Nix
🤪
Inspired by the movie thread. What books have you read that just simply were not as good as you expected them to be?
For me Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol. Anne Rice, Pandora.
For me Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol. Anne Rice, Pandora.
Books that disappointed you!
- Thread starter Nix
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Skanky Vamp
Sniffin' the Slayer
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Miss Peregrine's Home for the Peculiar Children was a huge disappointement, it had an awesome premise, but a very poor execution and an unlikeable protagonist.
Lord of the Rings. I disliked the books, which I read after seeing the movies and reading the Hobbit, both of which I loved. But LotR, I judt couldn't get into it. I was yiung though, and read them in French. Maybe if I were to go back with a more mature take and read them in English I might appreciate them more. But they're long books so I don't see myself revisiting them anytime soon.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I love the writer, so I expected to love this book. It was okay, still above average compared to most books, but it was very flat, and didn't feel like a Waters book.
Lord of the Rings. I disliked the books, which I read after seeing the movies and reading the Hobbit, both of which I loved. But LotR, I judt couldn't get into it. I was yiung though, and read them in French. Maybe if I were to go back with a more mature take and read them in English I might appreciate them more. But they're long books so I don't see myself revisiting them anytime soon.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I love the writer, so I expected to love this book. It was okay, still above average compared to most books, but it was very flat, and didn't feel like a Waters book.
Skanky Vamp
Sniffin' the Slayer
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Mr Trick
Scooby
I hated the film too, just so self-indulgent with barely any plot to speak of.
Lunar Park - Pretty lame Bret Easton Ellis novel and proof that he was starting to run out of ideas. I actually find Less Than Zero a bit limited too, but then that might just have been because I read it after the greatness of American Psycho, Glamorama, and The Rules of Attraction
thetopher
Member of the Church Of Faith
Anything by Dan Brown. Da Vinci Code- I can't even. The guy can't write for crap.
Blaze
Thank you! I could never even finish one of his book. I hate his writing style
Fuffy Baith
I loved The Da Vinci Code when i read it. Movie was a disappointment.
GwenRaiden
AKA Apology Girl
I second Dan Brown. Also my mom bought me a book to read at Halloween (because I had mentioned I was looking for one) called Murder House by James Patterson. Formulaic bad writing. If it wasn't a gift I wouldn't have finished it.
I guess Twilight goes without saying.
I guess Twilight goes without saying.
thetopher
Member of the Church Of Faith
Yes. James Patterson is also highly over-rated.
He's known primarily for his 'plot twist's' but a lot of them are nonsense/unbelievable. Also his dialogue is wooden. I've never been able to finish one of those 'Alex Cross' novels.
He's known primarily for his 'plot twist's' but a lot of them are nonsense/unbelievable. Also his dialogue is wooden. I've never been able to finish one of those 'Alex Cross' novels.
All of Murakami
Theodore Dreiser - An American Tragedy
Bujold's new Captain Vorpatril's Alliance - maybe i shouldn't (re) read some authors i liked as a teen 🙁
Especially if they're like Piers Anthony's Xanth series i loved as a kid. I didnt see it until ppl pointed it out how super misogynist and rapey they are.
Agree about the Da Vinci Code, it's a piece of crap lying in wait, and i want back the thirty minutes of my life i wasted on it. (Other books of his i haven't tried to read)
Theodore Dreiser - An American Tragedy
Bujold's new Captain Vorpatril's Alliance - maybe i shouldn't (re) read some authors i liked as a teen 🙁
Especially if they're like Piers Anthony's Xanth series i loved as a kid. I didnt see it until ppl pointed it out how super misogynist and rapey they are.
Agree about the Da Vinci Code, it's a piece of crap lying in wait, and i want back the thirty minutes of my life i wasted on it. (Other books of his i haven't tried to read)
Mr Trick
Scooby
[QUOTE="Wildfly, post: 1165853, member: 13235"]All of Murakami
Theodore Dreiser - An American Tragedy
Bujold's new Captain Vorpatril's Alliance - maybe i shouldn't (re) read some authors i liked as a teen 🙁
Especially if they're like Piers Anthony's Xanth series i loved as a kid. I didnt see it until ppl pointed it out how super misogynist and rapey they are.
Agree about the Da Vinci Code, it's a piece of crap lying in wait, and i want back the thirty minutes of my life i wasted on it. (Other books of his i haven't tried to read)[/QUOTE]
Really? I read After Dark and thought it was fantastic? I loved his style with prose, and the character depth, and how there was so much mood, and things held back which made you want to read on. Not read anymore, but would like to?
Shitting on stuff like the Da Vinci Code is like hitting truner in a barrel. Of course its overrated, but then the nature of books as communical products more than ever caters to people who just want an easy read, or something which makes them look fashionable. You have to remember that a lot of the Dan Brown readership probably don't read anything else.
Theodore Dreiser - An American Tragedy
Bujold's new Captain Vorpatril's Alliance - maybe i shouldn't (re) read some authors i liked as a teen 🙁
Especially if they're like Piers Anthony's Xanth series i loved as a kid. I didnt see it until ppl pointed it out how super misogynist and rapey they are.
Agree about the Da Vinci Code, it's a piece of crap lying in wait, and i want back the thirty minutes of my life i wasted on it. (Other books of his i haven't tried to read)[/QUOTE]
Really? I read After Dark and thought it was fantastic? I loved his style with prose, and the character depth, and how there was so much mood, and things held back which made you want to read on. Not read anymore, but would like to?
