Anti-recommendations

Post subject: Anti-recommendations Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 06:00 AM

Maybe this is an inappropriate one, I'm not sure, but it's worth a pop. If you guys hate it, I'm sorry.

Basically: What books would you recommend people not to bother with? Maybe they're hyped up too much or you just couldn't get all the way through them, or school made you read them and you just couldn't stand them.

Enormous BUT (that new diet just isn't working): Don't get offended if someone anti-recommends your favourite book, and at the same time, don't condemn books outright without full justification, because other people may love them. Never insult people who read a certain book just because you don't like it. Keep an open mind, just explain why YOU didn't like it. If you want to, you can defend a book someone else has anti-recommended, but don't make that your only point in a post, otherwise this will descend into an argument over a single book.

Here is an example of what I mean:

I hated the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown because it felt patronising. The author seemed to assume the readers knew nothing and that he had to explain absolutely everything, and also he left nothing for readers to work out for themselves. I hate being led by the hand by authors so it really wasn't my cup of tea (tea is my cup of tea). I suppose he has to make it appeal to the whole range of audiences, but I feel a book about Leonardo Da Vinci should be, er, intelligent. Plus there were actually several factual inaccuracies (eg. Da Vinci wrote upside down as well as back-to-front, which a lot of people know, but it seems Dan Brown doesn't), and the literary style seemed rather influent. Based on the intelligence of people I meet on Immeritus, I'd say many of you guys will get the same impression (I know at least one person agrees with me); so you don't have to listen to the hype. It might be a bestseller but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

Anyone else?

Known aliases: Norus, Norlet, Norletta, Norusinerus, Norwich, Norway, Normandy... and Manuel and Squeff.

'Leave them laughing when you go, and if you care don't let them know, don't give yourself away.' - Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now

"No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish" - John Ruskin.

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 08:49 AM

I've heard some of the same things about that book, and as an Art History major, I'm sure I would be bothered by it more than I would enjoy it.

One book that I read over the summer that I was sorely disappointed in--The Prince of Dreams. It was supposed to be a fictional adaptation of the story of Tristan and Iseult/Essylt. I picked it up at Borders (it was on one of the best seller shelves), thinking it would be a really well-written fiction work about my favorite time period, but it really just ended up being a trashy romance novel in disguise. I felt that it was written purely for emotional value (as with all those romance books) and made no real logical sense, and I felt like I had lost a considerable amount of brain cells by the end of it. It was a very un-intelligent, inaccurate account of the Medieval story. Yeah...that's my anti-recommendation. I can't believe I wasted 15 bucks on that thing.

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 09:49 AM

Oooh, good topic Nor!

The Devil Wears Prada- it was supposed to be really funny. I wanted to slap the main character for being a spineless wimp.

And don't kill me for this....

The Lord of the Rings- I know they defined fantasy as we know it today. I know it's one of the most important pieces of work in my favorite genre. But could Tolkien be any more dry??????????? I read them in 5th grade and made it through, probably because I skimmed so much. I tried to read them again recently and just couldn't do it. The one time I will happily say the movies were better than the books!

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 07:13 PM

I don't recommend... Little Women. I know it's a classic and I REALLY tried to get into it, but... ergh. The style of writing just didn't cut it with me. They were too, er, goody for me. A little action please! I could never finish it, fell asleep on it.

I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind.

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 07:38 PM

I anti-recommend On the Road by Jack Kerouac. This was hailed as the definition of a generation (the beatniks), and I just about killed myself reading it. Well, no, perhaps not, but only because I was on vacation in Mexico. Summary: a smart writer lad runs off with the probably schizophrenic Dean Moriarty, and they go back and forth across America with a few dollars, picking up chicks, fathering children, leaving, having jobs and getting fired for not going, doing drugs, picking up more chicks, doing more drugs, Dean being an absolute madman, and ending up in Mexico. While being high. There was veeery little rhyme or reasons to the actions. They'd be absolutely mad about a girl and then take off in the middle of the night and forget by the morning.

