I somehow managed to trudge my way through Leonard Tourney's "The Player's Boy is Dead", the first in a series of medieval mysteries. I kept thinking, "something is about to happen any second". Lots of build up leading to absolutely no satisfactory resolution. I wrote the author the following: Dear Mr. Tourney, I just finished your book "The Player's Boy is Dead". I see it is the first in a series. Why? For some reason, I never received a reply.
Additional votes for Wuthering Heights and Bleak House, both of which I abandoned. I also threw in the towel on William Gaddis's The Recognitions.
I highly recommend Elementary Particles. As to my unfinished list: The Shipping News that Ondjate book Da Vinci Code Any Vonnegut book
I didn't finish it, actually (I hear it gets better), but the first part seemed like it was basically just Wilde throwing out his philosophical ramblings with characters used just so he could call it a novel.
Wuthering Heights is one of the few books that I would actually describe as "Utter rubbish". Just awful.
Same. Also, Heart of Darkness As I Lay Dying ...and within the past four years, just about any book off of a generic, high school reading list (about 1/4 I quit to recreate; most of the others I just didn't like). I did finish both Anthem and Grendel though, not quite sure how; although, with Grendel I needed a grade. I did put down A Confederacy of Dunces in favor of Cosmicomics recently, but I won't count that.
I tried Confederacy of Dunces years ago; it just laid there. Weirdly, it seems any time I have tried a book that was labeled "a tour de force" it was crap, at least to me, so I have stayed away from them for about 10 years.
Yeah, I don't know. I can't say from what I read that I really disliked it, but I didn't really like it either. It was just kind of neutral to me; something to do.
confederacy of dunces for me, too the name of the rose by umberto Eco the egyptologist by some crap writer jane eyre, because a sixth grade teacher made us read it. It was WAY over our collective heads. I later read it in college and thought it was great.
I very much looked forward to Name of the Rose. Both times I tried it, years apart. Got to page 50 both times, and put it down. Very hyped, very disappointed.
For me, I would consider Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune as utter rubbish. After reading the original 6 Dune books by Frank Herbert, I was caught by surprise when I saw a new Dune book in the book store about 5 years ago. I started reading the new books (all prequels) put out by his son and Kevin Anderson, and was looking forward to the book that was based on Frank's original outline for "book 7." Half way through Hunters of Dune, though, there was a sickeningly idiotic twist that came out of left field and almost made me stop reading altogether. But having invested twelve books worth of reading to get me geared up for the last two, I couldn't put it down. Now, I wish I had because I was very disappointed. Some might say it was because it wasn't Frank Herbert that was writing the books, but I would disagree. I enjoyed the 6 prequels more than some of the originals.
Woah! I loved The Name of the Rose. I first read it when I was fifteen and couldn't put it down. I've since gone on to read all of Eco's novels. Of those, I found only The Island of the Day Before a tough slog.
I liked it. This will be unpopular among those more pretentious than I am, but I couldn't finish Gravity's Rainbow. I just didn't care about the characters or where the story was going.
I've always thought there was something particularly irksome about Houellebeq's writing style and I think you've put your finger on it.
Well there's no accounting for taste, I guess you either like that Dickensian style or you don't. David Copperfield is my favourite Dickens book, I think I've read it five times. I would agree that the main character is quite uninteresting but that I believe is done deliberately to highlight the colourful characters of Uriah Heep for example. And the brilliant Mr Micawber is probably my best liked character in literature ever. The Micawber speeches and letters about his pecuniary liabilities completely crack me up. I get that it's not your cup of tea but I think critics sorta universally agree that it's a quality Dickens story.
Finally, can I just add that I hate Paolo Coelho's books, and that I in fact am suspicious of anyone who likes them.
I heard an interview with him on the radio not long ago, and it was pretty interesting. I picked up The Alchemist at the library the next day. It was pretty far from interesting. I finished it just to see if it got better, but the ending was just as contrived and pretentious as the rest of the book.
FWIW, there was controversy surrounding his entrance to the Brazilian equivalent of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Several writers and critics thought his inclusion diminished the importance of the organization. Some would ask what was the importance they had to begin with?
That novel didn't catch me at all. Fought my way up to page 146, than quit. I honestly don't understand what all the hype is about.
My thoughts exactly. I don't know what it's like in the US but where I come from, Coelho is read mostly by people who like to pretend they're intellectuals.