It’s banned books week.
This is not about that, not exactly, not really much at all, but just the same, I wanted to ask two questions. Two questions about your taste in books and how they relate to the taste of others.
1.) What book do you love that other people seem to hate?
2.) What book do you hate that other people seem to love?
I don’t just want names and authors listed — I’d love to hear your reasons.
And this isn’t meant to start a war on taste or to suggest in any way that Your Opinions Are Wrong, but rather, quite the opposite — to see how one reader’s Holy Bible is another reader’s cup of Hot Barf. It’s meant to show how our tastes in books wildly deviate, how the norm is rarely the norm, how we all get to love and not love things and that has to be okay.
So. Two questions.
Let’s hear your answers.
Joshua Francis says:
My girlfriend got me to read The Mortal Instruments (book one) before the film came out. I slogged through the book and found it really predictable and just a bit too tweeny (shock, and surprise I know). By the end I guessed what I thought might happen in the trilogy and was pretty much spot on.
As for a book I enjoyed that others didn’t not much springs to mind. Maybe Muddle Earth, which I read as a child. Whenever I suggest this people just usually sigh. It really made me laugh when I read it.
I actually did a blog post recently about some of my favorite books if anyone cares to check it out: http://geekboybabbles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/top-ten-books-to-me.html
September 22, 2014 — 1:48 PM
Helen Espinosa says:
Loved: Ender’s Game/Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card. I’ve loved all the books that came after as well. I know many people don’t like the author and say his beliefs bleed into his books, which is probably true, but I still loved these books. It could be that it was the first book I read that was anything like it and maybe there are better ones out there, but I’ve read the first trilogy probably three different times. There are so many reasons… 🙂
Hated: Michael Vey by Richard Paul Evans. Horribly written and cliched as hell. I found myself rolling my eyes and shouting at the author through most of it. I read the first 3 and don’t plan on finishing the series. (I picked it up because my 14 year old was in love with it and he doesn’t read, lol, so I wanted to find out what the big deal was)
September 22, 2014 — 2:22 PM
Tiffany says:
I really did enjoy the Twilight series, especially before those grotesque movies came out and the series was absorbed into pre-teen hysteria and shirtless heartthrob nonsense.
I HATED and DESPISED the Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It was dull, waaaay too long (over 1000 pages), and did we really need to know so much about the brother-sister love that went down between Arthur and Morgause? NO…no no no! A lot of people hailed this book as a genius work of fiction, further explaining the Arthurian legends, but no thanks.
September 22, 2014 — 3:03 PM
Amanda says:
I just finished the great trial that is reading The Mists of Avalon. I know it’s praised as a touchstone for female fantasy writers, with a plot that features mostly female characters, but all of those female characters ended up being the worst. Not artfully flawed, just the worst. I didn’t mind the hints at incest or the threeway – I did mind the 300+ pages of whining and self-pity that accompanied them.
As a female fantasy writer with a plot that features female characters, the Mists of Avalon experience really bummed me out.
September 22, 2014 — 4:07 PM
Jenn Lyons says:
Tried to read Mists of Avalon. Just couldn’t. Ugh. I’m so with you on this one.
September 22, 2014 — 4:40 PM
zoeblackwood says:
I couldn’t get past Bradley’s known issues in her real life, knowingly being married to a man that sexually abused children and her own daughter accusing her of being sexually abusive, trying to read her odd sexual situations in her books became uncomfortable! Exploitation is something I find a terrible turn off.
September 23, 2014 — 10:51 AM
Maggie says:
Love: I’m with Helen above me; Ender’s Game remains one of the influential sci fi YA novels of my career as a reader and a writer. I even watched and loved the movie. They did a fantastic job on it. Card’s books in the series (anything, mostly, past Xenocide) are very miss in the hit-or-miss balance, but the earlier three were amazing and seminal.
Hate: Anything that people say, “Yeah, it’s crap, but at least they’re reading.” As if it doesn’t matter what they’re reading, but that they’re reading. Well, it matters sometimes. It matters if the book is full of terrible cliches and dangerous stereotypes and bolsters misogyny or sexist tropes. (Gee, Maggie, what book are you talking about?) It doesn’t matter if you’re reading the cereal box at the table, but it matters if you’re reading a book about how all any woman needs to be complete is a man to dominate her in very unhealthy ways and brainwash the audience into thinking that this relationship is a *good* one.
September 22, 2014 — 3:04 PM
JJ Toner says:
I should have mentioned American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I slogged through about half of it and gave up. I do like Gaiman, though. Just not that book.
September 22, 2014 — 3:09 PM
Scrappy Doo says:
Agreed. I tried a couple different times to get into it. It just endlessly dragged, and I didn’t get the same feeling of awe and majesty and magic that seemed to propel others. If it wasn’t by Neil Gaiman, I would have given up after the first chapter. No good hook, no compelling plot, and the characters were stale.
September 24, 2014 — 8:03 PM
Tracy says:
I couldn’t finish Good Omens. I feel like a bad geek. I’m a big Gaiman fan, so I’m guessing it’s the Pratchett I couldn’t stand. It was too ridiculous for me. I couldn’t tell where it was headed.
I’ve also tried and failed to read Grapes of Wrath three times, even made it 100 pages in once. It didn’t grab me. It’s so grim, but I thought I generally liked grim! Not sure why it didn’t work for me. I’ve made it through some shorter Steinbeck’s but wouldn’t call myself a fan.
