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Books you hate but everyone else likes?

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IstominFan
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01 Dec 2016, 10:37 am

The books flew off the shelves, then quickly into the trash can after people realized how horrible the writing was.

Sylvia Day's books were in a similar vein to Fifty Shades. The language was so filthy and the sex was really, in fact, rape. Nothing sexy about that.



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01 Dec 2016, 2:45 pm

The Handmaid's Tale. *shudder* I'll admit that that book traumatized me when it was assigned in Grade 12 English. I didn't even read it, I just found the quotations I needed, but everyone else in class seemed okay with it [or even liked it!] even though the book was basically teaching them about rape.


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14 Dec 2016, 3:10 pm

EclecticWarrior wrote:
The 50 Shades trilogy. Fanfic is good for practice but this is just a mediocre one rewritten only to remove the copyrighted characters. Unfortunately, most readers didn't see past the sex (if it can even be called sex to begin with- SSC is broken several times throughout), and because SEX SELLS it flew off the shelves.


I agree. I don't know what is so appealing about The 50 Shades Trilogy other than the sex.


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15 Dec 2016, 10:01 am

I found G.R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books way too depressing and confusing with so many characters and politics. I only got through first 1 1/2 books.

But having said that, I really enjoy the Game of Thrones TV series... I think the actors bring a lot to the story that was missing for me in the books.

Don't like Robert Heinlein and how his libertarian views are still taken too seriously by many SF writers and readers to this day.

I don't hate Harry Potter, but I could never get very excited about (a) boarding school and (b) a universe where magic seems to be mostly based on dry, rote rituals.



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15 Dec 2016, 10:05 am

Kuraudo777 wrote:
The Handmaid's Tale. *shudder* I'll admit that that book traumatized me when it was assigned in Grade 12 English. I didn't even read it, I just found the quotations I needed, but everyone else in class seemed okay with it [or even liked it!] even though the book was basically teaching them about rape.


Well to be fair the book wasn't condoning rape--it was about a dystopian society where women were property, and that was part of the horrors. I was shaken up by that book, but I think the author wanted people to be shaken up. It was a warning of what could happen if evangelicals gained too much power in the USA.



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15 Dec 2016, 10:23 am

^I know. The problem with cautionary tales is that they have a nasty habit of coming true anyway.


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15 Dec 2016, 11:00 am

wilburforce wrote:
Nights_Like_These wrote:
Pretty much anything by Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway. Probably an unpopular opinion, but there it is... lol


Actually, I would agree with that. Rand appeals to narcissists and psychopaths and Hemingway was a racist sexist ghoul with no style to his writing--or maybe you could say his particular style was a notable lack of style. I would add 50 Shades of Grey, though. I've never read the book itself, but I've read enough excerpts from it to know that it is truly, truly awful writing. Like, I don't think you could write something worse than 50SoG if you were TRYING YOUR HARDEST to write the worst book ever.


I remember reading The Fountainhead and, you know, the author succeeded in not boring me - rather I'd have liked to resurrect her and beat her with a stick. At least it was passably entertaining. The Novel of Ideas is always gamble for the author.

As for Hemingway, exactly the same as you. Snoozefest. We were always told how 90% of the action happens under the surface with Hemingway - but it rarely seemed worth the bother. I always suspected the experts were imagining stuff, muh like teenage girls imagine boyband members to have personalities.


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15 Dec 2016, 5:21 pm

underwater wrote:
wilburforce wrote:
Nights_Like_These wrote:
Pretty much anything by Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway. Probably an unpopular opinion, but there it is... lol


Actually, I would agree with that. Rand appeals to narcissists and psychopaths and Hemingway was a racist sexist ghoul with no style to his writing--or maybe you could say his particular style was a notable lack of style. I would add 50 Shades of Grey, though. I've never read the book itself, but I've read enough excerpts from it to know that it is truly, truly awful writing. Like, I don't think you could write something worse than 50SoG if you were TRYING YOUR HARDEST to write the worst book ever.


I remember reading The Fountainhead and, you know, the author succeeded in not boring me - rather I'd have liked to resurrect her and beat her with a stick. At least it was passably entertaining. The Novel of Ideas is always gamble for the author.

As for Hemingway, exactly the same as you. Snoozefest. We were always told how 90% of the action happens under the surface with Hemingway - but it rarely seemed worth the bother. I always suspected the experts were imagining stuff, muh like teenage girls imagine boyband members to have personalities.


