Most disappointing read

[Totenkindly]

YES! I was so disappointed, because I thought the idea of the book was fantastic. I expected it to be funny, snarky, etc. I mean, you're talking about the Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch's perspective. It should have been comedy gold. Instead, we got a bad fantasy novel. Though I never really could get on board with the Oz books, either. I guess I was expecting a treatment based upon the world of the movie, instead of the books. Ah, well. Didn't like it.

Bummer. I bought the compiled edition but have not yet read it. Now I'm scared to open it.


....you didn't like Lovely Bones?

I didn't buy it because of Oprah, but I loved it.
(loved it more than the movie, actually)
I liked Lucky too.
They were both very personal, and internal, flow of consciousness, moving more by feeling than by thinking. That always fascinates me, the logic is different from mine but I could still "hear" it and follow it.

But both, admittedly, are kind of grim.
Depending upon why you read, it might be too much.

 

[r.a]

"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck put me to sleep.
An entire chapter dedicated to dust.
Great.
:zzz:

oh man. steinbeck is pretty boring. i grimaced my way through quite a few really boring books in highschool, like any of jane austin's soupy garbage.

i can't stand reading stephen king. i've tried to read his work, i really have, but i never got far. i guess i don't mesh with his writing style. gotta sit through 6 pages of description just to get to an idea that is only slightly less boring than the last.

 

[Malice]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
I was so infuriated with the last book that I fell off of the Potter-Fandom completely.
Biggest. Cop-Out. Ever! D:

 

[Tallulah]

Bummer. I bought the compiled edition but have not yet read it. Now I'm scared to open it.

You seem to like sci-fi/fantasy type stuff more than I do, though...I think it was less that it was a terrible book and more that it wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for. I do know lots of people that liked it.

....you didn't like Lovely Bones?

I didn't buy it because of Oprah, but I loved it.
(loved it more than the movie, actually)
I liked Lucky too.
They were both very personal, and internal, flow of consciousness, moving more by feeling than by thinking. That always fascinates me, the logic is different from mine but I could still "hear" it and follow it.

But both, admittedly, are kind of grim.
Depending upon why you read, it might be too much.

Yeah, it just wasn't my cup of tea, I guess. I tend to like to read for escape and entertainment. If the subject matter is bleak or depressing, it better be the best thing I've ever read. I don't really care for depressing movies, either, but at least movies are over in two hours. I have to live with a book a lot longer.

 

[Aquarelle]

A Confederacy Of Dunces. Hands down.

I have always heard from people who had what I thought was good taste how great this book is, and the story behind its publication is very compelling. So when I saw it in a used book store I picked it up.

I knew 100 pages into the book that it wasn't for me. But because of the pedigree, I slogged halfway through it before I wised up and gave it away. What a car crash of a book.

I completely agree with you on this! What a terribly unlikeable protagonist, and general bore of a book.

 

[Aquarelle]

House of Sand and Fog, We Were the Mulvaneys, The Lovely Bones, etc. Oprah and I do not have the same taste in books. She likes her stories grim, apparently.

Yup. Me too. I haven't read We Were the Mulvaneys, but I didn't like The House of Sand and Fog at all, and The Lovely Bones was... okay. I mean, it was pretty good, but didn't live up to all the hype I'd heard about it.

@Dyoni - I've actually read the first two books in the Kusiel series. I thought the first one was really hard to get into, and there are definitely WAYYYY too many characters, but I liked it okay. The second book is much better.

Probably the worst book I've ever read was Daughter of Tintagel by Faye Samson. SO BAD! I'm a huge fan of the King Arthur legends, and for awhile I was reading everything I could get my hands on from that genre. This is one that sounded really great based on the descriptions I'd read of it, but it turned out to be just terrible.

 

[Arthur Schopenhauer]

I always liked Lord of the Flies because it was real and honest. People are absolutely frightening... Just like these books:

I had to read a few of these books because I was part of a 'teen group' at my local library... To be honest, most of the libraries 'young-adult' fiction was absolute nonsense... Not only was I forced to read most of that disgusting fiction, but I also had to write reviews on the books. It was horrible, being forced to write a pleasant review about a book that you wanted to burn. I died inside.

 

[Arthur Schopenhauer]

I'm a huge fan of the King Arthur legends, and for awhile I was reading everything I could get my hands on from that genre. This is one that sounded really great based on the descriptions I'd read of it, but it turned out to be just terrible.

Me too! Gerald Morris was one if my favorite writers when I was a kid. I checked his books out nearly every time I went to the library.

