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

[Anonymous]

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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.

I’ve got your back!

https://www.amazon.com/Birchbark-House-Louise-Erdrich/dp/0786814543

(FTR I read the LHOTP books to my eldest just because I was interested in re-reading what was still the dominant narrative about Native Americans in children’s literature when I was a child and it was both better and worse than I remembered. Interesting insight into a disappeared America, certainly, especially the passage about the now-extinct wolf that she and Carrie see in By the Shores of Silver Lake).

[Anonymous]

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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?

I don’t see Adam Driver or Bradley Cooper as Julian. Cooper isn’t old enough and Adam Driver has the wrong look, I think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

I’ve got your back!

https://www.amazon.com/Birchbark-House-Louise-Erdrich/dp/0786814543

(FTR I read the LHOTP books to my eldest just because I was interested in re-reading what was still the dominant narrative about Native Americans in children’s literature when I was a child and it was both better and worse than I remembered. Interesting insight into a disappeared America, certainly, especially the passage about the now-extinct wolf that she and Carrie see in By the Shores of Silver Lake).

!!!! Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I don’t see Adam Driver or Bradley Cooper as Julian. Cooper isn’t old enough and Adam Driver has the wrong look, I think?

That’s fair, I feel like I’m well overdue for a re-read/I unfortunately read the Maidens last year (do NOT recommend) and there was another weird professor type that I think was younger. I hope Secret History holds up well during my reread though!

[Anonymous]

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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.

THAANK YOU! It was a vanity project for a TBD political office that he hoped would endear him to voters via the right amount of sob stories embellished for excess sympathy.

[Anonymous]

To Kill a Mockingbird

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

+100

I remember reading the awakening in HS and my friend telling me he couldn’t understand what Edna was feeling or why she did what she did. I told him she was just an annoying person (or something a 17 year old would say) and that I hated the book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry you didn't like Owen Meany, OP... I'm a fan of Irving but he's not for everyone.

I have tried to get through One Hundred Years of Solitude so many times. Just can't make it more than 50 pages before giving up.

Read it in Spanish. Seriously, it's a lot better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry you didn't like Owen Meany, OP... I'm a fan of Irving but he's not for everyone.

I have tried to get through One Hundred Years of Solitude so many times. Just can't make it more than 50 pages before giving up.

Read it in Spanish. Seriously, it's a lot better.

I don't think my 3 years of Spanish from 20 years ago are going to cut it, but thanks?

[Anonymous]

The Overstory by Richard Powers. Terribly confusing and depressing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Vanishing Half. Remote narrator, zero passion. Great plot she did not do justice.

+1 Just read this and was underwhelmed.

I wanted to love this book but could not finish it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To Kill a Mockingbird

Hmmm.... care to say why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m embarrassed to admit this, and disappointed, because I love her profiles:

Fleishman Is In Trouble

I will have to try it again.

I loved this book so much. But, I could see why someone could not like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Did not like Daisy Jones and the Six at all, or Malibu Rising.

I liked Daisy Jones but Malibu Rising was terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry you didn't like Owen Meany, OP... I'm a fan of Irving but he's not for everyone.

I have tried to get through One Hundred Years of Solitude so many times. Just can't make it more than 50 pages before giving up.

Read it in Spanish. Seriously, it's a lot better.

OP here - this made me laugh. thank you. much needed after these last couple of days.