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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:grade/middle school stuff:

Harriet the Spy


Curious Incident of the Dog...

Ooof, that’s another good one I haven’t seen anyone mention here yet! I could not stand that book.

I liked that book but I read it awhile ago so maybe I'd have a different opinion now?

I did not like Little Fires Everywhere. The author was just so insistent on which characters we were supposed to like and which we were supposed to hate.

I also did not like Nine Perfect Strangers.

[Anonymous]

Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Loved her other books but couldn't get into this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confederacy of Dunces. There was a reason this wasn’t published when the author was alive. It’s probably worst book I ever read. I have to finish every book I start, and I thought this would be the one to break me. It was a Herculean effort to finish it but I was motivated to so I could definitively talk about how bad it is.

+1

Can I come sit by you? Not interested the musings of a proto-incel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confederacy of Dunces. There was a reason this wasn’t published when the author was alive. It’s probably worst book I ever read. I have to finish every book I start, and I thought this would be the one to break me. It was a Herculean effort to finish it but I was motivated to so I could definitively talk about how bad it is.

+1

Can I come sit by you? Not interested the musings of a proto-incel.

That's why it's so good though, because of how ridiculous Ignatius is. Do you only read books with pure/noble/exemplary main characters? At that point you might as well limit yourself to Little House on the Prairie.

[Anonymous]

Anna Karenina was torture.

There, I said it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could never admit this in real life, but Brene Brown's books are all so ... obvious.

+1

I want to find her insightful and helpful but I can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confederacy of Dunces. There was a reason this wasn’t published when the author was alive. It’s probably worst book I ever read. I have to finish every book I start, and I thought this would be the one to break me. It was a Herculean effort to finish it but I was motivated to so I could definitively talk about how bad it is.

+1

Can I come sit by you? Not interested the musings of a proto-incel.

That's why it's so good though, because of how ridiculous Ignatius is. Do you only read books with pure/noble/exemplary main characters? At that point you might as well limit yourself to Little House on the Prairie.

NP. I love these people who think they're so enlightened because they "get" the point of books with terrible characters. Guess what? There are loads of well-done books with complex, flawed, even unlikeable characters that aren't completely obnoxious to read. Not all thoughts and ideas deserve equal attention. And for what it's worth, I don't read little house because the books glamorize the dehumanization American Indians. Sure I could read it and analyze it like many great academics do, but I'm not an academic and I'd rather read a book written by an American Indian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anna Karenina was torture.

There, I said it.

I thought the novel was good (liked it better than War and Peace) but I was so mad at Anna for leaving her son to go be with her AP that it made me never want to read it again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anna Karenina was torture.

There, I said it.

I thought the novel was good (liked it better than War and Peace) but I was so mad at Anna for leaving her son to go be with her AP that it made me never want to read it again!

For some reason, I could handle Anna's actions (and I like Anne Karenina, but I like War and Peace more), but Edna Pontellier in The Awakening deserved every bad thing that happened to her and more. I hated her and the stupid book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anna Karenina was torture.

There, I said it.

I thought the novel was good (liked it better than War and Peace) but I was so mad at Anna for leaving her son to go be with her AP that it made me never want to read it again!

For some reason, I could handle Anna's actions (and I like Anne Karenina, but I like War and Peace more), but Edna Pontellier in The Awakening deserved every bad thing that happened to her and more. I hated her and the stupid book.

Funny, I'm the PP who couldn't get into Anna, but The Awakening didn't bother me!

I agree with the poster early on, though, who said that you have to be in the right frame of mind to read certain books. There are things I hated on the first try (Faulkner, I'm looking at you), only to fall in love with them later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Educated — Tara Westover

The improbability of the details of the book, particularly the medical issues, coupled with the “he told me I wrote the best thesis ever at Oxford” really undercut the story of the extreme, and abusive, family she was raised in.

Yes, this book was completely annoying in the way of Wild and Million Little Pieces. Just obvious, stupid, self-aggrandizing lies.

I think the winner of the lie-filled, stupid, and manipulative of this genre has to be "Hillbilly Elegy." There were so many holes in his story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add me to the list for The Secret History. I couldn't get into, and never finished it.

I've read The Secret History many times. I loved it. I wish they would make a movie out of it. The casting would make or break it.

SAME.

Wish I knew you irl!

Any ideas who should play which character? I don't know much about actors that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Loved her other books but couldn't get into this one.

Me neither. So very long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anna Karenina was torture.

There, I said it.

Oh I had to read that in high school. Absolute torture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add me to the list for The Secret History. I couldn't get into, and never finished it.

I've read The Secret History many times. I loved it. I wish they would make a movie out of it. The casting would make or break it.

SAME.

Wish I knew you irl!

Any ideas who should play which character? I don't know much about actors that age.

Here's my attempt (also don't know the younger actors that well) but also a Secret History fan:
Richard: Lucas Hedges from Manchester by the Sea
Henry: Timothee Chalamet
Charles: Tom Holland
Camilla: Sophie Turner or Saoirse Ronan
Bunny: ???
Bunny's gf: Sydney Sweeney from Euphoria
Julian the professor: Bradley Cooper? Is he weird enough? Maybe Adam Driver?