# That Book You Hate... (That EVERYONE loves)



## Bishop (Mar 14, 2014)

I've made it pretty clear in a couple of threads how much I hate Nathaniel Hawthorne. If Arnold offered, I might have him go back in time to Terminate him. Like, right before he penned "The End" on The Scarlet Letter. Being an English major in college, people would always talk about the classics. I loved brit lit and all forms of sci-fi, so when it came around to favorite authors (as it always did) I'd mention names like Conrad, Shelley, and Shakespeare, or Asmiov, Bradbury, and Heinlein. And someone in the room. SOMEONE. Usually an annoying person... would say, "Oh, and of course, Nathaniel Hawthorne."

And my fist would stop right before hitting their face. Okay, not really. But my eyes would roll and I'd hear the reluctant, plucky action-hero's-best-friend that lives in my mind saying "Oh, god here we go again..." I'd argue this point for hours, and no one... no one would agree with me. My best friend (and his mother, who's a very sweet lady and an English major from a past generation) both agree that The Scarlet Letter is the worst book ever called a "classic" but I'm fairly certain we three stand alone. Even my wife likes Hawthorne. Even still, he's forbidden in our home. I'm fairly certain she has a copy hidden in the house somewhere. Ick.

BUT! I wanted to bring up the idea for others to share theirs. What's that book that you read that all your friends adored? That you looked at and nearly wretched, but your pals all recommended to you like it was a drug? Share your stories!

Also... Conrad rules, Hawthorne drools. BURN.


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## Bruno Spatola (Mar 14, 2014)

I can't be bothered to go into too much detail, but . . . _Catcher in the Rye_.


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## escorial (Mar 14, 2014)

Lolita....so uncomfortable to read..got about 1/4 way through.


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## Bishop (Mar 14, 2014)

Bruno Spatola said:


> I can't be bothered to go into too much detail, but . . . _Catcher in the Rye_.



GUH, I have to agree, I think it's over-rated.


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## alanmt (Mar 14, 2014)

Haha! I actually quite like _The House of Seven Gables._  Sorry, Bishop.

Apparently I am fairly promiscuous as to books; I like most well enough that my friends do. Or perhaps I just have friends with similar taste. Although when Eragon first came out, it got a fair amount of play around here, being written by a teen who lives nearby (by Montana standards) and I find reading it as painful as complex orthodontic procedures requiring long and sharp needles poking into my sensitive gums to the point where it takes all my composure not to scream with the burning pain of it.


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## Bruno Spatola (Mar 14, 2014)

Bishop said:


> GUH, I have to agree, I think it's over-rated.



I just kept thinking, "Kid, seriously, get over yourself." I know that's my own problem, and totally intentional on Salinger's part, but _man_ does that guy complain. Comes across as a self-obsessed megalomaniac at times.


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## T.S.Bowman (Mar 14, 2014)

I think my hatred of Jean Auel and Clan Of The Cave Bear has been mentioned a couple of times.


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## A_Jones (Mar 14, 2014)

Twilight.... no offence to anyone who likes it but for me... terrible.  My degree keeps me from accepting her work as good.  Yet somehow she makes millions.  I get it but at the same time I dont.


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## Deleted member 49710 (Mar 14, 2014)

T.S.Bowman said:


> I think my hatred of Jean Auel and Clan Of The Cave Bear has been mentioned a couple of times.


Ha, yes. And that's the best book in the series, I believe. I stopped reading after the second one turned softcore.

I recently tried to read Neil Gaiman's _American Gods_, which lots of people seem to like. Didn't get past the first few chapters. Just kinda boring. But I should have known better, I'm not much for fantasy of any kind.


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## alanmt (Mar 14, 2014)

We'll turn you yet, lasm!  

*Tosses Gaiman aside, rummages through pile of other authors*


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## Ariel (Mar 14, 2014)

Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.  That man wrote the most boring stuff.  I skipped half of the first part of book 2 and didn't miss a thing.

Also, I didn't care much for "Wicked."  Everyone raves about the book but it was pretty boring and somewhat predictable.


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## Bishop (Mar 14, 2014)

amsawtell said:


> Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.  That man wrote the most boring stuff.  I skipped half of the first part of book 2 and didn't miss a thing.
> 
> Also, I didn't care much for "Wicked."  Everyone raves about the book but it was pretty boring and somewhat predictable.



Much as I love Tolkien, the Hobbit was far and away the best of his works. A lot of his stuff was just world building to the extreme. Oddly enough, now his world is the one that nearly every fantasy world stems from, though.