Right now, I’m trying to force myself to read The Magician’s Land. I don’t find reading the Magicians series an enjoyable experience. I feel like the series had good potential that it failed to deliver on. I was ‘eh’ about the first book and hated the second book. The characters I enjoyed were replaced by characters I hated.
I love the steampunk aesthetic, but I couldn’t get into Boneshaker. I bailed halfway through. I think I wasn’t especially interested in the plot nor were the characters particularly compelling.
There aren’t books I love that others hate, but one I wish was better appreciated — I thought the Sweet Tooth graphic novel series by Jeff Lemire was fabulous, but it wound up having to be wrapped up early.
September 22, 2014 — 3:38 PM
Sam says:
Oh man, one of my friends just picked up The Magicians because I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. She feels the same way you do, and suddenly I feel so weird because I LOVE those books so much. I think I like that I don’t like anyone? I don’t know. Quentin’s like the little douchebag brother I never had who I want to slap upside the head.
September 25, 2014 — 8:34 AM
Alan says:
For hated, there’s only one thing that comes immediately to mind – I read four books of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and I just could never quite like them. There was something about his writing that just always felt off to me, and I could never really settle in to reading the books. They seem to be very popular, but I just didn’t have any desire to continue.
I can’t really think of much that I love which other people seem to hate. Probably because I mostly only pick up books I see recommended highly.
September 22, 2014 — 3:54 PM
Rio says:
I can’t stand IT by Stephen King. I’ve heard people praise it as King’s best book ever, and I just don’t understand why. I just couldn’t take it seriously, especially after I watched the movie.
One author I love that a lot of people seem to hate is Cassandra Claire. She’s really a guilty pleasure of mine, because I know some of her books are really bad and she’s done some horrible things to people, but I just love her books. Well, at least Infernal Devices. Mortal Instruments is mostly garbage.
September 22, 2014 — 4:19 PM
teaandbones says:
THANK YOU!!! On both accounts. I found IT not my cup of tea, but I loved ‘Salem’s Lot. I find small town feel of everyone named “Suzy and Tommy and gee wally whiskers” not to be my thing, either, but I have to say there are many exceptions with Stephen King.
But I tried…I TRIIIIIIIIEEEED Mortal Instruments and couldn’t do it. It was so bad, I was writing fan-anti-fiction-esque stuff to correct the crap in the first book and couldn’t get past page 11 in the second. But I LOVED Infernal Devices!
September 25, 2014 — 8:55 AM
Becki Crossley says:
I really loved The Da Vinci Code by Darren Brown, and though I wasn’t alone oconsidering it was a massive bestseller… I’m not sure if this is ‘general’ opinion or just that of my English class at uni, but everyone there thought it was trash. Whether they were being lit snobs or not I’m not sure. But I really enjoyed the whole thing.
I couldn’t get into The Hobbit. Just couldn’t. I suppose that was because I approached it at an older age than most (it is considered more of a young persons book after all) but I found the first few chapters stilted and boring. I’m planning on trying the Lord of the Rings trilogy soon because I don’t want to dismiss a master of storytelling after two chapters, but maybe I just don’t click with his style.
September 22, 2014 — 4:43 PM
Durango Mandy says:
My favorite book of all time is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving but it was one that many in my book club hated. Irving’s not afraid to show us that the human condition can be tragic and perverse and absurd, and it’s okay to find humor in that.
September 22, 2014 — 4:55 PM
Eva Therese says:
I can’t stand Ray Bradbury. I first read A Sound of Thunder in school, when I was around 12 and I remember thinking even then that the story made no sense whatsoever. I read Something Wicked a few years back and was almost bored to tears. And then I tried the Martian Chronicles, which were just meh. I enjoyed a one or two of the stories which seemed to have been written as straight up horror and then had some details changed to make them take place on Mars, but the rest felt like it had been written to make some points, rather than as stories.
Now I’ve given up on him. It wouldn’t bother me so much except that I know he is a huge name in Sci-fi and fantasy and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. Sure he has some okay plot ideas at times, but the execution is horrible and sloppy.
Also Murakami. I read Kafka on the Beach and was unable to care about anything or anyone. Then I tried A Wild Sheep Chase. I got to where the main character is having a conversation about what kind of lunch he usually has and I realised that I would rather flush my own head in the toilet than sit through another book full of inane scenes like this and quit the book.
I don’t really love a book other people hates. There are some books, like fx, the Da Vinci Code, that are considered bad that I’ve read and found okay, maybe even enjoyable. Although, after reading through the other posts, maybe I should put A Song of Ice and Fire on the list. I love that series dearly, even when GRRM makes me want to dropkick one of the book of the nearest window.
September 22, 2014 — 4:56 PM
Laura W. says:
1. The Scarlet Letter. I really liked this one. But then, I picked it out of my own volition to see why it had deserved the hateful fury of everyone else in the other American Lit class. I wasn’t forced to read it by The Establishment, so that’s probably why I liked it.
2. Paper Towns by John Green and pretty much anything by John Green. I really want to like John Green — I have TRIED so hard to like his books — because I really like his YouTube personality and his brother’s YouTube show…but man…his books are sentimental drivel.
