10 Books Not To Read Before You Die - Page 3

astra · 01-01-2009, 11:48 AM

I have not read him but I have heard about his very grim The Road.

Libby Cone · 01-02-2009, 08:32 PM

I'm fine with grim, but he spends so much energy describing things that you get bogged down before you can learn about the characters..

Penforhire · 01-05-2009, 06:31 PM

I'm glad I was forced to read some of these works in school. They can be tedious but do have some redeeming qualities, IMO. I liked War and Peace, after I managed to get all the characters straight. Personally, I enjoyed all of Hunter S Thompson's books. Tolkien is a significant waypoint on the historical path of heroic fantasy, so often copied. Who doesn't know what an orc is?

What fits this list for me? Stephen R. Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" when they were first published. I know I've seen some folks here recommend this but I'd rather have surgery than be forced to read those books again. I felt like he stole my time yet I kept reading the first trilogy, expecting to glean some higher meaning. Maybe I was too young at the time?

pshrynk · 01-06-2009, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by awesomevegan

I have heard good things about her. She is also clearly one of Stephenie Meyer's influences, seeing as Bella reads her in Twilight. Thats why I read Jane Eyre and have Wuthering Heights on my list... oh what have I gotten myself into... (Thank you Mrs. Meyer!)

If I ever want to finish any of these I need to drag myself away from the forums and read! I am working on some more modern books for the time being.

Oh, we all know how successful that would be.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 01-06-2009, 10:11 AM

Heh... now I don't feel so bad about never having read Lord of the Rings.

Well, okay... I didn't feel bad about it anyway.

awesomevegan · 01-06-2009, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Heh... now I don't feel so bad about never having read Lord of the Rings.

Well, okay... I didn't feel bad about it anyway.

The Hobbit and LOTR are on my books to read eventually list...

I haven't found them on Kindle tho... and that means dragging out the paper copies off the shelf, which I am hesitant to do when there are so many books I can read on my nearly $400 gadget

RWJ · 01-06-2009, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by montsnmags

Actually, I did quite like The Road and No Country For Old Men, though I haven't read anything else by him. The Road was the second-most depressing book I ever read.

Cheers,
Evil-Marc

I have to ask - which is the most depressing?

montsnmags · 01-06-2009, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWJ

I have to ask - which is the most depressing?

If This Is A Man, by Primo Levi (also known as Survival In Auschwitz)

Cheers,
Marc

nohmi2 · 01-07-2009, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by montsnmags

If This Is A Man, by Primo Levi (also known as Survival In Auschwitz)

Cheers,
Marc

The first part of the three-part stage production was on ABC (Channel 2) last Sunday night. Sir Anthony Sher was starring, and he was brilliant.

It's not as drawn out as reading the book.

montsnmags · 01-07-2009, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nohmi2

The first part of the three-part stage production was on ABC (Channel 2) last Sunday night. Sir Anthony Sher was starring, and he was brilliant.

It's not as drawn out as reading the book.

(I should say that, though depressing, it's also the book likely to hit the number 1 position in my Top 10 books I've read (and that the volume I read also included The Truce))

I wish I'd paid attention to the TV guide, nohmi2. I would have loved to have watched it (I'll check the guide. Perhaps they're replaying it on ABC2 during the week and I can Tivo it).

Cheers,
Marc

Libby Cone · 01-07-2009, 08:06 AM

That's interesting; I read "Survival in Auschwitz" several years ago. It certainly was depressing, but I never for a moment thought of not finishing it. Years ago (in my early thirties?) I read "An Interrupted Life" by Etty Hillesum. It's a diary of a woman in her twenties in Holland. She wrote a lot of it in the Westerbork transit camp, prior to her transfer to Auschwitz and the end of the diary, and her fatalism was very depressing to me at the time. Now that I am older and have seen more of life (and studied war more extensively) I am more fatalistic myself, and probably would find her embrace of martyrdom less disturbing.
But McCarthy's relentless desciptions of everything from mass murder to bubbling brooks, with no subjective commentary, make me sick. I shudder to think of the Holocaust book he would write. But if he has such a wide readership, maybe it would expose this piece of history to those who had no access to it before.

astra · 01-07-2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by awesomevegan

The Hobbit and LOTR are on my books to read eventually list...

