|
After finishing all of my other Christmas books, I turned with trepidation to Digital Fortress. I found confirmation that Dan Brown is to research as Adolf Hitler was to promoting Jewish welfare. I have gotten about 40% of the way in and given up in contemptuous disgust at the idiotic chapter structure, cretinous characterisation, terrible technical errors, and god-awful writing style. You may argue that the story races along, but so does a dog turd atop the bullet train and with much more pleasant consequences for innocent bystanders. I predict the next Dan Brown novel will feature a handsome, multilingual scholar with a beautiful, brilliant woman on his hip being pursued around a famous tourist destination by an assassin with an obvious disfigurement. They will attempt to solve a dastardly plot involving a poorly-researched piece of technology/historical conundrum as the man who assigned them the mission will secretly be plotting their failure. In the end, Dan Brown is millions of dollars richer and the average IQ of his readers will have dropped another ten points.
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2010 21:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 15:58 |
|
|
Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa. It's all kinds of famous and popular and is the probable inspiration for dozens if not hundreds of other works. I got about two thirds of the way through before putting it aside in disgust. The author just couldn't seem to make up his mind about how his characters felt. One moment they'd be contemptuous of their opponent, and the next they'd be quivering in fear. Without any reason at all for the change. Indeed, without even indicating that is was a change in the character's attitude. I had to read Invisible Man for school. It was the only book I've ever been tempted to get the cliff notes for. I hate mistreating books, but every time I see it in a bookstore I want to pull it off the shelf and burn it on the spot.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2010 03:50
|
|
|
Stultus Maximus posted:drat. After reading this and other posts, I'll put Unseen Academicals with Eric in "so poorly reviewed I won't even get it for completeness". UA really seemed like he had a lot of ideas he wanted to do before he couldn't do them. It's a mashup of a lot of interesting and funny stuff, but it's unfortunately not as structured or coherent as most of his work.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2010 04:02
|
|
|
theradiostillsucks posted:I feel the same way after making three separate attempts. The last attempt, and also the one that went the furthest, I made it to the space rastas at which point I had to continually resist the urges to both cringe and sigh at a nerdy white man writing about rasta culture in space. Case is also a really unlikeable protagonist to the point that you just wish he'd overdose and die already instead of moping around. It's funny how subjective these things are. Gibson's works are definitely amongst my favorite when it comes to cyberpunk (he pretty much invented the category, if not being its most important contributor), and especially the Neuromancer is also amongst my favorite books overall. I've read it over and over throughout the years and never really felt I had enough of it. The last book I just couldn't get through was an academic's philosophical study about early Christianity called "The secret of Christ". It had various points I found brilliant, though it went through topics I wasn't that interested on.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2010 07:38
|
|
|
A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell is another book I can't get through. I really love the book but right around the enlightenment something changes in his writing and I get bored, I've read the beginning of this book more often than I should have for not having made to the end.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2010 09:24
|
|
|
Murr posted:It's funny how subjective these things are. Gibson's works are definitely amongst my favorite when it comes to cyberpunk (he pretty much invented the category, if not being its most important contributor), and especially the Neuromancer is also amongst my favorite books overall. I've read it over and over throughout the years and never really felt I had enough of it. Don't get me wrong, I know it's a landmark book that established an entire set of aesthetics that future writers would plunder and mine for inspiration. I had an English/Film instructor one time who laid out what I feel to be a pretty solid set of criteria when considering anything critically by posing three questions: Is it good (i.e. well-written, creative, etc.)? Is it important (i.e. a landmark or a work that is significant in some way)? Do I like it? Using those criteria I would judge Neuromancer like so: Good: Debatable. Definitely not for me, but I know I'm in the minority of those who have read (or attempted to read) it. Important: You bet. It is to cyberpunk what a film like The Road Warrior is to the post-apocalypse. Do I like it: Nope.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2010 20:22
|
|
|
I started the His Dark Materials trilogy shortly after the movie came out. I finished The Golden Compass in a few days. I've been working on The Subtle Knife ever since. I'll read half a chapter, get bored, put it down and won't pick it up for months. I just picked it up again after about 10 months and continued on. Knocked out about 50 pages today, so that's the most I've done in one go on this garbage for awhile. Is the third book any better? Should I soldier on and finish the series? The second book seems so different from the first and I'm just not enjoying it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2010 04:50
|
|
|
I'm going to say don't continue with it if you're bored and think it's garbage. You're plain loving wrong, but, it is a middle book, and it does introduce two entirely new worlds with all its characters and motivations and connections, which does slow things down a bit.
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2010 13:18
|
|
|
I'd agree with SaviourX that you shouldn't continue if you're bored, but I can't imagine why you think The Subtle Knife is such horrible garbage. The whole trilogy is very compelling and beautifully written, IMO. That said, if you don't like the second I can't imagine you will like the third.
