Books I Loathed discussion

Ahhh, Nicholas Sparks...my high school girls fall all over your tear-wrenching love stories, but I, I can't stomach the cheese produced between your covers.

My friend was a television reporter and happened to interview Sparks on a couple of occasions - she says he is a very genuine, friendly man. I believe it. Who else can write crap like that? So nothing personal Nick, but enough is enough.

The Notebook, The Rescue, The ____ whatever... no more, man.

I'm not really a fan of the books but ,suprisingly, I really love the movies! And that's a first. Usually books are SO much better.

My favorite writer to hate, followed by Mary Higgins Clark. His books could be written by computer software (they might have more soul at least)...what a button-pushing hack. If anybody starts gushing about any of his books, I confess I begin to question that person's intellect.
I did read "Message in a Bottle", completely only to see if it was really as bad as I thought. It was.

Spike

RE Spike's aside about Mary Higgins Clark... not to veer off topic. I had to live for a summer at the in-laws while waiting to close on our house. She had every book ever written by her and I found that I could name the killer within two pages of their introduction.

The killer is always the one character whose thoughts we do not have privy to as that character. For example, if Bob is the killer, we will have access to Carol, Ted, and Alice's thoughts, and the "killer's" thoughts, but not Bob's. Hence, Bob is the killer. It got to the point where I was only reading the book to see if my theory panned out, and I was right every time.

I haven't read Nicholas Sparks, but I was working in a bookstore when The Notebook came out and man I got to hate shelving that book. It was a really annoying size, LOL.

I read Sparks's book about his brother and it was okay...not tooooo hokey. But his fiction: arghhhh. Just manipulative blather and not even particularly entertaining blather at that. Give me the old Frances Parkinson Keyes if I'm in the mood for that type of nonsense. At least with her stuff you know from the get-go that you're in fairytale country.

Oh, Spike I agree with you. They totally lack any imagination at all. I can't believe anyone can bear to read them. Computer software sounds exactly right and I love romance and have read hundreds of them.

Like Spike, I've done my share of shelving Nicholas Spark books and they are annoying. I recently got Nights at the Rodanthe because I kept seeing the commercials everywhere on the movie and in the interests in being fair it might behoove me to read a Nicholas Sparks book. First of all, I hate books with movie adaptations on the cover but I couldn't find
Rodanthe without Richard Gere. Anyway....hated it and can't get past the halfway mark. Talk about smarmy, formula fluff. The beginning with the "letter" is just awful.

I just finished the Notebook. For some stupid reason I just HAD to find out why everyone likes it so much. The only way I'm ever going to like this book is if Barnes and Noble refund my purchase AND I get the five miserable hours it took to read it added back to my life.

SPOILER!!
I totally hated the Notebook. I am sort of "realistic" when it comes to Altzheimer's outcomes... and I just felt that, hey, sir, she doesn't really remember your relationship, so, technically, you're molesting her...

I read the notebook when it first came out and I agree with Elizabeth. I felt sooooo ripped-off. I was angry because my time had been wasted and angry that this author had been published and made a butt-load of money. There are so many great writers out there and this guy is just marketed extremely well. I just don't get it. I guess it it all about money.
He keeps cranking out books and they make block-buster movies out of them and I get a sick feeling in my stomach.

Stephanie wrote: "Ahhh, Nicholas Sparks...my high school girls fall all over your tear-wrenching love stories, but I, I can't stomach the cheese produced between your covers..."

I just found this thread, and I'm glad there are others who, ehem, don't care for Nick Sparkless.

He's one of my favorite authors to despise....aggghhh, his maudlin crap makes me want to claw my eyes out with a dull razor so that I never have to look at the words again. I know his fans are legion, but I just...don't...get...the...appeal.

Yeah, Hannahr, the only thing that I can surmise is that his fans can barely read anything bigger than a menu. The writing is atrocious.

