Books That Haven't Influenced You Whatsover
- Thread starter shereads
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Moby Dick. Makes an awfully good doorstop. Can't seem to make myself care about it much, one way or the other. At least I can get up a decent dislike for Hemmingway.
G (who loves GGM, but thinks 100 Years of Solitude was better than LITTOC)
G (who loves GGM, but thinks 100 Years of Solitude was better than LITTOC)
English Lady
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oooh I'm going to get lynched for this but I just don't get all the hooha over Tolkein.
I have had the Hobbit read to me as a kid (it was great to get me to sleep) and read it as an adult....and nope...I just don't see what all the fuss is for.
And I love Fantasy books generally
I have had the Hobbit read to me as a kid (it was great to get me to sleep) and read it as an adult....and nope...I just don't see what all the fuss is for.
And I love Fantasy books generally
cantdog
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I remember thinking Kipling the most annoying prose writer on the face of the earth. Then I tried Dickens. He's worse.
Then I read Captains Courageous. Jesus, thought I, the dude can write prose after all. Then The Man Who Would Be King. What a tightly written gem that thing is. I was in awe. But Kim still sucks, and The Jungle Book right with it.
No such revelation has ever come along to change or mitigate my impression of Dickens. I think we do English Lit a disservice to hold him up as an example of it.
Then I read Captains Courageous. Jesus, thought I, the dude can write prose after all. Then The Man Who Would Be King. What a tightly written gem that thing is. I was in awe. But Kim still sucks, and The Jungle Book right with it.
No such revelation has ever come along to change or mitigate my impression of Dickens. I think we do English Lit a disservice to hold him up as an example of it.
shereads
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Moby Dick bored the daylights out of me, Ginger. I'm sorry, America, but it did. That doesn't mean it isn't a Great Work of Literature. It just means I don't care.
Hell, I understand that Pliny the Elder is fascinating, too. But I haven't made it to the "P" shelf in the classics yet.
ENGLISH LADY: You're forgiven. I read Lord of the Rings because I was in love, and he told me it was an important work. I can't say with any honesty whether I'd have loved the books if I hadn't brainwashed myself into it. But I can say that Viggo Mortensen looks good in chainmail.
Hell, I understand that Pliny the Elder is fascinating, too. But I haven't made it to the "P" shelf in the classics yet.
ENGLISH LADY: You're forgiven. I read Lord of the Rings because I was in love, and he told me it was an important work. I can't say with any honesty whether I'd have loved the books if I hadn't brainwashed myself into it. But I can say that Viggo Mortensen looks good in chainmail.
Joe Wordsworth
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Hmmm... these may not be popular choices:
I didn't care one way or the other about Tolkein (my geek friends gasp) or Faulkner (my entire town gasps), they read similarly... and I, ultimately, got bored with both.
Also, while I can say that academic books about it were pivotal in my life and the scholarship surrounding it was important... I think the Bible is a pretty boring and long and uninteresting book.
I didn't care one way or the other about Tolkein (my geek friends gasp) or Faulkner (my entire town gasps), they read similarly... and I, ultimately, got bored with both.
Also, while I can say that academic books about it were pivotal in my life and the scholarship surrounding it was important... I think the Bible is a pretty boring and long and uninteresting book.
cantdog
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Sale of Two Titties-- humbug! And I had much Greater Expectations!!
Thus shall I defy them. Pip is a wanker, the book has longeurs unplumbed. It was torture, reading that thing.
He does beat whoever-it-was who wrote Tom Brown's School Days. I read that thing because of the Flashman books, which are a stone gas. But the Tom Brown thing-- dear me.
And that ass with the Penrod books. Those are terrible. Dickens does beat both of those fellows. He beats Fenimore Cooper. But none of this is saying much.
Thus shall I defy them. Pip is a wanker, the book has longeurs unplumbed. It was torture, reading that thing.
He does beat whoever-it-was who wrote Tom Brown's School Days. I read that thing because of the Flashman books, which are a stone gas. But the Tom Brown thing-- dear me.
And that ass with the Penrod books. Those are terrible. Dickens does beat both of those fellows. He beats Fenimore Cooper. But none of this is saying much.
oggbashan
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I am totally uninfluenced by a book that sat a long time on my shop's shelves:
'The Economic Prospects for Crossbred SE Asian Mammals.'
It told me such useful facts such as crossing a lion with a tiger either produced a Tigon or a Liger and one was incredibly fierce and uncontrollable and the other slept all day and half the night. Which was which? I've forgotten.
Another crossbred was a particular breed of sheep and a yak. The fleece was useless, the meat was inedible, the milk produced the runs, it ate voraciously, it had a foul temper and its economic prospects were...
...poor.
Bulwer-Lytton, he of 'It was a dark and stormy night...', has not influenced me.
Og
'The Economic Prospects for Crossbred SE Asian Mammals.'
It told me such useful facts such as crossing a lion with a tiger either produced a Tigon or a Liger and one was incredibly fierce and uncontrollable and the other slept all day and half the night. Which was which? I've forgotten.
Another crossbred was a particular breed of sheep and a yak. The fleece was useless, the meat was inedible, the milk produced the runs, it ate voraciously, it had a foul temper and its economic prospects were...
...poor.
Bulwer-Lytton, he of 'It was a dark and stormy night...', has not influenced me.
