The premise was basically ripped from Heinlein's The Number of the Beast with somewhat less of the "wink, wink, nod, nod" trope abuse.

 

When and where?

 

Midnight in the Trophy Room, Malfoy. Bring a second.

 

You've already PM'd Syed, haven't you?

 

So... Catcher in the Rye. I was curious about all the accolades it had received, and sat down to read it one afternoon. I really, really, want that time back. Page after page of a whining teenager, and at the end, there is no resolution. He calls out adults for being "phonies" - people who play the "slave game" of reaching for wealth or prestige just to make themselves look more important in the eyes of others - and rather than resolving to live in opposition to this, he just accepts it as a fact of life. Furthermore, Salinger's prose - the stream of consciousness style he uses - is annoying and puerile.

 

This'll probably not go over well here, but . . .

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

I picked it up years after the series came out, and remember saying at least a dozen times, "This can't possibly be the series everyone raves over." Even giving credit for it being a children's book, I hated the stilted writing, the over-the-top abuse of Harry (mental, emotional, etc, rather than physical) that felt like it completely broke immersion, and the very simplistic lead up to the climax and the following conclusion that put Harry right back at the beginning. (I felt even worse about the second book. It wasn't until the third book that I got into the series and enjoyed it for the story being told).

 

Heh. And so we find ourselves on opposite sides of the fence once more, Scrubb. Chalk this one up as a +1 on the nemesis scale.

Philosopher's Stone is an awesome example of a book for children. Rowling started in children books and finished in young adult. The humour, the pacing, and the fact that the story was just purely magical in every sense of the word. I will say the writing is not in any way strong, but the story - and the potential given glimpses of the wizarding world - was simply stunning.

Harry Potter was that rare combination of right story at the right time, as well as turn of the century setting the standard. I mean, Goblet of Fire was almost one hundred years since Peter Pan. The genre was waiting for Potter!

But yeah, I can't argue with the reasons you disliked the first book. They are apparent.


As for a book I couldn't stomach... I just don't get The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin. It's got a great premise, dreams affecting reality - right up my alley - but it was a mess to get through. Similar struggles with Snow Crash by Stephenson. I finished both books, but did not enjoy doing so.

Edit: Thought of another. Armada by Ernest Cline. Brilliant premise, but ended up being a rush job off the unexpected success of Ready Player One.

 

At the same time as I was reading the Philosopher's Stone I was also reading A Series of Unfortunate Events so the 'abuse' in Harry Potter never seemed uncomfortable to me or really anything strange. There's a good deal of levity and sarcastic humour that always made Harry seem to be the 'winner' of any event and it was never the focus of events either.

 

I agree the pacing and humor was good. I'll even agree the simplistic way Harry sees things (which is right for his age) was done well. I just had a very hard time getting over the stuff I mentioned above. Not until the third book did I think she started getting better, and then really hit her groove in the fourth book.

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Speaking of another book I hated . . . I am Number Four. I started into the book and my first thought was: this got published? I bought it, so I decided to finish it. The storyline was interesting enough, and the writing smoothed out enough that I could finally enjoy immersion, but his writing didn't get better until his penultimate (and most recent) book.

Another one I'll throw out there is Catching Fire (Hunger Games 2). It is literally half a book of tell, tell, tell, and then a rehash of the latter part of book one so the writer can finally show.