Is there a book you expected to like, but you absolutely hated? Whether required reading for school or just a flop you picked up, bitch about it here.
For me, my #1 most hated novel was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I invested so much time slogging through it...and by the end I just wanted those hours of my life back. Ugh.
Dawn of Empire. The main character was 30 year old nasty ass pedophile who sleep with a fourteen year old girl. He even got her pregnant. I don't care that it was like 300 BC, it's still gross. Anyway I struggled through that book because my motto is to finish all books I start. So that was the worst few weeks of my life.
Wicked Lovely. I just hated it. I even bought the dumb thing. The couple I was hoping would be together never got together and I'm always good at picking out who will get together be it a movie or book. I was wrong so now I hate the stupid book. I'm saying anything else in case someone here hasn't read the book and wants to read it.
That's about it so far. I don't really hate a lot of books but when I do there's a good reason...usually. Some books I just can't get through. I'll try to read up to a certain point to see how I'll like it. It's not like I only read a page and through it down. That's how you miss out on a good book. A look of stories start off slow and work their way up. Think of it like a roller coaster. You work your way up and then the excitement comes when you go down the first hill. I am a patient person when it comes to books. However if I'm really in the book and I just can't take it anymore, that books going back to where it came from.
For some reason I really dislike Catcher in the Rye. I tried to like it, even read it a second time. But that book just really fucking blows. Also couldnt stand some book I had to read in school about this rape victim (it was fiction, not a first hand account mind you). I know, that sounds horrible, but a books a book and that was a terrible piece of garbage.
I disliked The Book Thief. Considering it was narrated by Death, I thought I'd love it but the little artistic 'gems' seemed very forced.
Plus, what is it with high schools and forcing us to read books about the horrors of war all the time?
High/secondary schools definitely do have a bit of a war focus going on. I didn't like the part of the curriculum where I had to study war-related poetry, particularly as it was all about the WWs, and spanned too many lessons for my liking.
I didn't get too far into the Book Thief before having to give it to my aunt, but I do agree that the 'gems' seemed forced in parts, and sometimes borderlining cliche, although I generally swoon over any book that tells me I'm going to die.
To Kill a Mockingbird. I simply did not care for this book whatsoever. And an ironic sort of sidenote after reading a lot of posts: I thought Catcher in the Rye was an amazing book.
Ah, I'm so surprised to see Catcher in the Rye, Lolita, and To Kill A Mockingbird in here!
Lolita is my favourite... but I understand how it could be quite difficult to read.
Catcher in the Rye - not too sure why so many people didn't like this... I think if you try reading it outside of school (where you are forced to over-analyze everything) it is much more enjoyable. I read it during a tough time in my life and found Holden expressed a sense of under-stated hopelessness I could relate to... a sadness that didn't revolve around a desperate need for attention like so many other characters. I think the book is so popular because everyone has a little bit of Holden in them.
To Kill a Mockingbird... if you didn't like this book, I don't know what to say... other than you are CRAZY.
My contribution to this conversation is not a book, but rather, Chuck Palahniuk. I'm probably going to get flack for this but I find him extremely overrated. The only book I REALLY enjoyed was Invisible Monsters.
The Scarlet Letter
Back in high school we had to read this for English Lit. Then halfway through the first semester, my family moved and switched schools. Went into the new class, and they just started reading it.
I think I might have had a better appreciation of the book if the instructors had also showed the movie adaptation of it in class like they did with Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men. But yes, it was a bit dry reading.
I hate just about everything by Shakespeare but Romeo and Juliet most notably. Ugh. Night was also a terrible book I had to read it for two school years in a row.
Catcher in the Rye - whine whine whine, everyone's a phoney.
Pride and Prejudice - fucking dry.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin - it's about sexual awakening and suicide. I've never read a book that rendered me more impotent...but halfway through, I really did want to drown myself like the main character.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Paradise by Toni Morrison
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - never read a book where the main character was a doormat.
Most books by Chuck Palahniuk - though I did like Snuff. The Fight Club movie is superior to the book.
Cujo by Stephen King - Love King, hate this book
HELL, an exploration of the dark underbelly of high school:
Two books on my literature class I would have burned had I not had to finish them.
In The Cut by Susanna Moore beause it's nothing but 180-odd pages of masturabtion and fucking with a few lists of slang thrown in and Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis because again, with the fucking, and the drug use and loads of random characters who are all fucking each other and there's so many characters I can't keep track of them, and the gangraping of a 12 year old girl really was the last straw for me. I stopped reading after that.
Gone with the Wind. UGH! I expected a wonderful book filled with love, action and drama in a historical setting. I mean, it's a classic, it had to be good. SO FUCKING WRONG! It was worse than my history text books. maybe 5% story, the rest was a god damn civil war history book. THE FUCK?! How the fuck does that become a classic? It was so god damn boring! excuse my mouth but you have no idea how angry I am this book tricked me D:<
