The books you hated!

[NaughteeDragon]

My freshman year of college I took a Literature class that was required.

One of the books we read was about a white woman that gets raped by a “big black gunman” (BBG is how he is referred to for the rest of the book) that breaks into her house. Over the course of the book she turns to her friend to help her deal with the trauma. When her friend can’t understand her trauma, her decision is to “become” this BBG and rape her friend with a strap on.
I hated every moment of that book, and 35 years later I still remember it and hate it just as much. There was nothing redeeming about that book. It wasn’t even a good example of how not to deal with trauma, because it was so fucking racist.

 

[Statius]

My freshman year of college I took a Literature class that was required.

One of the books we read was about a white woman that gets raped by a “big black gunman” (BBG is how he is referred to for the rest of the book) that breaks into her house. Over the course of the book she turns to her friend to help her deal with the trauma. When her friend can’t understand her trauma, her decision is to “become” this BBG and rape her friend with a strap on.
I hated every moment of that book, and 35 years later I still remember it and hate it just as much. There was nothing redeeming about that book. It wasn’t even a good example of how not to deal with trauma, because it was so fucking racist.

What the actual fuck

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, it isn't one of the books I have. I've never read, nor do I want to. But does it have a name so I can continue to say it isn't one of the books I have?

My freshman year of college I took a Literature class that was required.

One of the books we read was about a white woman that gets raped by a “big black gunman” (BBG is how he is referred to for the rest of the book) that breaks into her house. Over the course of the book she turns to her friend to help her deal with the trauma. When her friend can’t understand her trauma, her decision is to “become” this BBG and rape her friend with a strap on.
I hated every moment of that book, and 35 years later I still remember it and hate it just as much. There was nothing redeeming about that book. It wasn’t even a good example of how not to deal with trauma, because it was so fucking racist.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

Well, it isn't one of the books I have. I've never read, nor do I want to. But does it have a name so I can continue to say it isn't one of the books I have?

Couldn’t tell you, and I refuse to look it up out of spite. That book already occupies too much space in my head.
Probably safe to assume you don’t. It was the early 90’s

 

[EdwardsOtherSide]

I hate, I'm using the word hate, but it's worse than that, I abhor the Twilight books.

The worst thing about my name is those books.

I frequently add to my introduction "and I do not sparkle".

 

[Deadbed1968]

I haven't read Catcher but I think the point that you make addresses something general about how people read. We get this A TON here on lit. People tend to read with their morals and will dismiss/trash anything that transgresses their morals, and when they do this they usually miss the point. Good writers will often provoke because it forces the readers to broaden their perspectives and learn something. When one reads moralistically, they shut out anything that they don't agree with. They keep their blinders on and miss out.

On lit we get the same thing. You can't have infidelity in a romance story. It's not romance. This sucks, end of discussion, 1 star. A Dom should never be abusive. This is wrong. This sucks, end of discussion, 1 star. That sort of thing. The blinders are on. "You didn't agree with my fantasy, BAD." In regular literature it's, "You didn't agree with my morals, BAD."

It was strictly my own opinion on the book, more specifically the antihero lead character. Of course our opinions are colored by our moral values, that is human nature. I didn’t say that people shouldn’t read it. I just answered the question the discussion thread posed: to disclose the book I hated. I’m certainly not going say I liked a book I actually didn’t just because it is considered a significant piece. I stand by my opinion that Holden is a nihilistic little twerp.

 

[ChloeTzang]

.....books we hated, for whatever reason.

Every Anita Blake book by Laurell K Hamilton after Obsidian Butterfly. those early books are classic dark fantasy and I loved them. Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned, The Lunatic Cafe, Bloody Bones, they're all great. The Killing Dance is so-so. Burnt Offerings is back on form. Blue Moon is good and I LOVED Obsidian Butterfly. Edward is to die for.

From Narcissus in Chains, she just loses it and from then on they're not worth reading. Totally disappointing - the early books were juist wonderful. At this point, Anita Blake has been beaten to death, and perhaps she should be.

Neil Gaiman - I have never finished one of his books. I yawn. My eyes close. Bored to death. I am lucky to be alive.

Game of Thrones. Talk about dragging its ass. I never made it past Book 2.

Anything by Danielle Steel. Who is she? Why do people buy her books? 182 novels. 4th best selling fiction writers of all time. 800 million books sold. "Produces" several books a year. I can barely get past the first page of any of her books. She obviously has something but it's never clicked for me. I can't stand them. A bit like Nicholas Sparks.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I remember Gatsby being a bit tedious. It read like that genre of books desperate to be made into a film script. Fortunately we only did it in sixth form (last two years of school) so didn't have to write any essays about it.

I enjoy F Scott Fitzgerald - I enjoyed Gatsby and a lot of his short stories.

I read Catcher in the Rye at the same age, and it was OK, just totally unmemorable. So you're a whiny teenager with rich parents you don't like, lacking a girlfriend? Got loads of those round here. Meh.

Double Meh. it would fade into oblivion if schools didn't make you read it.

And don't get me started on Golding and Lord of the Flies.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The Great Gatsby as opposed to Gatsby (which I find dreadful, not a single e/E to be found in the whole fucking story). However, a different writer, but in the same time period.

I enjoy F Scott Fitzgerald - I enjoyed Gatsby and a lot of his short stories.



Double Meh. it would fade into oblivion if schools didn't make you read it.

And don't get me started on Golding and Lord of the Flies.