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## Apple Ice (Mar 14, 2014)

Frankenstein by Marry Shelley. There's so much to say about it, all of it bad.


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## Schrody (Mar 14, 2014)

T.S.Bowman said:


> I think my hatred of Jean Auel and Clan Of The Cave Bear has been mentioned a couple of times.



^ This. 

I have Scarlet Letter (unread) on my Kindle. We can't be friends anymore. -.-,

Also, above mentioned Catcher in the Rye, Old Man and the Sea, but the book I hate the most is Stonehenge legacy. Don't read that book, yo.


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## T.S.Bowman (Mar 14, 2014)

lasm said:


> Ha, yes. And that's the best book in the series, I believe. I stopped reading after the second one turned softcore.
> 
> I recently tried to read Neil Gaiman's _American Gods_, which lots of people seem to like. Didn't get past the first few chapters. Just kinda boring. But I should have known better, I'm not much for fantasy of any kind.



I really liked American Gods. It was a bit slow at first, but it picked up a bit. I think it's more a case that I just enjoy Gaiman's writing.


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## Bishop (Mar 14, 2014)

Schrody said:


> I have Scarlet Letter (unread) on my Kindle. We can't be friends anymore. -.-,



I'm sorry Schrody. I suppose we'll have to be ARCH NEMESES! :ChainGunSmiley:

That being said, I will give another parting shot on my dislike of Scarlet Letter...

The book begins by describing a prison door. It continues by having that door open and tossing in the reader. I have read the whole thing twice, just to make sure my opinion wasn't fleeting. I'm pretty sure a part of me is still inside that prison.:deadhorse:

(That's supposed to be me beating the dead horse, but really Hawthorne does that too.)


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## InstituteMan (Mar 14, 2014)

Hmmmmm . . . I loved Catcher in the Rye when I read it in high school. When I re-read it as an adult with my own adolescent children, it was only okay. On the other hand, I loathed the Great Gatsby when I was forced to read it back in the day, and when I re-read it as an adult it was very good, albeit annoyingly moralistic.

The book that I was totally supposed to like but could never get into is Brave New World. That is one of InstituteWoman's favorite books ever, but I have never been sufficiently inspired to make it all the way through (please don't tell her).


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## Bishop (Mar 14, 2014)

I love Brave New World, but think that 1984 was only okay. Best dystopian, though, goes to Bradbury's 451.


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## Ariel (Mar 14, 2014)

Apple Ice said:


> Frankenstein by Marry Shelley. There's so much to say about it, all of it bad.


I read it as a kid and read the version everyone else does which makes the monster the bad guy.  Then in college I read the earlier version which paints Frankenstein as the real monster.  Shelley revised her book after her husband died.  She had based Frankenstein on her husband.  I rather enjoyed the earlier version.


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## Schrody (Mar 14, 2014)

Bishop said:


> I'm sorry Schrody. I suppose we'll have to be ARCH NEMESES! :ChainGunSmiley:
> 
> That being said, I will give another parting shot on my dislike of Scarlet Letter...
> 
> ...



Tonight on the AMC's Escaping World's:

In a battle of Titans, who will win? 

Checkmate, super anti-hero, or Schrodinger, Earthly physicist?

Checkmate plays chess perfectly, and he's never been defeated, while Schrodinger can reverse the laws of physics, making the Checkmate alive and dead at the same time. 

Can Schrodinger beat Checkmate in a deadly game of Chess, where players have to cut themselves every time their piece is eaten by an opponent, but how can Checkmate win if he doesn't exist?

Find out tonight.

© Schrody 2014


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## Bishop (Mar 14, 2014)

Schrody said:


> Tonight on the AMC's Escaping World's:
> 
> In a battle of Titans, who will win?
> 
> ...



View attachment 5313


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## InstituteMan (Mar 14, 2014)

Bishop said:


> I love Brave New World, but think that 1984 was only okay. Best dystopian, though, goes to Bradbury's 451.



Amen to Fahrenheit 451 as the pinacle of dystopian novels.


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## Schrody (Mar 14, 2014)

Some parts can actually be used in a novel.


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## Sam (Mar 14, 2014)

Everything Dan Brown has ever penned. Someone finds out I'm an avid reader and they say, "Oh, you _have _to read Dan Brown's stuff! So brilliant." 

No, it's cack with a capital _everything. _

J.K. Rowling's _Harry Potter _series. 

The only compliment I can give it is that it isn't worse than _Twilight_, but that isn't much of a compliment. 

Practically every Stephen King novel from 1990 onwards. 

His short stories are miles better than any novel he's ever penned. 