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2010 19:54
|
|
|
Cerebral Wolf posted:I have to admit, i also gave up with The Road about half way into it. I just found it mind numbingly boring. Cormac McCarthy is definatly not for me it seems. The book just didn't grip me at all. I had so many people recommend The Road, against my better judgment I bought it. I made it 1/4 of the way in and it felt more like work that anything I'd enjoy. It just droned on so boringly it's the first book I've bought that I doubt I'll ever finish.
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2010 20:38
|
|
|
Gay4BluRayz posted:I started the His Dark Materials trilogy shortly after the movie came out. I finished The Golden Compass in a few days. I've been working on The Subtle Knife ever since. I'll read half a chapter, get bored, put it down and won't pick it up for months. I just picked it up again after about 10 months and continued on. Knocked out about 50 pages today, so that's the most I've done in one go on this garbage for awhile. Is the third book any better? Should I soldier on and finish the series? The second book seems so different from the first and I'm just not enjoying it. I liked The Subtle Knife but there are a reasonable number of people - myself included - who think that that The Amber Spyglass is a bit of a letdown. Not out-and-out bad, but a bit untidy, forced and heavyhanded. So, I'd suggest that you should cut your losses. Maybe revisit the book later and it might strike you better.
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2010 21:06
|
|
|
Anna Karenina. I've TRIED I SWEAR
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2010 07:01
|
|
|
The Machine posted:Always cracked me the gently caress up (and made me groan) when I read that the protagonist's name in Snow Crash is, well, Hiro Protagonist. The Hiro Protagonist thing gets brought up a lot in regards to Snow Crash, but having read the book i've never really understood peoples problem with it. It states early on that it's a name Hiro has given himself and it ties in with the fact that Hiro is basically an immature burnt-out coulda-been great slacker who never really grew up enough to make anything of himself. The book is at least in part about him growing past that kind of crap into a proper adult.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2010 17:13
|
|
|
I'm trying to read Skinner's Walden Two right now but it's not even a loving novel. It pretends to be, but it's really just an excuse for Skinner to do a thought experiment of his ~ ideal utopia ~, as far as I can tell. There's no conflict or plot or anything. I'm like 40 pages in and I think there's 260 left and I don't think I can keep this up
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2010 23:38
|
|
|
I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get through The Neverending Story. I just got to the part where Bastian goes to the fantasy world and now it just seems to drag as it's gotten super boring.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2010 00:11
|
|
|
I thought The Subtle Knife felt like it was rushed and sloppily written. Like he was just trying to get a book out the door and hell it's even the shortest of the three. Just felt like he threw a bunch of stuff together, just enough to make it an acceptable length, and published it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2010 16:07
|
|
|
Zorak posted:I'm trying to read Skinner's Walden Two right now but it's not even a loving novel. It pretends to be, but it's really just an excuse for Skinner to do a thought experiment of his ~ ideal utopia ~, as far as I can tell. There's no conflict or plot or anything. I'm like 40 pages in and I think there's 260 left and I don't think I can keep this up Yeah, Skinner isn't a novelist, he's a psychologist, and Walden Two isn't a novel. Unless you are really interested in influential psychological ideas of the 1950's I wouldn't recommend finishing it. And even if you are, a textbook would probably be a better idea.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2010 03:33
|
|
|
I have had such terrible luck with books lately. This weekend I closed Blindness by Jose Saramago and I doubt I'll ever open it again. I did, however, feel compelled to copy down the last sentence I read so that I could inflict it on some of my booky friends. Jose Saramago posted:
There is no style here. No tone. There is nothing interesting in either the subject of this passage or in how he tells it. It's just a solid block of words. Do they give out the Nobel in irony? I really don't see the appeal.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2010 07:02
|
|
|
I started the Wheel Of Time books about a year ago and after getting to the sixth book of the series I had to stop. Its not that the author isn't good, its that the books continue onward with no end in sight as well as being 600 pages per book. The Robert Jordan has a wonderfully descriptive way of writing but after a while it starts to bog me down. Eventually I may try and pick up the books again because I want to know what happens but after over 3,000 pages and counting its going to take a while for me to get my interest back.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2010 06:11
|
|
|
Murr posted:It's funny how subjective these things are. Gibson's works are definitely amongst my favorite when it comes to cyberpunk (he pretty much invented the category, if not being its most important contributor), and especially the Neuromancer is also amongst my favorite books overall. I've read it over and over throughout the years and never really felt I had enough of it. Please stop promoting this false idea that Gibson invented cyberpunk. It's much more complicated than that, but at the very least give some credit to K.W. Jeter whose novel Dr. Adder was written years before Neuromancer. SexyGamerGuy fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Mar 28, 2010 |
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2010 06:43
|
|
|
e: ^^^^ Don't forget Dick and dudes like Rudy Rucker. I'm having a hard loving time making headway into A Fire Upon The Deep. The premise is good and the different layers/levels of beings are alright, but it seems like he's thrown a bunch of ideas in a blender, caught a slight case of multiple personality disorder, and unfortunately, none of them know how to write well. Unless good writing is including colloquialism in your narration regardless of character, using awkward descriptions, and ending every other thought as a question, ellipsis, or exclamation.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2010 06:29