September 22, 2014 — 6:12 PM
Melinda Davis says:
I loved Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series as well as Joe Cook’s Black Company, and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and I very much enjoyed Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevy. Almost all of my friends hated all of these books. And I do mean hated. The rationale was that none of the characters were likeable. I actually rather disagreed. I liked a lot of the characters in all of these books. I feel like this was ultimately because I’m a lot more tolerant of deeply flawed characters than most people. I’m comfortable liking monsters, and grimdark doesn’t bother me in the least. Does this translate into real life? Not so much. If you are a torturer or murderer, than I’m pretty much all for sending you to jail for a long, long time. But where fiction is concerned, I don’t feel like the same rules need to apply.
September 22, 2014 — 6:38 PM
Terrie says:
1. Love Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I hear a lot of people hate on this book. I love the craftsmanship — from the manipulation of point of view (multiple layered narrators, not a single one of which is capable of understanding Heathcliff) to the gorgeous language. For me, the book asks a big question: if you remove social convention (specifically, conventional ideas of morality and religion), and then pit love versus hate, which will win? Heathcliff is the battleground. Also, I think it’s metaphysical: it’s not romance like Pride and Prejudice is romance, but it is about love and a deep longing for union.
2. Hate is too strong a word, but I never could get into All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. So many people raved about it and I appreciated the beautiful language, but the story line just flat out annoyed me. Too much Western genre cliche for me (and that’s even given that I quite like a lot of Westerns).
September 22, 2014 — 7:16 PM
Rachel says:
I can think of the ones I hated more readily than the ones I loved. I’ll give two of my hates first, and then one of my loves:
Hate1: Game of Thrones. I hated this for two reasons, the first being that I was already deep into the waiting-for-the-next-book angst with Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, and was really not in the mood to go through that with yet another epic fantasy with no apparent end in sight (I made this decision way back when book 2 came out, and I do not regret my decision in that regard, lol) Plus, I had read the first book, and just wasn’t invested enough in any of the characters to be willing to sign on for that interminable slog. As the series became more and more popular, my latent hipsterism took that as cue to change my opinion from “meh” to “blargh!”
Hate2: The Great Gatsby. This book is the reason why I have to mention two books and not just one. I HATE THIS BOOK. WAAARGARRRRBLE HOW I HATE IT. I can’t really articulate the depth of my loathing for this book. Part of it was the whole required reading thing; I REALLY hate being forced to read something that I simply despise, and then being required to talk about it critically when all I could do was froth at the mouth. I’m frothing right now actually…hold on…gimme another minute to calm down a bit…ok I’m good. GATSBY IS A CREEPY MYSOGYNISTIC ASSHOLE. NARRATOR-FUCK-HIS-NAME IS A SOULESS SYCOPHANT. DAISY, POOR DAISY, IS PORTRAYED AS A HEARTLESS SNOB-TRAGIC VICTIM-UNATTAINABLE OBJECT OF DESIRE-MURDERESS. FUCKING MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL LOVE TRIANGLE PEICE OF SHIT PLOT. …
….
You see what I mean. I cannot articulate without frothing.
Now, a book I love that others hate. Stephen R. Donaldson’s second short story anthology “Reeve the Just and Other Tales.” I much prefer his short stories to his novels, though I have enjoyed his Covenant books. Its just that the style and lyricism of his prose sings out much more in his short stories. His shorts deal a lot with the more nuanced grey areas of ethics and power and what is kind and what is cruel. This writing and thematic elements just speak to me more than many other authors I admire. In fact, it would not be a stretch to say that Donaldson, and this book in particular, inspires me to take up my own pen and write. EVERY TIME I READ IT.
…
Definitely not Fitzgerald, thats for sure.
September 22, 2014 — 7:41 PM
Melissa Clare says:
Finally! Someone else who hated Gatsby! Man, that book killed me. I’ve been a book nerd my whole life (like most of us here, I’m sure), so required reading didn’t bother me even if it was older, drier, whatever. But Gatsby 1) the characters all sucked, hated them ALL and 2) seemed like a pale reflection of The Sun Also Rises, where the people are also poorly behaved alcoholics, but had some depth. That said, I keep meaning to re-read Gatsby, if only because Fitzgerald is said to be such a talented writer. I’m going to treat the book as a text on show-don’t-tell, not as something I expect to enjoy…
September 23, 2014 — 12:22 PM
Rachel says:
I cannot even imagine doing that. I have a really REALLY hard time reading things that I dont like. I think its ADHD but if something isnt engaging me I will. Toss. It. Out. I have plies of books and ebooks to read, i don’t feel like wasting time on terrible books, yanno? I am in (perplexed) awe of people who CAN slog through books they hate for whatever reason.
September 23, 2014 — 9:12 PM
Melissa Clare says:
I’m generally not into reading things I don’t like – but I have been known to push myself through something that sucks (e.g. Vanity Fair – the book not the magazine – still don’t know why I read all of that). The exception with Gatsby is really because I’ve read all these examples of how well he shows without telling. It’s possible I’ll only read excerpts though. Or skim. There are so many books to read, so little time…
September 25, 2014 — 4:38 PM
Heidi Skinner says:
Hated Love, Eat, Pray. Lots of people raved about it but the female lead just came across to me as a whiny brat. Tried twice to read Moby Dick. Never could get into that one either. That being said, most books that I don’t like, I simply don’t read. Once in awhile I’ll slog through because it just has to get better but if a book doesn’t grab me in the first couple paragraphs, I’m not wasting my time. Too much great reading material out there. CW turned me onto Steve Vera. LOVE LOVE LOVE!
