We all have had to read classic works. In your opinion what is the worst piece of classic work you've had to slug through? For me? It would have to be A Farewell To Arms, by Ernest Hemingway I know, I know, kill me now... I can hear your groans and shocks of awe... Honestly, I think it's bland. I didn't enjoy the story and I didn't enjoy the ending. It's not that I wanted a Disney story happy ending, it's that the ending didn't make sense to me. He could have saved her. I thought parts of it were not cohesive at all. I just didn't get it. I mean people do know that while he was writing it he was in the hospital sick with alcohol poisoning, right? If I want existentialism I'll look for it with Albert Camus, thank you.
Prepares for stakes, fire, death by sunlight, holy water, death by yodeling, death by {shudders} tickling... Gah!!! Ok... My body is ready! *closes eyes and cringes preparing for worst death possible* The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien... So much walking! C'mon get on with the story!
I don't know if it counts because if a book didn't interest me, I used to just read the wiki article about it and wasted no more precious lifetime. But the worst classic I stopped reading was... Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich Schiller. What's it called in English? Intrigue and Love? How's that for an incredibly original title. I wonder what it might be about. And it just gets worse. The whole thing is just an uninspired copy of Romeo and Juliet, only with Germans, which itself is nothing more than the story of Pyramos and Thisbe in fancier clothing. And we had to read those two already! You may now ostracise me for a philistine.
The Giver by some guy whose name I don’t even remember. Basically... WTF was the point of that book?!
This was my immediate choice as soon as I saw the title of the thread. I had to read it at school, and to be honest I though it was shit. I've never been so bored. Reggie reference?
To be fair I don't think the Silmarillion was written to be published - it was basically JRRT's collected notes and mythos he had written for himself. It was only published for money completion's sake by his son. Of course I could be wrong. It's just what I heard!
You won't get an argument from me. I neither like the man, or his writing. Moby Dick is my choice. Entire chapters almost solely dedicated to Captain Ahab's inner thoughts. For me, the book was a slow death by soliloquy. I imagine characters in the Twilight books had less inner turmoil than Captain 'thinks deep thoughts' Ahab.
Hmm I don't know about that. You're right, it's not really comparable "plot"-wise, it's really just mythology and legends. But it's still Tolkien's writing and imo, that can be quite exhausting to get through at times.
The Scarlet Letter (yawn) The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkein-we get it the fucking grass was fucking green.
That gets my vote. Punching Holden Caulfield in the throat is on my bucket list. He was a Millennial before his time.
Oh, absolutely agree. I think he was a linguist first and a writer second, to be honest. I never found the writing fantastic, or the characterisation. World was cool though.
This. Add Lord of the rings, too. Enough with the fucking singing and scenery, yesh. Also, Paradise Lost. Just couldn't get into the "Epic" for some reason. Oh, This as well. Seriously this. Goddamn I hated having to read that in middle school.
In the old days 'Tolkien' wasn't really a book for readers. It was for people who didn't like reading. It was an engineers' book, no offense. But then, Star Wars...Harry P...
I can hear the D&D players of my youth screaming obscenities at me now. I could not get into The Hobbit or any of his work really. It seems way too technical and dry. I also think it has to do with over saturation of the subject. I was a young adult when I made my first attempt. I had been playing D&D since the age of fifteen. Once you've read one Dragon Lance series you've read them all. Then again... Who ever said, “engineer's brain,” bravo, you described it perfectly. Engineers need to see everything in fine detail. This is why I can't read any Clancy books either. No, I don't want to know the details of the damn plane the main character got on, I don't need to know the mechanics of the gun his friend has on his hip. The Giver, was a surprise though. I love Lois Lowry. Then again books about dystopian or utopian societies interest me. I think this is also why I enjoyed Lord of the Flies. I've never read Catcher in the Rye, please don't make me. Heh. I made it part way through Moby Dick, and then faltered. I get it he's obsessed can we move on? I have one that I didn't exactly hate but I found the ending a bit disheartening 1984 George Orwell. I know, I know... You're supposed to be disraught about the end. Still, I would have liked a glimmer of a silver lining. Orwell doesn't do this, he builds his worlds up sets them on fire and watches them burn then writes about what's left over at great length. Or at least it seems that way. I don't know... I'm not a Life of PI person. I don't enjoy covering truths with extravagant illusion to shield from pain but a little bit of sunshine or a small flittering of hope works for me.
I was a D&D first gen, (sniff). We sat there while the older guy wrestled with handbooks, and said we were 'thieves' or 'dwarfs,' and we went home on our bicycles. Round about era of Tron ('81'). And everybody says Orwell is 'arid,' and we know that, but cliche-time with Orwell...it is the - 'diamonds in the dust,' - 'we seek,' someone else, maybe Sackville-West, said that? ... I picked up a Nabokov from the second-hand bookshop called 'Pale Fire,' and the introduction calls it the 'unreadable novel.' That is good, 200 pages written in voice as a poem, great stuff that book for the shelf, forever, flush...
Frankly I hate the Lord of the Rings. I have no idea how or why the books are so popular, and no clue how it got made into an entire famous movie franchise. They’re DULL. Over-written, self-absorbed, and boring. There’s just... so much better books!
I started with first gen but went to second. You could get a lot more creative with second. I think it was in the early, maybe mid, 90's but my memory is pretty terrible. I guess Orwell gets me because I don't need another lesson in life. I've had my fill of those types of lessons, thanks. It makes sense, the seeking though...