|
|
|
Been on a non-fic/photography reading kick lately: I racked up $4 in overdue charges before I finally just flipped through the last two chapters I had left of Photojournalism: An Introduction in the middle of a solo drinking session so I could turn it back in to the library and be done with it. It wasn't a bad book, but even early on I wound up skimming a lot of the more dated information about the film workflow, and redundant "this is how a camera works" type stuff. There was some good info in the book, but it probably could have been distilled down to a chapter or two. Sarchasm posted:I have had such terrible luck with books lately. This weekend I closed Blindness by Jose Saramago and I doubt I'll ever open it again. I did, however, feel compelled to copy down the last sentence I read so that I could inflict it on some of my booky friends. Yeah, gently caress that poo poo. SaviourX posted:I'm having a hard loving time making headway into A Fire Upon The Deep. The premise is good and the different layers/levels of beings are alright, but it seems like he's thrown a bunch of ideas in a blender, caught a slight case of multiple personality disorder, and unfortunately, none of them know how to write well. Vinge has some cool ideas, but a tin ear for prose and is pretty weak at writing interesting, compelling characters. It didn't surprise me at all to find out he teaches Computer Science; not that this precludes being a talented writer, but his books come off as very left-brained. I slogged through Fire and Deepness in the Sky before throwing in the towel on him.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2010 15:00
|
|
|
I'm a bit surprised to see so much hate for American Gods, I loving loved that book. Different strokes for different folks I suppose. As for books I've given up on, and I don't think I'm the only one here, Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein comes to mind. I was super eager to read it but about 50 pages in my interest just fizzeled out into a puddle of indifference at what was going on. Yawn.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2010 16:20
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:I'm a bit surprised to see so much hate for American Gods, I loving loved that book. Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I loved Sandman, so I think my beef with American Gods had more to do with the writing style than anything. Good ideas, boring style. (I know that I'm pickier than the average person about stuff like that.) I think that if American Gods had been a graphic novel, I might have really dug it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2010 16:55
|
|
|
showbiz_liz posted:I loved Sandman, so I think my beef with American Gods had more to do with the writing style than anything. Good ideas, boring style. (I know that I'm pickier than the average person about stuff like that.) I think that if American Gods had been a graphic novel, I might have really dug it. American Gods is the first and so far only book I've read by Gaiman so maybe I would have had a similar reaction if I had read Sandman first, who knows. Still, I thought reading AG was like watching a particularly good Twilight Zone episode, it managed to conjure up a really great creepy-cosy atmopshere for me.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2010 19:22
|
|
|
Bought a ton of books at a used bookstore, finished all but one. The Phoenix Unchained. Just couldn't do it, after the fourth chapter I skipped to the middle of the book and couldn't even pick up interest there. To bad though it looked to have great potential.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 01:46
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:American Gods is the first and so far only book I've read by Gaiman so maybe I would have had a similar reaction if I had read Sandman first, who knows. Still, I thought reading AG was like watching a particularly good Twilight Zone episode, it managed to conjure up a really great creepy-cosy atmopshere for me. Have you read it more than once? I loved it the first time, possibly because most of the central idea was really novel to me at the time and it re-ignited my nerdy love of ancient mythology that I had when I was a pre-teen (plus I love the idea of dystheism). But reading it again, yeah the characterisation all suddenly seemed so shallow, all the non-Shadow-focused bits seemed unneeded and unwieldy, and I realised it was a pretty poorly paced story. I still like the bit where he's in the town with the ice-monster thing, though. I think really there's about three different novels, needing three different protagonists, in AG, so the end result ends up being a bit lifeless.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 16:42
|
|
|
Sarchasm posted:There is no style here. No tone. There is nothing interesting in either the subject of this passage or in how he tells it. It's just a solid block of words.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 23:59
|
|
|
Revolutionary Road really bothered me. It just felt incredibly redundant despite being well written. So, sacrificing your beliefs to live safely in the suburbs sucks, huh? Uh-Huh. Sure. If that's news to you, I'd like to inform you that fire hurt, the sky is blue and continued breathing is essential for survival.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2010 15:50
|
|
|
I had a hard time getting through Blood Meridian, but not for the common reasons cited in this thread. I got about halfway through before I gave up. I didn't really have a problem with the prose or the lack of things happening (I don't see how anyone would think that nothing happened.) I just had a hard time identifying with any of the characters. The characters in the gang were just deplorable, with no redeeming qualities. The kid (supposedly the protagonist), wasn't very interesting. It just seemed like he was along for the ride. The story was interesting at first, but it became difficult to slog through all that depravity when there's absolutely no humanity to connect to. Should I give it a try again?
