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Unpopular opinion!


emelee

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What are your unpopular opinions about books? Some extremely popular book that you thought was a stinker? Some appreciated author who you think writes terrible? A heroic character you find blasé?

 

What is you unpopular opinion?

 

One of mine concerns Wuthering Heights. I think it sucked. I wanted Heathcliff to just "die already!!!". I found him and Cathy to be extremely selfish and annoying. I felt sorry for Cathy Jr and Hareton. The rest of the characters I just found mental. I know passion drove many characters, Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw, but in the process they wrecked too many lives which made me unable to root for them. Heathcliff as a child was nice and rootworthy, but when he grew up he became a big jackazz and there was no excuse for it.

 

That was mine, what is yours - and why?

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I too hated Wuthering Heights although I read it as a teenager so now can't remember the storyline.

 

I also have never finished Lord of the Rings - I always get partway into the second book. I doubt I will ever try to finish it because last time Tom Bombadill drove me so nuts I could barely get through book one. It's a shame as I love the fantasy genre. And I really enjoyed the Hobbit but again can't remember the story well as I read it aged 12.

 

I remember feeling Jane Eyre was rather creepy - wasn't the bloke alot older than her?

 

And Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - I thought the book was good but I actually had alot of sympathy for Rebecca and hugely disliked the husband.

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Bronwen, despite Dan Brown's success, I think it would be more of an unpopular opinion to admit that one likes him. I actually enjoy his books for what they are.

 

My unpopular opinions: I really hated Black Beauty. So dull and repetitive! And I also really disliked The Alchemist for reasons I've often stated elsewhere in the forum (cliched, boring, predictable).

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Dan Brown too, I read 100 pages of the DaVinci code and it bored me enough to put it down and never to pick up one of his books.

 

And I didn't think Cormack McCarthy's book The Road was all that. It was ok, but some people think it's one of the best books written, I do not. It's average, bleak (I know it's supposed to be, but just thought it was more boring than just bleak).. not as fantastic as everyone seems to think.

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I have to agree about Wuthering Heights all that wailing gnashing and hair pulling 'get over it already' never really got it. I cannot stand Thomas Hardy I have tried to read them soooo many times and never succeeded. The other two Classics which I cannot understand people raving over are Portrait of a Lady - Henry James I never got beyond the first couple of chapters and Anna Karenina I read the whole thing and then wished to have the time back so it wasn't wasted.

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I've never been able to read Lord of the Rings because Tolkien goes on for pages and pages of description when he could be getting on with the story, and then, just as he's starting to get back on track, people burst into lengthy songs or start speaking Elvish. I gave up on The Hobbit too.

 

Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon is awful - he begin sentences with "and" and "but" and then runs sentences on like long lists, "And this and this and that and the other and this too. But then that and this and this and that..." for entire paragraphs. On top of that, the story is exceedingly dull and he takes too long in the telling - very badly written, and yet we were expected to read and study it for Higher English. I never did finish it as it was so dire.

 

The Twilight Saga is quite possibly THE most over-hyped piece of tosh I've ever read. I've said it before and I'll happily say it again - Meyer can't write for toffee. Her characters are wimpish and needy and she has no flair at all for contruction or progression. I really cannot understand why so many people go gaga over them!

 

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - I found this very cold, clinical and emotionless and had great difficulty identifying with the narrator - I just didn't feel anything towards her at all. Nothing much seemed to happen and despite her month in New York, her life seemed very dull. I got absolutely nothing out of this - it felt so disjointed and I felt it had very little flow. It felt like such a chore to read this and I kind of wished I'd put it down early on and given up on it – I would have done if it hadn’t been chosen for a reading circle and been so short.

 

Eragon by Christopher Paolini - Reads like it was written by a 15-y-o boy (which I think it actually wad). Unfortunately, I found it to be horribly turgid like trying to read a D&D manual (which is possibly what inspired it in the first place!). I couldn't get very far into it because it was so bad.

