Lush Library discussion

So mostly it will be about discussing your favorite books or authors, but I'm wondering what book do you just hate. The one that no matter what you do you just cannot read. More importantly, why do you feel like that?

Personally I cannot stand "Catcher in the Rye". I hate Holden Caulfield who is the main character, he just winds me up something awful, so arrogant and unlikable. I've tried to read it a few times now and the furthest I've ever managed is chapter 3. I have given up on it now.

I wouldn't say I hated it but the book I have tried to read so many times and failed is Lord of the Rings. It's disappointing because I'm usually up for reading any fantasy type book but I can't figure out why I can't get into it.

I was hoping someone would start a thread like this :)

On the Road - Jack Kerouac. I've given this 2 shots and I just can't read it. I really wanted to like it after living abroad and all that but I couldn't stand it. There narrative could have been so much better but it's just meh. City of Thieves - now there's a book about being on the road.

Twilight saga.
I have read all four of them and wish I hadn't bothered.
Meyer can hardly string a sentence together and her characters lack depth and personality.

It's probably predictable as a hated book choice but The Da Vinci Code is really bad. The story was ok as a fairly standard thriller but I could hardly finish it because of the style of writing.

I know lots of people like them, but I couldn't read the True Blood books. I bought the first 5 books but was so bored by the end of the first one I didn't bother with the rest

They are pretty mundane to be honest. I got the first 9 plus a book of short stories for £10. I read the lot of them in about a month and a half. There is no challenge in them at all. I didn't fancy reading anything else at the time so I just went with it but I couldn't go back and tell you more than the jist of each book. You'd have to prompt me with the story too, they sort of went in one ear and out the other as it were.

I hate The Alchemist. What a load of pretentious self-important bullshit mumbo-jumbo. I have never rolled my eyes so much at a book since. Writing something in a parable style does not make it profound or a universal truth or the most important message ever, it just makes it annoying, and it does not cover up the fact that you can't write either. Spare me the sermon, please.

I also don't get the hype with Catcher in the Rye. I read it when I was at school and my English teacher said I was too young to appreciate it. I re-read it a couple of years ago to see if being a grown up changed my opinion and it didn't! I still don't like it.

Cjramona wrote: "I also don't get the hype with Catcher in the Rye."
I don't get it either. I don't hate it but find it meh. It is a pity, because JD Salinger is one of my favorite authors, and I think Catcher in the Rye is his worst book.

I though Catcher in the Rye was alright, I didn't really get the fuss. I hated Atonement, dragged out rubbish.

FebruaryStars wrote: "I wouldn't say I hated it but the book I have tried to read so many times and failed is Lord of the Rings. It's disappointing because I'm usually up for reading any fantasy type book but I can't fi..."

Now I love Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit but I have started The Silmarillion at least 3 times and glazed over within the first twenty pages.

I just thought of another one - This may come as a shock but I may be the only person in the world who didn't like 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. :O

Jo wrote: "I just thought of another one - This may come as a shock but I may be the only person in the world who didn't like 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. :O"

Oh I didn't like that either. I read a sample and it just didn't grip me at all.

There's a bit in it which I won't share as some people haven't read it and also I don't want to repeat as it turns my stomach, but I wish I'd never read it.

I watched the subtitled film and there was a bit in that which was quite graphic and was disturbing - does that sound like the part that you mean?

It put me off reading the book and I'm thinking that the Hollywood adaptation will not be quite as detailed in that part

It involved an animal. It might not have bothered some people but it upset me and I've not read any of the others in the series and won't watch the films either.

Jo wrote: "I just thought of another one - This may come as a shock but I may be the only person in the world who didn't like 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. :O"
It was crap. I wish there was a way to give it less than 1 star.

I meant the incident involving the guy who managed her trust fund/cash.

Ani wrote: "I though Catcher in the Rye was alright, I didn't really get the fuss. I hated Atonement, dragged out rubbish."

I agree I hated it. There is another book that I really didn't like either, it was also made into a movie, Kate Winslet starred in it, but I can't remember the name... But it was really bad.

Was that The Reader?

I really hate American Psycho. I had to read it as part of my master's degree, but I found it a real struggle. It was just too gory, and I hated that it seemed so pointless.

There are parts of it I think are really good -- the opening page is really atmospheric, and captures the essence of a "competitive" conversation, and I loved the ending -- but understanding what Ellis was trying to do didn't go anywhere towards making me like it.

Jo wrote: "Was that The Reader?"

Oh that was it! Thanks.

Another vote for The Reader being disappointing............ and the Twiglet books were a bit - meh-............... but one I really wanted to like and didn't was The Celedtine Prophecy - was really twee and predictable!

I agree with you Lou about The Celestine Prophecy, it got really annoying by the end.

Lou wrote: "Another vote for The Reader being disappointing............ and the Twiglet books were a bit - meh-............... but one I really wanted to like and didn't was The Celedtine Prophecy - was really..."

That was the first book I read properly in Greek (ie. for enjoyment). I remember being so pleased with myself for understanding it all and not having to translate in my head as I went along!

Another vote for "The Reader", sorry but people were telling me about the amazing twist, which I worked out before I even started from the title! What a load of rubbish!