What Not to Read

"Books? You want books?! Ha! We've got books on hairy otters, on onions and on mars! All the fungus you could care for, plus, three triple zillion stars. We've got books on flossing teeth, plus three books on tossing sheep. If we spent our lives just counting books, we'd never get to sleep!" -Leopold the Librarian ("The Great Wishy Woz")
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Joy
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Post by Joy »

Some of my least favourite books last year were:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: I really wanted to like it, especially since Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books of all time. I just didn't care for the romance or the characters, and found it to be really boring compared to her other books.

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer: Really disrespectful to people who have suffered trauma, and just a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE ending.

Ruby Red by Kersten Gier: This was very childish and simply written for a book meant for teenagers. The characters were annoying, the love interest was chauvinistic in my opinion, and nothing much happened.

The Selection by Kiera Cass: The first book was okay, and a very easy and quick read. The second one was absolute poop, the love interests were uninspiring and the main character was wimpy.

Those are just a few of my most disappointing reads of the year. I definitely found myself much more critical when it came to reading in 2015.
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Petrichor
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Post by Petrichor »

I would say that one of my most disappointing reads this year was The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick. I didn't buy the idea that Lizzie could be in grad school writing tons of papers and running her video diaries online AND writing hundreds of pages in a secret diary. The book had a couple little extras thrown in that were kind of fun, but mostly it had the same material as the The Lizzie Bennet Diaries videos. It was really stilted and awkward and I would really recommend leaving the book alone and just sticking with the videos.
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Patterson
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Post by Patterson »

Here's a few that I found in my grandpa's basement a few years ago. I only read them out of sheer boredom. Please excuse the Princess Bride references.

The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney. It's a series about a depressed guy in Australia Circa 1850 and his many failures. Failed business attempts and his failures being a good husband and father. Eventually he becomes mentally ill and dies of gangrene. Apparently, this was among the first novels to portray early onset dementia. 0/10. Odorous, tasteless, and among the more deadly poisons known to man. This book came from Australia, and as everyone knows . . . You can clearly not choose the book in front of me.

Doctor Zhivago. Another super depressing novel, this time about a veritable soup of characters around the time of the Russian Revolution. So depressing that I only read half of it. So depressing that even the soviets effectively banned it (okay, they probably had other reasons for it). 0/10 even worse than Richard Mahoney. Never read a book about a land war in Asia.

The Leopard. It's a novel about a Sicilian nobleman in the 1860s when Italy is invading Sicily. It shows a glimpse into manipulative Sicilian politics as he deals with various betrayals from close friends and family. His personal life is a total wreck and he cheats on his wife on a regular basis. He tries to set up an arranged marriage but it doesn't go the way he wants. 1/10 lousy, but at least better than 24/7 depression. Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!!
"Patterson! You're alive!" "No, I'm not Patterson. I'm his uh... brother, uh... Shmatterson!"
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Catspaw
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Post by Catspaw »

Patterson, the Princess Bride references were a highlight of your post! :lol: I haven't ever read any of those books, so now I can continue to avoid them. ;)

I recall strongly disliking "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck when I had to read it in high school. I have read tons of books that I love so having to read one I really disliked was unpleasant but didn't take away from my love of reading. (And yes, I know some people think it's awesome and worthwhile and blah blah blah. I remain unconvinced.) ;)
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Bananareader
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Post by Bananareader »

Woody wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:16 pm Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson are awesome! I haven't read that particular book, but their "Starcatchers" series was quite interesting.
I liked his Starchasers series. The only books I can think of that I disliked are
Stormchaser by Paul Stewart because I don't remember finishing it, and The Scarlet Letter, because it was a depressing book.
I also agree with Arkán Dreamwalker that Alice in Wonderland isn't a girl's book.
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