 

[mattness]

original Dracula sucks & i thought it would be good

 

[Aquarelle]

I always liked Lord of the Flies because it was real and honest. People are absolutely frightening... Just like these books:

I had to read a few of these books because I was part of a 'teen group' at my local library... To be honest, most of the libraries 'young-adult' fiction was absolute nonsense... Not only was I forced to read most of that disgusting fiction, but I also had to write reviews on the books. It was horrible, being forced to write a pleasant review about a book that you wanted to burn. I died inside.

Ha, I totally read the Babysitters Club when I was a tween. But yeah, now I think they're horrifying.

 

[Gloriana]

I always liked Lord of the Flies because it was real and honest. People are absolutely frightening... Just like these books:

I still have a whole set of these books packed away in a box somewhere! I also have this set of books:

I am not even sure I read all of them. I was more into all the ghost story books and early "Fear Street" stuff.

 

[Habba]

Lots of threads about great books but I also want to hear what wasn't so great. My biggest fiction disappointments over the last 5 years were with David and Leigh Eddings' books of the Elder Gods. I loved Eddings' earlier books but these were just appalling!
:steam:

Funny... when I saw the title of the thread, I instantly thought of Eddings' Belgariad. It was disappointing, because it was full of cliches and predictable as any. And the party of heroes was just completely overpowered. Nobody could even touch them... they just wiped the floor with their enemies. It's like having two Gandalfs, who actually did lift their fingers to stop Sauron.

 

[Tallulah]

I freaking loved the Taffy Sinclair books.

 

[Gloriana]

I just thought of another book that I hated but I will probably get accosted for sacrilege (as I usually do).

I hated "On The Road" by Kerouac, both times I read it. I love Bukowski, I frickin' can't stand Kerouac.

 

[KLessard]

Yup. My absolute favorites are ones that appeared in the first 10-15 years max into his career:

- Carrie
- The Shining
- The Dead Zone
- Firestarter
- IT
- The Stand
- The Tommyknockers
- Different Seasons

(Heck, I'll even reread Pet Sematary sometimes.)

The longer he went, the more duds that showed up with increasing frequency.

What about Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile?
I never read the books, but the movies are some of my favourites.

 

[Nicodemus]

original Dracula sucks & i thought it would be good

Indeed, the characters are so magnanimous and shallow that one can hardly decide whether to barf or to laugh. Technically, however, it is well-written.

 

[kelric]

Apparently they both died within the last few years.

I only ever read Eddings' Belgariad series, when I was a teenager. It seems that his wife was often a writing partner, just uncredited until the 90's.

That's sad to hear. I simply *loved* their books from about 8th grade on. Read them many, many times over the years. But they always did have the "one story, different names" problem, and it seemed to get worse as time went on. Most of the time I didn't mind, as I enjoyed the light storytelling and sense of humor regardless -- although I was disappointed by "The Hidden City" -- the story was taking a new-for-Eddings turn, and somehow through an almost Deus-Ex-Machina twist jumped back into the same old "Kill the bad God" resolution. Never did read the Elder Gods books though... just didn't grab me in the bookstore (guess I should be glad ).

But my most disappointing read... I can't remember the author or name of the book. I didn't even really have all that high hopes for it, but I was going to do a 90-minute donation at the hospital and needed something to read, so I picked up this "sci-fi mystery" that, from the back of the book, was about a guy on a spaceship full of sleeping crew/passengers trying to fulfill a secret mission. Like I said, I didn't have high hopes, but maybe it'd be fun, right? It was *AWFUL*. The plot was this: The "main character" had been infected with an artificially created STD virus that a) made him sterile, b) made him irresistible to women, and c) gave him a drive to ... mate... with every woman he saw to spread the STD sterility virus and help bring about the extermination of the human race. None of that, of course, was hinted at in the summary on the back of the book.

I was sitting in a chair, in a hospital, with a needle in my arm for 90 minutes or so -- and about 25 pages in I chose to stare at the wall instead of torturing myself by trying to read it. As I recall, I was so embarrassed about possibly being seen with it that I hid the book under a blanket just in case anyone might notice it and ask me about it. When the appointment was over and I could leave, I actually threw it in a trash can on my way out. I *love* books, and would otherwise say that I'd never treat one like that. This one deserved that and worse. Just... ugh.

 

[gromit]

Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.

Yeah, I was somehow expecting it to be like the Disney version. How surprised I was when I got to the end. Foolish gromit.

 

[Sniffles]

The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture by Ronald Smelser & Edward J. Davies ll

 

[KLessard]

I really disliked "Fall on your Knees" by Ann Marie MacDonald.