I haven't found them on Kindle tho... and that means dragging out the paper copies off the shelf, which I am hesitant to do when there are so many books I can read on my nearly $400 gadget

I don't think you would enjoy it in ebook format.
I believe it is a must in printed version.
On india paper it would probably be the best choice.

Enraptured · 01-18-2009, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Libby Cone

I'm fine with grim, but he spends so much energy describing things that you get bogged down before you can learn about the characters..

Agreed... I like my books dark, but I couldn't finish The Road, because there was lots of description but very little actual plot. Maybe that changed further into the book, but I didn't feel like slogging through more of it to find out.

As for the list... I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't love Pride and Prejudice. I think Jane Austen is a good writer, but I just don't find her stories interesting.

HarryT · 01-18-2009, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by awesomevegan

The Hobbit and LOTR are on my books to read eventually list...

I haven't found them on Kindle tho... and that means dragging out the paper copies off the shelf, which I am hesitant to do when there are so many books I can read on my nearly $400 gadget

They are not available as legal eBooks.

curtw · 01-18-2009, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enraptured

Agreed... I like my books dark, but I couldn't finish The Road, because there was lots of description but very little actual plot. Maybe that changed further into the book, but I didn't feel like slogging through more of it to find out.

It doesn't change much, but this is one of those books that's really about the journey, not the destination. The destination was quite the let-down (deus ex machina).

01-02-2009, 08:32 PM	#32
Libby Cone scribbler Posts: 117 Karma: 246 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Philadelphia USA Device: Kindle	Cormac McCarthy I'm fine with grim, but he spends so much energy describing things that you get bogged down before you can learn about the characters..

01-07-2009, 08:06 AM	#41
Libby Cone scribbler Posts: 117 Karma: 246 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Philadelphia USA Device: Kindle	most depressing That's interesting; I read "Survival in Auschwitz" several years ago. It certainly was depressing, but I never for a moment thought of not finishing it. Years ago (in my early thirties?) I read "An Interrupted Life" by Etty Hillesum. It's a diary of a woman in her twenties in Holland. She wrote a lot of it in the Westerbork transit camp, prior to her transfer to Auschwitz and the end of the diary, and her fatalism was very depressing to me at the time. Now that I am older and have seen more of life (and studied war more extensively) I am more fatalistic myself, and probably would find her embrace of martyrdom less disturbing. But McCarthy's relentless desciptions of everything from mass murder to bubbling brooks, with no subjective commentary, make me sick. I shudder to think of the Holocaust book he would write. But if he has such a wide readership, maybe it would expose this piece of history to those who had no access to it before.

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01-01-2009, 11:48 AM	#31
astra The Introvert Posts: 8,307 Karma: 1000077497 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: United Kingdom Device: Sony Reader PRS-650 & 505 & 500	I have not read him but I have heard about his very grim The Road.

01-05-2009, 06:31 PM	#33
Penforhire Wizard Posts: 2,230 Karma: 7145404 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern California Device: Kindle Voyage & iPhone 7+	I'm glad I was forced to read some of these works in school. They can be tedious but do have some redeeming qualities, IMO. I liked War and Peace, after I managed to get all the characters straight. Personally, I enjoyed all of Hunter S Thompson's books. Tolkien is a significant waypoint on the historical path of heroic fantasy, so often copied. Who doesn't know what an orc is? What fits this list for me? Stephen R. Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" when they were first published. I know I've seen some folks here recommend this but I'd rather have surgery than be forced to read those books again. I felt like he stole my time yet I kept reading the first trilogy, expecting to glean some higher meaning. Maybe I was too young at the time?

01-06-2009, 10:11 AM	#35
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Heh... now I don't feel so bad about never having read Lord of the Rings. Well, okay... I didn't feel bad about it anyway.