_Fifty Shades of Grey _(and any subsequent 'novels' in the series which I can't be bothered to google their names). 

I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.


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## Jeko (Mar 14, 2014)

> J.K. Rowling's _Harry Potter series._



I thought her work gave the children's literature industry a much-needed boost; even if you don't prefer the stories themselves, surely their wider effect is more positive?

I don't think I hate any book; if something displeases me, it's simply forgotten about.


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## Sam (Mar 14, 2014)

Yes, but the question wasn't "what books have had a wide effect on literature?". It was "what book do you hate that EVERYONE loves?". 

Hate is a strong word, yes, but I certainly dislike the _Harry Potter _series. That's okay. It wasn't meant for me. I merely believe that the children's books I read growing up were far superior to Rowling's series. That's my gripe.


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## Cran (Mar 14, 2014)

Stephen Donaldson's _Thomas Covenant_ "chronicles" - I tossed the first volume aside very early*. His "Gap" series was better, but not much. 

_*I just could not relate to protagonist rapist and leper. _


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## popsprocket (Mar 14, 2014)

The Hunger Games.

A ripped off story written with all the skill of a keyboard tumbling down some stairs and accidentally pressing keys as it goes.


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## A_Jones (Mar 14, 2014)

popsprocket said:


> The Hunger Games.
> 
> A ripped off story written with all the skill of a keyboard tumbling down some stairs and accidentally pressing keys as it goes.


Im so sorry you feel that way.  Suzanne Collins is my celebrity write alike.  Siniff

Honestly though I completely understand what you mean.


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## Dave Watson (Mar 14, 2014)

The Catcher in the Rye. Might not have helped that I read a good bit of it while concussed after a snowboarding accident, but I thought it was a load of whiny, meandering, pointless nonsense!


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## InstituteMan (Mar 14, 2014)

Sam said:


> _Fifty Shades of Grey _(and any subsequent 'novels' in the series which I can't be bothered to google their names).
> 
> I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.



I haven't read any Fifty Shades books, but I gather that not all of the characters would be adverse to pins in difficult places. Maybe not eyes, though.


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## Apple Ice (Mar 15, 2014)

amsawtell said:


> I read it as a kid and read the version everyone else does which makes the monster the bad guy.  Then in college I read the earlier version which paints Frankenstein as the real monster.  Shelley revised her book after her husband died.  She had based Frankenstein on her husband.  I rather enjoyed the earlier version.



I'm not entirely sure which version I read. They're both evil, choose between the child murderer or the useless emo whose fault it is in the first place. The book just wasn't for me and I found the style of writing to be horrible and unnecessary. Saying that, the actual plot I thought was good, it's just a shame it was Shelley who got to it first. Only my opinion, of course. There's some who say it started off the whole science fiction genre. If so, I am very grateful.


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## Jeko (Mar 15, 2014)

> Hate is a strong word, yes, but I certainly dislike the _Harry Potter series. That's okay. It wasn't meant for me. I merely believe that the children's books I read growing up were far superior to Rowling's series. That's my gripe._



Sounds fair. When I'm older, I'll probably be saying the same about the next big children's thing.


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## Ariel (Mar 15, 2014)

The thing is that in the earlier version the murder of the child is an absolute accident and Adam was horrified by what he'd done.  Adam realizes he's a monster and wants to keep away from all other people.


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## alanmt (Mar 15, 2014)

Cran said:


> Stephen Donaldson's _Thomas Covenant_ "chronicles" - I tossed the first volume aside very early*. His "Gap" series was better, but not much.
> 
> _*I just could not relate to protagonist rapist and leper. _



I liked the first series. Very cool world-building.  But the protagonist is very unlikeable, yes.


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## tepelus (Mar 15, 2014)

Fifty Shades of Grey. I could not get past the first page, I was so annoyed with it. I have, however, read a blog by a writer who did chapter by chapter recaps of the entire trilogy in a most humorous way, so I feel like I know the whole story without having read that tripe.


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## Grizzly (Mar 15, 2014)

Anything by James Patterson. I hate that guy.


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## Ariel (Mar 16, 2014)

Fella got a book for Miss today at the local comic-con.  It was something about "Real Tooth Fairies."  I read it to her and wanted to rip my hair out.  It was crap.

The main character was named Twinkle LaWinkle.  Of course, Miss loved it.


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## Kepharel (Mar 16, 2014)

Anything that wins a literary prize on the basis that I'm being told what is good.  the whole scene reeks of Buffet and wine soirées populated with pseud critics and wannabe dilettantes i.e. the last people I want telling me what is good.