The plot sucks. I realise the plot isn't the point, but it's redundant. I suppose its the "vibrant, electric" wording that catches everyone it, but I felt like I was a philosopher on joint for most of it. I'm a plot whore, what can I say? It was tough to get through... you know what it was like? Someone writing an LJ entry; expounding the day's events and trying to find the meaning of life, but you'd really just rather smack them around a bit. I really hope it didn't define a WHOLE generation.

*cough* Sorry. I take my literature seriously. See argument about Gone with the Wind for that (grr Scarlett!)

-Siri

~Doubt: In the battle between you and the world, bet on the world.~

Part of the Elite Confused Duo

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:51 PM

Ditto on On the Road, Siri...I had a tough time keeping myself focused while reading it.

I have to say that my least favorite book of all time has to be Catcher in the Rye. Now, I know a whole lot of people love it, and to be honest, I haven't read it since High School, but I can't help rolling my eyes every time I think about it. Granted, I barely remember the plot; I think the reason I didn't like it had more with being forced to read it than anything else. It just felt patronizing, as if the school board was throwing us a bone, trying to make us feel as if the curriculum reflected what was going through our own minds...only I didn't identify with it at all, and couldn't help feeling as if I was being underestimated, since at the time, I was reading bigger and better things, and resented the fact that I couldn't choose what to read for myself.

I'm also not a big fan of Lord of the Flies, anything by Joseph Heller that isn't Catch-22 (nothing else of his really measures up) and I found A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain to be waaaay below my expectation.

Oh, and Pffftht! to the Giving Tree. :DD

ife

<span style="color:white;font-size:x-small;]Hello, friends. I am a perfectly normal human worm-baby. You have nothing, absolutely nothing to fear from me.[/color]<span style="color:black;font-family:Geneva;font-size:medium;]Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.[/color][/b] <span style="color:black;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:small;] - Kurt Vonnegut[/color]

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 11:16 PM

One of the only books I absolutely could not get into was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Again it's another supposed classic, but I just found myself bored. It's funny because I've always thought of Mark Twain as witty and brilliant, and I love reading about him, and quoting him, but I found this book dry and humorless, and simply a nightmare to read. It certainly didn't help that I was being forced. My friend had to borrow it for one of her college courses, and I tried to make her keep it, but she gave it back, because I was so bored in the class when we did that book that I wrote my name all over it at least a dozen times, and there's doodles all over it too.

<span style="color:navy;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;]~Kit~[/color]

<span style="color:black;font-family:georgia;font-size:x-small;]I'm just a curbside prophet,

with my hand in my pocket,

and I'm waiting for my rocket to come... [/color]

Edited by: <A HREF=http://p072.ezboard.com/bsiriusblackfanclub.showUserPublicProfile?gid=kitenarie>kitenarie[/url] at: 9/20/04 8:17 pm

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:08 AM

Hermi I agree with Little Women, and certainly couldn't get past Little Men (I don't know if it's little boys. It's called Hombrecitos in spanish). But most most definitely, I hated The Inheritance. I think that book has absolutely no point, and though she writes beautifully, the characters are just so...irritating. They always do the right thing and live devoted to virtue. In fact, the book could be an essay on Percy's virtues.

Now Golding, on the other hand...I think he writes...terribly..he mixes up all the action and dialog with what he's trying to say, and shows a very pessimistic society with kids, which kind of sets a crazy tone for the book, but even though that while you're reading you want it to end, after you've finished, you find it's a good book. Maybe it has a good ending, or maybe at the end you realise how many good points he had, which he didn't manage to convey in a good way. I dunno, I just didn't regret reading it, though I was repenting mid-way.

Now for the worst book I've read (And I confess I was probably in a blind moment when I bought it, I can't for the life of me understand what made me buy it). White Is For Magic, of which I think there's a whole series. The book is just bad. It's some fantasy gone very wrong. Maybe she had a good idea at the beginning, but I laughed throughout the whole book about the stupidity of the characters. (And it's supposed to be a "witchy thriller"). Just not a good read.

