Ask Lemmy

Seveneves. Halfway through when they don't kill that monster on sight. A rare point when I've been nearly stopped a book midway and thrown it away. And it just kept getting worse, so maybe I should have.

Dropped the book on my face scratching my eye

A 1200 page book on architecture too

Every time i read the water babies my grandfather had a stroke.

I made it through the smug, insufferable foreword and one agonizingly shitty, self-important chapter of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers before I chucked it across the room. Eventually I decided that there’s probably SOME kind of value in the book so I picked it back up. I started using it as a cutting board for various arts and crafts.

The Hyperion series in general was hard for me to read and it took me a few tries to get through the first duology, but it ended up being ok. I tried to read the second duology, but Endymion is just so boring I still haven't tried again.

One Second After - W. R. Forstchen

Please everyone, read this book. It's sad, disgusting and heavy, but it's probably a documentary for events that may happen one day. It's very well researched and the plausibility and realism make it even scarier. It hasn't turned me into a prepper, but in part motivated me to make our house as self-sufficient as possible. Also it made me aware of small useful things in my surroundings that I used to be blind to.

Worst book because of bad book was when I had to read and watch Tristan and Isolde for a school project. It was so bad with SO brain dead characters, but at least it was quick.

The worst book because of the experience however was the full version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We know interrupt the story to spend 10 pages talking about the special meaning of a throw away line said by Frollo. 5 pages of story later, and we know interrupte the story to spend 20 pages detailing Parisian roof tops to the minutest of details.

Jane Eyre: Every moment of this book was absolute torture. I could never get into this genre of book but this book took the cake. It was like the reading equivalent of trying to force down a terrible meal without gagging because it would be rude. I actually devoted my time to speed read it just so I could finish it faster.

Wicked: It was just a lot of, "Oh god, this isn't like the musical at all 😰."

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?"

Best staying up all night reading Frankenstein the first time in high school, or reading treasure Island in a tree stand in a forest during bow deer season.

Worst was probably the second time reading the Lord of the rings trilogy on smaller sized versions; really terrible size and binding or most Dickens I just have a hard time connecting.

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.

The Last of the Mohicans

Read it in high school because it's "classic American literature." If I remember right, a number of the main characters are killed off towards the end. It was a depressing story.