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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Untamed by Glennon Doyle! Unreadable.

SHE TALKS LIKE OWEN MEANY, TOO!

Agreed, not a fan of GD.

Also, The Lovely Bones. Hated that book.

[Anonymous]

A Little Life. I put it down before page 50. I'm detention to read it some time in the future. I just hope my impression of the writing style is wrong (seemed really basic, and I'm no literati.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know those books that everyone raves about .... "must reads". And try as you might, and as intellectually stimulating as they are, you just cannot read one more page.

For me it's A Prayer for Owen Meaney (John Irving). I just found it so tiresome.

What's yours?

Funny you mention this. So many people recommended A Prayer for Owen Meany to me. I finally read it a couple months ago and I hated it.

A Gentleman in Moscow is the book everyone loves but I hated. I read it as part of a book club otherwise I probably wouldn't have read more than 100 pages. It was much too wordy and descriptive for my taste. I did not need long descriptions of furniture in a hotel room.

Thank you for making me feel better about A Gentleman in Moscow. I got bogged down about 1/3 of the way through and don’t feel like I can face finishing. But then I felt like the ending must be great of everyone else loves it so much. But then there’s the possibility that I just don’t like it. But then that makes me feel like a mean hater…. Way too much thought over a stupid novel, but my mom is one of the people who adored it, so I don’t feel right just dropping it.

This made me laugh and exactly why I was doubting myself for not liking Owen Meany!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where the Crawdads Sing, a typical book club book.

It was so predictable.

I really liked the book as kind of a guilty pleasure. But I get the dislike and think the movie will probably be terrible and cheesey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A Little Life. I put it down before page 50. I'm detention to read it some time in the future. I just hope my impression of the writing style is wrong (seemed really basic, and I'm no literati.)

I'm "determined" not "detention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know those books that everyone raves about .... "must reads". And try as you might, and as intellectually stimulating as they are, you just cannot read one more page.

For me it's A Prayer for Owen Meaney (John Irving). I just found it so tiresome.

What's yours?

Funny you mention this. So many people recommended A Prayer for Owen Meany to me. I finally read it a couple months ago and I hated it.

A Gentleman in Moscow is the book everyone loves but I hated. I read it as part of a book club otherwise I probably wouldn't have read more than 100 pages. It was much too wordy and descriptive for my taste. I did not need long descriptions of furniture in a hotel room.

Thank you for making me feel better about A Gentleman in Moscow. I got bogged down about 1/3 of the way through and don’t feel like I can face finishing. But then I felt like the ending must be great of everyone else loves it so much. But then there’s the possibility that I just don’t like it. But then that makes me feel like a mean hater…. Way too much thought over a stupid novel, but my mom is one of the people who adored it, so I don’t feel right just dropping it.

I didn’t like it either. Couldn’t even finish it. Not only was it too wordy, but the whole premise is completely unrealistic (I’m originally from Russia - there’s no way he wouldn’t have been executed or at minimum sent to a camp). I can typically overlook the unrealistic factor, but I just didn’t find this book interesting enough to keep going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Came here to say how very trying (and dubious) I found Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Found you all in here already hating on it
The writing and insights on DCUM are better, I'm serious, it's what brings me back to the site.

Most of these same books (as well as others) are on the DCUM posts asking about the best book you ever read. It’s just that very popular books garner a mixed response.

[Anonymous]

Why did you guys hate Wild? What felt implausible? It’s one of my favorite books ever and I feel defensive!

I hated Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (but LOVED Arcadia by her).

I hated the Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. I still don’t get it. Loved all her other books though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know those books that everyone raves about .... "must reads". And try as you might, and as intellectually stimulating as they are, you just cannot read one more page.

For me it's A Prayer for Owen Meaney (John Irving). I just found it so tiresome.

What's yours?

Funny you mention this. So many people recommended A Prayer for Owen Meany to me. I finally read it a couple months ago and I hated it.

A Gentleman in Moscow is the book everyone loves but I hated. I read it as part of a book club otherwise I probably wouldn't have read more than 100 pages. It was much too wordy and descriptive for my taste. I did not need long descriptions of furniture in a hotel room.

Thank you for making me feel better about A Gentleman in Moscow. I got bogged down about 1/3 of the way through and don’t feel like I can face finishing. But then I felt like the ending must be great of everyone else loves it so much. But then there’s the possibility that I just don’t like it. But then that makes me feel like a mean hater…. Way too much thought over a stupid novel, but my mom is one of the people who adored it, so I don’t feel right just dropping it.

I didn’t like it either. Couldn’t even finish it. Not only was it too wordy, but the whole premise is completely unrealistic (I’m originally from Russia - there’s no way he wouldn’t have been executed or at minimum sent to a camp). I can typically overlook the unrealistic factor, but I just didn’t find this book interesting enough to keep going.

THIS!!! (sorry, owen meaney haters) I read the back cover and had that exact same thought. Seems like a big detail to skip over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A Little Life. I put it down before page 50. I'm detention to read it some time in the future. I just hope my impression of the writing style is wrong (seemed really basic, and I'm no literati.)

I'm "determined" not "detention.

Freudian slip, don't feel like you have to slog through it!

[Anonymous]

March, by Geraldine Brooks

So many people recommended it to me, and for a number of reasons I thought I would love it, but I really, really hated it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. I tried to get through Owen Meany on at least 2 different occasions and quit. I then picked it up again about 2 years later and couldn't put it down. It became one of my favorites. Same thing happened with A Man Called Ove. When I finally tried it again, I really liked it.

I've had that happen to me many times - I can't get through a particular book at one point only to try it again later and I end up really enjoying it. Sometimes I'm just not in the right frame of mind for a given book, or I just don't connect to it at that point in time.

Having said that, I just don't love some of the classics.

A Man Called Ove was great as an audio book. I can see how it would be hard to read.

[Anonymous]

Catcher in the Rye

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. I tried to get through Owen Meany on at least 2 different occasions and quit. I then picked it up again about 2 years later and couldn't put it down. It became one of my favorites. Same thing happened with A Man Called Ove. When I finally tried it again, I really liked it.

I've had that happen to me many times - I can't get through a particular book at one point only to try it again later and I end up really enjoying it. Sometimes I'm just not in the right frame of mind for a given book, or I just don't connect to it at that point in time.

Having said that, I just don't love some of the classics.

A Man Called Ove was great as an audio book. I can see how it would be hard to read.

I enjoyed the audiobook, too, though not as much as Anxious People, which I really loved.

[Anonymous]

The Time Traveler's Wife. Annoying.