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.

@HmmSureJan

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.

Oh my goodness! I think I was meant to have read My Darling, My Hamburger for GCSE English, but I don't think I ever finished it . I don't think I could get past what I thought was an awful title, and the cheesy cover image.

I almost feel the need to track down a copy and finish reading

I used to love the Lynne Reid Banks book like The L Shaped Room. I don't think I dare read it again in case it's no longer good.

@bettxmascake

I used to love the Lynne Reid Banks book like The L Shaped Room. I don't think I dare read it again in case it's no longer good.

I still have my copies. They haven't lost their entertainment value but they have aged very badly in terms of their world view. E.g. Jane's reaction to her neighbour being black - probably accurate for its time but makes you cringe to read it now, it's as if he's someone from another planet. Lots of gay stereotyping too. And the last book promotes the view that all Jane's son's problems stem from his not having a father figure, and that's all Jane's fault so she has a duty to get married - which she dutifully does. It's interesting from the point of view that the writing was considered very progressive at the time, but it's firmly a period piece.

Does anyone remember a book called You Remember Me! by Nicholas Fisk? It had a scary cover picture. I re-read it a few years ago and enjoyed it.

Yes! I still have my copy, and the first book, Grinny. They're just as entertaining as they were when I read them aged 9.

It's interesting from the point of view that the writing was considered very progressive at the time, but it's firmly a period piece.

That's what I expected, thanks for the info. I still have my copy somewhere.

@Zeetah

Flowers in the Attic series - really should re-read that!

Really don’t, it hasn’t aged well

I used to really enjoy Jeffrey archer books Kane and able, matter of honour etc.

Can’t believe what a sexist, classist pig he is, should have realised sooner really.

Yes and not well written

Jonathan Livingston seagull was awful when I read it in the 6th form!!

Pippy Longstocking - so racist i missed out big chunks when reading it to my daughter.

Little Women - get a grip girls!

So many of these I read when I was young. When I saw the thread title the first thing I thought of was Flowers in the Attic and it’s hundreds of sequels, but I’ve been reminded of so many more (although Flowers in the Attic is still a wtf).

Someone mentioned Leslie Thomas, I remember reading most of his books because they were the sort of thing adults had hanging around and they were easy to read comedies. One I vividly remember though, it was basically a tale excusing pedophillia, I can’t remember the title and I have no desire to look it up. It was basically the story of a male teacher who has sex with most of his class at an all girls private school. I went to a school much like the one in the book, except I couldn’t understand how in the book nothing was familiar, the characters of the girls were nothing like my class. It wasn’t until I got a bit older I realised it was wrong because it was just a male fantasy of teenage girls. The final scene of the book has the teacher, who has now left the school after getting one of the girls pregnant, staring through a fence at another group of teenage school girls playing netball. Totally fucking creepy and not at a funny book (although it was meant to be.)

@Cosyjimjamsforautumn

Pippy Longstocking - so racist i missed out big chunks when reading it to my daughter.

Little Women - get a grip girls!

Little Women was dire. Can you imagine if they posted on AIBU?

The racism in Pippi Longstocking completely passed me by when I read them as a child, probably because we had no experience of what racism was to be able to recognise it.

I picked up a book (free thank goodness) the other day which was a modern version of a Chalet School book which was written by a woman from India. The racism in that was appalling, I'm surprised it was ever published. It was published in 2006 so they can't claim that it was 'of it's time'.

Yep Catcher in the Rye is the definition of this sort of book

actually i think i thought it was shit when i read it at 17

Glad to see Kerouac get a mention. Him and the other beat poets and that sort of scene-for pretentious teenagers or that tit singer from the 1975/people who want to pretend theyre deep readers without reading.

Twilight! 🤦‍♀️ shiny vampires ffs!

hahaha the unbearable lightness of being. I read a few of his (cant even remember his name now) and apart from some interesting bits about czech communism, its like theyre a parody of pretentious bollocks. I wasnt sure they were meant to be serious.

@Cheeseandlobster yes! I remember that Jane Green. There's the sexy friend and the sensitive friend and then she realises the sensitive friend is also sexy. Or something. I never got very far with the Nantucket fit gardener/carpenter ones.

Anything by Louis De Bernieres.

Now I'm a grumpy menopausal woman, I have less and less patience with male fantasies.

Actually, thinking about it, that goes for much of the canon of English Literature, and particularly for The Great American (Male) Novel. My dick pandering days are soooo over

@user1471565182

hahaha the unbearable lightness of being. I read a few of his (cant even remember his name now) and apart from some interesting bits about czech communism, its like theyre a parody of pretentious bollocks. I wasnt sure they were meant to be serious.

Oh yes, this times a hundred. Lapped 'em up as a would-be hip 20-something, now just think "pretentious (and slightly creepy) wanker".

bettxmascake santasbritches yes agree about the L Shaped Room trilogy. A friend of mine once described them as deeply conservative books masquerading as radical. Jane's initial shock at meeting John is as you say no doubt accurate for the time but all through the trilogy there's a weird dehumanising of him because he is black and gay. The last one in particular is quite homophobic, all Jane's supposed acceptance of John being undermined by her fears that her son will be 'queer' but then thankfully all that being sorted out by manly Andy . Some of her other books were even more bizarre with the sexual politics iirc.

The Thorn Birds.
I thought as a teenager it was all passionate and unrequited love. When its actually a load of rubbish.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch. I thought it was brilliant at 19. 20 years later I read it again and there's not a single likeable character.

Possibly a controversial choice - I absolutely loved Jane Eyre from the age of ten to about thirty. I'd have put it in my top 10 favourite novels, possibly even top 5. Then I didn't re-read it for years. Read it again in my early forties and was so disappointed. Whatever did I see in it? Rochester is awful, he treats women like shit; Jane is sanctimonious and the section of the novel where she, by a huge coincidence, lands on her long-lost cousins' doorstep just feels like padding.

I recently had occasion to reread Lady Chatterley’s Lover as part of my phd research. I first read it aged about 13 and thought it was deeply profound and sexy and romantic. I reread it and my god, it’s a load of vaguely misogynistic, insecure tripe that’s almost enough to put you off heterosexual sexual relationships for life