I've never understood why Hemmingway got so much love. I tried reading The Sun Also Rises once and got about half way through it, but I got to the point where I just couldn't go any further. At some point in the story (can't say when because I've blocked most of it out of my mind), the main character is riding on top of an open-topped bus, and he's describing the landscape as he's traveling through Spain (I think it was Spain?), and I felt like I'd read better descriptive writing from children. I actually felt like I was reading something written by a child. lol I just don't get it. I read a short story written by him in high school that I remember liking (though I don't remember anything about it, such as the title of it, so it must not have been very memorable either), but that's pretty much it. There were other writers from that generation that I appreciate more.


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16 Dec 2016, 11:15 am

I just remembered Pride and Prejudice. I wish I didn't. We had to read the whole thing cover to cover in high school and everyone absolutely loved it. Meanwhile, that was the only time I actually used SparkNotes instead of reading the book. The author must have been paid by the word or something. And romance is usually dull in the first place. I get that Pride and Prejudice is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek satire, but I think it would have been more interesting if I actually lived in that time period. I am so not an Austen fan, unlike literally everyone else.



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16 Dec 2016, 11:52 am

Here lately I've become a lot less fond of the Harry Potter books. Ironically, I don't know if this is because I'm outgrowing the story or not. It's the author and her fanbase that are pushing me away from the books. I've recently decided that Harry Potter's fanbase is just as toxic as that of Twilight or My Little Pony. My God, you should hear these people! They take their Hogwarts house so seriously that they'll cuss you out if you don't show it the proper respect. And they've come up with these stupid things they call "headcanons" that are really just ways of sharing fanfics without calling them fanfics. "Oh, oh, I have a headcanon that Harry and Draco were really gay in and in love the whole time and the, like, kissed and maybe had sex, oh and Hagrid and Snape were there and they had a hot yaoi foursome EEEEEEEEEEE!" And of course you're a homophobic bigot if you point out how that goes against literally everything Rowling wrong those characters to be. I know every fanbase has idiots like these, but in Harry Potter they seem to be the vast majority, and that in turn makes me like the books less because of it.

And Rowling herself isn't much better these days. As a writer myself I have a ton of respect for her, but here lately she's just been... obnoxious. She has her website where she changes book canon every time someone picks up on a plot hole (of which there are many). And she seems determined to stay relevant, no matter what the cost. Has anyone else noticed how, whenever the social justice warriors get up in arms about something, Rowling suddenly appears to "relate" to them? Like when she revealed *cough*retconned*cough* Dumbledore to be gay? Or when she claimed she wrote Hermione to be black from the very start, despite lots of real evidence that she didn't? It almost feels like she doesn't think her fandom is intelligent enough to see through these statements that are obviously only made to put the spotlight back on her. Not to mention how she inserted herself into our presidential election. I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of Donald Trump, but saying he's worse than Lord Voldemort is absolutely ridiculous (let's not turn this into a political thread, though, please).


Anywayyyy, I guess I'm joining the legion of "Harry Potter is Overrated" lol


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16 Dec 2016, 11:56 am

ThisAdamGuy wrote:
Here lately I've become a lot less fond of the Harry Potter books. Ironically, I don't know if this is because I'm outgrowing the story or not. It's the author and her fanbase that are pushing me away from the books. I've recently decided that Harry Potter's fanbase is just as toxic as that of Twilight or My Little Pony. My God, you should hear these people! They take their Hogwarts house so seriously that they'll cuss you out if you don't show it the proper respect. And they've come up with these stupid things they call "headcanons" that are really just ways of sharing fanfics without calling them fanfics. "Oh, oh, I have a headcanon that Harry and Draco were really gay in and in love the whole time and the, like, kissed and maybe had sex, oh and Hagrid and Snape were there and they had a hot yaoi foursome EEEEEEEEEEE!" And of course you're a homophobic bigot if you point out how that goes against literally everything Rowling wrong those characters to be. I know every fanbase has idiots like these, but in Harry Potter they seem to be the vast majority, and that in turn makes me like the books less because of it.