September 22, 2014 — 7:54 PM
Krista Jo Brooks says:
I absolutely hated Fifty Shades of Grey. It was a horrible book. I was never planning on reading it, but eventually gave in to the shear number of women reading it. The main character is a hipster in the Portland/Vancouver area, wearing skinny jeans and converse, and who reads. How is that “special”. There was nothing good about this book. Nothing.
A book that I loved that other people don’t seem to care about is Jeff Long’s The Descent and the sequel to it. Although, I don’t think people don’t like it so much as they have never heard of it. This is my favorite book! I loan it to friends and always get good feedback. So maybe we just need to start a movement.
September 22, 2014 — 8:34 PM
boydstun215 says:
1. Moby Dick: I’ve always been a fan of sea-faring adventures, but Melville’s novel is so vivid, at times beautiful, at times terrifying, but always enthralling and slightly unsettling. And the insider’s look into the world of 19th century whaling and life on the high seas was fascinating.
2. Pride and Prejudice: I had a hard time with this, not because it isn’t well-written, but because I felt mired in all of the trivialities that the characters continuously fussed over. I really enjoyed other novels that fall under the genre of ‘novel of manners’—Jane Eyre and The Age of Innocence—but the austerity and the oozing pace of the novel were frustrating. Granted, the novel is, in part, a study and a statement about the complexities of socially acceptable behavior in Victorian society—and one needs to bear this in mind when reading—but there was just too much preening and pedantry and I had a hard time taking the characters seriously. I didn’t hate Pride and Prejudice; it just wasn’t my cup ‘o tea.
September 22, 2014 — 8:54 PM
Justine says:
Regarding P&P, your reasons for not liking it are precisely my reasons for liking it.
September 23, 2014 — 1:35 AM
MikeH says:
I hated ‘Ready Player One.’ Fatally overlong, the writing is flat, and it’s way too in love with the so-called cultural touchstones of the ’80s.
As for love, I’m going with the ignored entry in George R.R. Martin’s body of work: ‘The Armageddon Rag.’ Arguably the best thing he’s ever written, but it’s almost impossible to get anyone to give it a shot.
September 22, 2014 — 9:04 PM
angelacavanaugh says:
Before looking at the comments, I just posted how I love Ready Player One (but my guy doesn’t like it). LOL.
September 23, 2014 — 8:37 PM
percykerry923 says:
I love the Hannibal Trilogy by Thomas Harris. Not many people in my booklover’s circuit seem to have read the book, or appreciate the complexity of Hannibal Lecter- psychiatrist, genius, cannibal, culinarian. I love the series because Hannibal Lecter is one of the most complex characters I have ever read in a novel- you can love him, and hate him at the same time.
I hate all cushy-mushy, lovey-dovey romance novellas by Mills&Boons. I have already mentioned my reasons for it in the description of the books, which everybody, especially women, seem to enjoy a lot and even cite M&B as the reason they started reading as well as writing. I mean, come on, I believe in love and romance…but it, in my view, can’t happen the M&B way!
XOXO
September 22, 2014 — 9:22 PM
Ali S says:
Hate, hate, hate the Hannibal trilogy (and the movie of Silence is only tolerable for Jodie Foster). Gratuitous and excessive gore and violence. Red Dragon is the only book I’ve thrown in the trash.
For love: Crime and Punishment. I never thought that such an immense, old fashioned, Russian-original book would be so amazing – I started in order to understand the Raskolnikov references in pop culture. I finish for – surprisingly – te complexity of thr characters whom you could both love and hate. So, one book has a man feed his face to a dog and I hate it, and one has an axe murderer and I love it. It’s all in the treatment of the characters and the audience.
September 23, 2014 — 2:21 PM
Mozette says:
I’ve been reading ‘The Dark Tower’ series. Last year, I read 3 of the books, picked up the 4th one and stopped. I think it’s because I read them one after the other and didn’t give myself a break. But I’m also reading ‘Body Rentals’ by Mark Gardner (yeah the one we all know on here). Then, I’m also poking my nose into ‘Dandelion Wine’ by Ray Bradbury too, just before I turn out the light.
A night little variety of reads I have. 🙂
September 22, 2014 — 9:43 PM
Jaime says:
Alright, I admit, I read The Mortal Instruments and didn’t like it. While I like the concept and the ideas, the execution was somewhat lagging – ok really lagging, in my opinion. The characters annoyed me and the writing wasn’t great. However, everyone seems to like them – not me. As far as a book I love but others hate, hmmmmm, I would have to say my taste in books does differ from some of my friends – they love all these mushy books -which I hate – so I would have to say – The Camel Club Series by David Baldacci – I love the characters and the story line just sucks me in.
September 22, 2014 — 10:21 PM
sporkdelis says:
Ugh! City of Bones and Evermore. Not sure how popular the second one is, but Goodreads gave it a really good review when I was deciding how to spend some well-earned book moneys. It’s the only book I’ve ever read and then returned. I’m generally anti book returning, but I had never read anything that merited more than a simple toss in the give-away bin. It was the whole mysterious-guy-shows-up-and-is-interested-in-ex-popular-girl-with-tragic-back-story-trying-to-pretend-to-be-unpopular-but-he-can-tell-she’s-special-because-FATE thing. Then it got worse.
