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Regarding Chekhov, see what I wrote in my reply to Legolas. Tom Send a noteboard - 24/10/2010 05:19:41 PM
*Jane Eyre

I like most of it. But it's too long and Jane is quite an annoying heroine.

*Wuthering Heights

Gah. Awful book.

Other books not enjoyed:

Chekhov's plays

Am slightly surprised. :P

See above reply.

Anything by Hemingway

Totally agreed.

*Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

Quite.

Sholokhov's Quiet Flows the Don

... Is that about Aberdeen?

You're joking, I assume? Sholokhov got the Nobel Prize for this in what was an example of shamless Soviet pressure on the committee. Some parts of the story are interesting, even a bit controversial, but I just can't bring myself to enjoy it. There's something profoundly dissatisfying about it.

Ulysses by James Joyce

James Joyce is horrible. I should have included Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in my list.

I actually didn't mind Portrait of the Artist that much. I just felt that Ulysses was an attempt to do to literature what a Rothko or Pollack did to art (kill it by reducing it to nonsense). I got all the references - I'm quite sure of that - and my impression, as an elitist, was that Joyce was just being a pompous asshole but failed to demonstrate the requisite talent to be able to justify being a pompous asshole. If I wanted to parody it, I'd write a ten-chapter novel with references to the Aeneid about my last trip to take a shit, with each chapter taking a different muse as its title and a different writing style.

In the realm of genre fiction:

Jim Butcher's novels

I suppose they're not for everyone. You're the first person I've recommended them to who didn't enjoy them.

Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber

I've heard this from quite a few people.

*Hal Duncan's Vellum and Ink

I'm torn on Vellum. I remember liking it when I read it, but can definitely understand the criticism. I suspect I wouldn't like it if I read it again. Which I won't.

Flat characters, terrible plot, scattershot attempt at writing that ends up being just so much verbal diarrhea - wait, this is sounding like my criticism of Ulysses, but Duncan can't even really be pompous because he doesn't have the requisite knowledge.

The works marked with an asterisk are books that I could probably bring myself to burn

Shocking!

Not really. :)
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.

ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius

Ummaka qinnassa nīk!

