What book(s) did you finish even though you didn't like it?

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by frabjous

I just finished Orwell's 1984. It's one of those books that as a Sci Fi fan, I've always felt is a must read, and so many people praise it. I just didn't get it though. Most of it read more like a political treatise than it did as a novel, and a treatise with holes in it, and no counter-suggestion to make. And the rest of it was just needlessly bleak and depressing.

It was a political treatise disguised as a parody. Very bleak, like most of Orwell's stuff.

I had to ram my way through pretty much all of John Norman's Gor stuff after the first seven or so books in the series. I got so caught up in the narrative about Tarl Cabot that I just had to see what happened. The soft core BDSM stuff got to be waaaaay too much, and i ended up paging past any paragraph that was more than a page long and any chapter that was titled "What occurred..."

[GeoffC]

John Norman's Gor stuff started out reasonably good - but yes after, I think the 5th book, it got a little disrespectful of the ladies.....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by frabjous

I just finished Orwell's 1984. It's one of those books that as a Sci Fi fan, I've always felt is a must read, and so many people praise it. I just didn't get it though. Most of it read more like a political treatise than it did as a novel, and a treatise with holes in it, and no counter-suggestion to make. And the rest of it was just needlessly bleak and depressing.

It is most certainly a novel written to make a political point - about the dangers of totalitarianism (both the Stalinist form of communism, and fascism). You got absolutely the right idea about it.

Bleak though it is (and is most certainly is!) it's been hugely influential and has given many words to the English language (such as adding "-think" or "-speak" suffixes to words like "doublethink").

It is one of the classic "dystopian" novels. Bleak though it is, it's still worth a read. Just don't expect it to be a barrel of laughs.

[frabjous]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It is most certainly a novel written to make a political point - about the dangers of totalitarianism (both the Stalinist form of communism, and fascism). You got absolutely the right idea about it.

Bleak though it is (and is most certainly is!) it's been hugely influential and has given many words to the English language (such as adding "-think" or "-speak" suffixes to words like "doublethink").

It is one of the classic "dystopian" novels. Bleak though it is, it's still worth a read. Just don't expect it to be a barrel of laughs.

Yeah, I understand all that, I just think it failed on both the novel level and the political treatise level.

As a novel, it breaks the cardinal rule of good writing: show, don't tell. 1984 is all about telling, with only a tiny bit of showing (and showing things that had already been told -- that's why the bleakness especially at the end seemed so unnecessary. We didn't need to find out how horrible things were any more; we already knew it all.)

On the political level. Totalitarianism is of course a danger, but 1984's version doesn't do any justice all to what makes it so insidious, or how it relates to human nature. The message is just Big Brother can do what he wants, human nature is irrelevant. No discussion of how big brother came to power, or what about the people of Oceania or the Earth allowed to happen, etc. And again, there's nothing in there at all about even a possibility of an alternative, or even prevention of such things. I'm not complaining just about the unhappy ending, which was fine, but just the seeming lack of a point to the whole thing.

Anyway, I've read other dystopian novels I've thought were much better thought out; so I guess I'm not clear on why it's been so influential comparatively. Zamyatin's We, an inspiration to Orwell, for example, seems to me to be better in almost every way, though it's been awhile since I read it.

[mazzeltjes]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

John Norman's Gor stuff started out reasonably good - but yes after, I think the 5th book, it got a little disrespectful of the ladies.....

Only book I ever burned was
Tarnsman of Gor
What a heap of shite

[dragonbone]

The books I hated the most were the last 2 or three from The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King. Honestly I deserve an award for getting through them. Such utter rubbish! I was so angry after the 6th book, that it took me a full year to calm down enough to read the last one. Even that was UNBEARABLE, so..... like an idiot I went and bought the audio format on audible.com using TWO precious credits, (even though I had the huge and expensive hard back copy that I'd lugged across continents) and listened to it at high speed on my iPod with growing anger.
Oh, how I hate Stephen King and his twisted mind and his constant whining about his stupid accident.
Sorry for the rant!