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2010 22:23
|
|
|
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I tried reading this book three separate times but I just couldn't get into it. I really wanted to like it but maybe it's because I'm not British that I don't get it, kind of like not understanding Benny Hill.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2010 01:35
|
|
|
Sir John Feelgood posted:It's translated. I read a lot of translated works, and none of them are as dull and tone-deaf as this. Edit: Unless your point is that the book might be super-awesome in its original language and that's why it won the Nobel. That, I suppose, is possible. Sarchasm fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Apr 12, 2010 |
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2010 16:22
|
|
|
TickleTheJello posted:I had a hard time getting through Blood Meridian, but not for the common reasons cited in this thread. I got about halfway through before I gave up. I didn't really have a problem with the prose or the lack of things happening (I don't see how anyone would think that nothing happened.) I just had a hard time identifying with any of the characters. The characters in the gang were just deplorable, with no redeeming qualities. The kid (supposedly the protagonist), wasn't very interesting. It just seemed like he was along for the ride. The story was interesting at first, but it became difficult to slog through all that depravity when there's absolutely no humanity to connect to. Should I give it a try again? Criticizing a novel because of one's inability to "identify" with the characters is usually indicative of a pretty immature approach to reading. This is one of my big pet peeves, actually. Comes up a lot in the context of The Catcher in the Rye. Folks blast the novel because Holden is "annoying" or whatever, never stopping to consider that perhaps the reader is not supposed to identify with him, but to consider him for what he is (an emotionally damaged teenager with a fundamentally good heart). I think there's quite a bit of humanity in Blood Meridian, it's just that a lot of it isn't of the warm and fuzzy variety. Still, it's far from a sterile exercise in "depravity." As for whether you should try it again, maybe you should read through some of the thread in this forum about the novel and see if it helps to clarify some things. It's definitely not a novel that's going to resonate with you because you're "just so totally in sync with this one character..."
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2010 17:17
|
|
|
Couldn't get through Memnoch the Devil or basically anything Anne Rice has written since.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2010 23:16
|
|
|
Buck Lodestar posted:Criticizing a novel because of one's inability to "identify" with the characters is usually indicative of a pretty immature approach to reading. This is one of my big pet peeves, actually. Comes up a lot in the context of The Catcher in the Rye. Folks blast the novel because Holden is "annoying" or whatever, never stopping to consider that perhaps the reader is not supposed to identify with him, but to consider him for what he is (an emotionally damaged teenager with a fundamentally good heart). Oddly enough, I was told more than once that I should identify with Holden because he was teenage angst concentrate and his feelings/motivations are universal. I was offended by that because I read him as a whiny rich sociopath who I would have wanted to dunk in a toilet if we were in high school together. My point is that there's so much expectation built around that book, primarily by people old enough to remember a time when calling people phony really WAS revolutionary, that it can be hard to get into now.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2010 05:57
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get through The Neverending Story. I just got to the part where Bastian goes to the fantasy world and now it just seems to drag as it's gotten super boring. I read this as an adult and felt that it started off feeling pointless and silly (don't remember if I was bored, but probably). But over the course of the book a bunch of really weird poo poo happens, the tone becomes darker and more mature, and in the end it delivers its commendable message effectively, for me. I'm glad I finished it, I even read it again after a couple years. It's a strange story that goes very far from where it starts out, in a way I have experienced in few other books. Hope you stay with it, sorry if you regret it in the end! edit: How did I not notice the date on your post was from two months ago... Well, did you finish it? Babs Johnson fucked around with this message at 11:14 on Apr 13, 2010 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2010 11:11
|
|
|
Nope!
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2010 05:52
|
|
|
Moon Child, I tried....
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2010 11:20
|
|
|
I got about 50 pages in to The Stand before I just gave up. I'd read Misery when I was 12 or so, which I remember liking, but I enjoyed some pretty terrible stuff at that age so I don't know why I'm surprised that this one just irritated me.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2010 05:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 15:58 |
|
|
Over the past year or so, my attention span has changed. i used to be able to read almost anything my interest caught, but this is no longer true. I'm heavily inspired by carl sagan, so i got Cosmos from the library. Now i can't make it through half a chapter without getting antsy. I really want to read this for the first time, so this is doubly frustrating. I'm not bored, but I feel like I should be multi-tasking. So far, listening to calm music and whiskey helps. Has anyone else faced this?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2010 08:47
|
|
