Books you enjoyed as a young 'un and now think are utter nonsense

[LadyJaye]

Inspired by a previous thread.

The Catcher In The Rye: brilliant when you're 14, insufferable at 41.

On The Road: ditto

American Psycho: the only book I've ever refused to finish reading

Anything by Tolkien: my undergraduate degree was in linguistics.

I love the Wolves of Willoughby Chase still! And all Joan Aitken's books really, I think she was a fabulous writer. Her short stories are particularly good and less depressing than some of the full length books 😂

@TornadoOfSouls I love the Jill books! And they really do stand the test of time, although they are much funnier when read as an adult, I think I took them 100% seriously when I first read them. Really agree about the ending too, why oh why didn't she go to work for Captain Cholly-Sawcutt?

I tried rereading Huckleberry Finn for book club last year and couldn't get past the prolific racism 🙈 Can't believe I loved it is a child!

Also, used to devour my gran's huge Catherine Cookson collection as a teen. Tried to reread some a few years ago and couldn't get past the clunky writing

Another author I loved was Richard Laymon who used to write horrors where the theme was usually women getting kidnapped, assaulted and murdered by a groups of roving men Used to have me riveted, but as an adult, they are proper tripe.

I always loved point horror, and am still partial to them now even though they're not Pulitzer winning. Had a thread about them a few years ago and a lovely mumsnetter sent me a load of her old PH anthologies that I'm now saving for my own daughter

I remember loving The Swiss Family Robinson. Reread a bit last year and... WTF?!

[quote Nowisthemonthofmaying]@TornadoOfSouls I love the Jill books! And they really do stand the test of time, although they are much funnier when read as an adult, I think I took them 100% seriously when I first read them. Really agree about the ending too, why oh why didn't she go to work for Captain Cholly-Sawcutt?[/quote]
God I loved the Jill books.
I must get them from eBay.

Fast Friends by Jill Mansell. I couldn't wait to be an adult. It's utter tosh though.

When I was really little I loved the Mr Men books, lots of the other kids books I remember loving have been wonderful to read to my kids, but the Mr Men books are awful!

[quote Misbeehived]@ClearingSpaceOnTheTrophyShelf oh no! what’s wrong with the unbearable lightness of being? Haven’t read for years and used to love.

(alongside all the Sidney Sheldon!)[/quote]
Self indulgent. Rather one-dimensional. Overly sex obsessed

@BloodyFreezingOutHere

Judy Blume!

When I was 10, I asked mum mum for a copy of Forever. I then lent it to the other girls in my class until one of the mums contacted mine about it and it was confiscated.

My mum had rubbish hiding places though so I found it and lent it out again. We were all just a bit more careful about hiding it ourselves

Forever did the rounds at our school too.

I think they stand the test of time.
From the funny ones (superfudge) to the teenage angsty ones. And I've also read and enjoyed some of the adult ones

All the books I loved as a teen featured romantic dramas that ended badly for women. Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina etc.

They just don’t appeal now.

Mine is Couples by John Updike. I read and reread it as a teen and loved the language and the imagery while being vaguely aware that the main character was a bit flawed.

Read it as an adult and blimey. He's a repellent misogynist and serial adulterer and the central plot line is grim.

MNers always rave about Jilly Cooper, so I tried Riders a few years ago- just boring and trite, got about 1/3 in, and gave up.
I am someone who loves Moby Dick btw!

Yes Nicholas Fisk! Grinny, You remember me. They were great. Glad they hold up.

And I reread Tiger Eyes and Then Again Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume...and I wasn't that impressed really. Didn't pass them on to my 14yo, even though the SuperFudge series was great and went down well when she was younger.

My Paul Zindel books also were terrible, when I remember adoring them as a teen.

@Nowisthemonthofmaying yes!!! Why didn’t she?! He offered her a job for heaven’s sake! I love the humour - Ann saying that if houses were accurately named theirs would be called Bus Terminus Villa, cousin Cecelia asking for ‘just a lightly boiled egg’, the food the Cholly-Sawcutt girl took on the trek, so many bits about the ghastly children in Mummy’s books.

Paul Zindel is a blast from the past. There was a story in which a girl had a miscarriage or an abortion and I remember not understanding it at all. I think the mother was an alcoholic who drank ‘diet beer’. I’m pretty sure I would not enjoy those books today.

Had forgotten about Grinny. I think the plot was extremely similar to You Remember Me! And the woman in YRM was Grinny Mark 2.

Did anyone like Betsy Byars? The Animal, the Vegetable and John D Jones was my fave.

Shaun Hutson, James Herbert and Bentley Little. Just soulless, grim and horrible now. Written to a formula just as much as Beast Quest or the Daisy Meadows fairy books. Although, James Herbert did freely admit he used his advertising and marketing expertise to give the public exactly what they wanted in an age of Video Nasties and global political uncertainty and they are slightly better than Hutson or Graham Masterton (another paint-by-numbers gore fest author).
Still enjoy Clive Barker’s early stuff, though. It has a bit more depth.

@Aethelthryth

Tolkien. I think it's weird NOT to grow out of Tolkien

I've actually just finished rereading all the Lord of the Rings books as my boys have been getting into the films and asking me loads of questions. I really enjoyed reading them, it was a good escape from Covid doom and gloom!

@ClearingSpaceOnTheTrophyShelf
No wonder I loved it then. I have quite a collection of Milan Kundera - I think Laughable Loves was my favourite. Felt quite profound at the time but suspect would be uncomfortable misogyny if I tried it now.

Paul Zindel is a blast from the past. There was a story in which a girl had a miscarriage or an abortion and I remember not understanding it at all. I think the mother was an alcoholic who drank ‘diet beer’. I’m pretty sure I would not enjoy those books today.

I think that's "My darling, my hamburger". A very sad book. It all felt so hopeless at the end. Poor Liz. It was well written IMO though.

I read quite a few too @Misbeehived. Can't remember which now.

Tolkien, Joseph Heller, Steinbeck. Ford Madox Ford .... all a load of old bollocks.

Authors that stood the test of adulthood : Harper Lee, Laurie Lee, Chandler, Flemming, Colin Dexter, Dickens,

Any of the Point Horror or Sweet Valley High series. Loved them at the time but not so much now 😂

Catcher in the Rye is an interesting one. For me it's endured, but reads totally differently now. As a teen I thought Holden was a special and insightful rebel, now he comes across as a lonely grieving child soaked in the prejudices and limitations of his upbringing and completely unaware of it. But I don't know whether if I'd picked it up cold as an adult I'd have liked it at all. And I don't know how much of each perspective Salinger intended.

Secret History is another one. I first read it at 17, loved it, and reread it every few years. I'm much more aware of the flaws and pretentiousness now, but still enjoy it. But if I had first picked it up as an adult, I suspect I wouldn't.

Misbeehived

@ClearingSpaceOnTheTrophyShelf oh no! what’s wrong with the unbearable lightness of being? Haven’t read for years and used to love.

(alongside all the Sidney Sheldon!)

Self indulgent. Rather one-dimensional. Overly sex obsessed

Yes, I'd agree with that. Tits and fannies and a bloke blaming his philandering on Communism and Beethoven, but presented as the height of intellectualism.

@HmmSureJan I agree Zindel was a very good writer...but the way the characters behaved...the way they treated the Pitman and his home, and there was another where a girl lived in a commune with band members, then moved to Santa Fe to sell dishcloths 'Twas just silly.