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Ayn Rand... my favorite quote of hers went something like: "We should tear down all the rain forests and turn them into cardboard boxes so at least then they would be useful."
She's great if your nineteen, idealistic, and still certain that the world is ultimately a good place. Otherwise, to hell with that.
Yeah, some of her comments are...off the wall. But the core of her philosophy, the idea of individualism being key for a stable society makes sense to me. Then again, I am 19 and somewhat idealistic, so... -
Oh yeah, The Bourne Ultimatum is another one. I read Supremacy first, and enjoyed it. Tried Identity a little while later, found it slow but enjoyable. Got to Ultimatum and ditched it after the first twenty pages, when nothing even remotely engaging happened.
And Stephen King's shorts are great, but his novels usually tend to bore me. -
Golden Compass: I couldn't get into this one, which is wierd, because I read and liked The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
Lord of the Rings: I can read parts of this, but not the whole thing. I'll re-visit the battle of Minas-Tirinth, the journey through Moria and other cool bits, but I can't endure Tom-fucking-Bombastic to save my soul.
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series: The first four-six books in this series kicked ass, but the later ones just killed the joy for me. And now reading the early ones is like looking at pictures of a lovely classmate who turned into a disease-ridden crackwhore and died drowning in bukkake. -
kill me now.. but I just can't read Gaiman. I've tried.. and tried hard. I love the crazy ass coot.. but can't get through the fucking books. And I'm a HUGE fantasy fan.
Harry fucking Potter. - read the 1st 3 books.. but it was like a chore. I think mebe because *I* work in a bookstore - and everyone was all.. HAVE YOU READ IT?!? HAVE YOU READ IT?!?!? - no - get offa my case already! - again I love fantasy.. love kids books.. blarg!
Inkheart & Inkspell - both kids books.. had been told YOU NEED to READ THESE... attempted.. and couldn't do it.
Dan Brown can suck it in a big way..
I heart both Austin and the Brontes though!! (wow sounds like a band) -
I haven't been able to get through several of the must read books:
Frankenstein- the voice Shelly writes in just stops me dead...not a great fan of the Victorians I guess
On the Road- just couldn't get into it really
Ulysses- I really want to read it, but it is so much, I have made it in like around 100 pages and just been stopped cold -
A long long time ago I liked the Deep Space Nine Trek series, so I thought I'd get the Relaunch books to see how well they continue the stories.
Geez, nothing has changed. Why make one good book when we can stretch it out in two? What cameos from other series can we include? Probably the most cliched stories? Check.
At the moment Nog is hating on the Jem Hadar that's on the station because of Odo. How long until he realises how prejudice he's being? Another ancient Bajoran prophecy? Check. What the hell? Quark's falling in love with Ro Laren?
This is painful, but it's Trek books. I shoulda expected it. -
Henry Goddamn James-Portrait of a Lady...Jesus fucking christ on a rubber crutch. My favorite quote (by whom I am unsure) is that any given sentence by Henry James is as awkward as an elephant trying to pick up a pea with its trunk.
Marcel Proust-Swans Way. I'm all for bed ridden, opiate induced stream of conciousness, but for fucks sake hows about some punctuation every once in a while.
Nathanial Hawthorne-The Scarlet Letter. I've always felt that the first sentence of a book should, I don't know, grab you as opposed to meandering for three pages. -
Wow, there's a lot of hating on The Scarlet Letter. I was planning on reading it some time...
George Eliot is, I think, one of the best authors ever, but making school pupils study her is massively wrong. -
- CommentAuthorForked Tongue
- CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
For me, I couldn't get through Kafka's The Transformation. It might be because the teacher who assigned it to me thought I was wierd and said that I would love it because it was wierd. Well, fuck that, it's slow as hell and nothing really happened.
Huh. I actually just finished that when I was at work today and thought it was fantastic. Different strokes, I guess. Of course, afterwards I had to listen to "Yakety Sax" on the MP3 player twice to psych myself up when I clocked back in. There was a story earlier in the collection, one of the unfinished ones, that I couldn't finish, though... it was too jarring trying to keep up with the story when entire pages of the manuscript were missing.