*MySmiley*
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OK, Rafonauts: name some books you hated. - 23/10/2010 09:31:22 PM 2221 Views
Catcher in the Rye-JD Salinger *NM* - 23/10/2010 09:43:40 PM 846 Views
You are both stark raving mad. *NM* - 23/10/2010 11:53:16 PM 842 Views
So. - 24/10/2010 01:09:21 AM 1376 Views
I third this book. Time spent in my life I can never get back. *NM* - 24/10/2010 02:06:17 AM 810 Views
Same. Also: Dicken's Hard times *NM* - 25/10/2010 09:39:46 AM 784 Views
I honestly can't think of a single one. - 23/10/2010 10:46:44 PM 1453 Views
I am envious. I would like not to have wasted my time on those books I hated. - 23/10/2010 11:30:57 PM 1402 Views
It's not a waste of time. - 25/10/2010 02:04:25 PM 1355 Views
Yeah, I agree. *NM* - 23/10/2010 11:53:34 PM 842 Views
Yeah, this is how I feel too. *NM* - 24/10/2010 09:34:50 PM 802 Views
I didn't hate The Name of the Wind - 23/10/2010 11:08:44 PM 1408 Views
I'm so full of hate I hated Eragon without even reading it. - 23/10/2010 11:18:42 PM 1475 Views
You mean "promoted because kid wrote it and parents were publishers". - 23/10/2010 11:56:50 PM 1360 Views
It's a decent book, but not anything great, you fuckin' Soc. *NM* - 24/10/2010 12:00:12 AM 819 Views
Well, I didn't say it was a masterpiece for adults. - 24/10/2010 12:41:01 AM 1300 Views
Re: I didn't hate The Name of the Wind - 23/10/2010 11:33:49 PM 1227 Views
RE: wuthering heights - 24/10/2010 12:18:53 AM 1373 Views
Argh, now I'm getting annoyed thinking about them! - 23/10/2010 11:52:23 PM 1298 Views
Always happy to help. - 24/10/2010 12:09:52 AM 1325 Views
Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse *NM* - 24/10/2010 12:08:24 AM 957 Views
*NM* - 24/10/2010 12:09:03 AM 815 Views
*NM* - 24/10/2010 12:11:50 AM 823 Views
*NM* - 24/10/2010 12:17:52 AM 710 Views
*NM* - 24/10/2010 12:26:04 AM 889 Views
Re: - 24/10/2010 01:27:08 AM 1422 Views
Eragon - 24/10/2010 02:40:09 PM 1493 Views
Ooops that should have been down there VVVVVV *NM* - 24/10/2010 02:41:15 PM 836 Views
Re: - 24/10/2010 03:11:07 PM 1362 Views
Hatred, thy name is Bronte. - 24/10/2010 01:32:58 AM 1335 Views
Vellum was one of the most overrated pieces of garbage I've ever read. - 24/10/2010 02:09:15 AM 1299 Views
Pure trash. I'm not sure why it found a publisher. - 24/10/2010 05:11:35 PM 1428 Views
I hated that book so much I couldn't finish it. *NM* - 16/11/2010 03:43:27 AM 833 Views
Heh. - 24/10/2010 03:14:27 PM 1297 Views
Regarding Chekhov, see what I wrote in my reply to Legolas. - 24/10/2010 05:19:41 PM 3518 Views
hmm. what did you dislike about beloved? - 25/10/2010 03:41:52 PM 1438 Views
dangit i totally put this in the wrong place *NM* - 26/10/2010 03:01:03 PM 840 Views
curiosity. - 25/10/2010 06:47:54 PM 1392 Views
Hate is probably too strong for most books but I really disliked House of Leaves. - 24/10/2010 02:15:39 AM 1382 Views
I can understand that. - 24/10/2010 03:15:41 PM 1147 Views
Very few. - 24/10/2010 03:14:27 AM 1387 Views
Re: Very few. - 24/10/2010 03:17:52 PM 1352 Views
I don't know that I've hated much lately - 24/10/2010 03:48:04 AM 1394 Views
Re: I don't know that I've hated much lately - 24/10/2010 03:20:03 PM 1213 Views
I Kissed Dating Goodbye. *NM* - 24/10/2010 09:43:16 AM 880 Views
I've read that. I think. *NM* - 24/10/2010 03:20:50 PM 771 Views
Heart of Darkness. Only book I've fallen asleep while reading. - 24/10/2010 09:50:26 AM 1254 Views
Oh, yes. Good lord, that was boring. - 24/10/2010 03:21:40 PM 1267 Views
really? - 25/10/2010 02:46:18 PM 1171 Views
If I read in bed, I'm up until I've read half the book. - 25/10/2010 10:29:51 PM 1280 Views
agreed - 26/10/2010 12:17:18 AM 1125 Views
Everything by Stephen King - 24/10/2010 10:35:36 AM 1348 Views
Yes! - 24/10/2010 03:22:30 PM 1401 Views
Not a fan at all....but.... - 05/11/2010 07:23:35 AM 1654 Views
I loved One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. - 24/10/2010 12:50:31 PM 1228 Views
Weirdo. - 24/10/2010 03:23:37 PM 1274 Views
The Magic of Recluce - L.E. Modesitt - 24/10/2010 01:10:39 PM 1341 Views
I've read a couple of those. - 24/10/2010 03:24:58 PM 1186 Views
Talk of the devil - 26/10/2010 03:53:58 PM 1313 Views
I saw that and thought of you. *NM* - 26/10/2010 04:00:27 PM 730 Views
They were not that bad - 26/10/2010 10:29:17 PM 1363 Views
A confederacy of dunces & The Brothers Karamazov *NM* - 24/10/2010 01:50:37 PM 711 Views
Re: A confederacy of dunces & The Brothers Karamazov - 24/10/2010 03:29:00 PM 1386 Views
Mine - 24/10/2010 02:59:38 PM 1337 Views
Re: Mine - 24/10/2010 03:31:46 PM 1304 Views
Re: Mine - 25/10/2010 06:43:37 PM 1301 Views
Re: Mine - 25/10/2010 07:51:23 PM 1743 Views
Re: Mine - 25/10/2010 07:57:46 AM 1355 Views
Re: Mine - 25/10/2010 06:44:12 PM 1422 Views
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - 24/10/2010 03:07:10 PM 1288 Views
Terry Goodkind - 24/10/2010 03:46:16 PM 1766 Views
Y YU HATE TARY??! YU TROLL!!....... *NM* - 24/10/2010 04:43:08 PM 815 Views
Just to be contrary, mostly - 24/10/2010 05:01:50 PM 1214 Views
Yes - 24/10/2010 10:36:29 PM 1227 Views
Hubbard - 24/10/2010 04:23:55 PM 1219 Views
Easy question. - 24/10/2010 04:56:52 PM 1347 Views
Thank you. - 24/10/2010 06:25:45 PM 1352 Views
OMG - 24/10/2010 06:44:47 PM 1302 Views
Aww I liked it. - 25/10/2010 12:10:24 AM 1488 Views
Re: Aww I liked it. - 25/10/2010 12:26:42 AM 1751 Views
Brave New World. *NM* - 25/10/2010 02:13:13 AM 774 Views
Well... - 25/10/2010 10:45:14 AM 1301 Views
On the other hand - 25/10/2010 01:33:58 PM 1266 Views
Re: On the other hand - 25/10/2010 08:52:41 PM 1192 Views
LOL - 26/10/2010 03:30:33 AM 1369 Views
Hate, as opposed to wouldn't waste energy on. - 25/10/2010 01:55:00 PM 1269 Views
Re: Hate, as opposed to wouldn't waste energy on. - 25/10/2010 06:59:37 PM 1156 Views
Snowcrash and Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand *NM* - 25/10/2010 02:47:07 PM 766 Views
Anything By Faulkner - 26/10/2010 06:37:35 PM 1411 Views
The Scarlet Letter - 26/10/2010 08:08:11 PM 1310 Views
The Magicians by Lev Grossman *NM* - 27/10/2010 09:48:47 AM 829 Views
My Antonia, The Color Purple, and The Grapes of Wrath come to mind. *NM* - 28/10/2010 02:21:02 PM 756 Views
My Antonia is a dumb book. *NM* - 07/11/2010 02:52:13 AM 745 Views
That I can do. - 16/11/2010 03:50:12 AM 1459 Views

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