I'm very angry at you. The Giver was one of my favorite childhood books!

I mean, I would have understood if you gave legitimate reasons to why you disliked the book. You could have said that the weak world-building or lack of emotional connection with the characters (because of their weak characterization) made you dislike the book, or something like that.

But since you didn't and hated on my childhood book, I'm going to hate you from now on.

ound

 

My reaction to a lot of the posts in this thread.

 

There was this one book about this kid who finds a Djinn. I forgot the name but I remember fucking hating it.

 

You best not be talking about the Bartimaeus Trilogy or we're gonna have words, boy.

 

Do you know why I find this sentence so funny?

 

Hated the Dark Tower by Stephen King. Never have I felt so let down by a series, its right up there with Sword of Truth in terms of time I wish I could get back.

He has obviously never heard of show don't tell. Because about half the fucking book is people sitting down to chat. Whole sections that take half a book could be just as easily told in maybe 20 pages.

 

I can certainly imagine but it is not my fault if I speak proper queens english it was bred into me with tea and biscuits.

Another book that i dont like is "Erebos", I dont not like it because it is bad, I found it very engaging and interesting. But it was one of the first real books that "play a game" so to say it could have been so much more. It was a above average read but i dont like it that much because i hate seeing wasted potential.

 

I am in fact, most boring book I've read in a while.

 

...wow. I thought it was really fun to read, and the world-building was well-done.

~

I tried reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik recently, and I got about a third of the way through when a goddamn kiss happened that made no sense to me, and I ragequit then and there.

 

I will literally duel you to the death motherfucker.

 

I agree with this. I'd wanted to read it for ages and picked up the Gunslinger a few years ago, but it was pretty awful. In fact I've wiped all knowledge of it from my mind apart from 'this book was awful'.

 

Ugh.. I`ve hated a lot of books I`ve read but the biggest one has to be Codex Alera... I mean after the first book I would have stopped if it wasnt for the author being Jim Butcher... but man I don't think I have ever read a book where I hated all the characters.

 

That was kind of the point, though. It was a story about telling stories. King was blatantly obvious about that. To the point he even inserted the author as a secondary character. To the point where all his other novels, and dozens of others were linked in the multiverse.

Hell, the eighth novel - Wind Through The Keyhole, which chronologically takes place between books 4 and 5 of the series, is a story about a man telling a story within a story, within another story. Three layers deep - four, if you count the fact that the reader is reading the book.

The Dark Tower is a story about the power of stories, that just so happens to also require saving the linchpin of all creation.

 

I can't read (listen to) a book where I hate the protagonist, which is why I was so annoyed when - after being recommended by a 'friend' - I spent audible credits on Prince/ King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

A really enjoyable and brilliant anti-hero, he said.

I've no interest in a little shit that rapes helpless farmers' daughters after killing their parents in front of them, I said.

I'm still annoyed that I can't even remove it from my Audible library...

 

I loved that part of it. It always gave me the impression of people long out of their time, whiling away the hours as the world Moves On.

 

I've been meaning to say this in this thread, but couldn't find the right words to do so. But yeah, this.

It was a series presumably inspired by a poem about writing a poem, and it was a story about telling stories. It's a weird sort of meta thing, which won't be everyone's cup of tea, but that was a feature of it all, not a fuck up.

Also, I really liked the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Come at me bro.

 

Just because something's deliberate doesn't mean it isn't shit (I say this as a general point; I've only read 'The Gunslinger', and as far as I recall I enjoyed it, but I've never felt the urge to read the rest of the series).

Going back to an earlier discussion, but on a related note, I have very mixed feelings about Infinite Jest. On the one hand, the quality of the writing left me awe-struck, whether it's that killer opening chapter, seemingly endless discussions about the art of tennis, or the thought-processes of a house full of of drug addicts in varying stages of addiction. On the other hand, it's one of if not the single most frustrating book I've ever read, and I can't decide whether I'm just not smart enough to get the joke/point, or whether I do get it and just don't like it.

That writing though.

 

Oh fuck that book. It's like someone set out to make the edgiest edgelord to ever edge and somehow it got good reviews.

 

I get the point of Dark Tower. The self insert really hammered it home.

Still hate it.