Finally.... The End. (books)

[Jinx]

What are some books/movies you've trucked through out of determination, but you haaaated?


For me, I can definitely think of both Everything is Illuminated (the book) and Infinite Jest. I only finished them because I started. I was able to force myself to finish Fellowship of the Ring, but couldn't finish The Lord of the Rings.

[milliegoesbeep]

I think you need to change your title to something that doesn't share it's title with another thread ;)

[Jinx]

That was kind of the whole point, Millie. Multiple threads with the same title pop up from time to time. :colbert:

[Bunny]

Twilight.

I read all four of the books because I wanted to understand what the big deal was. I guess I didn't hate them so much as I thought they were absolutely the most hilariously bad things ever.

[Jinx]

Obviously you haven't read 50 Shades, Buny.

[Bunny]

If I wanted to read bad porn I'd just go to literotica.

[I Don't Need A Name]

Pride and Prejudice. I had to study it in English. Forcing myself to read every page of that book was akin to being stabbed in the eyes with read hot pokers. Either that or having to read Fifty Shades twice. Both are as badly written after all..

[Mercen-X]

What are some books/movies you've trucked through out of determination, but you haaaated?

I've never dedicated myself to a book I hated. I do have a few books that I've found far too descriptive to read easily and take me forever to read. I even have two or three or four in which I'm bookmarked somewhere in the middle, but have never managed to finish them. One of them is the only romance novel I've ever read. It's old and reminds of Gone With the Wind but with the twist that the lady of the novel is constantly being abused by the man she loves.

It took a while to get through Legend of Nightfall and I still haven't finished Wars of Light and Shadow novels of which I own three.

[Alpha2099]

Crime and Punishment. I did that as an English project. Not a fun book. Very hard to get through.

[Mercen-X]

I borrowed War and Peace from a friend once. I read like four chapters. I remember it fairly well. I liked it, but I couldn't finish it. I'm pretty sure I gave it back. :eyebrow:

[I Took the Red Pill]

Infinite Jest


OH GOD AND ALSO

AS I LAY DYINGWe can never be friends.

The only example I can think of right now is White Noise by Don DeLillo. If I'm not enjoying a novel, I have no problem abandoning it.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

For me it was the Engineer Trilogy by KJ Parker. There were several things set up in the first book that had me really excited, but after that I hated it all the way to the end outside of a few short portions of the text.

[Jinx]

Infinite Jest


OH GOD AND ALSO

AS I LAY DYINGWe can never be friends.

The only example I can think of right now is White Noise by Don DeLillo. If I'm not enjoying a novel, I have no problem abandoning it.

Infinite Jest is pretentious, and As I Lay Dying...well, Faulkner needs to learn how to use a fucking comma.

I have White Noise, but I never read it.

[Shorty]

I couldn't make it through Xenocide by Orson Scott Card because by the third chapter I was hurling the book out the window. Then in a year or so I'd buy another one to give it a chance and the cycle would repeat.

I found Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs to have a disappointing ending. It's a memoir and isn't supposed to have an elaborate made up climax, but the rest of the book was so crazy that I thought the ending would be the cherry on top somehow. Not so.

[Pike]

I couldn't make it through Xenocide by Orson Scott Card because by the third chapter I was hurling the book out the window. Then in a year or so I'd buy another one to give it a chance and the cycle would repeat.
I think I am the only person ever who liked Xenocide.

Although I do think OSC is pretty overrated (not just saying this because he's a dick), so it's not like I think Xenocide is the best book ever or anything, but I don't think it was any worse than OSC's other stuff.


Crime and Punishment. I did that as an English project. Not a fun book. Very hard to get through.

I LOVE THAT BOOK! One of my all time favorites :love:

[Miriel]

I finish most books, even if I hate them. I feel this need to thoroughly understand the things I hate.

There's too many books I've hated to count. Some books I've read and hated:

Da Vinci Code
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Heart of Darkness
The Selection
Uglies
50 Shades of Grey
Ready Player One
100 Years of Solitude
The Magician


Pride and Prejudice. I had to study it in English. Forcing myself to read every page of that book was akin to being stabbed in the eyes with read hot pokers. Either that or having to read Fifty Shades twice. Both are as badly written after all..

You did not just compare Pride and Prejudice with 50 Shades of Grey. I understand hyperbole and everything, but those two aren't even on the same continent in terms of good or bad writing. You can dislike a book without condemning it to being badly written. Which is a habit that I find very annoying and happens all the time. This is a charge levied on Tolkien by people who don't find his work particularly readable and I think it's just balls.

Joseph Conrad wasn't a bad writer, doesn't mean I like his books any less. Gabriel García Márquez is an exceptional writer. I still hated his books. Rowling isn't the best writer, but I still adore Harry Potter more than other books that are written much better.

[Pike]

Heart of Darkness

I am so glad I'm not the only one who hated that book.

[Shorty]

I couldn't make it through Xenocide by Orson Scott Card because by the third chapter I was hurling the book out the window. Then in a year or so I'd buy another one to give it a chance and the cycle would repeat.
I think I am the only person ever who liked Xenocide.

Although I do think OSC is pretty overrated (not just saying this because he's a dick), so it's not like I think Xenocide is the best book ever or anything, but I don't think it was any worse than OSC's other stuff.

I just could not push through the third chapter. It was so different and ugh, I didn't like it. I don't even know if it's a bad story or not because I couldn't finish it. Ender's Game and Speaker were gold, and then having to move on from those two to Xenocide did not work for me.

OSC is indeed overrated. The Shadow series? Please. Another few books I read and hated - Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon.

[Pike]

Ender's Game had its moments but overall I was "meh" on it. (I know, I know, this makes me a horrible person.) I liked Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide-- not the best scifi books I've ever read by any means but they were entertaining enough.

Then I read about half of whatever the fourth one was called (Children of the Mind? Maybe? I can't remember) and I just went "wtf is this crud, why am I still reading this series" and quit it then xD

[Shorty]

Nah, I know that not many people favor it. It holds sentimental value to me, so it'll always be my favorite.

I also tried Children of the mind to just skip Xenocide but noooope xD

[Raistlin]

Ender's Game had its moments but overall I was "meh" on it.

THANK YOU! I thought I was the only person in the world who felt this way.

[Old Manus]

I'm struggling my way through The Gulag Archipelago right now. Not because it's boring - it's actually really interesting - but his desire to document almost every date and event in the SU between 1900 and 1950 is pretty heavy going. I just read it while I'm taking a shit at the moment.

Also The Fellowship of the Ring

[The Man]

The more he writes, the more I'm convinced that OSC just got lucky with Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I tried to read Xenocide about four different times and I'm convinced it's unreadable. I also read some of the Shadow books and I thought they were painfully average.

And yeah, he's a dick.

A lot of what people have listed here is actually pretty good stuff (not Fifty Shades though, ugh) but yeah, I can see why people would have trouble getting through it. It took me three attempts to get through Gravity's Rainbow but it became one of my favourite books.

[Arizona Lively]

XENOCIDE! SQUEEE! I've never heard of it, but I know what xeno and cide mean together! Hehehehe! Aliens suck!

[Jiro]

I don't understand how anyone can dislike any part of the Lord of the Rings. Goodness.