Post: #26

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
Portnoy's Complaint
Cry, the Beloved Country
Middlesex
The House of Seven Gables
The Last of the Mohicans

I think the only one of these I was able to finish was Cry, and I am a big reader. To be fair, several I was only able to read 30 pages or so of, maybe they got better.

Post: #27

Anything by Paulo Coelho

Post: #28

The Great Gatsby is overrated.

I liked The Call of the Wild. Jack London. It can be downloaded for free (he's been dead for over 70 years) and be read in a couple sittings (it's a novella).

Post: #29

(07-10-2013 08:03 PM)lurker Wrote:  Hemingway bores me to tears. It feels like reading a Phillip Glass composition. Which is ironic, because I like Phillip Glass.

Hemingway is my favorite...not boring at all.

Anything by Paulo Coelho - I'll second this.

I also didn't like Fear and Loathing, I just started reading Junkie by Burroughs - I like it so far.

Post: #30

(07-11-2013 10:02 AM)anamericaninbangkok Wrote:  I also didn't like Fear and Loathing, I just started reading Junkie by Burroughs - I like it so far.

I haven't read Junkie, so I'm not sure, but a book one of my buddies wrote supposedly shares some similarities. You should check it out if you like Junkie.

Post: #31

All of that awful Jane Austen shit my fat feminist cunt high school English teachers used to make us read.

Post: #32

Dean Koontz

Post: #33

I liked 'To Kill A Mockingbird' (which was criticised earlier). To me it is a book about childhood and growing up.

The racial angle of the story has being totally overblown in my opinion.

But in general - I don't like fiction. And I have read alot of the classics in the past. And I agree that is seems strange and random how certain books get classified as classics.

Post: #34

Both Frankenstein and Dracula were turds.

Post: #35

I love most of Heinlein's stuff but totally lost interest in Stranger in a Strange Land about 3/4 through it. It just "hippied" out and seemed to be written just to Shock the Squares.

Maybe I'll go back to it some other time.

Post: #36

I am shocked no one has mentioned Catcher in the Rye.

I thought it was great at 15, probably because everyone told me so.

The character is a whiney bastard.

He thinks everyone is a phony, but in actuality, he is a hypocrite.

And he never even realizes it.

Most overrated book of all time.

Post: #37

(07-11-2013 12:18 PM)Sombro Wrote:  I love most of Heinlein's stuff but totally lost interest in Stranger in a Strange Land about 3/4 through it. It just "hippied" out and seemed to be written just to Shock the Squares.

Maybe I'll go back to it some other time.

Don't go back to it. I just tried to read it too, and I could only make it about 2/3 through. The story may have been remarkable back in the 60s, but I cannot relate to it now.

That being said, I have read three of Heinlein's other works and have loved them. They are as follows:

- Time Enough for Love
- Moon is a Harsh Mistress
- Starship Troopers

Out of the three "Time Enough for Love" has made the most lasting impact. The vignettes sprinkled throughout the story are excellent, and just the overall premise of how a man could survive for 2,000 years and keep himself sane is fascinating. The ending was kind of whacked out though, but I still don't think it detracted from the meat of the novel.

The other two novels also offer interesting premises. Moon poses the question on how a lunar penaly colony can actually secede from a much larger union. Starship is less battling aliens and more about how global citizenry will look in the future. Starship especially is a great, light read.

May I counter the above examples with a turd of a novel? Ender's Game. I thought the ending was completely predictable, the motivation of the characters questionable, and just the overall feel as being boring. Of course every super nerd on Reddit quotes this book as being the best ever, probably because they're projecting (they want to be the video-game-playing geek and save the empire, but not be called out on their Asperger's).

I decided to give Orson Scott Card another chance and read a second novel of his, Speaker of the Dead, and it was worse than Ender's Game. Characters are cardboard-esque, plot not interesting, etc.

Post: #38

(07-11-2013 01:06 PM)PUA_Rachacha Wrote:  May I counter the above examples with a turd of a novel? Ender's Game. I thought the ending was completely predictable, the motivation of the characters questionable, and just the overall feel as being boring. Of course every super nerd on Reddit quotes this book as being the best ever, probably because they're projecting (they want to be the video-game-playing geek and save the empire, but not be called out on their Asperger's).

Ender's Game was kinda boring to me, though the end seemed to pick up a bit. I wonder how bad Hollywood will be butchering it.

Post: #39

(07-11-2013 01:06 PM)PUA_Rachacha Wrote:  May I counter the above examples with a turd of a novel? Ender's Game. I thought the ending was completely predictable, the motivation of the characters questionable, and just the overall feel as being boring. Of course every super nerd on Reddit quotes this book as being the best ever, probably because they're projecting (they want to be the video-game-playing geek and save the empire, but not be called out on their Asperger's).

I decided to give Orson Scott Card another chance and read a second novel of his, Speaker of the Dead, and it was worse than Ender's Game. Characters are cardboard-esque, plot not interesting, etc.

I suspect that Ender's Game is beloved because many of its fans first read it as children. That was the case for me, anyway. As a young boy, the book comes across as shockingly violent and surprisingly relatable (since so much of the action amounts to a sort of high-tech school-yard competition among elementary age children).

I read it again as an adult and still found it be pretty decent.

I never read its sequels under the assumption that they're worst than the original, which is almost always the case. For the same reason I never read past the first Dune.

One author I wouldn't say is overrated, but that I just have trouble with is Dostoevsky. I simply haven't been able to finish any of his novels. I'd sooner read War and Peace and Anna Karenina again back to back than wade through shorter books like Crime and Punishment and the Idiot.