If City of Bones hadn’t been from the library I would have a book returning habit starting. 300 pages of sad teenagers moping in an invisible mansion. Then a twist ending that merited a quick death for the series, but nooo, they turn it into a movie.
As far as books I love, I’m in the Wuthering Heights group, but I didn’t really come at it expecting it to be a romance. It’s a tragedy.
I also love A Prayer for Owen Meany. I know no one in my class liked it at all. I honestly don’t remember why I liked it so well.
September 22, 2014 — 10:35 PM
Dan Dan The Art Man says:
I loved the novelization of the Wing Commander books (actually I’ve only read the first). I know it’s cheesy but it let me visit that world I love so much from the video games so I love the book. It wasn’t terribly written either. Not as bad as I was expecting anyway.
I hated Robert Heinlien’s Starship Troopers. Most of the book was incredibly boring didactic drivel where the author was simply sharing his political beliefs but I remember like one scene where they used the cool suits. The rest if the book bored me to death and people praise that book to no end. I hated it.
Also I hated 1984 by George Orwell. Everyone raves about it. I get that it has important ideas, but again I was bored to tears. I read a lot of classics that can get pretty boring at times but they still have a good story that interests me. This book was just boring.
September 22, 2014 — 10:56 PM
thilani says:
I’m a picky reader so my hate list is looong 🙂 if the writing/story/characters etc.. don’t grip me by the end of chapter two I call it quits. “Twilight’ is on the list because OMG the terrible, terrible angst, the OTT language, the ROTFL emotion…. Seriously if Bella Swann had grown up and moved from Forks, Washington to Washington State University she could have dropped a few IQ points and become Anastasia Steele – that’s my other pet hate, “Fifty Shades of Grey” . At least Meyer’s writing skills are good, James on the other hand writes like a hormone overloaded twelve year old whose heard of sex but hasn’t ever had it. Her writing is awful, her characters are vapid and I’m terribly afraid of what it means that millions of people have bought this book and seem to like it! and lastly there’s “Game of Thrones”. GRRM is a good writer, I loved ‘Tuf Voyaging” and ‘Armageddon Rag’ and the first book of the Game of Thrones series was wonderful I rushed out and bought the second, but by the time i got to the 4th I was just skipping to the chapters about characters i liked and going what in God’s name happened to turn a tightly written series which was better suited to a trilogy (or maybe quadrilogy- if such a word exists?) into a pointless, self-indulgent behemoth. it’s like he gets paid by the word or something. I mean its book five and bloody Danaery’s still hasn’t reached the coast, going by the current pace, by the time she does and then manages to find ships and gets to the other side its going to be book ten at least.And we’ll still be no wiser as to what happens in the end. I can’t stomach verbal diarrhoea. Cassandra Clare, Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth are on my blacklist too- so much outstanding YA sci-fi and fantasy has come out in the past few years and its the trite and badly written ones that get all the limelight.
Ok on a happier note, my favourites that are not other people’s cup of tea- a lot of people don’t seem to like “The Dark Tower” series and while I’m not a huge fan of Stephen King, I think these books are wonderfully written and crafted (GRRM should go read these and take some notes). As a series they are full of mostly thrilling, sometimes confusing, uncomfortable, sad, funny, and philosophical stuff. and sometimes the writing is so lyrical its like poetry. Gaiman does that too. Anne Bronte’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” is another book no-one seems to like but for its nuanced writing, its characters and the way it addresses issues and topics that were highly controversial, this is my favourite of all the Bronte novels.
September 23, 2014 — 12:45 AM
wendylbolm says:
I hate Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. I have a master’s in English, so I’ve had to listen to so many academics, writers, and hipsters talk to me about how this book changed their lives, when to me it just seemed like a book about privileged white guys being irresponsible and traveling around trying to find parties and excitement when they could be doing something productive with their lives. As a travel lover, the book never succeeded in convincing me that the characters were transcendent and hitting the road for anything besides their selfish need for instant gratification.
I love Byron’s The Giaour. I almost wrote a master’s thesis on it. The story is haunting and a great example of not only the Byronic hero but in the problems inherent in the Byronic hero’s love interest, which is never the kind of woman that he can take home and build a life with; she usually dies and becomes a smouldering obsession within his soul. Over the years, I’ve had a few story ideas rattling around in my head that take a lot of direction from this poem.
September 23, 2014 — 12:50 AM
Richard says:
HATE! ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’, just the most unpleasant, boring, unlikely (why would all the women want to sleep with the protag) ridiculous, weird nasty fantasy fulfilment crap ever, cannot understand why this book conned the whole world into raving about it.
Love ‘Theft: A love Story’ by Peter Carey, love the use of the different voices, the use of words to create something vivid, being drawn in and convinced in by an unlikeable character.
September 23, 2014 — 3:15 AM
Heather Milne Johnson says:
Ha! I completely agree with you on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, especially the women falling all over themselves to have sex with the main character. And if I read one more book where a character is a master “hacker” who can get anything she wants with a couple of clicks of the keyboard I might have a stroke.
September 23, 2014 — 9:40 PM
inadvertentfeminist says:
Hate Wuthering Heights. Hate Jane Eyre. Hate Pride and Prjudice. Pretty much anything Bronte or Austen is Right. Out. I get more than a few strange looks when those come up in conversation. Apparently this makes me a weirdo.
I love Dickens, though, and Steinbeck. I really enjoy ASoIaF, which seems to put me in the minority, here, but then I tend to really enjoy the gratuitously dark and gritty and gory.
