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Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
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- Lemon Quarter
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Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
As a counterpoint to the "Books you have been unable to finish" thread, does anyone recall any books they have ploughed through to the bitter end and then wished they hadn't?
Here's my list to kick things off:
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
The Stranger's Child - Alan Hollinghurst. Starts off well, then veers off into an unexpected theme around page 50 - and never lets it go.
Cloud Atlas, and Ghostwritten - both by David Mitchell. Clever themes but, particularly with Ghostwritten, the loose ends to the various stories are never resolved. Imagine a whodunit where the author stops before revealing the murderer and the motive!
What these books have in common is that they are too long, and some appear to have been written with a view to winning awards - and all have done so, or been shortlisted! Frankly, this has put me off applying to be a Man Booker prize judge.
Anyone else?
Watis
Here's my list to kick things off:
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
The Stranger's Child - Alan Hollinghurst. Starts off well, then veers off into an unexpected theme around page 50 - and never lets it go.
Cloud Atlas, and Ghostwritten - both by David Mitchell. Clever themes but, particularly with Ghostwritten, the loose ends to the various stories are never resolved. Imagine a whodunit where the author stops before revealing the murderer and the motive!
What these books have in common is that they are too long, and some appear to have been written with a view to winning awards - and all have done so, or been shortlisted! Frankly, this has put me off applying to be a Man Booker prize judge.
Anyone else?
Watis
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
They normally get ditched well before the end if i'm not into them.
Iain Banks' "The Business" didn't really get anywhere, after jogging on the spot for several hundred pages.
The last 20% of 'Smilla's Feeling For Snow' isn't as good as the rest (still a good book)
Iain Banks' "The Business" didn't really get anywhere, after jogging on the spot for several hundred pages.
The last 20% of 'Smilla's Feeling For Snow' isn't as good as the rest (still a good book)
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
Watis wrote:As a counterpoint to the "Books you have been unable to finish" thread, does anyone recall any books they have ploughed through to the bitter end and then wished they hadn't?
I'm not sure if it counts but I gave up on Great Expectations with one chapter to go!
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
Fairly obvious one perhaps, Jane Eyre. The first time I read it I failed to finish it but the second time made it through. I then realised that I had stopped the first time at what seems to be a strong end point. Wish I hadn't read on to her return to Thornfield.
Then again I guess it made me enjoy reading Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair all the more!
Then again I guess it made me enjoy reading Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair all the more!
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
It doesn't often happen, but from time to time I come across a book that's so gonzo that I hang onto the saddle while I wait for the bucking to stop, or at least for the horse to decide which way it's going?
Best instance of that was probably Peter Carey's Illywhacker, which made the 1985 Booker shortlist and which I picked up as holiday reading, cos it was a fat book and I was in the mood for something a bit breezy. Words like 'picaresque' and 'yarn' don't quite describe this thing - it sprawls across a century's worth of utterly bizarre family history which might once have made a good comic strip, but with more detail.
And the whole thing is overlaid by the narrator's declaration from the start that he's an incorrigible liar anyway, so you never know whether the airline passenger with a monitor lizard (or something) down his trousers is even supposed to be real? Or whether the bed-and-breakfaster who stops in an old guy's desert house and finds in the morning that his motorcycle has been comprehensively dismantled over night (cos the old guy is lonely and wants six months of his company) is supposed to be a Freudian nightmare or whether it's just another part of the yarn? Or whether you're even supposed to care?
So it went on and on and on, for 600 small-print pages, never getting anywhere, but I hung in there waiting for it to settle down, and it never did. Peter Carey's characters often seem (to me) to lack depth - something I've noticed in his short stories too. His females in particular tend to be ciphers. But after a while the book started nagging at me like a loose tooth - it wasn't doing me any good, but I couldn't leave it alone. And as the last 70 pages of the book came into sight, I realised that this was going to be a sprint for the finish line, and I'd be strangely relieved when I'd got there. I still am. But somehow I was (and am) still none the wiser.
BJ
Best instance of that was probably Peter Carey's Illywhacker, which made the 1985 Booker shortlist and which I picked up as holiday reading, cos it was a fat book and I was in the mood for something a bit breezy. Words like 'picaresque' and 'yarn' don't quite describe this thing - it sprawls across a century's worth of utterly bizarre family history which might once have made a good comic strip, but with more detail.
And the whole thing is overlaid by the narrator's declaration from the start that he's an incorrigible liar anyway, so you never know whether the airline passenger with a monitor lizard (or something) down his trousers is even supposed to be real? Or whether the bed-and-breakfaster who stops in an old guy's desert house and finds in the morning that his motorcycle has been comprehensively dismantled over night (cos the old guy is lonely and wants six months of his company) is supposed to be a Freudian nightmare or whether it's just another part of the yarn? Or whether you're even supposed to care?