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## bookmasta (Mar 16, 2014)

Bruno Spatola said:


> I can't be bothered to go into too much detail, but . . . _Catcher in the Rye_.



The irony is that I was about to post the same response. Guess I'm not the only one who thinks this to be true...


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## Sam (Mar 16, 2014)

Everything James Joyce ever wrote. The guy was a blowhard, in my opinion, whose only talent was braggadocio.


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## Kepharel (Mar 16, 2014)

I tried reading Joyce, but my failure to understand completely was due to my limitations not his excesses.  I think there is genius there...just can't explain why.  I'm glad you understand his work enough to criticise it...wish I could   Blowhard and braggadocio hmmmmm....


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## Rivahads (Mar 16, 2014)

Those who read Joyce  are only looking for Insite on publication.


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## thepancreas11 (Mar 16, 2014)

Catcher in the Rye

...and he whines...and he whines...and he whines...

I'm so glad there are others out there who think like me. I'm not about to read about some affluent kid living in a first world country talk about how crappy his life is.


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## InstituteMan (Mar 16, 2014)

thepancreas11 said:


> Catcher in the Rye
> 
> I'm not about to read about some affluent kid living in a first world country talk about how crappy his life is.



Actually, I think that concept could make a pretty decent book, if the narration had a sense of perspective of the ridiculousness of the situation. The contrast of whiny kid problems to actual problems could be powerful. 

As it is for me and Catcher in the Rye, it is a book for adolescence, not adulthood.


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## thepancreas11 (Mar 16, 2014)

Maybe...but I'm the kind of person that has no time for pessimism, even if it's meaningful. I just got sick of him after awhile.


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## InstituteMan (Mar 16, 2014)

thepancreas11 said:


> Maybe...but I'm the kind of person that has no time for pessimism, even if it's meaningful. I just got sick of him after awhile.



I am a bit embarrassed to admit how much I loved Holden when I was around 15 or 16. When I re-read books that I loved in my youth in my 30's, I encountered a different book and protagonist than I remembered there. That could be an entirely different thread: I Can't Believe I Used to Love ______.


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## T.S.Bowman (Mar 16, 2014)

Sam said:


> Everything James Joyce ever wrote. The guy was a blowhard, in my opinion, whose only talent was braggadocio.



Lots of people hating on Joyce.

I tried the "I Write Like" thing that is linked to elsewhere on this site and guess who it told me I write like...James Joyce. LOL

Of course, the very next thing I put into it I was told that I write like the dude who wrote Fight Club.

*shrug*


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## Bruno Spatola (Mar 16, 2014)

T.S.Bowman said:


> I tried the "I Write Like" thing that is linked to elsewhere on this site and guess who it told me I write like...James Joyce. LOL
> 
> Of course, the very next thing I put into it I was told that I write like the dude who wrote Fight Club.
> 
> *shrug*



Yeah, I entered the terms and conditions for a Kindle Paperwhite into one of those instead of my own writing, just for laughs, and it said I wrote like Arthur C. Clarke.


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## J Anfinson (Mar 16, 2014)

I used to love John Saul when I was younger, but I tried to reread one of his books a while back and couldn't do it. That guy spits out adverbs like a machine gun.


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## InstituteMan (Mar 16, 2014)

T.S.Bowman said:


> Lots of people hating on Joyce.
> 
> I tried the "I Write Like" thing that is linked to elsewhere on this site and guess who it told me I write like...James Joyce. LOL
> 
> ...



Okay, I tried that out and fed several different pieces into it. I got Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, William Gibson, and David Foster Wallace. That seems . . . rather eclectic to me.


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## Bishop (Mar 16, 2014)

T.S.Bowman said:


> I tried the "I Write Like" thing



Okay, so here's a story.

Two years ago, I went to the local book fair. You can pick up books for about 25 cents. It's like heaven. There was a strange looking book with a cover from the 1950s on it called "The Deathworld Trilogy." I love sci-fi, so I grabbed it. It got lost in my shelf and I've yet to read it. 

Fast forward to today, and I decided to check out the "write like" thing. It said "Harry Harrison." I looked it up? He wrote the Deathworld Trilogy. And a lot of other sci-fi classics, too. He's not a Bradbury or a Heinlein, but he was somewhat prominent. I ran to my shelf and grabbed "Deathworld" and took a look. That damn "I write like" thing is pretty accurate! I put in about a whole page from my novel, and I have to say, reading Harrison I write a lot like him! This is a huge compliment--my life has been devoted to finding my own style within the classic sci-fi world. Glad to see someone, well, someTHING, thinks I'm doing okay at it!


