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Original poster

Admit it - what's the classic book that everyone raves about but you despise?

192 replies

EverySingleStar · 21/09/2009 00:57

I probably have more than one but The Great Gatsby is definitely up there. shudder violently Shall add more later

OP posts:
FlyingMonkey · 21/09/2009 13:45

On The Road. I lost the will to live reading that...

Merrylegs · 21/09/2009 12:44

Oh lots of these listed here I have loved -
Great Gatsby, Lovely Bones, Norwegian Wood, Frankenstein - love these books.

And am just re-reading Great Expectations and forgot how funny it was.

Blah, you all have no taste.

(Agree, 'The Island' was Really Bad, though).

stepaway · 21/09/2009 12:42

To kill a mocking bird. shudder.

BalloonSlayer · 21/09/2009 12:33

Agree with a lot of recommendations here, but what about Frankenstein?

He creates something, rejects it because he's made it ugly, then we have endure reams and reams of tedious self-pity and soul searching bewilderment at the fact that his creation is now a bit upset by all of the above.

OrmIrian · 21/09/2009 10:19

I must admit that love stories leave me fairly cold these days. Different when I was a teenager when it all seemed so like amaaazing and real

Thredworm · 21/09/2009 10:17

Yes, perhaps I just read it when I was too jaded and unvirginal.

pofacedandproud · 21/09/2009 10:15

Well I haven't read it since I was 17 Thready, so may have a different take on it post virginity.

I suspect I would enjoy Austen rather more these days, though having read them don't really feel I have time to re-read.

OrmIrian · 21/09/2009 10:11

Ha! See I knew you were a freak CJC Midnight's CHildren is probably the best book IN THE WORLD! so there

ErikaMaye · 21/09/2009 10:10

Pride and Predjudice.

Little Women.

Lord of the Flies.

UGH

Thredworm · 21/09/2009 10:06

Yes, am she. I can't remember why I dislikes it so much, but I think I remember that their arguing just seemed to go on and on in a rather paralysed and repetitive way that was depressingly like the tedious dysfunction of real life but not enough like the economy and progression I wanted from the story.

Bucharest · 21/09/2009 10:05

Anything involving a bonnet and a shawl.
And Cold Comfort Farm.

pofacedandproud · 21/09/2009 10:02

Thredworm are you the Red Worm?

pofacedandproud · 21/09/2009 10:02

I think Wuthering Heights if fucking wonderful. Gothic yes, but like Florence and the Machine, Gothic, mad and brilliant.

CJCregg · 21/09/2009 09:58

OrmIrian - I like loads of books, honest, but that's a different thread!

Another vote for Fanny Price.

Midnight's Children - have tried to read it so many times, never get past chapter four.

GetOrfMoiLand · 21/09/2009 09:48

One of my GCSE set books was Lord of the Flies. Like Maryz teachers, it was picked apart and over analysed to the point that I grew to loathe it.

ChopsTheDuck · 21/09/2009 09:48

pride and prejudice.

I don't like it at ALL. And it is one of my set books this year.
I'm not keen on Dickens neither, but at leas the is readable.

GetOrfMoiLand · 21/09/2009 09:47

Thumbwitch - Fanny Price is worse than Emma imo. Couldn't bear mansfield Park because of her, the milksop.

maryz · 21/09/2009 09:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

UnquietDad · 21/09/2009 09:47

Norwegian Wood - I found it unbearable.

MadBadandCoveredinSequins · 21/09/2009 09:46

The Hobbit.

But the Great Gatsby is one of my favourite books - whenever anyone starts a "what shall I read next" thread I always recommend it!

PrincessToadstool · 21/09/2009 09:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thumbwitch · 21/09/2009 09:36

I liked the Time Traveller's Wife but agree with a lot of the others:
Wordsworth - dreadful
Hardy - got a few pages into Tess and gave up
Moby Dick - no chance.
Catcher in the Rye - never again, wish I hadn't bothered
The Famished Road (Ben Okri) - FAB first couple of chapters and then misery throughout. Took me 2 goes, many years apart, to finish it and then I wished I hadn't bothered.
Wuthering Heights was a chore
Love in the Time of Cholera I just didn't quite get
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse - dreadful.
Any Amis, no.
Dickens - too much like hard work, although I have read Oliver Twist, and made a couple of attempts at Great Expectations (always get bored when Pip(?) grows up)

Catch 22 - I read that as a "loo book" - and it was all right! Not great, you couldn't get hooked on it, but doing it like that wasn't too bad. I did end up feeling dreadfully sorry for Yossarian.

I like all 3 LOTR but never liked the Hobbit, for some reason.

I like the Austens in general but hate Emma (the character) and am not overkeen on the book because of it.

alana39 · 21/09/2009 09:36

Dickens - soooo depressing - I know London was grim then. At least Vanity Fair's funny.

GetOrfMoiLand · 21/09/2009 09:34

I love Vanity Fair, though, it is so modern. Love the fact the 'heroine' is such a grasping bitch as well.

Thredworm · 21/09/2009 09:33

It is bollocks though? Gothic bickering.