Edited by: <A HREF=http://p072.ezboard.com/bsiriusblackfanclub.showUserPublicProfile?gid=definetelyravenclaw>definetely ravenclaw[/url] 

at: 9/20/04 9:10 pm

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 02:02 AM

Nice topic, Nor. I have to say I third the anti-recommendation of On the Road. To this I'll The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Now here's a book which was assigned in junior high, I think (the whole experience is a big blur since I disliked it so much). The plot centers around an indigenous husband and wife who find a valuable pearl then somehow have to decide whether to keep it or not because of it seems to be evil--it inspires covetousness and murder. They have to escape their fellow villagers with their sick son and ultimately throw the pearl away. (Don't be impressed by my "memory" of this plot--I actually had to look it up!) Steinbeck's development seemed agonizingly slow not to mention condescending; I don't think I was ever able to finish the book and got through the unit by taking good notes from class discussion. I think. Like I said, I've done a pretty good job of blocking the whole experience out, it was so irritating.

A book I picked up last summer for a bit of light reading was Name & Address Witheldby Jane Sigaloff. I tried to give it a chance, but 100 pages into the story of this working girl's search for *the* relationship was so redundant it was aggravating. Sigaloff's attempts at wit (a la Helen Fielding) were painful and uninspired. Now there's $13 bucks and a couple hours of my life I'll never get back.

Live and learn...

<span style="color:#CC0066;]A penny for my thoughts?[/color]

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 04:44 AM

I can never like Steinbeck. I try and I try, because everyone always goes on about him, and my mum is like his biggest fan, but three Steinbecks in a row have caused me trauma. I'd forgotten about The Pearl til you mentioned it, but that one makes number three, the first two being Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony. Unlike most books, which have a bad bit in the middle and a happy ending, Steinbeck always gets it backwards. I met him those three times in 2nd and 3rd year (*sigh* American 7th and 8th grade) at school, and every time it was just like 'noooo don't kill Lenny' or equivalent. The Red Pony - dead. Lenny - dead. The baby in The Pearl - dead. It's like a series of 'To Kill A Mockingbird's where only the innocent get killed. Okay I'm sure it's more realistic than kiddie bad-guy-gets-comeuppance books and that's probably why they make you read them when you're about 14, but.... nooooo. Gabilan! No. <img src=http://pages.prodigy.net/siriusblack/boards/smilies/puppy_dog_eyes.gif ALT=":pupeyes] I was traumatised heavily as a child. Can anyone tell me ifSweet Thursday is similarly traumatic? Because my mum is always on at me to read it and I couldn't bear another Steinbeck death-athon.

Known aliases: Norus, Norlet, Norletta, Norusinerus, Norwich, Norway, Normandy... and Manuel and Squeff.

'Leave them laughing when you go, and if you care don't let them know, don't give yourself away.' - Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now

"No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish" - John Ruskin. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p072.ezboard.com/bsiriusblackfanclub.showUserPublicProfile?gid=nor@siriusblackfanclub>Nor[/url] at: 9/21/04 1:46 am

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 06:14 AM

Good topic, Nor!

I haven't enjoyed Steinbeck either...I seem to remember attempting The Red Pony as a child (thinking it was a nice story for a pony mad little girl) and also being traumatised.

Another anti-recommendation for the inclined-to-be-traumatised is My Traitor's Heart, by Rian Malan. I know I should learn more about South Africa's history, and deal with the reality of our past, but some of the incidents he described gave me the most hideous nightmares. Perhaps it gets better later on, but I gave up in horror about a quarter of the way through.