I'm sad to admit that I have read most of his books (when I was in high school) but I have to agree, they are terrible. I can't explain the appeal to young women, I suppose naiveté. Life hasn't hit most of them hard enough for them to realize there is no such thing as the fairy tale. And if there were, I doubt we could stomach it. The men in Sparks' books are "faultless romantics" and in a world where we are given jokes instead of poetry, and where we become delighted if a man goes grocery shopping, I think we've become intolerant of these types of "heroes". We prefer flawed, maybe even less ideal male figures because it is closer to real life.

When it comes to NIcholas Sparks, you've got to start (and end) with A Walk to Remember. I despise fluffy, happy-ending-is-obvious-from-the-beginning books. That wasn't what A Walk to Remember was. It was tragic, but not in a Romeo and Juliet "they brought it upon themselves, the idiots" kind of way. I moved on to The Notebook second on recommendation from a friend. I will never be listening to another one of her recommendations ever again.
I absolutely despised it from the beginning to the end. I hated the characters, the storyline, everything. NEVER AGAIN! No more Nicholas Sparks for me!

You know Laura, I agree. That book was the first Nicholas Sparks's book I read, and even now, I can admit to liking it. But that is where my like of Sparks ends.

I actually loved A Walk To Remember. But when Jaime's secret came out, it got more so hokey than realistically believable.

I can't believe that I am finally meeting people that hate The Notebook as much as I did. I finished the book, but gagged and had the shivers the whole way through it because of the mushy, icky, goo written on the pages. However, I am going to agree with Christina when I say that I did really enjoy the movie.

The Notebook movie was lovely, thanks to the acting team of Gosling/McAdams :) I didn't mind the book, but it lacked the believability of the movie.

Nicholas Sparks= barf on my breakfast.

Oh happy day! I was absolutely delighted to stumble upon this "I hate Nick Sparks" thread. Finally. Some people I can agree with!

I, too, read "The Notebook" on a recommendation from a friend. In fact, this friend (a male friend) actually bought me a copy of the book. He knew that I wrote romantic suspense, and so, he thought I would just love this book as he had. Clearly, he had no understanding of my tastes.

Normally, I will not finish a book if I'm not really liking it, but since he had bought it for me, I felt obligated to finish it. I kept thinking, "Surely this intelligent man would not have suggested this book unless it gets a whole lot better by the end."

Um, yeah, no. It didn't. It only sucked worse and worse as it went along. IMHO, there wasn't even a real story. Where was the action? The suspense? The build-up? The climax? Bleah! There was none. This was when I began to doubt my friend's intelligence.

And here's one of the little things that bothered me most. The book implies that they had sex when they met that first summer, when the girl was like 15 or 16, and this was back in the 50's--pretty unusual back then. And then she never had sex again, with any other man, for another dozen years? Not even with her fiance? Now there's a male fantasy if I ever heard one...sheesh.

Okay, thanks so much for the chance to rant. I would give anything to have those hours back, too.

--Maria

Oh, dear.

I just found a copy of The Smokejumper in the trunk of my car as I was cleaning it out ... should I set fire to it, or give it a read just in case it's the exception that proves the rule.

I swear I don't remember buying it. It must have been one of those bagload thrift store sales ...

I only read Nights at the Rodanthe . It was a kind of novel that is unrealistic it could not happen in real life like that but even though I do not think I loathed his fiction . I think he should avoid romantic stories as it does not really work with him. .

I agree with The Notebook, but I've got to admit I actually loved The Last Song, so right now he could go either way for me.

what bothers me the most about this guy is he is not a great writer, his plots are formulaic and practically every one involves someone dying at the end, and yet he is raking in zillions of dollars while really good writers go unnoticed. Ugh.

UUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! My friend said, "Read The Notebook." So I picked it up for a buck at a thrift store (TG!). And I started reading, and continued reading, only because my friend recommended it. Surely it had some redeeming quality? Um. No. As a matter of fact, I think my IQ is lower, just for having read it.

Christina wrote: "I'm not really a fan of the books but ,suprisingly, I really love the movies! And that's a first. Usually books are SO much better."