Og
Colleen Thomas
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Paradice lost. *shudders*
Anything by Stephen King. Hasn't afected me cause I can't get through the first four chapters of any of them. Thank God he dosen't write porn, it would turn me off to sex.
-Colly
Anything by Stephen King. Hasn't afected me cause I can't get through the first four chapters of any of them. Thank God he dosen't write porn, it would turn me off to sex.
-Colly
cantdog
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Yeah, that's Joe
That's Joe. What a fine man, and he can work all day without complaint in frightful conditions, and still sing sweetly on the rackety bus on the way back.
So, in fact, can I. But he has a barrel body and no neck. He worked in a foundry for many years. If he's ducking a little, his head disappears from view.
I lack the shoulders for that. To the chagrin of all, my head remains visible at all times. I'm a seven and a half, long oval. Standard hat sizes do not fit me. I buy in Canada now, where a man can find a hatter.
shereads said:
That's Joe. What a fine man, and he can work all day without complaint in frightful conditions, and still sing sweetly on the rackety bus on the way back.
So, in fact, can I. But he has a barrel body and no neck. He worked in a foundry for many years. If he's ducking a little, his head disappears from view.
I lack the shoulders for that. To the chagrin of all, my head remains visible at all times. I'm a seven and a half, long oval. Standard hat sizes do not fit me. I buy in Canada now, where a man can find a hatter.
English Lady
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Ahhh someone agrees with me -I'm with you Joe on the Tolkein one.
I'm a bit of a fan of the bible though. Each to their own
I'm a bit of a fan of the bible though. Each to their own
English Lady
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how did you guess Shereads.....and song of songs gets a bit saucy too.... 
I'm adding in Wuthering Heights. Didn't care about any of it, seemed like a miserable book about miserable people, wouldn't have made it to the end without an exam to take. Also, Ivanhoe.
I had to read the LOTR twice...once because my Dad insisted I'd love it. Years later, to prove to him that I HADN'T missed the point the first time. The movies were better, and you'll rarely hear me say that.
G
I had to read the LOTR twice...once because my Dad insisted I'd love it. Years later, to prove to him that I HADN'T missed the point the first time. The movies were better, and you'll rarely hear me say that
.G
OhMissScarlett
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So glad to know I'm not the only person who just couldn't get into Tolkein. I'd probably be disowned by my family if anyone knew the truth.
I'm not a christian, but I liked The Bible, though the 'begats' are a little tedious. Funny too, since I know many devout christians that couldn't tell you much of anything about The Bible, other than catchy little passages they memorized from hearing over and over.
There are a lot of popular authors I can't get with, like Anne Rice and John Grisham, snore snore. Just something in Anne's "voice" annoys the shit out of me. Stephen King was great until he got hit by that van and now I can't read him either, poor guy.
I'm going to go hide from the angry mob now.
I'm not a christian, but I liked The Bible, though the 'begats' are a little tedious. Funny too, since I know many devout christians that couldn't tell you much of anything about The Bible, other than catchy little passages they memorized from hearing over and over.
There are a lot of popular authors I can't get with, like Anne Rice and John Grisham, snore snore. Just something in Anne's "voice" annoys the shit out of me. Stephen King was great until he got hit by that van and now I can't read him either, poor guy.
I'm going to go hide from the angry mob now.
English Lady
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I read my first Raymond E Feist book just recently. it left me cold...frustrated and grumpy.
cheerful_deviant
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Steinbeck's, Red Pony, ugh. Had to read it in 5th or 6th grade, hated it. Thought later in life I might have missed something and tried it again... nope, still hated it. Talk about a depressing book.
GV, I'm with you on Wuthering Heights to, just not a good way to spend time in my humble opinion.
Other books I wish I hadn't read... how about anything by John Grisham? I just can't get into lawyer novels. I hear about sleezy lawyers every day on the news, why would I want to waste my free time on them?
GV, I'm with you on Wuthering Heights to, just not a good way to spend time in my humble opinion.
Other books I wish I hadn't read... how about anything by John Grisham? I just can't get into lawyer novels. I hear about sleezy lawyers every day on the news, why would I want to waste my free time on them?
shereads
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neonlyte said:
Oooh! What a superb insult. May I use it?
I loved The Secret History and like the rest of its fans I was breathless with anticipation for the seven or eight years between first and second novels. When it was finally published, I read a synopsis, yawned, and never looked back.
Maybe there are nearly as many people who should never write a second novel as there are people who should never write the first one.
cantdog
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I found the Koran and the Gita a little repetitive, too, but they had more focus. It helps to have a single author.
One of my Sophomore Super-Slows, as I liked to think of them, came to class from a read of Macbeth and told me it was just amazing that a person could write a play composed entirely of book titles and movie titles. In the end he liked it, once we told him who the heck Banquo was supposed to be that he would say that stuff.
They said he was a pretty weak-in-the-backbone sort, for a murderer or even a king !
That play never influenced me much, but the teaching of it to that class did.
cantdog
One of my Sophomore Super-Slows, as I liked to think of them, came to class from a read of Macbeth and told me it was just amazing that a person could write a play composed entirely of book titles and movie titles. In the end he liked it, once we told him who the heck Banquo was supposed to be that he would say that stuff.
They said he was a pretty weak-in-the-backbone sort, for a murderer or even a king
!That play never influenced me much, but the teaching of it to that class did.
cantdog
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