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Well, I agree on the DaVinci Code. I think I didn't even get to 100 pages in that one, was bored out of my skull and the writing style to me was horrible.

 

Also, everyone's fussing about The Road.. Cormac McCarthy. In my opinion, not that special, too bleak and just didn't find it as much of an intriguing read as I expected to.

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When I was at college nearly everyone in my psychology class had read "Sophies World" by Jostein Gardner and I kept hearing how good it was. I hated it!

 

Agreed. I couldn't get past the first 100 pages or so. I feel like if I had I might have enjoyed it and I want to go back to it one day but...I don't know. Just tell me an effing story! I enjoy reading about philosophy but when I buy a novel I don't want to just feel like I'm reading a "Philosophy for Beginners" textbook.

 

I've only read one page of a Twilight novel and it just seemed horrible to me. I feel like I could have written something better when I was 10 and I can't write for toffee.

 

Oh. Melmoth the Wanderer maybe? Not sure. I think I may have been too young when I tried to read that. I just have vague memories about getting annoyed that each character was described as going through hardships greater than any known to any other man ever.

It doesn't work when you say it for every character that suffers.

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Agree with The Memory Keepers Daughter - I managed to get about half way through and gave up, didn't really keep my attention.

 

Another one for the Da Vinci Code - I couldn't get into it at all - the premise of the book is so good, but Dan Brown, I just can't get on with his writing (although I did read Angels and Demons, because I felt it was a more engaging read).

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Captain Corelli's Mandolin. So many people talked about how this was their favourite book ever, yet I was so underwhelmed by it, I even put fingers to keyboard on amazon.co.uk to explain my 1 star rating - something I'd never done before, nor since, on any book I've read (although now I come here to vent my spleen instead).

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Well, I agree on the DaVinci Code. I think I didn't even get to 100 pages in that one, was bored out of my skull and the writing style to me was horrible.

 

Also, everyone's fussing about The Road.. Cormac McCarthy. In my opinion, not that special, too bleak and just didn't find it as much of an intriguing read as I expected to.

 

I was totally blown away by The Road, i just found the tale of a not too distant future overrun by cannibals and devoid of hope an absolute shocker and the movie was just as stark. I cannot say for sure right now if such a view will last for years into the future but certainly the book, in my opinion, has more chance of outshining the likes of Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code.:D

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'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D Salinger, it was readable but I am still not sure why its a classic.

 

Don't shout me but 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller.

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I was totally blown away by The Road, i just found the tale of a not too distant future overrun by cannibals and devoid of hope an absolute shocker and the movie was just as stark. I cannot say for sure right now if such a view will last for years into the future but certainly the book, in my opinion, has more chance of outshining the likes of Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code.:D

 

Oh I agree on it being better and lasting longer than the DaVinci Code, but there's nothing so shocking about the Road.. over the years I have read so many tales like it, post-apocalyptic tales set in a world after some disaster, often nuclear too. The cannibals, the world existing of nothing more than things left, things destroyed, no one left to make them work or repare them.. there is nothing particularly inventive about that. The only thing that sets the Road apart for me, is that it's bleaker, and just that little less hopeful. But it's crossed that line for me, where it goes from just being dark to damnright depressing. You know, where it leaves a bad feeling for a while after you've read it, like a bad taste in your mouth.

See, I don't hate the Road, and it wasn't that much a bad read either.. I just don't think it's as revolutionary as everyone claims.

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I don't think it's a case of being over-rated .. it's just a question of taste. If so many people love 'Harry Potter' or 'Twilight' etc then they can't be over-rated.

 

I didn't love Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' as much as I wanted to ... I think you have to be a certain age or be in a certain headspace. I was disappointed that I didn't love it.

 

I couldn't get on with Gustave Flauberts 'Madame Bovary' .... I just didn't like anyone in it and didn't care what happened to them.

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Oh I agree on it being better and lasting longer than the DaVinci Code, but there's nothing so shocking about the Road.. over the years I have read so many tales like it, post-apocalyptic tales set in a world after some disaster, often nuclear too. The cannibals, the world existing of nothing more than things left, things destroyed, no one left to make them work or repare them.. there is nothing particularly inventive about that. The only thing that sets the Road apart for me, is that it's bleaker, and just that little less hopeful. But it's crossed that line for me, where it goes from just being dark to damnright depressing. You know, where it leaves a bad feeling for a while after you've read it, like a bad taste in your mouth.

See, I don't hate the Road, and it wasn't that much a bad read either.. I just don't think it's as revolutionary as everyone claims.

 

I have also read a lot of similar post apocalyptic tales and you are right, it is certainly not an original or new idea. What stuck out in The Road, for me, was the fact that this situation was possible i.e. beyond all the horror of the zombies and vampires walking amongst the last survivors of the earth as has been explored in various books and movies, here was global warming coming to a head and rendering the world all but uninhabitable.

 

Remember, The Road is set at least 10 years in the future. At present the whole global warming issue is muddied in a heady mix of political propoganda and scare tactics. It is undoubtedly a clear and present danger but a major cataclysmic climax is probably years away, hence the timeline of the book. What struck me about the plot was the complete hopelessness of the situation where death was actually genuinely preferable to a miserable, fear-filled existence scavenging for food amongst dirty and empty towns, all the while dodging groups of cannibals who have adapted to the lawless, primitive society to satify their own needs. It is a truly horrific alternative to life as we know it.

 

Cormac McCarthy captured a little slice of hell on earth when he wrote that book. Vampires and zombies are entertaining for as long as the book or movie lasts but rarely stay in the mind for long afterwards whereas to me The Road tapped into a deep and ancient fear which lodged itself very deep in my subconscious with some stark and descriptive scenes of mankind waging war against itself.

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For me it's the great gatsby, I had a hard time with that one. And twilight as well, I read it and I'm over it. The harry potter books I can re-read over and over again but I doubt I will ever pick up any of the twilight books ever again.

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Here's one I just read: The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Although the story and its context are interesting, the book (in my opinion) is just horribly written. And it's being taught in my college literature class!

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Reading a thread in the Fantasy section reminded me of another one - The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. I have all the books in one anthology. I read the first four but I was just so bored by the fifth one I couldn't be bothered to finish. The first one is great (Over Sea, Under Stone) but they just get more and more dull.

Clearly I'm in the minority. Of 44 reviews on amazon 42 are five-star, 1 is four-star and only 1 is one-star.

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Jack Keurack's 'On The Road' is one of the rare 'bucket-fodder' books I've bought over the years, and one I got increasingly bored with. I never did finish it, but I still wonder at it's cult status.

 

'Lord Of The Flies' is a book I did finish, but only due to the length of a flight I was on. I did like the premise, but the language was too arcane for me, and I found I could not relate to any of the characters in the novel.

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Another vote for The Memory Keepers Daughter. I finished it but felt that my time could have been better spent on a more satisfying book - I hate it when a book leaves you felling like that.

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I'm hearing a lot of different reviews about that Stieg Larsson series. Some people love it and can't get through it fast enough, and others complain that it's so slow that they had to stop. It's not that high up on my TBR list, but I'm curious as to which way I'll swing :)

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