September 23, 2014 — 3:32 AM
georgekaltsios says:
1) Couldn’t think of one so I settled for the lowest rated in my Goodreads list. All I have to say is fuck you guys, Tell-All by Palahniuk is a great and funny book.
2) I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to see other people talking shit about the Great Gatsby. That book makes me mad.
September 23, 2014 — 4:01 AM
HP Laptop Service Center In Chennai says:
Awesome post .i hope everybody will like your post
September 23, 2014 — 8:02 AM
zoeblackwood says:
I can’t get into anything by Nicholas Sparks and I love romance, so why? I am not sure, I have tried a few of his books and just can’t get there. It’s probably something wrong with me! He is clearly a writer that has reached the romance pinnacle. Perhaps it is because I like characters that are flawed, busted up (Stephen King writes characters I enjoy) who knows.
A book I loved that some people found MEH was Stephen King’s Eye
of the Dragon, just loved it!
September 23, 2014 — 10:56 AM
kenzyt says:
I really loved Wool by Hugh Howey. To me, it’s an accurate portrayal of a dystopian society and Howey definitely isn’t afraid to kill the main characters–a very valuable trait. But for some reason, people aren’t really into it when I suggest Wool. Maybe it’s the length–it’s a good five hundred page book.
I absolutely hate Hunger Games. I realize that it’s meant to be for teens and young adults, but there just isn’t enough detail for me. Katniss’ character in particular always seemed so distant, like there was so much more that could have been added to define HER as a person, instead of a book character.
September 23, 2014 — 1:20 PM
Savannah says:
Let’s see. I have always felt like I should be more high-brow about what I read, but to be honest I am far to easily distracted to read anything that spends more than one word describing things like dust or rocks (Although I love Grapes of Wrath I felt like killing myself during his many lengthy descriptions of dust.) I don’t care about prose. I want people,emotion, and action. So I love Tess Gerritsen. She writes mystery novels that are easy to read, suspenseful, and because of her history as a doctor, accurate in their depiction of corpses (because I am apparently morbid.) I often feel like people are judging me when they see the book jacket because it advertises the current TV show “Rizzoli and Isles” based on the book series, but you know what? I have no shame. I also loved Wicked by Gregory McGuire, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Mastery by Robert Greene, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and the graphic novels Fables by Bill Willingham.
That aside, I read Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Marukami and at first I felt ripping out the pages out and throwing it into the ocean, but being convinced that I should broaden my horizons I spent months forcing myself to read little bits at a time. Eventually I did finish it and was confused but pleased. I feel the more exposure to new things the better and I think Murakami writes differently than I would have ever thought to.So it managed to be a book I both liked and disliked.
September 23, 2014 — 3:24 PM
J.J says:
I hate hate hate Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I don’t find being trapped with two asshats tripping balls for an entire book enjoyable. No. Hate that book. And Girl with A Dragon Tattoo. I didn’t even finish it I was so bored.
And I loved the Count of Monte Cristo, but every person I ever showed the book too was like ‘Uh, that’s so boring.’ I read it in about two or three days in high school, but the only person who didn’t show disgust was my English teacher. (This may simply have been a symptom of his delight that I was reading an unassigned book, not a reflection of his opinion on the book.)
September 23, 2014 — 4:26 PM
Ashlee says:
1. HATE: Books I despise with active, seething hatred: DaVinci Code, Eat, Pray, Love, and anything Ayn Rand
2. LOVE: Book I love for which everyone seems to roll their eyes: Foucault’s Pendulum
September 23, 2014 — 4:37 PM
Charlene says:
I don’t know if hate is the right word for it but I have tried to get throught “Practical Magic” by Alice Hoffman four time. I simplely cannot do it. I love the move, which is VERY unusual for me. 99% of the time I will choose the book over the movie. But in this case I don’t know what it is? I want to try to find a copy at a garage sale and try reading it backwards. Maybe then I will manage to get through it someday.
For a love it has to be “The Cell” by Stephen King. Again this is VERY unusual for me because I hate hate hate anything to do with zombies. But The Cell reminded me of my sons obsession with his cell phone. (At the time he even slept with it in his hand). Plus we had just been snowed in for what turned out to be three months and it was the only book in the house I hadn’t read yet, so I gave it a shot. I couldn’t put it down. I admit, it made me all that more worried about my son, but it was a wonderful book. I still hate zombies.
September 23, 2014 — 4:56 PM
Robin Storey says:
I couldn’t get into Pride and Prejudice – I tried a couple of times but I just couldn’t get interested in the story – maybe my literary palate has been spoilt by contemporary fiction where things actually happen.
As for books I’ve loved – someone else mentioned A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving – I don’t know if it’s had a bad rap but I loved it. And also Eat, Pray, Love – while it was a bestseller it’s also had a lot of bad reviews – ‘self indulgent, whiny,’ etc but that didn’t strike me as I was reading it, and I found it really enjoyable.
September 23, 2014 — 6:32 PM
angelacavanaugh says:
I really like relaxed prose with great, interspersed world building. I’m reading Ready Player One right now and loving it. I’ve read several other books recently that remind me of it, (style wise) including: atopia, wool (sorta), influx, and nexus. I have super enjoyed these books and I feel like reading them has made me a better writer.
