Ask Lemmy

Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns. I started reading it a long time ago, got about twenty pages in and gave up. Much later, I forgot I had tried, and tried again, and got even fewer pages in when I remembered how it is chock full of the most inane pandering exposition I have ever read. Just a torrent of trite, hackneyed, cliché. I can't understand how it got published, let alone warranted 7 books. Maybe it gets better. I will never find out. I haven't heard much good about the Dune books he co-authored, either.

I should add that I've read Battlefield Earth, and actually enjoyed it. I generally do not have super high standards. If something is entertaining, I'll give it a chance.

Perhaps a hot take, but East of Eden was an absolute trudge to get through. I think I made it almost halfway and gave up because I was not enjoying it at all. I wasn't sure what the main points were and there were too many details unrelated to the plot.

A less hot take, The Fountainhead was also a pain to read. It was just boring as hell and I stopped about halfway as well. I only read it because I loved Anthem and became disappointed to find out it's only related philosophically.

If you mean "which book did you like the least" I'm going with Wuthering Heights. It's a miserable story about awful characters that is for some reason a curriculum requirement.

Honorable mentions:

I was told A Confederacy Of Dunces was a tremendously funny book, "one big clockwork of a joke" couldn't bring myself to finish it, I just didn't want to spend any more time with these characters.

I've also managed to slide off of the Aubrey-Maturin series (Remember that Russel Crowe movie where he's a British sailing ship captain? The books that movie was based on)...I might have been able to slog through ye olde timey languagee if the author didn't have a habit of changing scenes and not telling us. At the end of one chapter we're sailing around having nautical adventures and then the next chapter begins 5 paragraphs into visiting with some old guy and his step-nurse. The tag line of these books is "Wait, what's going on?"

a short story i forgot the name of.

the writing style was poor in a way that instead of the narrator persona narrating (3rd person), it is conversing to you instead (2nd person).

Okay nobody said His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. So that's my hated reading experience.

The first book was okay, seemed promising, the rest got worse and worse by the page. I've picked up lousy books and I can quickly tell if they would be a waste of time, so I drop them early. I have no beef with those books. But His Dark Materials? What a disappointment. I want my time and money back.

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane: The most boring book I ever had to read. It is SO dull, nothing happens. All books we had to read in school were fine but that one sucks great.

Dies The Fire by S.M. Stirling.

I didn’t hate the plot of the book, but something about the writers treatment of the character interactions, physical descriptions, and sex scenes creeped me out. I just… I don’t know. It was gross. I got the feeling that the writer was fulfilling their own fantasies through the novel. I told this to someone about 10 years ago, and they also felt that way, so I feel slightly vindicated and not like a weirdo who reads too much into things.

I remember struggling so much to get into Inheritence that I gave up, not sure if it was because of the writing or I was still annoyed at the end of Brisingr.

I read 50 shades of grey and 50 shades darker. It wasn't that awful, kinda hilarious actually especially the fact some women would believe that could happen Irl.

Crossroads of Twilight

Any book where the pages aren’t cut together. Fucking pain in the ass turning pages, and forget about flipping through the book.

Ive sat on my kindle pw3 on the plane, switch on to find its fucked. This just happened today 😥😥😥😥

Clear and present danger. Only book I’ve ever quit, and 600 pigs in to boot. Shit author, shit book, shit material. The people who enjoy this shit are the same people who jack off to guns and ammo. ‘What’s this author re*arded? Give me back my $15’.

I was about to finish the book (it was mine) when my teacher asked to borrow it. I never got it back.