We’ve all been there: Your dear ol’ aunt tells you about a wonderful book. You pick up it and read it. Read the full post.
Dec 15
2009
01:42 PM ET
What book do you regret reading?
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The Road… I got through about 1/4 of the book and haven’t picked it up since. Oprah tricked me!
oprah is kinda my hint for a book – if she recommends it, I generally won’t read something unless someone else I know has read it…two words…James Frey
I thought it was just me! I just ended up skimming it, I didnt connect with the story at all.
yeah, i could only get through the first 50 pages, and then I sold it to a local used bookstore.
ITA – Oprah’s picks are always horrendous. Can I also randomly say that I really hated On the Road.
Yeah, my sister thought it was boring. I thought so too, but I stuck it out.
Adam Bede.
American Psycho. I was like Joey from “Friends.” I slept on the second floor of my parent’s house and had to put that book in the basement!
Totally agree! That book freaked me out and had me looking over my shoulder constantly thinking I was going to be attacked at any moment.
American Psycho was the first book I thought of. Revolting. A few pages of amusing social commentary drowned in sea of lovingly detailed, nauseating violence.
Totally agree on American Psycho. It seemed like Ellis was trying to be edgy and provide commentary on the consumer culture of the 80′s. He just came across as trying to hard to be shocking. Like Marilyn Manson.
Tom Wolfe’s “I Am Charlotte Simmons.” Filled with incredible inaccuracies about party life, making friends, dating, and being a “new kid on the block” and filled with ridiculous cliches to hammer the points home. The book was over 800 pages and said almost nothing. What a waste of time.
Callie, you are so right. I hated this book! It was chock full of cliches!
Agreed, this book was not good at all. I thought that “Prep” by Curtis Sittenfeld was a better and more current version of the same type of story.
Yes, yes, yes! My friend recommended it and I had such a hard time getting through it. It was so long and shallow.
Bonfire Of The Vanities – Tom Wolfe. Worst book ever, and made into a horrible movie.
The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, horrible book with no ending or resolution, it is for you to ponder!
yes, I “love” stephen kings endings. If you could ever really call em that. Read his new book, it will make you want to do bad things to yourself, not the whole book but just the last 200 pages of a 1000 page book.
Stephen King was much better in the 70s and early 80s.
Her Fearful Symmetry. Awful, especially after being blown away by the Time Traveler’s Wife.
Anything by Gregory Maguire. i read ‘Wicked’ (to see what the hype was about) and loathed every page, then had to read ‘Mirror, Mirror’ for a book club and was miserable all over again.
I was just going to add ‘Wicked’! I love the Wizard of Oz and was very excited to see it from a different perspective. While it raises really interesting questions about how we perceive what is good and what isn’t, I thought it was overly/unecessarily sexual. I haven’t seen the musical, but I want to, since I’ve heard that it is much different (and better) than the book.
The musical is both better and different from the book. And there’s singing!
The musical is amazing! I call it the Disney version of the book (I haven’t read it, but my sister has and said that it was very different).
Agree with “Wicked” pick. I just thought it was way more boring than I was expecting from a new take on Wizard of Oz. Very dry.
Oh yes, Wicked is awful! Such a good premise lost in bad writing. My husband was going to get me the next book in the series and I told him not to bother. I just didn’t care.
I agree! An impossible read but such a great idea. I also tried to read “A Lion Among Men” and skimmed the last 200 pages looking for the point of me reading it before giving up on the end.
Yes, yes! I was waiting for someone to add Wicked. How come every time something was about to happen the story would jump forward several years? And it had a frightening number of references to genitalia, which was especially disturbing because I was listening to some proper Englishman read it as I drove back and forth from Portland to Seattle planning my wedding.
Yeah, the sexual references throughout the book were just bizarre and unnecessary. The book could easily done without all of it, and would have probably been better.
Loved Wicked, but Mirror, Mirrror was truly awful.
Breaking Dawn. It was so horrible!! If my husband were to cut my c section with his teeth, my sex life would be severely disturbed. Not to mention the atrocious writing and cheesy ending.
“but… its sexy!!!
DARN YOU for not understanding Edward’s hotness!!!!!”
This is what smeyer’s response to that would be
I agree. It was disturbing. I never knew Bella was so kinky.
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. I spent nearly three months in grade 9 studying this book with my English class. Three months! That’s enough parsing and dissection to ruin even the greatest piece of literature. Add to that the ponderous subject matter (could 15-year-olds be any less interested in the rigors of aging and taking care of one’s elderly parents?) and you had three seriously horrid months.
The exact same thing happened to me with Frankenstein. By the time I was through high school and college I had been forced to read and analyze that book four times. By the time I was writing my fourth essay on the importance of education as a humanizing element in Frankenstein, I was done. It’s a pity too, because I really did like it the first time.
“Running with Scissors.” When it was made into a movie and got good reviews, I decided to read it. I even suggested it as a book club choice for my mom’s club. Half way through it, I told the other moms not to bother. I finished it, but regret the time I lost on this one.
Haven’t read this one, but I did enjoy the movie. Did you ever watch the film? I could see how would have been a dull read.
I could barely get through the book or the film. (Though if I had to pick, I’d say the film was worse).
From high school, Return of the Native. Can’t stand chick-lit like Devil Wears Prada, Shopaholic, etc. Couldn’t get into TimeKeeper’s wife either. I also had a hard time with Gregory MacGuire’s Wicked and all of his books. Lost symbol was not good compared to Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and DaVinci Code, but it was as good as his other works.
I completely agree about The Lost Symbol. I had such high hopes, and it just really fell short.
The Lost Symbol was one I had to throw against the wall when I was done. So boring!
Let’s see….I’ve read a ton of books, but I can say the ones I regretted reading would have to be “the dark tower,” Stephen Kings final book in the series and Robert Jordans “wheel of time,” after the 6th or 7th book. Dark tower because the ending was just awful, so bad. Wheel of time, mostly becuase the last 4 or 5 books are so mind numbingly boring that they make me want to hurt myself. Oh, and twilight, all of them.
The Dark Tower was a total waste of time! Urrrg! Wish I could have those few months of my life back I wasted reading the entire series!
“Taking Flight”. Oh my goodness. I hated almost everyone in that book. The heroine was such a childish self indugent immoral whiner. I am so sorry I read that book.
Yes, but now that our society is populated by “childish self indugent immoral whiners” books like this will not only continue to be written, but flourish!
Kate, i agree with you. Suzzane Diary for Nicholas is not very good. My friends obsessed on how much they cried reading but i find it quite predictable and tedious.