Name a popular book you didn't like

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recently, “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah. Oof. Her writing is painful.

Yay, I have found my people! I read it and thought it was “okay.” But then I heard so many raves that I accidentally checked it out a second time thinking it was a different book. I got about 1/3 of the way through before thinking “wait, this seems VERY familiar….” I actually quick-read it a second time, thinking maybe I had missed its brilliance, but nope.

I have a facebook friend who is an English professor and raved about this book. I thought it was just ok as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Overstory. The first part was good, but once the main story started, I lost all interest. My good friend, who reads as much as I do, said exactly the same thing. And yet it spent many weeks on the bestseller list, at least locally. I wonder how many people actually finished it!

I finished it, although I agree with most of what you said. I guess I stopped thinking of it as a story, and more of a lesson on trees. Because in that respect, it was fascinating.

I loved it. I love trees, but so many of the human stories were relatable to me. Maybe you have to have experienced tragedy. Permanence, longevity, fleeting life, irreplaceable loss. It's all in there, juxtaposed and intertwined. Beautiful.

[Anonymous]

I am so jealous of the people who knew better than to waste their time on Hillbilly Elegy. I slogged through out of a sense that I had a moral duty to be open to the story of someone from a much different background than mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tried multiple books by Kristin Hannah and Sally Rooney trying to understand what people loved so much, and hated them all. Couldn't even finish Educated, it was so bad.

A one of the Hannah Haters upthread I was initially dismayed to see my beloved Sally lumped in with Kristin’s schlock but upon further consideration they do share tragic but quietly beautiful and long-suffering protagonists with shameful, dirty secrets, examinations of class, slang you need to use kindle’s dictionary feature for…is Sally Rooney the Irish Kristin Hannah?!??

I really like Sally Rooney, but I haven't read Kristen Hannah because I suspect I won't like her style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recently, “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah. Oof. Her writing is painful.

Yay, I have found my people! I read it and thought it was “okay.” But then I heard so many raves that I accidentally checked it out a second time thinking it was a different book. I got about 1/3 of the way through before thinking “wait, this seems VERY familiar….” I actually quick-read it a second time, thinking maybe I had missed its brilliance, but nope.

I have a facebook friend who is an English professor and raved about this book. I thought it was just ok as well.

NP. I thought it was okay. I started it not knowing what it was about…I guess I thought it was going to be a slightly fluffy spy novel set in Paris? But it was just an unrelenting slog of misery about the Nazi occupation of France.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree - The Gold Finch was hate-able - specifically the whole time in Las Vegas, would throw in Moby Dick for classics to hate, also don't understand why every high school kid is forced to read the old man in the sea when there are so many more interesting hemingway books.

Recently - hated the Essex Serpent - it was creepy in the way it described the main female character and meandered around w/ no purpose, the It Girl was dispapointing from Ruth Ware, and I never don't finish books but couldn't get more than 2 chapters into The eye of the world

I can't tell you how relieved I am someone said this. I thought I was the only one. I couldn't stuff that book in my local little free library fast enough.

Yes, I hated the Essex Serpent, too! I didn't even finish it, and that's so rare for me.

[Anonymous]

Verity -so predictable and I hated the main character

Anything recent by Emily Giffen. I feel like she's just mailing it in.

[Anonymous]

Devil in the White City. I can acknowledge that it was well researched and written, but for some reason the story just didn’t grab me. I slogged through it, but didn’t get any satisfaction from it. Loved The Splendid and The Vile, though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the Ayn Rand references made me think of a twist on this. I loved Ayn Rand when I read her early in high school but hated it when I went back and read it again. Same thing with the Razors Edge which I loved as a teen and then thought was unbelievable frustrating when i was older. Any other books like that?

I haven't gone back to reread my young favorites - I can't bring myself to go back to Catcher in the Rye, which I LOVED when I was young, for example. But movies - a couple of years ago I decided to sit down and watch a movie I could not have loved more when I was young: Spies Like Us. I couldn't get past the first half hour. It dragged, the jokes weren't funny anymore (except the doctor, doctor, doctor scene). So sad - I'd rather not ruin my happy memories of other beloved content like that.

[Anonymous]

Where the Crawdads Sing


So unbelievable. It was just dumb. Read about halfway and then just gave up--something I never do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the Ayn Rand references made me think of a twist on this. I loved Ayn Rand when I read her early in high school but hated it when I went back and read it again. Same thing with the Razors Edge which I loved as a teen and then thought was unbelievable frustrating when i was older. Any other books like that?

Gone With the Wind. Never read it as an adult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catcher in the Rye.

As an English major I could stomach most books, but this one really was the hardest one for me to get through.

Me too! I also didn't like Ayn Rand.

I hate Ayn Rand...and her books.

Same. Cardboard characters and unrealistic plots pushing an extreme agenda.

John Rogers, as quoted by Paul Krugman and many others: There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

[Anonymous]

The Silent Patient.

I couldn’t stand the protagonist. I quit maybe halfway through. I spoiled myself after so I could find out the whole plot/ending. I just couldn’t listen to that man go on, no matter the payoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Devil in the White City. I can acknowledge that it was well researched and written, but for some reason the story just didn’t grab me. I slogged through it, but didn’t get any satisfaction from it. Loved The Splendid and The Vile, though!

Funny, I really liked Devil but read the first couple pages of Splendid/Vile and it didn't grab me so I didn't read any more!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so jealous of the people who knew better than to waste their time on Hillbilly Elegy. I slogged through out of a sense that I had a moral duty to be open to the story of someone from a much different background than mine.

I loved the book but the movie not so much … so bummed that Vance has turned into a MAGA nut job.