Books you wish you hadn't finished

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

I felt that Frankenstein was painfully inflated... I underrstand that it was the style at the time to wax into elaborate detail over ever little detail, but it still felt to me like she was trying to get paid by the word; that the story would have worked better as a tersely-worder novella than as a full-blown book.

I read somewhere that authors long ago were paid by the word or number of pages. I think it was Dickens that I read that about but I remember reading that this was common with a lot of authors of the Victorian era. Though I'm not sure how accurate this information is.

[pdurrant]

Of recent books, two spring to mind immediately:

Life After Life and Life of Pi

I regret buying and finishing both.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by Gazella

I read somewhere that authors long ago were paid by the word or number of pages. I think it was Dickens that I read that about but I remember reading that this was common with a lot of authors of the Victorian era. Though I'm not sure how accurate this information is.

I don't doubt that Dickens was, as he and many of his contemporaries (possibly Poe) were writing for dailies, weeklies and the like, and that is often how they were paid. The same with early 20th century authors such as those who wrote for pulp magazines.

A quick look through the intarwebs tells me that she may have intended it as a short, but her husband pursuaded her to expand upon it, so maybe it's all Percy's fault, and that puts another notch in the 'I hate poets' ledger.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Of recent books, two spring to mind immediately:

Life After Life and Life of Pi

I regret buying and finishing both.

I picked up Life of Pi, but then put it back down when I realized it had nothing to do with the number.

[dandelioncottage]

Or the dessert.

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

I picked up Life of Pi, but then put it back down when I realized it had nothing to do with the number.

[DrNefario]

I guess there are some Big Book fantasies that were just a waste of my time. Serieses I decided not to continue with - assorted Tad Williams, JV Jones, etc. I find it difficult to abandon a book I've read more than, say, 30 pages of, but I have no problem abandoning a series I've read 1 book of.

[Lin2412]

I regret reading and buying a book years ago, I forgot the title (I probably suppressed it already because of intense hatred) but it was hugely a Romance genre book.

It was all good at the start because the heroine had guts, and she was out to rage on with the real world, but this hero (guy that can only be described with profanities from now on) that has seduced the girl, degraded her, with that Gary Stu-like descriptions on him.

And you realize the girl starts to become spineless and the cursed guy is wrecking her once challenging, adventurous, but peaceful world as we know it.

And then he rapes her.

It's rape because he didn't even ask for her consent. Pushed it, even. The poor girl, saying no at first, but gutless, pathetically concedes to the man-whore in the end.

SPINELESS I TELL YOU.

What in the world.

Oh, but they lived "happily ever after" after the girl said apologized for some whimsical, irrelevant lies that had nothing to do with their "relationship" as a whole (Also the guy had lies too but hadn't seen the girl have reaction about that.). The girl had to ask for his forgiveness to get her HEA, and the guy did absolutely nothing but be a jerk and grant her such forgiveness.

What?


I wanted to burn the book but I gave it away to some other people I'm sure I totally suppressed the details because I needed a doughnut to calm my nerves after reading that.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Lin2412

I wanted to burn the book but I gave it away to some other people I'm sure I totally suppressed the details because I needed a doughnut to calm my nerves after reading that.

You hated it so much that you foisted it on other people? Ouch!

[Polyphemus]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Eragon, books three and four. If it comes to that, I should never have read the first one, as it practically obligated me to finish the series. It ended up being a paean to the gods of Deus Ex Machina, once it became clear the author had no idea what to do with the situation he created. Never create an antagonist too powerful to be defeated.

I got toward the end of book three and got very perturbed when the next page stated that the story will finish in book four. I bought book four when it came out, but haven't opened it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Polyphemus

I got toward the end of book three and got very perturbed when the next page stated that the story will finish in book four. I bought book four when it came out, but haven't opened it.

The big problem there was that it had to be split in the first place, basically because he added about a hundred pages to the escape from Helgrind, all of them meaningless fluff.

I got that a lot in books three and four, the impression of meaningless fluff culminating in Deus Ex Machina.

Trust me, you aren't missing anything.

[HarryT]

In all honesty, I don't think there's any book that I regret reading. There are obviously books that I enjoy more than others, and there have been occasional books that the time I spent reading could have been better employed, but none that I feel the experience of reading has made my life worse.

[Katsunami]

I once had to read a particular book in high school. It was called "De vierde man" ("The Fourth Man"), by Gerard Reve. Everybody had to read this. It was the teacher's favorite Dutch classic. It was about a gay guy, and the book contains explicit references and descriptions of sexual content that I don't really want to remember.

Even today I still feel that it was wrong of that teacher to make such a book an obligatory read. Not everybody is partial to that kind of content. (I'm not, to be honest.)

It's the only book I ever read that I feel I would have burned in a bonfire, had it not been property of the school library.

(PS: This book was written as a "Boekenweekgeschenk"; this is a reading event in the Netherlands, lasting one week, and a prominent or upcoming author is chosen to write a book to give away as a gift to participants. This book was refused because of its contents.)

[ccowie]

My Life by Bill Clinton
I've read a lot of political memoirs from politicians I like and also those I don't. I often find increased respect for those with whom I'm still disagree politically. With Clinton it was the exact opposite. I honestly wish I had stopped reading his book altogether after about 200 pages. It was the worst piece of self-righteous, puffed up garbage I've ever read. I'm still angry I read it and that was about 6 years ago.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I once had to read a particular book in high school. It was called "De vierde man" ("The Fourth Man"), by Gerard Reve. Everybody had to read this. It was the teacher's favorite Dutch classic. It was about a gay guy, and the book contains explicit references and descriptions of sexual content that I don't really want to remember.

Even today I still feel that it was wrong of that teacher to make such a book an obligatory read. Not everybody is partial to that kind of content. (I'm not, to be honest.)

It's the only book I ever read that I feel I would have burned in a bonfire, had it not been property of the school library.

(PS: This book was written as a "Boekenweekgeschenk"; this is a reading event in the Netherlands, lasting one week, and a prominent or upcoming author is chosen to write a book to give away as a gift to participants. This book was refused because of its contents.)

Shouldn't this be illegal?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Shouldn't this be illegal?

Don't know. I was (barely) 18 when reading it, and was one of the youngest in class. There may have been one or two people that were still 17 when this book was assigned.

AFAIK, that book was not outlawed or anything, but it did get refused as Boekenweekgeschenk (what would be the translation? Literally: Book Reading Week Gift) because of its explicit sexual content, and initially, it wasn't published in great numbers. It was only released in 1981, but the teacher already called it a classic by the end of the 90's.

But to be honest, I think most Dutch "literature" is crap. Compared to the English speaking world, we have nothing, with maybe four or five authors as great exceptions.

After high-school, I instantly stopped reading both original Dutch books and books translated into Dutch.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

AFAIK, that book was not outlawed or anything, but it did get refused at the Boekenweek because of its explicit sexual content, and initially, it wasn't published in great numbers. It was only released in 1981, but the teacher already called it a classic by the end of the 90's.

I didn't think it would be illegal, just illegal to force minors to read it. Or really, to force anyone to read it. Probably its also violating religious freedoms.