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## alanmt (Mar 16, 2014)

Rivahads said:


> Those who read Joyce  are only looking for Insite on publication.



I was looking for recipes.


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## T.S.Bowman (Mar 17, 2014)

Bishop said:


> Okay, so here's a story.
> 
> Two years ago, I went to the local book fair. You can pick up books for about 25 cents. It's like heaven. There was a strange looking book with a cover from the 1950s on it called "The Deathworld Trilogy." I love sci-fi, so I grabbed it. It got lost in my shelf and I've yet to read it.
> 
> Fast forward to today, and I decided to check out the "write like" thing. It said "Harry Harrison." I looked it up? He wrote the Deathworld Trilogy. And a lot of other sci-fi classics, too. He's not a Bradbury or a Heinlein, but he was somewhat prominent. I ran to my shelf and grabbed "Deathworld" and took a look. That damn "I write like" thing is pretty accurate! I put in about a whole page from my novel, and I have to say, reading Harrison I write a lot like him! This is a huge compliment--my life has been devoted to finding my own style within the classic sci-fi world. Glad to see someone, well, someTHING, thinks I'm doing okay at it!



I'm glad it was useful to you. LOL

That thing had me completely befuddled. I tried it again today and it came up with a couple of others (don't remember which ones) that seemed nothing like my style.

Finally, I just said o heck with it. I write like ME.


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## John Reed (Mar 23, 2014)

Anything by Stephen King, but particularly "The Stand"

The basic plot was interesting, and there were some memorable characters, but there were 400-500 pages of material that could've been taken out without changing the story at all.  But it would get rid of things like three-page long rambling descriptions of a desk or hotel room or some other item that appears one...single...time over the course of the book and is completely irrelevant and inconsequential to the story.  Or numerous scenes scattered throughout that are virtually identical to each other and add nothing whatsoever to the plot.  It reads like a rambling first-draft that got published as-is.


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## J Anfinson (Mar 23, 2014)

I like a lot of Dean Koontz's books, but 77 Shadow Street was awful. I've been using it for a doorstop.


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## ShadowEyes (Mar 27, 2014)

Fairly recent, so sorry all you literati's out there. Also fantasy. Rothfuss's second trilogy book, Wise Man's Fear. It's love/hate for most people. I was so let down.

I still like the guy; he's funny, but most of the time, his book-writing is pretentious. And pretend-tious, like, "Look at me, I'm an author. I put myself in the book. Snark."


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## Ixarku (Mar 27, 2014)

I might be a snob -- in fact, I probably am -- but I refuse to read any Harry Potter books.  I figure I'm biased against the stories for three reasons.  First, a particularly clueless religious person was one of the first people who talked to me about the books in 1999.  He was a huge fan and by no means a dumb guy, but I think his overbearing nature automatically turned me off to anything he liked.  Second, the books are just way too mainstream & popular, and I simply *don't *want to get caught in a conversation with some of the people I know who've read them.  Third, I can't take any story seriously that uses words like "muggle".  Now, I've come up with some pretty bizarre names in my time, but I've never come up with a word that sounded like something I should scrape off the bottom of my shoes.

It's elitist, I know, and not entirely rational, but there it is.


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## Bruno Spatola (Mar 28, 2014)

That is exceptionally insane.


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## Ixarku (Mar 28, 2014)

Yep, I'm not going to argue with that.  Most of the time, I make decisions rationally, but we all have our idiosyncrasies.


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## Ariel (Mar 28, 2014)

Now this might sound insane and while I'm not going to say I liked the series I will say that the _Twilight_ series was well-written.  

Wait, hear me out.  Yes, the plot was stupid, the characters unrealistic, and the action ridiculous but the writing itself was well-done.  As a writer, it is perhaps that fact that makes me despise the series so much.

The pacing of the writing and the way it was _constructed_ was well done.  While unrealistic the characters were still consistent. And it is those things that makes me feel so betrayed.  I could recognize that the story was poor while reading it and yet I couldn't put it down.


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## LaVieBoheme (Mar 29, 2014)

The Hunger Games. I tried, I really did. I got to chapter 6 before I had to give up, terrible writing.
Now that I'm older I realized that the Twilight series is horribly written too. My middle school self loved them though.
And even though I've read all 3 of them and don't mind the story as much as the writing, Fifty Shades is on my list. It had potential and it failed. (commas were EVERYWHERE!)
Harry Potter. I can't read them or watch the movies, plus I just don't see the hype about either of those. 

There's a trend with me hating books for bad writing and I can see it. :-$


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