[Sparrow]

Currently reading 'Star Maker' by Olaf Stapledon, which I'm finding a bit of a struggle.

But it's considered a SF classic, so I feel it's something of a 'must read'.
Once I've finished it, I'll be interested to read what the Internet experts had to say about it.

[joobies]

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I bought a used Kindle that has the series. After reading the first one, I don't see any future for the remainder.
In an odd way, it reminded me of Gone With the Wind. Lots of words for very little message.

[astra]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

The books I hated the most were the last 2 or three from The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King. Honestly I deserve an award for getting through them. Such utter rubbish! I was so angry after the 6th book, that it took me a full year to calm down enough to read the last one. Even that was UNBEARABLE, so..... like an idiot I went and bought the audio format on audible.com using TWO precious credits, (even though I had the huge and expensive hard back copy that I'd lugged across continents) and listened to it at high speed on my iPod with growing anger.
Oh, how I hate Stephen King and his twisted mind and his constant whining about his stupid accident.
Sorry for the rant!

I like them

[Tattncat]

A Passage to India.

[Ziguezon]

Naked Lunch:
Forced myself to keep going, hoping that it would all come together
and start making sense eventually, but alas... no. In my mind,
nothing can ever be worse than this book. I paid $20 for it too,
which was the worst part.

Dune series:
A well loved classic for many people, but I found most of the series
difficult to get through. Good ideas but I think it was the writing style
that put me off.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
Good at the beginning, and picked up again at the end. But all that
complicated philosophy in the middle is just not my kind of thing.

Can't say I was in love with Walden either, which I finally just completed.
It had it's moments, but I think my expectations were to high on this one.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Ziguezon

Naked Lunch:
Forced myself to keep going, hoping that it would all come together
and start making sense eventually, but alas... no. In my mind,
nothing can ever be worse than this book. I paid $20 for it too,
which was the worst part.

Dune series:
A well loved classic for many people, but I found most of the series
difficult to get through. Good ideas but I think it was the writing style
that put me off.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
Good at the beginning, and picked up again at the end. But all that
complicated philosophy in the middle is just not my kind of thing.

Can't say I was in love with Walden either, which I finally just completed.
It had it's moments, but I think my expectations were to high on this one.

I found the first, maybe, 2 or 3 books good - but then the overall franchise no longer 'gelled' with me for some reason ....

[rlparker]

I'm a little late to the party, but wanted to chime in on a couple of these:

Originally Posted by Traffic Goddess

I can't do it. If a book is that bad, it's a waste of my time. I'd rather just put it away and start on something better.
...

Agreed. Life is short and there are way too many good books out there to plod through a bad one. On the other hand, if I start a book, I try to give it a fair chance. The reason is--a long time ago, the first time I read "The Magus", I found it hard going at first. I almost put it down several times. But then, about a hundred pages in, it really got me, and it ended up being one of my favorite novels. (Haven't read it in a long time--wonder if it's available e-lec-a-tronic ) Anyway, I always try to give a book a hundred pages or so before I give up on it.

Originally Posted by cassidym

For me that would be 'The Dreaming Void'. The author managed to jam a 600 page novel into 900 pages.

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

...honestly how many people here actually do like reading the "classics" ...

Honestly, I do. I've enjoyed the Dickens books I've read on my K1, and right now, I'm finding that Dumas wrote page-turners! I think that many people get turned off of the "classics" when they're forced to read them in high school, before they have the maturity or depth to really understand them.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by rlparker

Honestly, I do. I've enjoyed the Dickens books I've read on my K1, and right now, I'm finding that Dumas wrote page-turners! I think that many people get turned off of the "classics" when they're forced to read them in high school, before they have the maturity or depth to really understand them.

you must be joking !

you read some of the posts, around here (as well as mine )...

[Timoleon]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Currently reading 'Star Maker' by Olaf Stapledon, which I'm finding a bit of a struggle.

But it's considered a SF classic, so I feel it's something of a 'must read'.
Once I've finished it, I'll be interested to read what the Internet experts had to say about it.

I'm having a hell of a time getting through Stapledon's "Last and First Men."