Books you "should" love, but just don't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh Jonathan Franzen ugh.

I can read Irving, 100 years of Solitude, but this guy is just awful. I think he has some weird hangups that I'm just not interested in entertaining as a captive audience.

I honestly don’t know anyone who likes Franzen. Lots of readers have bought his books, but most seem to agree they’re whiny garbage.

OMG - totally agree. Never picked up anything after the Corrections.

That’s the only Franzen I’ve read (NP on Franzen, though I’ve posted here about other books/authors).

His women were all one-dimensional embarrassments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone read Anxious People?

I hate it, and I love the author. Loved Man Called Ove and his Beartown books. But Anxious People was too twee, and the twists too telegraphed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone read Anxious People?

I hate it, and I love the author. Loved Man Called Ove and his Beartown books. But Anxious People was too twee, and the twists too telegraphed.

I hated this one, too, for the same reasons.

I feel like I've found my people!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pro-Salinger PP here - Holden was supposed to be a jerk! Not every character has to be 'likeable'. Have you guys ever read Lolita?

Yes, I love The Catcher in the Rye. My teen son definitely pegged Holden as a PITA and recognized some of his less charming behavior in him.

I thought it was a useful way to understand how depression can make you unlikeable to everyone, including yourself. If you read it as One Teenager's Quest, it sucks. If you look at it as what happens to a privileged family when death takes one of the children, it's a lot better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've learned the hard way that I won't like anything by John Irving, Philip Roth, or Tom Wolfe. They just aren't for me.

John Irving was on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me and it boggled my mind how much I liked him as a person, because I hate his stupid books

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The little Friend - Donna Tartt
I couldn’t finish it. It became apparent at some point that she wasn’t going to give an answer.

okay. I really enjoyed that book, but that bugged the crap out of me.
You can't start a novel with a mystery and then just...never solve it.

Yep. And then I later read some interview where Tartt says some BS alike, “ if you read carefully, you’ll find out who killed Robin. It’s there”

Umm… F you Donna.

[Anonymous]

I remember reading The Secret History back in the day and I thought it was dumb. It made me think of those books that dumb people read because they think it makes them look smart (ie, Dan Brown).

Now I read references to it often on DCUM or other places and I wonder if I should give it another try.

I slog through nearly every book I start, no matter what, and I usually get a groove eventually. There are only two books I haven't finished in the past few years:

I hated The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen - I know it won the pulitzer, but I just hated it.

Also, Something in the Water - the opening chapter is AMAZING. But after that, ugh. stupid people do stupid things. (If the main character had simply not done one very simple straightforward thing, nothing in the book happens).

I've read another Catherine Steadman - Disappearing Act? Good idea, but it just got boring. Some of the narrator's decisions were driven by her fear of - get this - having a copy of someone else's car rental agreement. Ooooh, you're going to get in trouble for that! Totally a reason not to go to the police. Idiotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone read Anxious People?

I hate it, and I love the author. Loved Man Called Ove and his Beartown books. But Anxious People was too twee, and the twists too telegraphed.

I hated this one, too, for the same reasons.

I feel like I've found my people!

Yes! I was so disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've learned the hard way that I won't like anything by John Irving, Philip Roth, or Tom Wolfe. They just aren't for me.

John Irving was on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me and it boggled my mind how much I liked him as a person, because I hate his stupid books

Hahaha the fact that he’s a likable person makes me feel even better about liking his books (except for Owen Meaney, because, c’mon).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've learned the hard way that I won't like anything by John Irving, Philip Roth, or Tom Wolfe. They just aren't for me.

John Irving was on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me and it boggled my mind how much I liked him as a person, because I hate his stupid books

Hahaha the fact that he’s a likable person makes me feel even better about liking his books (except for Owen Meaney, because, c’mon).

Such a nice change from finding out a beloved artist is a jerk or a creep

[Anonymous]

This might get tomatoes thrown my way, but here it is anyway: The Mists of Avalon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've tried multiple times to get through The Satanic Verses but can't get past the first couple chapters, despite liking other Rushdie novels.

I like Salinger, Austen, Vonnegut. Agree with others on Tartt, I kind of liked The Secret History but agree with the critiques and really thought the Goldfinch was a slog.

All the Light we Cannot See was pretty good overall but I found the ending to be unsatisfying.

I agree with most everything you said here. I tried many times to get through Rushdie's Midnight's Children, but he writes as if he gets paid per word.

I have to say this is one of my favorite book insults and I use it regularly. However, the poster with the "book of empty calories" is giving me new material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh Jonathan Franzen ugh.

I can read Irving, 100 years of Solitude, but this guy is just awful. I think he has some weird hangups that I'm just not interested in entertaining as a captive audience.

I honestly don’t know anyone who likes Franzen. Lots of readers have bought his books, but most seem to agree they’re whiny garbage.

I just got his new book since I heard THIS one was good. I was bored about 25 pages in.
Where the Crawdads Sing was another one I couldn't get into
Anything David Foster Wallace. I've had at least 2 dudes tell me I "must not read much" if I didn't "get it." Puhleassse.

I'm mad-reading The Shimmering right now. I'm 75% of the way though it, and want to give up and want to finish it just to put it on my Goodreads....actually I'm giving up on it right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember reading The Secret History back in the day and I thought it was dumb. It made me think of those books that dumb people read because they think it makes them look smart (ie, Dan Brown).

Now I read references to it often on DCUM or other places and I wonder if I should give it another try.

I slog through nearly every book I start, no matter what, and I usually get a groove eventually. There are only two books I haven't finished in the past few years:

I hated The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen - I know it won the pulitzer, but I just hated it.

Also, Something in the Water - the opening chapter is AMAZING. But after that, ugh. stupid people do stupid things. (If the main character had simply not done one very simple straightforward thing, nothing in the book happens).

I've read another Catherine Steadman - Disappearing Act? Good idea, but it just got boring. Some of the narrator's decisions were driven by her fear of - get this - having a copy of someone else's car rental agreement. Ooooh, you're going to get in trouble for that! Totally a reason not to go to the police. Idiotic.

I loved The Sympathizer. LOVED it. So I thought I would also like the sequel, The Committed. Ugh, it was SO BAD. Like something a 23-year-old jointly enrolled in an MFA program and a graduate postcolonial studies program would produce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh Jonathan Franzen ugh.

I can read Irving, 100 years of Solitude, but this guy is just awful. I think he has some weird hangups that I'm just not interested in entertaining as a captive audience.

I honestly don’t know anyone who likes Franzen. Lots of readers have bought his books, but most seem to agree they’re whiny garbage.

I just got his new book since I heard THIS one was good. I was bored about 25 pages in.
Where the Crawdads Sing was another one I couldn't get into
Anything David Foster Wallace. I've had at least 2 dudes tell me I "must not read much" if I didn't "get it." Puhleassse.

I'm mad-reading The Shimmering right now. I'm 75% of the way though it, and want to give up and want to finish it just to put it on my Goodreads....actually I'm giving up on it right now.

I'll bet good money Infinite Jest is the only book they've skimmed since HS remedial English.