Books only lying poseurs could claim to like

[fduniho]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Anything by James Joyce. Mostly unreadable.

I read Ulysses for a college class focused solely on that book. It was okay, but it wasn't anything I would read on my own. Reading it was made slower by continually looking up words in the dictionary. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners are both better books, because they are not quite as experimental. The first sentence of Finnegan's Wake was enough to convince me not to read it.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Don't know if its been mentioned here but The Great Gatsby has to be included. I found it a dreadful pretentious pile of poo. Same with Picture of Dorien Grey

Well, that's because you read the wrong book -- The Picture of Dorian Gray was an awesome book.

The Great Gatsby was good too.

[fduniho]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

I saw the movie and didn't think much of it. It was too weird.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

I read Dracula: Annotated for the 125th Anniversary last year for my Halloween-time horror novel. It included text from multiple editions and some other Dracula-related material of Stoker's along with many footnotes that helped explain many details I would have otherwise missed. This was my first time reading Dracula, and I enjoyed it more than Carmilla. I played Dracula and Nosferatu soundtracks on Spotify while reading it.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

I read all of Ayn Rand's fiction on my own. It was good, but I have some issues with it, such as Dagny's earlier suitors all being okay with her choosing John Galt, because he was a better man than them. I enjoyed The Fountainhead more.

[pickyaxe]

I dropped Blood Meridian two-thirds of the way through. McCarthy's insistence of unnecessarily using big words and his gimmick of inserting gratuitous violence everywhere were exhausting.

It's not awful, but there was a clear mismatch between the high praise this book has received and my experienced while reading it.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Tony119

This is how some folk treat Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (Remembrance of Things Past). .

Proust is a writer of beautiful prose. Sadly his books contain no plot, so it gets tedious.

I thought Lolita was pedestrian. I dont know what the fuss was about.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by issybird

Does “mostly” leave room for an exception for Dubliners? Because I take your point, but Dubliners strikes me as accessible. “The Dead” is a masterpiece.

I couldnt see what the fuss was about. Snow and Dublin is all I recall.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Victoria

These aren’t classics, and they’re very highly rated. However I found The Name of the Rose and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance tedious and pretentious, back when I read them. I always suspected that many of my friends, who absolutely idolized them, hadn’t actually read them.

A bit off topic, but I also don’t understand how anyone could like Thomas Hardy. Admire his writing, definitely, but to me, enjoying Hardy is like claiming to enjoy a toothache.

Zen was a good read for the philosophy. Rose I greatly enjoyed. But the rest of hs stuff is dull. I agree Hardy is a bore.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Rose I greatly enjoyed. But the rest of hs stuff is dull.

I finally got around to reading Foucault's Pendulum a few years ago and I am so glad that I did. I thought it would be one of those books that only lying poseurs would admit to liking, but it was right up my alley. I don't mind stories that don't make a lot of sense on the surface as long as there is some kind of satisfaction bubbling up from my subconscious. If someone is not getting that feeling, then I can understand them coming to the conclusion that no one could actually like that book.

[jackm8]

I rarely can't finish a book, but The Wonderful Adventures of Nils from Selma Lagerlöf, and every Dickens that I've ever tried reading are on this list. Not that I've not tried giving Dickens a chance. Right now, I've Tale of Two Cities on my closet. It was halfway read about a year ago, now it's acting as a doorstop.

On the other hand, there are books that I've set aside years ago, that I've lately come to adore. A Time of Gifts, and Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, amongst them.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by jackm8

On the other hand, there are books that I've set aside years ago, that I've lately come to adore. A Time of Gifts, and Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, amongst them.

A Time of Gifts is my absolute favorite travel book of all time. And there's nothing (much) by Waugh I don't love, which includes Sword of Honor.

I'm almost done with Dickens. I plowed through Dombey and Son only last year. It wasn't terrible, but it was tedious.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm almost done with Dickens. I plowed through Dombey and Son only last year. It wasn't terrible, but it was tedious.

Have you written your own ending for 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'? I think some famous writers have, though wisely not published. Others have published their idea of an ending.

Joan Aiken said her last book was short because she didn't want to be like Dickens with Edwin Drood. She did die not long afterwards.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackm8

I rarely can't finish a book, but The Wonderful Adventures of Nils from Selma Lagerlöf, and every Dickens that I've ever tried reading are on this list. Not that I've not tried giving Dickens a chance. Right now, I've Tale of Two Cities on my closet. It was halfway read about a year ago, now it's acting as a doorstop.

On the other hand, there are books that I've set aside years ago, that I've lately come to adore. A Time of Gifts, and Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, amongst them.

Give A Christmas Carol a go. It's a short enough story that you should be able to finish it.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Have you written your own ending for 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'? I think some famous writers have, though wisely not published. Others have published their idea of an ending.

Joan Aiken said her last book was short because she didn't want to be like Dickens with Edwin Drood. She did die not long afterwards.

The musical of Edwin Drood had endings where each of the major characters did it, and the show would conclude with one of them after taking a vote from the audience. I remember reading that it was almost never John Jasper, because that was too obvious. My memory is a little hazy now, but I had the sense when reading it that Dickens started going in a different direction than he originally planned.

Counting Drood, there are 15 Dickens novels, which I've divided into three categories of five each: my favorites, the middling, those I disliked/abandoned/haven't got to (two, and I'll never read Old Curiosity Shop). Drood makes my top five.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by issybird

, and I'll never read Old Curiosity Shop). Drood makes my top five.

I am meaning to read Edwin Drood.

The Old Curiosity Shop suffers from not being planned in advance, partly due to be being written "on the go" in instalments for a periodical. He wrote himself into a corner. So I wasn't enamoured with how he ended it.

I'm not sure I'll read "Tale of Two Cities".

Some books were successfully done that way. Alexander McCall Smith is the only modern popular author I know that has done this (serialising a novel or a fully plotted novel isn't the same thing). I thought his "44 Scotland Street" worked well, but DNF "Corduroy Mansions". He seems variable as I like some of his series very much more than "44 Scotland Street" and hate others!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I'm not sure I'll read "Tale of Two Cities".

In my bottom five. Don't bother, IMO.

As for AMcCS, I found the first Ladies' No. 1 book so offensive in concept and execution (DNFed) that I'd never read anything by him.