And Rowling herself isn't much better these days. As a writer myself I have a ton of respect for her, but here lately she's just been... obnoxious. She has her website where she changes book canon every time someone picks up on a plot hole (of which there are many). And she seems determined to stay relevant, no matter what the cost. Has anyone else noticed how, whenever the social justice warriors get up in arms about something, Rowling suddenly appears to "relate" to them? Like when she revealed *cough*retconned*cough* Dumbledore to be gay? Or when she claimed she wrote Hermione to be black from the very start, despite lots of real evidence that she didn't? It almost feels like she doesn't think her fandom is intelligent enough to see through these statements that are obviously only made to put the spotlight back on her. Not to mention how she inserted herself into our presidential election. I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of Donald Trump, but saying he's worse than Lord Voldemort is absolutely ridiculous (let's not turn this into a political thread, though, please).


Anywayyyy, I guess I'm joining the legion of "Harry Potter is Overrated" lol



I don't think any of those fandoms are toxic (maybe Twilight is). I guess it all depends on who you surround yourself with. There are bad people everywhere, but that doesn't make the whole fandom toxic. Even the infamous Steven Universe, as long as you avoid Tumblr the fandom isn't that bad.



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16 Dec 2016, 6:52 pm

Several of the books I was forced to read in middle and high school got me wondering whether the English teachers were trying to put us all off the habit of reading, but I don't think "everyone else likes" any of those and suspect several of them would get booted from the curriculum if the reading list ever got modernized.

The Narnia series, on the other hand, is apparently something some other people read for pleasure. Not I.



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17 Dec 2016, 1:20 am

Nights_Like_These wrote:
underwater wrote:
wilburforce wrote:
Nights_Like_These wrote:
Pretty much anything by Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway. Probably an unpopular opinion, but there it is... lol


Actually, I would agree with that. Rand appeals to narcissists and psychopaths and Hemingway was a racist sexist ghoul with no style to his writing--or maybe you could say his particular style was a notable lack of style. I would add 50 Shades of Grey, though. I've never read the book itself, but I've read enough excerpts from it to know that it is truly, truly awful writing. Like, I don't think you could write something worse than 50SoG if you were TRYING YOUR HARDEST to write the worst book ever.


I remember reading The Fountainhead and, you know, the author succeeded in not boring me - rather I'd have liked to resurrect her and beat her with a stick. At least it was passably entertaining. The Novel of Ideas is always gamble for the author.

As for Hemingway, exactly the same as you. Snoozefest. We were always told how 90% of the action happens under the surface with Hemingway - but it rarely seemed worth the bother. I always suspected the experts were imagining stuff, muh like teenage girls imagine boyband members to have personalities.


I've never understood why Hemmingway got so much love. I tried reading The Sun Also Rises once and got about half way through it, but I got to the point where I just couldn't go any further. At some point in the story (can't say when because I've blocked most of it out of my mind), the main character is riding on top of an open-topped bus, and he's describing the landscape as he's traveling through Spain (I think it was Spain?), and I felt like I'd read better descriptive writing from children. I actually felt like I was reading something written by a child. lol I just don't get it. I read a short story written by him in high school that I remember liking (though I don't remember anything about it, such as the title of it, so it must not have been very memorable either), but that's pretty much it. There were other writers from that generation that I appreciate more.


In various schools, I had to read one of his short stories, "Hills like white elephants". Although I had to read it repeatedly, all I can remember is that it's about a man and a woman, and that there are no elephants in it.


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17 Dec 2016, 3:32 pm

The Twilight Series

Stephen King is certainly right about Stephanie Meyer. She is a hack.


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18 Dec 2016, 3:35 am

IstominFan wrote:
Sci-fi is another genre I could never get into. Most of the modern sci-fi books are creepy and weird. I read "Reserved for the Cat" by Mercedes Lackey, because I love cats. I found it weird and disgusting, with talk of vampires and other creepy stuff. The ending was sort of cute, but the rest was garbage.


Mercedes Lackey is an absurd author who writes the same book over and over again, at high speed. Have a look at her bibliography. It is simply not possible to churn out that many books and keep standards high. Pretty much the only person to have done it is Terry Pratchett.

If you ever want to try sci fi again, I can recommend anything by C. J. Cherryh. I think her Foreigner series might be of interest to an autistic person - it's a study of how psychology and culture intertwine, cloaked in a space opera. The main character is a human living in an alien culture. It certainly resonated with me. Don't mind the silly covers, the content is great.


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25 Dec 2016, 7:41 pm

The first 2 Twilight series books. Because: it was too bland (this effected her, that happened, he was mad cause...jealousy or a reason that kept changing or didn't make any sense). The way it was written. (I don't even need to use my imagination.... Wait, I need to think here I think....urg, nevermind!)