Stinkers
Max, always with his slender, underfed finger on the pulse of "What's Hot, What's Not" in all culture great and small, had a great post today about not what your favorite book of all time is but what was the worst reading experience of your life, ever. I hold great belief that while I've read a bevy of truly awful stink-bombs, my Geministic inability to finish most of what I start concerning anything has spared me this great tragedy so far. Currently, I can say without a doubt my most painful experience in finished book reading was Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I'm not talking every book in that God-forsaken, infinite trail of tears, I'm just saying the first three which I forced myself to read when I wanted to be disaffected and withdrawn and gothy.
There did seem to be some significant discussion on his boards that had to do with a lot of Very Fine English Lit books that I'm embarrassed (or after hearing how painful they all were to read, thankful) I've not only not read, but actually not heard of. I'm pretty certain I won't ever be buying a book with 'lighthouse' in the title and/or anything by Hemingway which I can honestly say I managed to get through high-school without being made to read. As I come to think about it, even though there was a lot of required reading in high-school, I'm not sure I actually read any of them, except of course 1984 (Hi, Julie!!!) which I liked significantly. Come to think about it more, I'm not even sure what I was doing in high-school other than drifting around the halls being morose and withdrawn. Good times, good times.
If anyone badmouths Jordan's Wheel of Time series, however, they'll be banned from posting forever. House rules.
That book with 'lighthouse' in the title is a mighty fine -- or I should say, a fucking amazing kick in the ass fine -- book. I'll buy the book for you so you won't have to.
I'll add to the list: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon nearly caused a stroke. I SO wanted to go back and time and kill his editor.
Also, Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway made my blood pressure rise. I hate everything that man wrote and he should have shot himself MUCH sooner.
I don't know that I've read a book that I didn't like in SOME way, but the most frustrating read was probably "Little Women", (the full unabridged edition with the prelude to "Jo's Boys") in all of it's 1200+ page glory. The frustration came from the fact that my dad had purchased this literary masterpeice for me when I was eight and since I loved to read, I started it then. But alas, attention spans at 8 being what they are, I didn't finish it until I was in my early teens, and read the first six chapters or so about ten times before I was committed enough to read it through. THAT is my trauma and it's probably why I'm a lesbian. *Whew!* Glad that's off my chest.
Sigh, Little Women... one of my faves (ohsogay). A great book, but one so heavy on metaphor that it is, at times, like wading through treacle - Arundhati Roy's 'God of Small Things'. Priceless.