And as the flames climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite

I saw Satan laughing with delight the day the music died

<span style="color:black;font-family:times new roman;font-size:x-small;]Member of the Triplets of Hellville

'Ho of Babylon ~ Daughter of Beelzebub ~ Temptress ~

The clones Evra/Ginny ~ Ginnypants[/color]

Edited by: <A HREF=http://p072.ezboard.com/bsiriusblackfanclub.showUserPublicProfile?gid=ginevra6>Ginevra6[/url] at: 9/21/04 3:16 am

7th Year Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 721

The Perfume, by Patrick S�skind. The book could have been really good - it's about a boy born without a scent and therefore, nobody connects to him. The book is way too naturalistic, beyond Zola in grossness and that does just make it icky, not interesting. Nothing is explained psychologically even though it could have been and it could have been great.

Not sure if this is translated to English (the writer is German) but if not, you did not miss anything.

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 07:20 AM

Ewwwww... Steinback. Add me to the list! How did this guy EVER become a classic?

Siri- is your argument against GWTW posted someplace? I'd love to see it- one of my favorite books, but I can see where people get frustrated.

Another author I've never cared for: Shakespeare. I've always, always, always hated Shakespeare. Maybe I'd like him better if there wasn't such attention given to him in high school- I always liked the theory that he put wierd symbolism and stuff in for fun, or bored high school teachers overanalyzed it. I find his tragedies immensely predictable (everyone dies but one of the secondary characters), and his characters quite wooden overall Razz

Post subject: Re: Anti-recommendations Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 09:09 AM

Not Spam, honest:

I often wonder if the reason things like Shakespeare don't have as much appeal to everyone as they might do is because they're so heavily referenced and modernised and so on that the originals seem stale. Just like (personally, no-one kill me) '10 Things I Hate About You' is more fun than 'Taming Of The Shrew' because we can relate to it more, so when we see Taming of the Shrew we think 'this is a bit dated'. Or that the plot of Romeo And Juliet is cliched now because we've seen so many movies with similar plots. And (sorry if I'm only talking to an extremly small number of people) The Goon Show, which was an extremely popular radio show in its day (1950s) and heavily inspired Monty Python and so on, is comparatively unfunny to modern audiences because the jokes are imitated so much that by the time we hear the original, we've heard it all before.

Am I rambling or does this make sense to anyone?

This topic is turning out to be more traumatic than I thought... I love Little Women in a whimsical little-girl way, and I'm one of many Catcher in the Rye fans... but heh. It's my own fault.

Known aliases: Norus, Norlet, Norletta, Norusinerus, Norwich, Norway, Normandy... and Manuel and Squeff.

'Leave them laughing when you go, and if you care don't let them know, don't give yourself away.' - Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now

"No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish" - John Ruskin.

7th Year Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 721

The great thing about Shakespeare is that you can still set up his plays. They still make sense. Far from all plays from that time period does. Shakespeare nails down true and basic human feelings that are still around. Many other plays have characters that act in an idealistic way or something, and now that the morals and ideals have changed, they are more or less inreadable. When I was taking Literature, I got to read an "almost readable" play from the same time-period, or maybe latter. It was so weird. There was some kind of war, and you had to know the mixed feelings toward each party to understand what was going on, only the war is long forgotten by now. Some soldiers came to a village, a girl was marrying someone, but was raped. Noone seemed to care about the rape per se but it did complicate things in several unexpected and strange ways. Everybody was running in and out of the woods, hiding from each other for no apparent reason. No true feelings anywhere, but very political in an out-dated way. People behaving strangely according to some long gone rules. And that was a semi-playable play.

All novels, plays etc are clich� in a way. There are a number of classic themes, at least one of them is usually present. A theme can be Father and son or The king's daughter and the common man or Innocent but accused - you know what I mean. Harry Potter is filled with them. James is dead (Father and son) and Voldemort on the loose (Revenge), Malfoy is evil (Arch-enemy), Dumbledore is good (Mentor, Father-figure)... there are tons, actually. So it's not so much about the clich�s, but about how you use them. I think Shakespeare uses them really nice, but plays are always slower than books in a way.

Edited by: <A HREF=http://p072.ezboard.com/bsiriusblackfanclub.showUserPublicProfile?gid=emma@siriusblackfanclub>Emma[/url] 

at: 9/21/04 7:22 am