But, my boyfriend doesn’t like them. He hated Wool, didn’t care for Cyber Storm (by the same author as Atopia), and overheard a little while I was listening to Ready Player One, and didn’t like it, either. He says for him, it’s too much listing stuff. I get the impression that, for him, the train of though wanders to far and things sometimes feel extraneous.
As for books that I didn’t like that others did: Twilight, Harry Potter, 50 Shades of Gray. To be fair, I didn’t really read any of those. I got a little bit into 50 Shades, it amused me at first, but as soon as the characters got down to business, I lost interest. Twilight and Harry Potter I would open in line at the store and glance at, and the writing style just didn’t speak to me.
September 23, 2014 — 8:28 PM
Heather Milne Johnson says:
I couldn’t stand The Secret History by Donna Tartt. The characters were unbelievable and insufferable. They were all so highbrow that in one scene were they wanted to watch tv (I can’t remember why) none of them had one and they were all clueless as to how much one would cost. Because they were so obsessed with beauty and Greek and incest that they barely knew what a tv was. Sure. I can’t believe they weren’t all murdered.
A book that I love, love, love and that others, while not seeming to hate it, don’t seem to know it exists either is Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis. The first lines are “Elmer Gantry was drunk. He was eloquently drunk, lovingly and pugnaciously drunk.” How could you not love a book that begins like that??? Especially when it’s about a preacher. I really feel Sinclair Lewis is completely overlooked as a great American author. I’m looking at you, Hemingway! *shakes fist*
September 23, 2014 — 9:56 PM
magicant2000 says:
I found Kavalier and Clay impossible to get through. I tried three times and eventually gave up about halfway through it.
Love Dave Barry’s novels (Tricky Business and Big Trouble). For some reason, I prefer his sense of humor in fiction form.
September 24, 2014 — 2:26 AM
Will Belacqua says:
Loved: Anything by Faulkner. When I say that, most people stare at me as if I sprouted testicles from my forehead.
Hated: I really, really, just can’t stand Tolkien. He’s a creative genius and I love that about him and his creations, but… his style (especially in LoTR over Hobbit) is just not for me. It drags too much, and I feel like he cares more about plot than character development. So… yeah. (On a slightly related note, my SO loves the movies and gets on me for not liking Tolkien. As my SO isn’t a big reader, I dared him to try to read the books and he said he’d rather not ruin the movies for himself, haha)
September 24, 2014 — 7:32 AM
gilmiller says:
Keep in mind that Hobbit and more especially LOTR aren’t about character development–they’re about the setting and the overall story. You’re encouraged to explore Middle-earth, not Frodo’s motivations. I sweet this as a huge fan of both (The Hobbit is the reason I’m a reader/writer), so I have a tough time understanding not liking them. But to each their own.
September 24, 2014 — 3:02 PM
Ashlee Jade says:
I don’t really finish books that I don’t enjoy, it’s just so much work and my ‘to read’ list is too long to spend the time slogging through something I hate when the next book could be the most awesome piece of literature ever. Although I god maybe a chapter or so into ‘Mortal Instruments’ before setting it way, way aside. I did own a physical copy, but have no clue where it is. I don’t seem to be alone in this, it’s not the world’s most awful book, but it’s probably the most popular book that I’ve picked up, gone “nope”, and set it back down again. My reason… It seemed, amateurish. Maybe my perception is warped somehow, but to me it read like something written by a sixteen year old, and not in the way YA is supposed to sound like something written by a sixteen year old. It was like some moody teenager sat down to write a half decent story for English class and decided to put a touch of wish fulfillment and killing monsters in there for good measure. The plot seemed derived and predictable (although I didn’t get very far, just from what I saw), and the prose itself was clunky and forced. But enough ranting…
The book I love is Nod by Adrian Barnes. This is less of an ‘everyone hates it but me’ type of thing and more of either ‘no-one on this godforsaken world has heard of it’ or ‘it’s split precisely down the middle, you’re either going to love it with a dark, twisted passion or loath it with the innermost bile of your dried-out, joyless soul’. Yeah, I love this book. It rakes its fingers through my hair, weaves sudden chills down my spine, it stops me short and pulls me up by my scalp, it strips me of my skin and runs electric currents through my bones, and that ending, oh my fucking god, that ending punches me in the goddamned throat every single time. And it doesn’t apologize for a second. I totally understand people who don’t like it. It’s pretentious in places, crude in others, but for the most part gives a big old middle finger to political correctness. It’s a slap in the face and a kick to the gut, but I love that motherfucker of a book, even if it will never love me back.
September 24, 2014 — 11:56 AM
Melissa Clare says:
You give one hell of a book review. Now I may HAVE to read Nod.
September 25, 2014 — 4:40 PM
Ashlee Jade says:
Please do, more people should, just for the experience. That’s just my opinion. If you don’t mind a little self-promotion here, I wrote a more in-depth review of Nod on my blog not long ago, it gives slightly more detail as to what you’re in for.
September 26, 2014 — 1:24 PM
gilmiller says:
Hate: So far, anything literary/classic. And God knows I’ve tried. I named to slog through Dracula and Frankenstein but I won’t read them again. Catch-22 bored me to tears. I didn’t finish it. Catcher in the Rye couldn’t make me care about the protagonist. I’ve never even attempted Moby Dick. And as far as literary, I prefer my stories actually go somewhere and do something. Guess that’s why I write crime fiction.
Love: I’d have to say The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, The Stand, and It are highly influential, as is L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais. But these only top a long list of influences across many genres, because everything I read influences me as a writer.