To quote a previous poster: UUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

My only experience about Nick is "Message in the Bottle" the movie.
The story was horrible. Absolutely horrible. "cheese between covers", indeed.
Sure, it was beautifully filmed and nicely acted, but... THE STORY! Who ever got the horrendous idea of making a movie out of the crap?
On the other hand... his movies are very popular, so I suppose the idea was great. Urk.

I am happy to read this thread, because it will save me from needing to suffer a reading.

I think I read one of his novels abridged in Readers' Digest or something, and don't remember feeling much beyond, "really?" and granting an eyeroll and immediate forgetfullness. And that was in middle school.

One friend kept trying to recommend more, but since I had such a long reading list, I never had to pick any other up.

Otherwise, I had no interest in even thinking about him until I read an interview where he claimed he wouldn't write "romance stories" or melodrama and compared himself to Hemingway. http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/n...

Just...be more honest. They don't shelve him in romance because he's a male author.

Alright. I have a category called "single Women with Nothing To Do". This catrgory is for authors who write out women's romantic fantasies they can't live in their own life.
Nicholas Sparks is number two on my list, behind Stephanie Meyer.

My madness is over... I found critics who agree!

i have to agree they are repetative...i had liked "the last song"....but when i went to book 2 it was irritating, and on book 3 i had to close it on page 5...never dared to open it ever again...

I dislike this guy's work to the point where it's become a running joke. He once compared his work to Hemingway and it made me physically angry because he is actually the writer's equivalent of a factory, pushing out lackluster works on a consistent basis that the general public will eat up, option for a movie, and pour millions of dollars into. I refuse to believe this man actually thinks he's creating literature; he must be motivated by money.

(He also had the nerve to call Cormac McCarthy overwrought. I'm not a devoted McCarthy fan, but seriously?)

Also, his books lack diversity, which is a huge turn-off for me, and I am not a romantic. So I suppose I'm not his target audience regardless, but even if I were, I think I'd still feel patronized by the thin characterization, poor pacing, and emotionally manipulative plotting. I started reading these books because I have family members who love them and it's something we can talk about, but I am so done, especially since all my opinions are negative.

I also thought Safe Haven was genuinely offensive in its depiction of an abusive relationship, not to mention a total rip-off of "Sleeping with the Enemy". Thin characterization, again, and when you're writing about a woman who's been violently abused for years, a little more fleshing out is needed before the love story appears to make her life ~all better~.

I do hate the movies and find them pretty insipid, too. See Cracked.

Shelley wrote: "Sadly I had an English teacher who was obsessed with Nicholas Sparks to the point where she made us write essays analyzing his writing. Needless to say there was an uproar when some of us turned i..."

wow... for real? i would start a riot if any of my english teachers used sparks as the basis for ANY assignment. my condolences, shelley :x

oh dear. that's awful, I guess I'd have been put off my books too. At least you have discovered BETTER books

Yeah, the book's aren't necessarily badly written in my opinion, but it's the exact same story over and over with little changes to the plot. Boring and not worth my time.

He lives down the street from me, here in New Bern, NC. I've never met a more arrogant and narcissistic person. The above comments about him comparing himself to Hemingway are right--he actually believes his own hype. The most common Sparks Quote around town is "Do you know who I am??!?!" Usually said with indignation.

Sadly, he has forgotten that he once was a drug company salesman and was not always king of pabulum.

Ian wrote: "He lives down the street from me, here in New Bern, NC. I've never met a more arrogant and narcissistic person. The above comments about him comparing himself to Hemingway are right--he actually be..."

Wow, such arrogance. I'm a high school student myself and my other classmates are in love with his works. Thankfully, I haven't joined the hype. I just can't stomach his books. They're too...cheesy? Cliche? I can't watch the movie renditions without cringing either.

Guy and girl meet, fall in love, one of them dies, smatterings of religion throughout, life moves on, the end. Same structure for each book, different settings. Snore.