Shitting on stuff like the Da Vinci Code is like hitting truner in a barrel. Of course its overrated, but then the nature of books as communical products more than ever caters to people who just want an easy read, or something which makes them look fashionable. You have to remember that a lot of the Dan Brown readership probably don't read anything else.
vellavu
Scooby
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- Oct 17, 2015
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- 3,114
Murakami's novels vary in quality very very wildly.
When he tried to be "epic" using his formula of post-war trauma + sociopathic protagonist + traditional mythology based alternate dimensions, they suck. Examples: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, Kafka on the Beach.
When he did not try so hard to achieve his dream of "writing as great a novel as The Brothers Karamazov" (his own words) and just be himself, he was a very good writer. Examples: After Dark, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.
To spare this list some lenght I'm just going to mention books that I started out having hopes for 🙂
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman, couldn't even bother finish it.
Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children - second what Blaze said
The Island of Dr. Moreau - HG Wells - I was really disappointed in this one, which saddened me because I had longed to read it.
The Book Thief - Zusak guy -hackneyed, repetitive and utterly unimaginative, why was this popular?
Love in the time of cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ugh... UGH! So glad I got it from the library and didn't buy it. If I had I would've had to make a bonfire. Is there some universal rule where you love a book from an author and when you read something else by them it is mind-numbingly terrible?
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman, couldn't even bother finish it.
Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children - second what Blaze said
The Island of Dr. Moreau - HG Wells - I was really disappointed in this one, which saddened me because I had longed to read it.
The Book Thief - Zusak guy -hackneyed, repetitive and utterly unimaginative, why was this popular?
Love in the time of cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ugh... UGH! So glad I got it from the library and didn't buy it. If I had I would've had to make a bonfire. Is there some universal rule where you love a book from an author and when you read something else by them it is mind-numbingly terrible?
brinkster130
Oh no! The Book Thief is on my reading list....bummed to hear you didn't like it.
"Really? I read After Dark and thought it was fantastic? "
Have a deadline so i am a bit busy, cant answer at length, but i dislike Murakami's style. He is too pretentious for my taste. There is only one author who can write as an ambitious super-teenager and i will still love him and it's Nabokov.
Have a deadline so i am a bit busy, cant answer at length, but i dislike Murakami's style. He is too pretentious for my taste. There is only one author who can write as an ambitious super-teenager and i will still love him and it's Nabokov.
Mr Trick
Scooby
Interesting because someone I spoke to the other night Recommended Kafka on the Beach, or at least I think that was the one, will double check. Do you Norwigan Wood? Because she wasn't a big fan of that.
vellavu
Scooby
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Murakami has a line of "epic" novels in which each one repeats the last one in terms of concepts and his formula, but is more polished. He wanted to get the lifetime achievement of his own"The Brothers Karamazov" via this line: A Wild Sheep Chase -> Dance, Dance, Dance -> Wind-Up Bird Chronicle -> Kafka on the Beach -> 1Q84.
I don't know whether he finally gave up or not. But none of them are to my taste.
Norwigan Wood is a novel written by Murakami, but not a Murakami book. He just tried to step out of his turf and write a popular romance novel that happened to sell very well. It's just yet another romance novel with some fine details and symbolism. Nothing interesting or special.
brinkster130
Riley's BFF
So many....but off the top of my head:
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - over hyped. The book had potential but somehow totally missed the mark.
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gillbert - if you embellish a memoir is it really still a memoir? Also, so boring.
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - I so wanted to like this book and the concept and story are cool but I didn't like the writing and the choppy time flashes were distracting. Made a decent movie though.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - over hyped. The book had potential but somehow totally missed the mark.
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gillbert - if you embellish a memoir is it really still a memoir? Also, so boring.
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - I so wanted to like this book and the concept and story are cool but I didn't like the writing and the choppy time flashes were distracting. Made a decent movie though.
Taake
The Book Thief had some redeeming qualities, but it was over-hyped for me.
weaker slayer
Potential
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The Game of Thrones (books)
By George R.R. Martin
The problem I have with him as a writer, is the fact he writes so much about the same topic. Better way to say it, he is starting to copy himself to a point that it feels like he is plagiarizing his own works. His characters that are having adult sex are teenagers or pre-teen and HBO was not willing to get that low with following the books. He has a very poor understanding with women, and only thinks of them having babies or talking in a negative about their breasts.
I thought Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922) was depressing reading ... with George R.R. Martin ... you have depressed me enough and please stop writing.
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Go Set a Watchman (2015)
I am sorry for the author that is such poor health that she could not have stopped the publishing of her first ruff draft book called "Go Set a Watchman" that came out in July 2015. Harper Lee has become a canon writer for high school reading. With this book, there is real debate going on with the English departments across America to remove her from the canon list with this very bad book.
By George R.R. Martin
The problem I have with him as a writer, is the fact he writes so much about the same topic. Better way to say it, he is starting to copy himself to a point that it feels like he is plagiarizing his own works. His characters that are having adult sex are teenagers or pre-teen and HBO was not willing to get that low with following the books. He has a very poor understanding with women, and only thinks of them having babies or talking in a negative about their breasts.
I thought Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922) was depressing reading ... with George R.R. Martin ... you have depressed me enough and please stop writing.
-----------
Go Set a Watchman (2015)
I am sorry for the author that is such poor health that she could not have stopped the publishing of her first ruff draft book called "Go Set a Watchman" that came out in July 2015. Harper Lee has become a canon writer for high school reading. With this book, there is real debate going on with the English departments across America to remove her from the canon list with this very bad book.
Wildfly
I was so ready to like GoT and was so disappointed :(