I can only think of a couple of books I flat out couldn't continue reading. One was the first of Chris Claremont's Willow sequels that I picked up as a teenager. It made my eyes hurt. Couldn't get past page 50.
Another, and I don't even remember the title, was a gift from a friend who bought it because she thought I'd like it. It was one of those precocious-teenager-too-smart-for-his-age-causing-trouble coming-of-age books. It was complete shit... precious, completely in love with itself and agonizingly smarmy. Couldn't make it past the third chapter. The friend and I don't talk anymore. I blame the book. -
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CommentAuthorChris M Ferguson
- CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
I hated Snow Crash. Clever but boring. The thing I hate most about sci-fi and fantasy is that, most authors think they can ditch the meaty character stuff and just ramble on and on about how cool their little world(s) that they created is. Talking about all the cute little inventions and ugh... How can anybody read that crap?
I love sci-fi, just most of it is shite. But I can also say the same about most novelists too, doesn't matter what genre they're in. -
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- CommentAuthorBrent Wilcox
- CommentTimeMar 6th 2008 edited
I have a copy of Finnegan's Wake that I open at random every five or six years years... for about 10 minutes. But misplaced my copy of Ulysses about a decade ago after having barely cracked it open. I've read Gravity's Rainbow something like five times, but the first time was a dead end about a third through, and the second time a year or so later was a slog... after that it got easy. While others in college were carrying around Atlas Shrugged to show how "intellectual" they were, I was carrying that. Eventually I read it.
I never made it all the way through The Recognitions by William Gaddis - but I enjoyed the half I read. Maybe someday I'll try again.
I can't read William S. Burroughs. I've tried. I can't figure out why he stops me cold. But the only way I can get through any of it is to imagine his voice while I read. The only time I ever really enjoyed his stuff was hearing him read it - his dry, gravelly drawl was amazing in itself.
I'd rather not read Clive Barker. He's got interesting ideas he could have developed in half the time (perhaps he's paid by the word). China Mieville mops the floor with him.
Song Of The Stone"is the only Banks book I haven't been able to finish. Maybe that's why it was on the discount table when I bought it. But I like most everything else if his. -
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CommentAuthorReverendJoe
- CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
I could never get through Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I started it up a few times, but could never finish it. I've also never read Lord of the Rings, the singing put me off it completely. Infinite Jest overwhelmed me, and I had to try Foucault's Pendulum a couple of times before I got through. Now it's one of my favorites. -
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Oh oh, someone's mentioned Harry Potter. I can't finish them when they get inordinately thick. Why the hell did J K Rowling have to increase her manuscripts' lengths exponentially, when actually arse all happens? After the third book, it got ridiculous, and I absolutely totally refuse to read the Deathly Hallows at all. I also started to understand why people went over to Voldemort's side - presumably to get away from the irritating, self-satisfied, elitist good wizards.
@angeldye: If you love Jane Austen, try Emma Tenant's Pemberley for a book that is similar to having your intestines pulled out and ironed inch by inch. How on earth this woman thought she could write a sequel to Pride & Prejudice, and how the Jane Austen Society saw fit to endorse it, is a mystery. Chronic, chronic, chronic. It actually makes me angry. -
- CommentAuthorsacredchao
- CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
Either saintly or mildly insane. I'm not sure. I have enormous respect for your commitment though. I have to admit that my reasons for wanting to read Ulysses are quite puerile. I keep meeting people who seem intent on lecturing me about it once they find out I'm interested in buks and ritin. They tend to do it in a particularly patronising manner and I'm sure most of them haven't read it either. I'm only persevering cos I want to catch them out.
That's as good a reason as any to read it, I think. I actually hadn't realized that there was this huge literati wankfest over one's ability to read it, until after I'd read it.have a copy of Finnegan's Wake that I open at random every five or six years years... for about 10 minutes
Haha. Me too, sort of. I got it for christmas a few years back. I've read about rivers running past adam and eve and environs several times, but not much else. I will someday.
