with quickbeam on this one. I always thought I was a bit thick, not getting something totally genius that was woven into it so well it eluded me. Then I realised that I wasn't going to pretend I got "it" whatever the "it" was that I didn't get and kind of gave up caring.

Stark

To be honest, it's actually like the Stargate of books. Some people will find it fun and offbeat, others will find it mind-numbingly boring. There's no real "genius" to get. I grew to like it more because I liked the characters rather than the book's comedy value.

Blush_01

(But I like Stargate )

dream brother

Half way through this book and I thinks its very well written, When its funny its really funny. Its very well written in parts!

Oobie

Don't like it myself. I kept falling asleep trying to read it so I gave up about halfway through.

JackKelly

Like a few others here, I found it difficult to get into, but once I did, i couldn't put it down and it's gone on to be one of my favourite books.

Dont be at yourself

Took me two goes to get through, but loved it. The scene where he's eyeing up the nurse during the briefing and starts moaning is the funniest thing I have ever read.

Possibly my favourite book of all time.

Rabies

Well, gonna be a while more before I pick it up. Just got The Life of Pi. Looking forward to getting in to this. Need to finish of Next by Michael Critchon (spell?), not too impressed with it, hope it gets more interesting in the final third.

Stark

I thought Life of Pi was way overrated

Rabies

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

SlyRax

I just gave up on this book last week after 3 chapters so so boring. It's weird how a book like this makes it into so many best book ever list. Suppose it's like Marmite you love it or hate it. Now reading the Great Gatsby, what a book so beautifully written the imagery is amazing and the words just seem to flow out in front of you. There's nothing better than a book you just fall in love with

BopNiblets

I'm on 77 pages and I admit it's a bit all over the place with names and run-on sentances (more punctuation needed when I read at night and my brain is shutting down! ) and I can't find a storyline yet other than a few descriptions of things that happened.

Some of them are good though, I'll read on.

leeroybrown

If I had to compile a list of my favorite boots it would be in it but strange as this sounds it's also not a book I could sit down and read for hours and hours.

BossArky

Catch-22, like Ulyssess, is possibly one of those books that you could read backwards (page by page, not word by word) and it would make as much sense as reading front to back.

That said, I did enjoy it, and after watching a WW2 doc on the History channel I want to reread it. Many of the situations in it are laugh out loud hilarious.

i.e. Remember that character who was a total loser, but in some city he was mayor and adored by all? hahaha...!:D

Mike07

If its not doing anything for you half way through, put it down. Great book I though, and going to pick it up again now thanks to this thread.

Life of Pi is good too, but got bit bored half way through

Mike07

Papillon is top of my list

dublinario

It's been a few years since I read it, but I still regard Catch-22 as one of my favourite ever books. For years I told people that it was the funniest book I'd ever read, until I read Flann O'Brien's "An Beal Bocht" (well, I read the English translation because I'm clueless in the elder tongue). Now Catch-22 is the second funniest book I've ever read.

Although, to be fair, it is kind of the same, formulaic joke over and over again: a lengthy set-up, and then a U-turn contradiction e.g., (not a quote, just an idea of what I'm talking about)

Joe was a great guy. He always tried his hardest to get on with the men, he worked hard, did plenty for charity, and never complained. Everybody hated Joe.

Early in the book I found that style of joke - although repetitive - laugh-out-loud funny, and I have memories of tears of laughter streaming down my face (which no book had ever done for me before). In the latter part of the book, out-loud laughter was largely replaced with contented amusement.

Loving this book was a double-edged sword for me though, because I then went out and bought Joseph Heller's 'Something Happened', which I regard as one of the worst books I've ever read. It's an ultra-bland story about an uneventful mid-life crisis suffered by a dull man in US middle-class suburbia, and ironically (given the title), nothing happens in the whole book. It is a relentless inventorying of an uninteresting man's life, and it never lets up or lightens up. I was bitterly disappointed in it, but because of a stupid self-imposed discipline I used to enforce, I read the p*xy thing from cover-to-cover.

So in conclusion, a Joseph Heller book sits at the top of my favour, and another at the bottom, which I'd imagine is unusual, and fosters in me an ambivalence for the author.

Backtoblack

Mike07 wrote:

Papillon is top of my list

Have you read Banco, the follow on from Papillion?
I absolutely loved Papillion! Bought it there recently just to have it.
Banco is good too. I was so unhappy when I finished Papillion because his stories were over.

Backtoblack

dublinario wrote:

It's been a few years since I read it, but I still regard Catch-22 as one of my favourite ever books. For years I told people that it was the funniest book I'd ever read, until I read Flann O'Brien's "An Beal Bocht" (well, I read the English translation because I'm clueless in the elder tongue). Now Catch-22 is the second funniest book I've ever read.

Although, to be fair, it is kind of the same, formulaic joke over and over again: a lengthy set-up, and then a U-turn contradiction e.g., (not a quote, just an idea of what I'm talking about)

Joe was a great guy. He always tried his hardest to get on with the men, he worked hard, did plenty for charity, and never complained. Everybody hated Joe.

Early in the book I found that style of joke - although repetitive - laugh-out-loud funny, and I have memories of tears of laughter streaming down my face (which no book had ever done for me before). In the latter part of the book, out-loud laughter was largely replaced with contented amusement.

Loving this book was a double-edged sword for me though, because I then went out and bought Joseph Heller's 'Something Happened', which I regard as one of the worst books I've ever read. It's an ultra-bland story about an uneventful mid-life crisis suffered by a dull man in US middle-class suburbia, and ironically (given the title), nothing happens in the whole book. It is a relentless inventorying of an uninteresting man's life, and it never lets up or lightens up. I was bitterly disappointed in it, but because of a stupid self-imposed discipline I used to enforce, I read the p*xy thing from cover-to-cover.

So in conclusion, a Joseph Heller book sits at the top of my favour, and another at the bottom, which I'd imagine is unusual, and fosters in me an ambivalence for the author.

That's quite interesting that you enjoyed one so much and the other so little. I have read neither but usually the author's style has a lot to do with liking/disliking a book too, not just the story so its strange that you would like one and not the other.

Mr. Presentable

Catch 22 took maturity on my part. First time I read it I was too young to understand the horrors Heller was lampooning. Great book imo.

Somethings Happens was pure filler. Crap.

Good as Gold was pretty good.

God Knows was a return to form.

Closing Doors

Didn't get this book at all. Not that I didn't get the humour... it just wasn't very funny. I actually found it difficult to convince myself to keep reading (I have a policy of finishing evey book I start) but I got there eventually.