Books You Will Never Read

Quote Originally Posted by ToALonelyPeace

The name New Age fiction reminds me of an author I wish to forget...Paulo Coelho.(

If it weren't for Moon People by Dale M. Courtney, I would dub The Alchemist as the worst book I've ever read.

[Frater_Tsalal]

I read The Celestine Prophecy years ago as a gag. Joke was on me, though. Easily the worst, er, 'novel' I've ever read. Avoid!

List of the Lost by Morrissey. That excerpt The Guardian uses to nominate it for last year's Bad Sex in Fiction Award was nauseating. It made soap opera sex look as poignant as the sex in Antichrist.

[ToALonelyPeace]

Charles Dickens' works other than Oliver Twist. I understand he's titled the greatest Victorian novelist, and his novels A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and A Tale of Two Cities are mentioned everywhere. However, dragging myself through Oliver was sheer torture, and I promised myself I'd never do it again.

Quote Originally Posted by ToALonelyPeace

Charles Dickens' works other than Oliver Twist. I understand he's titled the greatest Victorian novelist, and his novels A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and A Tale of Two Cities are mentioned everywhere. However, dragging myself through Oliver was sheer torture, and I promised myself I'd never do it again.

I read A Tale of Two Cities earlier this year, my first and only Dickens after A Christmas Carol in middle school. It is allegedly the least-Dickensian Dickens, take that as you will. There is powerful symbolism and in the novel, as well as poignant descriptions of the class-struggle that was happening before and during the Revolution. It is, however, marred by stale melodrama, and is sprinkled with references to be lost to the reader if their edition lacks footnotes. From what I've heard historians aren't too kind about his liberal take on the events of the Revolution either.

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

Not decided on Blatty and Palahniuk.

I've read Fight Club, but that was enough to make me confident that I probably wouldn't enjoy anything else he's written.

Palahniuk reads like J. G. Ballard if he never lived in Shanghai, studied art or anatomy, and was the love-child of Charlie Sheen and the Columbine shooters.

Nor can he handle criticism worth a ####.
Letters - Salon.com

[ToALonelyPeace]

Quote Originally Posted by Nirvana In Karma

I read A Tale of Two Cities earlier this year, my first and only Dickens after A Christmas Carol in middle school. It is allegedly the least-Dickensian Dickens, take that as you will. There is powerful symbolism and in the novel, as well as poignant descriptions of the class-struggle that was happening before and during the Revolution. It is, however, marred by stale melodrama, and is sprinkled with references to be lost to the reader if their edition lacks footnotes. From what I've heard historians aren't too kind about his liberal take on the events of the Revolution either.

I see. Maybe that's why I heard more about the love triangle than his take on the Revolution.

[ChildofOldLeech]

Unless I am someday called upon to write a critique of them, it is highly unlikely I shall ever open one of Ayn Rand's self-justifying, sociopathic screeds masquerading as fiction.

Quote Originally Posted by ChildofOldLeech

Unless I am someday called upon to write a critique of them, it is fairly certain I shall never open one of Ayn Rand's self-justifying, sociopathic screeds masquerading as fiction.

I has the displeasure of reading Anthem for school and it is the Limp Bizkit of dystopian fiction.

[Karnos]

Quote Originally Posted by Nirvana In Karma

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour Not decided on Blatty and Palahniuk. I've read Fight Club, but that was enough to make me confident that I probably wouldn't enjoy anything else he's written. Palahniuk reads like J. G. Ballard if he never lived in Shanghai, studied art or anatomy, and was the love-child of Charlie Sheen and the Columbine shooters.

A long time ago I read Palahniuk on somebody's recommendation, I don't remember who or where, who kept comparing him favorably to Ballard. So off I went, to get Fight Club. I dragged myself through it because it was bad, but not stop-reading bad, and I genuinely thought the book may improve sometime down the page count. Of course, it didn't, and I haven't bothered to read any more of his books.

I did, however, have a few of his paperbacks that I used to carry on with me, back in the days when I moved from flat to flat, before settling for the horrid confort of the crypto marriage I am in at the moment. I carried them with me because in many of those flats I would find interesting books in the "personal libraries" of some of the people I lived with. I say personal in quotes because it was plainly obvious these folks didn't read any of those books and only had them displayed in the living room as a testament of the culture they didn't have. You would find great books in there with absolutely no wear, no scratches, no marks of obvious use. Since I was way to shy to ask for them and because I am not a thief, I would silently swap some of those books with Palahniuk paperbacks. This way I traded Fight Club for La-Bas, Invisible monsters for Invisible Cities, Diary for In cold blood and Survivor for And the ass saw the angel

I still believe it was a fair trade.