But, then again, I've read S.P. Somtow's Riverrun Trilogy. Do I really need to read Finnegan's Wake now?
I need to get on the Eco and Pynchon bandwagons. I've read one each of their works (Name of the Rose and Crying of Lot 49, respectively), but I haven't had time to slog through any of their other stuff yet. I'd grab them off audible, but their good stuff is all abridged. I almost bought Foucault's Pendulum before I realized that 7 hours was just too short for an Eco novel. -
- CommentAuthorolivertwisted
- CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
Various people have muttered about Sade. When I was young, foolish and even more bored than I am now I read everything that is currently in print. This involved multiple versions of Juliette and Justine and a massive collection of his prison correspondence to his wife. 120 Days of Sodom was something of a chore. I find everything about that book interesting except actually reading it. I'm fascinated by the weird structure, the influence of his surroundings, the obsession with numbers and order that pervades it. The final result is bizarre and tedious in equal measure. Passolini attempted to film it as Salo which, artistically speaking, is a much better treatment of the concept.
I've also read a great a deal of David Icke. I clearly have a weakness for nutters that run on at the mouth.
I tried to read Peter Ackroyd's biography of London but failed miserably. I can't decide whether I'm too stupid to basically get what he's trying to do or whether it is actually a load of pretentious old toss. -
up until recently, my list included Lord of the Rings, Wuthering Heights, and Lord Foul's Bane. finally made my way through all three of those.
currently it's Dune. I just... I know it's supposed to be brilliant/groundbreaking/whatever, and I LOVE Kyle MacLachlan's guitar solo when he's riding the worm in the Lynch movie, but I just can't do it. and when I see the sequels I'll also never read, like today in the library, I have a sinking feeling in my heart. -
Agree with most about 120 days of Sodom, I read it in hospital whilst recovering from malaria and found it a slog and repetative. Much preferred Justine.
I can't finish Ballard's Kingdom Come. I just run out of steam and give up. -
I picked up the first DragonLance Chronicles by Weiss and Hickman as it said on it "something to read after the 'Ring books''" and it was only £0.50p. Dear God I was robbed. I have never come across anything so terrible. 'And then they went to a village and in the village was evil and they fought the evil and the ranger said 'the evil is dead' and the dwarf said 'I would like a drink' and they had a drink and they laughed*".
Horrid.
*Maybe a slight exaggeration, but only slight. -
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CommentAuthorWill Couper
- CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
I've also read a great a deal of David Icke. I clearly have a weakness for nutters that run on at the mouth.
I've read one David Icke book 'The Biggest Secret', it's barmy as all hell, but entertaining and absorbing. He does actually show a sense of humour which makes me think he might be one of the best and most dedicated comedians ever.
I have 'Feersum Endjinn' waiting for me. I've only read a couple of Iain M Banks books, but I enjoyed them both.
To wade in on the Tom Bombadil thing: what was the point? I skipped most of the singing bits in 'The Lord of the Rings' books.
The only story I've never been able to get through is 'The Unparalleled Adventure of Hans Pfall', dear me it was duuuuull. I have read the more famous stories and some less so, but that one, no, couldn't do it.
An author I've needed a couple of goes and reading has been Mary Higgins Clarke, took me three attempts to get through both 'A Stranger is Watching' and 'Still Watch'. Wasn't worth it, in the end. Drivel.
Will -
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- CommentAuthorolivertwisted
- CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
@ RJBarker
I think I read pretty much everything with the Dragonlance logo on it when I was 12-14. It's a source of tremendous shame to me and I tend to cringe internally whenever I see anything with Weiss and Hickman's name on it. When I was a teenager there was pretty much no such thing as a fantasy novel so bad I couldn't read it.
I'd like to think I'd find Weiss and Hickman unreadable these days. I find Shaun Hutson pretty much impossible to read nowadays and I used to devour his terrible books with every sign of enjoyment.