I'll try again anyway. I don't believe that all fiction reading needs to be especially entertaining.

Post: #40

@therapsid.

Good lord! Tolstoy's War and Peace was a bbiiiiigg arse book. You finished that badboy? I give props for that. I couldnt bring myself to finish that stuff. Russians do write the biggest books....it seems.
I like dostoevsky, of course.

I feel the same way you do with regards to reading sequels....i am generally very dis-inclined. with a few exceptions. That is why i never read any the follow up to DUNE.

Speaking of sci fi's......

I like "The stars my destination". by alfred Bester.
(It chronicles the brutal, utterly merciless, raping, vengeful adventure of gully foyle. In a society of competing, ruthless alpha males. with no holds barred. )

"the demolished Man" by alfred bester.
(the story of a completely sociopathic, brilliant alpha male who refused to be bound by the morals of the society.)

"SLAN", "worlds of null-a", "players of null-a", "null-a continuum" "empire of isher" and "weaponshops of isher" all by A.E. van Vogt.
(again, dynamic stories of alpha males in a ruthless game for galactic domination.)

"the golden age" ; "the pheonix exultant", "the golden transcendence" by John C. wright.
(also, alphas males with a very strong conservative/neo-conservative principles and their merciless will to power. Most sci fi tends to have a liberal bent...john c wright is the complete opposite.)

"Ubik" by philip k. dick.
(a pure mind trip)

I guess you can see my pattern and interest here: i like stories that have characters that uses their will, brains and muscles to achieve their goals or die trying. with utter disregard for society constraints.
.

Post: #41

Catch 22

Only book I stopped reading because it sucked

Post: #42

Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy.

I like my scifi serious and philosophical or political.

Post: #43

The millionaire next door
Bewolf
Da vinci code
Great gatsby
The history of money

I've been looking for an online version of the richest man in babylon
If anyone as a link, I'd appreciate it

Post: #44

I tried to read Catcher in the Rye last year. Barely got halfway through and went looking for Cliff's notes on how the story ended. After hearing how great and famous the book supposedly was, I wonder if people who praise these things ever read them. Or, do they think since they don't like the book, something is wrong with them because everybody else supposedly loves it?

Post: #45

The part with the giant, psychic brain scared me to death when I was in 3rd grade, I think. That's the only book or movie that's ever really freaked me out.

(07-10-2013 10:11 PM)PartyonBro Wrote:  A Wrinkle in Time. Singlehandedly got me off reading books for several years (when I was like in 4th grade)

Post: #46

(07-10-2013 08:13 PM)germanico Wrote:  Ulysses. By far the worst insufferable piece of shit writing Ive ever wasted my time on.

Seconded.

Post: #47

(07-10-2013 07:50 PM)Goldin Boy Wrote:  Catcher in the Rye, Salinger's depiction of teenage angst via Holden is so over-the-top it comes off as a parody to me.

Yeah, I thought it was good when I was reading it in January. The angst was relatable, I hated fucking high school, was being angsty emo about it, bla bla bla...but damn, Holden is just fucking annoying. I tried to pick it up again after taking a break a few months ago, and then I dropped it, on account of it sucking.

On that note...to any high school kid reading this who's pissed off with the idiots around him, here's a tiny bit of wisdom: let go. They stupid, you stupid, everybody stupid, none of it means shit. Just let go. Take what little good you can get, and give what good you can. Be zen about it, and you'll feel a hell of a lot better for it. I should have done that. Being this annoying/emo/cynical/lame makes a huge dent on your game as well. Nobody likes a Holden!

I thought American Psycho was annoying to read too. Read a few pages...meh.

(07-10-2013 08:58 PM)AnonymousBosch Wrote:  

(07-10-2013 07:56 PM)horn Wrote:  Great Gatsby is slightly overrated, but Tender Is the Night is one of the greatest American works, ever.

Gatsby is perceptive writing that validates game.

He's a Beta with Oneitis who thinks he can win Daisy purely through social status and an excessive display of wealth, but simply can't compete with Tom, the self-interested AMOG.

Might just check it out then.

(07-11-2013 11:13 AM)EasyMoney Wrote:  All of that awful Jane Austen shit my fat feminist cunt high school English teachers used to make us read.

Hear hear. On that note, anything Bronte probably sucks. Jane Eyre was incredibly bland.

As for the classics that I thought were good:

- The Importance of Being Earnest by Wilde
- The Government Inspector by Gogol

Post: #48

"How Many Miles To Babylon"

One of the most bland books I've ever read, basically describing the two classes in Ireland during WWI . Protestant and Catholic Irish.
And the relationship between the two main characters bordering on homosexuality didn't really draw me in.


I loved Heinlein and his futuristic outlook as well as his twists and turns.
Wilbur Smith is an absolute favourite of mine,I started off with Monsoon and read the majority of his older novels.
Finally, Shōgun. Read it.

Post: #49

The Hobbit, which I read in the 4th grade, it was the first big ass book I'd gotten my hands on. The whole time I thought "this is like a Saturday morning cartoon without pictures, that's boring and never ends"

All books that were required reading by Montgomery County Public Schools unanimously sucked, most already mentioned but lets add Black Boy by Richard Wright, Shabanu, and The Giver

Post: #50

In Search Of Lost Time, Marcel Proust. Also Ulysses by James Joyce. Both are too philosophical, just rambling on and on and on and on without any point, hiding what good questions they ask under a ton of stuff I just couldn't stomach.