I’d have to say I love a good discussion like this, too
September 24, 2014 — 3:40 PM
Kat says:
I can’t think of any books I actively despise – just a long list of “meh” reads (anything Dan Brown, Twilight, The Fault in Our Stars, etc.) I feel like I’m going to be flayed alive for speaking this heresy in the presence of fellow nerds, but…I did not enjoy A Wrinkle in Time at all. I tried. I’ve read it three times, decades apart, and nope…still not getting it. I didn’t develop any connection with the characters and didn’t care about what happened to them. I remember really liking the dancing mitochondria in the 3rd book (when I read it in grade school) because I was a big biology nerd, but haven’t re-read anything past the first book yet.
The book I love is All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson. It’s not one of his best, but I read it at the right time in my life that it resonated strongly with me, and it’s my comfort food book. I love the way Gibson spins words together, and makes me curious to tag along with people who are so different from my experience as to be alien to me. I love San Francisco on a visceral level, and I love Gibson’s version of it even more. It’s teetering on the edge of a dystopian future, but I still want to visit.
September 24, 2014 — 6:01 PM
silence says:
my uncle lent me John Grisham’s Bleachers which I can’t stand. At least it was short so I didn’t waste too much time on it. But basically a 30 year old loser remembering how much better he had it in high school.
September 25, 2014 — 3:00 AM
teaandbones says:
Hate: Wuthering Heights. Tried it a few times, and I usually like anything Bronte sisters, but I found it difficult to sit through and had to force myself through most of it.
Also hate Mortal Instruments. I like the concept of things in the series, like the action/fantasy of it all, but it was just poorly executed. Really enjoyed Infernal Devices, though.
Loved: Handmaiden’s Tale. Seriously, could not get over the hate this book received. I understand questioning the author’s intent when reading something, but when it comes down to it: I’m not going to let the author’s intent get in the way of whether I enjoy the book/poem/story or not.
Divergent series. Hated the movie. It was ridiculous. However, as far as dystopian YA goes, Roth WENT THERE. Transitions were clear, she made it feel like the things that happened were the only way they could happen. When I’m not sitting there yelling at the couple to “wrap it up” and not having to rethink how everything should have happened in order for the story TO MAKE SENSE, *cough cough Mortal Instruments* I count it successful.
September 25, 2014 — 9:10 AM
Opal says:
Love: the Catcher in the Rye. Most people I know say it’s just a bunch of whining and annoys the crap out of them, my husband even paraphrases it as “Whaa, wha,phony, waaaaaaaaaa!”, but I adore this book. I think everyone has moments of seemingly unjustifiable angst and this book encompasses those times so well. Speaking as someone who spent childhood and teenage years angry with next to nada to pinpoint as the cause for such resentment and disappointment in the world at large, this book is like a warm hug from a kindred spirit.
Hate: The Sword of Truth and its entire series.Too many cliches, too many stark divides, and so much goddamn rape. Rape on the left, rape to the right, and if you don’t watch out a barb-spiked demon cock will rip out your innards! I liked a lot of the ideas and loved the world built in it, but when every bad guy, every negative consequence, and every horror to be feared comes back to rape, it’s just too much. A rape based economy does not a novel make. Try some non-sexual torture and platonic power/death rampages, just a hint.
September 26, 2014 — 8:30 PM
OzFenric says:
Right with you on the Terry Goodkind… Apart from the rape (and torture, don’t forget the torture, Goodkind certainly didn’t) there was the increasingly blatant tendency to write sociological essays and have Richard state them verbatim. They weren’t even particularly good sociological essays.
September 27, 2014 — 1:28 AM
Lizaskew says:
I can not STOP with the vampire stories. There are lots of seriously derivative ones, I’m not talking about those (and I refuse to do Twilight). I’m talking about the Anne Rices, the one by George RR Martin, the Sookie Stackhouse books, OH, and Christopher Moore’s “Bloodsucking Fiends” series is top of the heap stuff! It’s a very guilty pleasure. I usually tell no one, it feels like a terrible secret.
Hate: Is it me, or does 50 Shades Of Grey read as though it was written by a 15 year old who does nothing but watch Soaps all day? I honestly wish someone would tell that girl to just take her money and shut up already.
And has anyone read Red Rising??? I almost broke out in anger hives while trying to read that big, obvious pile of Marketing Strategy. It was Hunger Games with a different accent and a little Steampunk thrown in for extra publisher appeal. The author copied Hunger Games in pretty exacting detail in many ways, and very frequently, right after the HG’s hit the big screen. And it had such a pretty cover and compelling dustcover synopsis! What a devious lie. That one should have just represented its self as the fan fiction it was and stayed on a blog for people who don’t mind reading pale versions of the same exact thing over and over again, or awful “golden boy” tropes.
September 26, 2014 — 10:59 PM
H.D. Lynn says:
1.) What book do you love that other people seem to hate?
I didn’t loathe Twilight. I read the first book early on, when the series wasn’t the one word punchline it is now. I love paranormal in general, too, which seems to be a genre that gets a lot of hate in general.
2.) What book do you hate that other people seem to love?
The Passage. GOD. Couldn’t finish it and was actively rooting for the characters to die 1/3 of the way through before I gave up. Bill Bryson is another author I don’t like that others seem to love.
September 29, 2014 — 4:19 PM