mine's probably The Fury by Rushdie. Inane, egotistical and utterly dull witterings of a hasbeen. It was awful. Threw it away after 20 pages. First Rushdie I'd ever attempted and it's put me off his other work forever.
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Your mum
i thought that was rubbish too
too big of a read
Post Office
Bukowski
dont get it. wtf is his goal with that novel? its so fucking dull, like Hunter S Thompson without the fun
oh snap
yet you dislike Thompson
only half snap, it is shit though isn't it?
I really liked Post office....
a couple of Bukowskis books don't do much for me but this and Ham & Rye are brilliant.
ham and rye is excellent
i can see what you mean with post office abit - i got 2/3's the way through and started reading women - which i love too.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
^this
a lot.
^^^flabbergasted!
I never ever use that word either!
I'm sure
if I were to read it for a class and learn of its literary and journalistic merit I'd appreciate it a bit more, but as a book; not for me.
^this
REALLY?
And I thought you were cool
i am
honest
The Butt by Will Self springs to mind
as being a disappointment.
I just didn't think it held together very well at the end. I don't know if it felt rushed or just fell apart but it definitely wasn't very satisfying.
Maybe I just missed something that sat the punchline up while using it as a bus read.
I love Will Self
but I think I've realised that he spends so much time creating this little universes with their lingustics and everything, that Eastenders is on in 15 minutes so he wraps it up ASAP
my runner up is probably
Amarita by Banana Yoshimoto. i got halfway through before giving up. I like her shorter stuff, but this is a pretty big book and her whimsical style just doesn't work beyond two hundred pages. Who would have thought that whimsy could be so exhausting? I think anyone who finishes that book - let alone enjoys it - must be psychopathic
one of those overrated teen novels
like Catcher in the Rye.
I'll stick to my 19th century literature, thanks.
Agreed on Catcher
get out!
both of you.
Phonies ;)
and i thought YOU were cool
catcher =
most ovverated piece of rubbish, ever
im gonna say
a heartbreaking work of staggering genius
i dont really get disappointed by books much but this book is one instance in which i did
i loved that!
full of humanity and hilarity
i wondered about my not liking it
and why given the many people who recommended it, you know when people tell you they 'hate postmodernism', the kinda thing they actually mean is stuff like this book, which is just lame-o trickery trying to hide the fact that the author is a bit of a prick lacking any talent
i have since been reassured its known as the "douchebag's bible" in the US and widely and fairly derided. its a bad book. i did give it a chance and tried to ignore all the emo and vaguely insulting 'i know my book is rubbish but i dont care' stuff, but then that wasnt the only thing that was bad about it, the humanity was all fairly unpleasant people demanding your sympathy without doing anything much to merit it, ultimately i just decided that i did care and could be wasting my time in much more interesting ways so stopped reading it, i rly dont care that the end is supposed to be enlightening as to the 'joke' i think i'd probably actively hate it if i knew what the joke was.
i read an amazon review of it which i thought was funny, it said something like 'i couldnt connect with this book at all, i guess ive always had to work hard for opportunities in my life', i thought that was a pretty amusingly scathing assesment of it.
different strokes, huh
like i say though
this reaction is relatively unusual, i like most books on some level or another, i like reading generally, this is the only instance i can actually think of where i would say ive out and out disliked pretty much everything about a book so idk
I think it is a wonderful book
at times the constant self awareness grates and seems abit gimmiky but on the whole is woven well into the book. In this era constant self refelection, second guessing of motives, aversion to cliche, and general uncertainty are part of life and I think in that book he is trying to be as sincere as possible under these circumstances.
I couldn't stand it either.
I think I gave up a little way before the end. It's a shame because I like a lot of his other writing; especially his short short stories.
Yeah
it had moments of utter brilliance, but grated on me more than any other book I've read.
On The Road
Everybody at Sixth Form raved about it, but I just found it quite boring. I do keep meaning to give it another chance though..
American Psycho
wasn't exactly the life changing piece of staggering magnificence I was promised either.
It was alright but parts of it were a real dull chore to get through.
brilliant film tho
no
no no no.
Give On the Road another go
I read it recently and thought it was bloody brilliant.
I never made it to the end
of On the Road
Has anyone read Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
It's unspeakably shit. May as well have been set in 1993 Portsmouth, for all the atmosphere Chevalier creates. It has all the ingredients of one of those splendidly evocative period novels - 17th Century, Vermeer, plague, unrequited love - but instead insults with dull, pedestrian blah. I defy anyone to give the slightest shit about any one of the entirely pointless characters in this mercifully short non-story.
I haven't read it
but I really like it.
worst would be a toss-up
between The Little Girl and the Cigarette by some French chap and Pride and Prejudice (FUCK OFF). I tend to be very selective with books so have been pretty lucky.
