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Original poster

i am beginning to seriously resent books that i read and then they are shit

87 replies

grumpypants · 18/08/2011 13:38

i accept i am an unpublished writer etc, and therefore a bit Envy of anyone published, but just lost two nights of my life to The Way We Were and it is pure, drivelly, cliched drivelly drivel. How the hell does this stuff make it to the shelves?

OP posts:
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RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 08/09/2011 20:59

Jane Austen
Stephen King
Evelyn Waugh

All of the above have written at least four books that I can return to again and again.

Yes to Steinbeck, although The Grapes Of Wrath was so devestating that I don't think I will ever be able to read it again.

Lolita (Nabokov)
The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax (Liz Jensen)
This Thing Of Darkness (Harry Thompson)

Three books that I would totally recommend to anybody.

Galaxymum · 08/09/2011 19:27

I want to add The English German Girl. The change in tenses from present to past to present is doing my head in. It is such a dire book considerig the history it is based on. There are events which have no consequences and seem to have no reason at all (like Rosa going off with the old maid during KrystalNacht (excuse spelling).

I was really disappointed with The House at riverton and gave up. That was dreary.

Original poster
grumpypants · 08/09/2011 16:38

ok, i love I capture the Castle; Every Last One and a Brief history of the Dead. OTOH, I have just put the following, unloved, unwanted and unfinished, on the charity shop pile:

The Finkler Question; A Visit from the Goon Squad; Harvesting the Heart

OP posts:
Chandon · 06/09/2011 19:45

I hate almost all th books mentioned on this thread.

Could we turn it around, and also add some books we love, so we get ideas of what to READ as well as what to avoid?

light reads I enjoy are Marian Keyes, Maeve Binchy, Rosamund Pilcher, (some) Joanna Trollope, Mary Wesley

worthy Wink reads: Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, Ann Tyler, Anita Brookner, Elizabeth Jane Howard...

for starters Grin

FairyArmadillo · 06/09/2011 17:35

I've given up on a heap of books. Life's too short to force yourself to read. Gave up on The White Queen by Philippa Gregory and not sure I'll finish The Other Boleyn Girl BUT I loved The Other Queen. Loved The Fellowship of the Ring but got tired with the second one. Keep meaning to come back to it, but that was five years ago!

I am glad that I persevered with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. There was a thread about it last year when I started it. Someone on it encouraged us to persevere and I was so glad I didn't give up. I loved the second book even more. I've skimmed through some of the more tedious and detailed bits of the third one, otherwise I'm enjoying it.

Original poster
grumpypants · 06/09/2011 17:26

ps yes definitely don't worry yourself too much about lack of familiarity with jodi picoult

OP posts:
Original poster
grumpypants · 06/09/2011 17:25

cote - just read my title again - what have i put that's wrong? is it too much like sour grapes? sorry. Blush

OP posts:
CoteDAzur · 05/09/2011 23:08

And am I the only one who is slightly bothered by the title, given that OP is an "unpublished writer" complaining about published ones? Or is this what editors are for?

CoteDAzur · 05/09/2011 23:06

Should I be glad that I've never heard of Jodi Picoult?

Original poster
grumpypants · 04/09/2011 10:43

i am currently wading thro a jodie picolut (harvesting the heart) which appears to be an early book of hers, published now. it is total dross.

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CarlaBruni · 01/09/2011 15:48

Thank god someone else has mentioned The Forgotten Garden. Utter cliched shite.

MilliONaire · 30/08/2011 20:18

The finkler question is utter SHITE!
I lOVED cloud atlas, birdsong (anything by him really), the hare with amber eyes (wonderful book), the mitford sisters, the glass room

Hated the book thief, gave up on The Historian, hated the time travellers wife, anything by jodi picoult

Original poster
grumpypants · 29/08/2011 08:44

given up on the finkler question.
might try something random from the shelves - can't be any worse!

OP posts:
LadyBeagleEyes · 29/08/2011 00:24

It took me ages to get into dragon tattoo, but it does get better.
Lisbeth Salander is a brilliant heroine.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/08/2011 23:30

30 pages was about 25 more than I really wanted to read! How many pages would you give something that you were hating every sentence of, then?

Btw - I have just re-read Insomnia and suspect that is one that we would agree on! :)

CoteDAzur · 28/08/2011 23:22

Some of us like nerdy detail Smile

30 pages isn't enough to judge a book as "awful" imo.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/08/2011 16:31

I tried Cote, I promise. It was just so, so awful though - it was all 'He switched on his 2011 VX1938 computer and drank another cup of 1952 P.O.S.H.39 coffee and answered his 2064 X131313 mobile phone.' Horrible...

DD still has them all upstairs though, so I suppose I could try again - if I dare.

DandyGilver · 27/08/2011 20:32

Books I have read recently that were a waste of time

The Finkler Question
Delirium
At the Chime of a City Clock
The Passage
Apathy for the Devil - not fiction, but still
The Gargoyle

and, sadly, many more. Its so hard to get published but there is just so much rubbish.

CoteDAzur · 27/08/2011 15:58

Remus - I usually agree with you re books but have to say I enjoyed all of "The Girl Who..." books. You should have persevered with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

CoteDAzur · 27/08/2011 15:56

I agree that there are a lot of bad books out there. This is why you should not choose books out of the Bestseller list, which is full of books written for the masses, frequently on subjects that tug on heart strings like child abuse and death of loved ones.

callmemalcolm · 27/08/2011 14:34

ooh i LIKED the slap
and i liked the naughty bits in it.
nice and crude ;)

sieglinde · 27/08/2011 13:45

yes, Mrs Daff, but book groups always seem to lead to the worst groupthink/Bay of Pigs Syndrome, where everyone drives each other into luvvie lovedom. Agree that those were all dreadful books, overhyped and dim.

Bleats · 27/08/2011 13:44

Hello MrsDaffodill - also hated One Day - so trite, so obvious and I really hate how people talk about the ending. It was clearly going to happen.

The slap was OK - more of an insight into Tsolokas' obsessions of sex, girls and drugs. All in all it was disapointingly shallow.

Given that I am pretty much with you on them will avoid the others. I had picked up When God was a Rabbit and so glad to have swapped it for the Hare with the Amber Eyes (sorry kazmus) which I am raving about (a little too much...)

MrsDaffodill · 27/08/2011 12:37

Hated The Slap
Hated One Day (but hated his other one even more)
Hated When God Was a Rabbit
Hated The Interpretation of Murder
Hated The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Kind of relieved by this thread, as my whole book group seemed to love all the above.

Bleats · 27/08/2011 12:22

The Finkler Question - NOT funny. It is tediously intellectualising about men getting old. I want that time back.