So it went on and on and on, for 600 small-print pages, never getting anywhere, but I hung in there waiting for it to settle down, and it never did. Peter Carey's characters often seem (to me) to lack depth - something I've noticed in his short stories too. His females in particular tend to be ciphers. But after a while the book started nagging at me like a loose tooth - it wasn't doing me any good, but I couldn't leave it alone. And as the last 70 pages of the book came into sight, I realised that this was going to be a sprint for the finish line, and I'd be strangely relieved when I'd got there. I still am. But somehow I was (and am) still none the wiser.
BJ
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
The Liar by Stephen Fry.
I kept waiting for his trademark wit and humour (which you may or may not like) but it just didn't arrive. If I hadn't been housebound, at the time, Id have binned it.
Slarti
I kept waiting for his trademark wit and humour (which you may or may not like) but it just didn't arrive. If I hadn't been housebound, at the time, Id have binned it.
Slarti
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- The full Lemon
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
Pickwick Papers. Just too episodic to read through as a novel. Much better serialised (as he originally wrote it), or dipped into. Preferably narrated or dramatised - as Dickens himself would've done.
Anything by C.S. Lewis. One keeps wanting to lump him in with Tolkien, but his writing isn't remotely in the same league, and his brand of Christianity is particularly nasty.
Anything by C.S. Lewis. One keeps wanting to lump him in with Tolkien, but his writing isn't remotely in the same league, and his brand of Christianity is particularly nasty.
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
I've been thinking about this, usually I might quit reading for a long time, then get back to it, finish it off, sometimes a year later, but I've never regretted it. So none that I can think of.
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
any books they have ploughed through to the bitter end and then wished they hadn't?
One sticks out for me. Years ago I remember enjoying A.J.Cronin's masterpiece, 'The Citadel' and one day, I saw another book by him called 'Hatter's Castle.'
It was readable, but the problem was that it was incredibly depressing and gloomy. Nothing nice ever happened. Everybody was miserable or scared. But I was convinced that there would be a twist in the tale and ploughed on to the end, waiting for the ray of sunshine and a nice happy ending. Well, there wasn't. Quite the opposite in fact, and the ending left me numb with shock and I wished I'd never started the damn thing! I won't say what happens, in case someone wants to read it, but for someone thinking of committing suicide, this book would provide just the nudge they need.
Steve
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
'Hangover Square' was a gloomy and depressing book, but I really enjoyed it! Must have been the very dark humour
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
Filth by Irving Welsh.
No sympathetic characters, a horrible recurring thing involving a tape worm. I finished it but hated it.
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks.
Made my skin crawl. Uncomfortable unenjoyable reading.
No sympathetic characters, a horrible recurring thing involving a tape worm. I finished it but hated it.
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks.
Made my skin crawl. Uncomfortable unenjoyable reading.
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
Anything by C.S. Lewis. One keeps wanting to lump him in with Tolkien, but his writing isn't remotely in the same league, and his brand of Christianity is particularly nasty.
Strangely enough, I absolutely loved his books when I was young. I probably read all the Narnia books at least three times, and then the sci-fi books. 'Out of the Silent planet' was my favourite.
Steve
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
stevensfo wrote:Anything by C.S. Lewis. One keeps wanting to lump him in with Tolkien, but his writing isn't remotely in the same league, and his brand of Christianity is particularly nasty.
Strangely enough, I absolutely loved his books when I was young. I probably read all the Narnia books at least three times, and then the sci-fi books. 'Out of the Silent planet' was my favourite.
Steve
That's the kind of sentiment that persuaded me to read both the Narnia and the Sci-fi. I was repeatedly disappointed.
He's not the only author to disappoint, but I'm struggling to recall more names (why should an author you don't enjoy be memorable?) Lewis sprung to mind after some of the talk on the other thread. And of course his name is naturally memorable, as a child because the reversal of C Lewis vs Lewis C(arroll) was striking (breaking a rule of names), and a few years later because he's background to Tolkien, and to Shadowlands, and perhaps to Academia - and teenage aspiration - more generally.
Come to think of it, I'm sure there are more examples in "hard" sci-fi. I love sci-fi as a vehicle for a great story (e.g. Ursula LeGuin), or a merciless send-up (Douglas Adams). But authors who take themselves too seriously don't appeal, and I've got to the end of books by Asimov and Heinlein (though surely not their greatest works) without pleasure. And ... hmmm ... I have to make an effort to get anything from H G Wells.
Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
The question made me think not of all out terrible books that I wish I hadn't read, but ones that didn't stick the landing. The first one that came to mind was Jo Walton's My Real Children: I really enjoyed this story narrated by a woman looking back on two alternate lives, but I didn't feel there was any resolution in the ending and it just sort of stopped. Emma Newman's Planetfall is another book I very much enjoyed but which had an odd ending that didn't feel in keeping with the rest of the book.
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
I've finished many books in my lifetime that I wish I hadn't. Fewer these days. when I was young I tended to keep going through books but as I've got older I'm quicker to jettison books in favour of the more promising. Unfortunately there are a lot of books about whose authors seem to have had a good idea and started writing without working out how it could be concluded and a significant number of quite promising books become regretted reads for that reason.
One regretted 'finish' a few months back was:
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
I downloaded it when stuck in London with a delayed train home for some reason that I now can't remember. It looked a promising if relatively light but entertaining read. It started well and was just interesting enough to keep me reading and later to keep me reading because even if I was losing interest there was enough to it to make me feel that sooner or later there would be an interesting ending. Wrong!
I know I found the end very disappointing/unsatisfactory. The book was also remarkable for the speed at which I forgot just about everything about it except for some elements of the unsatisfactory ending. A few minutes ago I looked this book up on Wikipedia and was quite astonished at the story line I read there, I do now remember it - sort of - but only with a sense of wasted time.
All I'd ever want to do now is avoid reading anything else by the same author. Yet the remarkable thing is that this book apparently broke records for number of physical copies + downloads sold. A case of marketing over content or a case of me just not appreciating its finer points?
One regretted 'finish' a few months back was:
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
I downloaded it when stuck in London with a delayed train home for some reason that I now can't remember. It looked a promising if relatively light but entertaining read. It started well and was just interesting enough to keep me reading and later to keep me reading because even if I was losing interest there was enough to it to make me feel that sooner or later there would be an interesting ending. Wrong!
I know I found the end very disappointing/unsatisfactory. The book was also remarkable for the speed at which I forgot just about everything about it except for some elements of the unsatisfactory ending. A few minutes ago I looked this book up on Wikipedia and was quite astonished at the story line I read there, I do now remember it - sort of - but only with a sense of wasted time.
All I'd ever want to do now is avoid reading anything else by the same author. Yet the remarkable thing is that this book apparently broke records for number of physical copies + downloads sold. A case of marketing over content or a case of me just not appreciating its finer points?
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
Hmm, just bought that one
Charity shop though , so only a quid or two, and will end up back there if I don't get on with it.
Charity shop though , so only a quid or two, and will end up back there if I don't get on with it.
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
AleisterCrowley wrote:Hmm, just bought that one
Charity shop though , so only a quid or two, and will end up back there if I don't get on with it.
I read that one, just to see what the fuss was about. I gave it 4/5.
For god's sake don't bother with the film. I lasted about 10 minutes before deciding if was a load of tosh and leaving my wife and daughter to it.
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
It's beating "Mastering Financial Modelling in Microsoft Excel" at the moment...
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Books you've finished but wish you hadn't!
My decisions to read in full the following books I have always regretted:
Something Happened (1974)
Good as Gold (1979)
God Knows (1984)
Picture This (1988)
Closing Time (1994)
All by Joseph Heller. I repeatedly hoped, as he did, that he would repeat the success of "Catch-22", but I fear he was as disappointed as I was.
"The Naked and the Dead" Norman Mailer - I can no longer remember why I hated it so much but there you go.
"Ulysses" James Joyce. Ugh.
"Riders" Jilly Cooper, and quite a lot of other chick litty stuff that I have long forgotten.
I'll give another shout out to "Illywhacker" and I think it was "The Tax Inspector" by the same author that I also detested. All his other works I have read I absolutely loved.
"The Lost Symbol" Dan Brown
"Tales of the City" Armistead Maupin"
"Rabbit Redux" John Updike
I have finished quite a lot of books I liked as well....
DM
Something Happened (1974)
Good as Gold (1979)
God Knows (1984)
Picture This (1988)
Closing Time (1994)
All by Joseph Heller. I repeatedly hoped, as he did, that he would repeat the success of "Catch-22", but I fear he was as disappointed as I was.
"The Naked and the Dead" Norman Mailer - I can no longer remember why I hated it so much but there you go.
"Ulysses" James Joyce. Ugh.
"Riders" Jilly Cooper, and quite a lot of other chick litty stuff that I have long forgotten.
I'll give another shout out to "Illywhacker" and I think it was "The Tax Inspector" by the same author that I also detested. All his other works I have read I absolutely loved.
"The Lost Symbol" Dan Brown
"Tales of the City" Armistead Maupin"
"Rabbit Redux" John Updike
I have finished quite a lot of books I liked as well....
DM
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