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?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I just…couldn’t. Maybe I gave up too early, idk.

I really liked this one.

I read all of Evelyn Hugo and didn’t like it. Felt it dragged on.

I'm another person who can't stand Ayn Rand or her books. I also hated Dune and found it almost unreadable.

I never read The Goldfinch because I figured that I would hate it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted this forum created so that I could talk about books I didn't like. Maybe I'm just not understanding some of these books and maybe they're not written for me but there are still he popular books I really don't like. I won't make them all because that would likely give my identity away.

One I haven't mentioned to anybody is Maya Angelou's 'i know why the caged bird sings". Not to trivialize what she went through but I really finished the book like seemed like what did I just read. How critical can I be of an autobiography? Especially if it made her who she is? But seeing this put in the same leagues or above invisible man, black boy, native son. I just don't see it.

They're are several others and I hope this doesn't turn into a bash me or bash Maya because I love her other works (especially poetry) but I'm not a fan of that book.

I don't get what you didn't like about it. Be more specific. I didnt like Invisible man. I couldn't even finish it while I know why a caged bird sings was very engaging.

Even Anonymous, I don't want to do too much of criticizing the GOATs. I respect her too much but it just didn't do any thing for me. Same with Color Purple. That did move me more though, like I had hatred for some characters from that book, but not to the extent of some friends who worship that book.

Maybe it's that when I'm looking for something uplifting, I can't read a book that has r@pe in it and still be uplifted by it. But that's not the worse about Caged Bird. It's more that the why's of the story don't seem to connect to me.

Maybe this is a me problem because they're are certain authors who I gravitate towards and certain ones who confuse me. Baldwin confuses me more than Wright. And Angelou is the same. It seems like there's an expression they want me to get, and I can convince myself to think that way, but my natural reaction is either nah I wouldn't do that or something more confusing. Adventure stories that don't look into the souls of people are much easier to read and interpret because it's either spelled out or not meant to be that deep.

For the “I wouldn’t do that” situations, could you reframe to try and figure out why THEY made the choices they did? I always think that’s the more interesting question anyway. I already know my own mind, but others’ can be so surprising.

But I get where you’re coming from because I respected I Know Why… but couldn’t get through even half of All God’s Children Got Traveling Shoes. But some of that may be that I learned the story of Angelou’s son and grandson in between. The story is a kind of “he said, she said,” but I personality believe that the “kidnapped” grandchild’s mother was fleeing from Angelou’s son’s abuse. So I couldn’t find it in myself to care much about him after his car accident.

I will admit that I'm not the brightest bulb in the barrel. I wish I had the ability to read minds, but I don't. I never did well on those essay questions in class asking me to explain some imagery or motivation behind something. The way my mind works can think of a thousand things that could be true, and while I could reason myself into thinking that one is likely true, it's only because that's how society wants me to think. Maya herself has spoken against this type of thinking because people act like they don't have their own skeletons in the closets.

Now that I'm older, and have lived through a few things, I may look into her life more to see if I can find what I was looking for when I started reading her autobiography. But what I'm more interested in now reading wise is more good autobiographies of women. Most of the ones that I look back upon that I loved have all been by men. This is kinda where Caged Bird vines into play because of it's rawness and lack of a filter. But I'll look into others like Sonya Sanchez and Nicki Giovanni to see if they connect with me better.

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.

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted this forum created so that I could talk about books I didn't like. Maybe I'm just not understanding some of these books and maybe they're not written for me but there are still he popular books I really don't like. I won't make them all because that would likely give my identity away.

One I haven't mentioned to anybody is Maya Angelou's 'i know why the caged bird sings". Not to trivialize what she went through but I really finished the book like seemed like what did I just read. How critical can I be of an autobiography? Especially if it made her who she is? But seeing this put in the same leagues or above invisible man, black boy, native son. I just don't see it.

They're are several others and I hope this doesn't turn into a bash me or bash Maya because I love her other works (especially poetry) but I'm not a fan of that book.

I don't get what you didn't like about it. Be more specific. I didnt like Invisible man. I couldn't even finish it while I know why a caged bird sings was very engaging.

Even Anonymous, I don't want to do too much of criticizing the GOATs. I respect her too much but it just didn't do any thing for me. Same with Color Purple. That did move me more though, like I had hatred for some characters from that book, but not to the extent of some friends who worship that book.

Maybe it's that when I'm looking for something uplifting, I can't read a book that has r@pe in it and still be uplifted by it. But that's not the worse about Caged Bird. It's more that the why's of the story don't seem to connect to me.

Maybe this is a me problem because they're are certain authors who I gravitate towards and certain ones who confuse me. Baldwin confuses me more than Wright. And Angelou is the same. It seems like there's an expression they want me to get, and I can convince myself to think that way, but my natural reaction is either nah I wouldn't do that or something more confusing. Adventure stories that don't look into the souls of people are much easier to read and interpret because it's either spelled out or not meant to be that deep.

For the “I wouldn’t do that” situations, could you reframe to try and figure out why THEY made the choices they did? I always think that’s the more interesting question anyway. I already know my own mind, but others’ can be so surprising.

But I get where you’re coming from because I respected I Know Why… but couldn’t get through even half of All God’s Children Got Traveling Shoes. But some of that may be that I learned the story of Angelou’s son and grandson in between. The story is a kind of “he said, she said,” but I personality believe that the “kidnapped” grandchild’s mother was fleeing from Angelou’s son’s abuse. So I couldn’t find it in myself to care much about him after his car accident.

Anonymous wrote:Mexican Gothic. I liked the vibe of the book but the ending just ruined it and made me so angry. Great setup then…..mushrooms? WTAF?

Haha I have to agree with this, although I did learn a lot about mushrooms!

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had four people gift or try to loan me Educated, saying that I'll love it but I HATED it.
I found it tedious and unrelatable, and maybe not entirely honest.

]I have had four people gift or try to loan me Educated, saying that I'll love it but I HATED it.
I found it tedious and unrelatable, and maybe not entirely honest.

This!

Yes, there were several things I doubted. Don't recall specific s except the one she claimed to be in a terrible car accident and a cousin in his teens came across the scene. The cousin later claimed he didn't remember that happening. I'd think it would stick with you.

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.

All the Light You Cannot See

Anonymous wrote:I have had four people gift or try to loan me Educated, saying that I'll love it but I HATED it.
I found it tedious and unrelatable, and maybe not entirely honest.

This!

The crawdad book