Wait until you
read mine, i m in two minds about pulling it...not quite working out.
xx
dude, check it out
you're already an author!!!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Knot-Hangman-No-2/dp/0440203740
...the reason
i have to change my name for publishing...some crap fantasy novelist
what's yours about?
does it involve cats?
It is
just a collection of various things I have come up with, there are a few cat bits
Squirrels?
I have included
a bit, it is mainly just my favourite fact and a drawing of my favourite squirrel
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
noooo, really?
I liked this. Not like I loved Virgin Suicides, but it was good.
Middlesex is wonderful!
It takes an almost teenage joy in gently assraping The Wonder Years and it's a sweeping tale of the American Dream and an epic achievement: soulful, mournful, and full of wonder too. It feels like the work of a literary coven.
Twelve by Nick McDonell
I really liked 12 when I read
it as a teenager. I don't think I'd like it now though. His follow up book was awful.
Vernon God Little
pretentious, obvious and lazy 'satire' with deeply dislikable characters.
I was going to agree with Middlesex.
Then I saw this and realised that this is actually my answer too. It is so riddled with cliche its untrue. I think its trying to be magic realism, but it is utterly hamfisted and woefully shit.
^
this
its pretty wack
not that actualluy
vernon god little
stupid board
yeah, awful book
first half is quite good but then it falls apart into lame satirical cartoon.
On The Road!
Its boring as fuck! A book that hasn't aged well at all.
Most William Burroughs stuff as well.
^ i've tried to read on the road 4 times now
and given up every time. i think the furthest i got was 120 odd pages.
love burroughs though.
20 pages?
You didn't give it much of a chance. I toiled through nearly half of Catch 22 before I discarded it as unbelievably tedious and repetitive.
NO
Just no man! The second half of the book is just absolutely incredible, sure the beginning is a little labouring but it's also brilliant!
The thing with Catch-22
is that the first half seems to be there solely to set up a brilliant second half.
It's tough going sometimes but it's worth it.
So I gave up
JUST before it was going to get good? Shit. Typical.
i think most people find the first half difficult
is that it takes some time to adapt to the style and work out whats really going on.
Perservere, but more importantly dont worry about trying to understand the chain of events so much.
^^^Spot on smee!
I've never made it to the
half way point before giving up on it. I recently put it back on my 'to read' pile though so I'll be giving it another chance soon.
Catch 22 while it took me about 30 pages to get to grips with it...
is just the most fucking brilliant book i have ever read. So funny, so brilliant with absolutely amazing characters.
^ agree
Catch-22 is just fucking brilliant.
It took me about 6 years
to read Catch 22. But it is amazing.
all this makes me think
I should really give it another go *sigh*.
Catch 22 is the only book I have ever read where...
I re-read paragraphs/pages not because I am confused or lost but because I cannot get over how fucking funny and smart they are.
^^^But yeah jdev...
give it another go.
And i'll promise to give on the road another go.
That sounds fair.
It's a deal.
Deal!
I tried to get past the 'War' theme
it just didn't work. I couldn't enjoy it!
All Families Are Psychotic
by Douglas Coupland. I haven't been able to read anything else of his since that one, its so fucking bad.
No!
Read Life After God and Generation X - they're both really good - especially Life After God if you're in any way agnostic/religious.
I've read Generation X
and Girlfriend In A Coma - I really enjoyed them, though I think that has more to do with when I read them tbh. Then I read All Families Are Psychotic a few years ago and I've not gone near one of his books since!
Is it
really that bad? What's so bad about it?
that is one of my favourites
the soap opera plot gets abit much at times, but I think he captures a particular type of family dysfunction well. I think you would probably like hey nostradamus if you enjoyed his other work, that is one of the best of his more serious books.
I thought it was sickeningly twee and emo
but each to their own. I just felt it was cliched guff.
I have both twee and emo leanings
I thought that is probably his funniest book I really enjoy it. I am incredible bias when it comes to coupland I see no faults.
twee and emo leanings
lolz.
I wanted them all to get horrifically killed
or fucked up by the end! Perhaps not the book for me
Life After God is fantastic
I then went Coupland mad and quickly became disappointed. Girlfriend in a Coma = terrible.
oh really?
it's on my "to read" list - you wouldn't recommend it?
No, it starts strong
But by the end you'll want to eat your own head to erase the memory of having read it
exactly
so disappointing.
I really like Girlfriend in a Coma.
I absolutely hate Microserfs though.
it just felt like on of those
and it was all a dream type stories that you write in first school.
I really liked All Families
and Miss Wyoming as well.
Coupland books that need to be rounded up and burnt
Hey Nostrodamus!
Girlfriend In A Coma
The Gum Thief
Elanor Rigby
sounds as if Coupland's
a bit hit and miss then eh?
agreed
When I read the end of Girlfriend of a Coma I knew that I would never pick up a Douglas Coupland novel ever again