 

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - Incredibly predictable. I'll let you read my full REVIEW to see exactly what I hated so much about this one though.

 

As you can see, I've found quite a few popular books dire...

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I didn't enjoy Dracula - thought it was badly written with boring characters.

 

I also didn't enjoy Brideshead Revisited nearly as much as I thought I would, but I'm prepared to give that another go at some point. Possibly a case of the right book at the wrong time.

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We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver, I have far too many complaints about this book and I will end up ranting, so I will just say, that book was all kinds of wrong.

 

:)

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Bronwen, despite Dan Brown's success, I think it would be more of an unpopular opinion to admit that one likes him. I actually enjoy his books for what they are.

 

Well said, Kylie, I feel the same about Brown's books. The same can also be said for me about Stephenie Meyer's books. I know she's not a brilliant writer but I still get sucked into her stories.

 

Quite a few years ago I got about halfway through Stephen King's 'It' but couldn't finish it. For some reason I really didn't like the characters King had created and thought that even for him, he had gone too far with his odd-ness. Put me off King for a few years after that in fact...

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I Really disliked the harry potter books. Alot of people recomended them to me so I went out and got the series and began reading and when I got to goblet of fire I simply gave up, I didnt enjoy the way they where written, I can't explain why. I know I am one of a VERY small group of people who don't enjoy Jk rowlings novels but I still want to read them all, I usually only read them if I have run out of money and read all the books I had previously bought. :blush:

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One of mine concerns Wuthering Heights. I think it sucked. I wanted Heathcliff to just "die already!!!". I found him and Cathy to be extremely selfish and annoying. I felt sorry for Cathy Jr and Hareton. The rest of the characters I just found mental. I know passion drove many characters, Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw, but in the process they wrecked too many lives which made me unable to root for them. Heathcliff as a child was nice and rootworthy, but when he grew up he became a big jackazz and there was no excuse for it.

 

That was mine, what is yours - and why?

Yes but Heathcliff was never intented to be likeable. The hateabliity of Heathcliff was what made the book so enjoyable for me. I liked that the book made me react to a character with such abhorrence. It's truly of it era (romanticism), in that it causes an emotional reaction in the reader. To me that makes the book a great success.

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One of mine concerns Wuthering Heights. I think it sucked. I wanted Heathcliff to just "die already!!!". I found him and Cathy to be extremely selfish and annoying. I felt sorry for Cathy Jr and Hareton. The rest of the characters I just found mental. I know passion drove many characters, Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw, but in the process they wrecked too many lives which made me unable to root for them. Heathcliff as a child was nice and rootworthy, but when he grew up he became a big jackazz and there was no excuse for it.

 

 

 

The first time I read Wuthering Heights I would have agreed with you totally! I couldn't even get past the first few chapters I think. Then a few years later I tried it again and loved it! How strange! I wonder what I would think if I read it now?

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The Portrait of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

I was really looking forward to it as I liked the idea behind it, but I really struggled to finish it, although I did in the end. I think I gave it 4/10 :blush: ( Sorry Noll!)

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I absolutely hated American Psycho; just too much pointless violence much too in your face. Whatever point was being made was lost; just too nihilistic for me.

 

I don't mind the nihilism. What I hated about this book was the absolutely horrible violence. Don't get me wrong, I like violence in books and films, but Bateman was just.. thw way he treated the first guy he killed, the homeless man, he abused him mentally too. Disgusting. Oh and the thign I hated most about this book, the violence against animals. The things he did to that homeless mans dog.. had me feeling icky for days. Though the book isn't really overrated in my eyes, it's good but not my cup of tea.

 

I agree on, what was it? Eragon. Boooooooooooring.

 

Am actually about 150-200 pages into Fellowship of the Ring now and I love it.

 

Think it's funny to see how people's opinions are different, some books I love you guys hate, and the other way around. :)

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Bravo Two Zero - Andy McNab

I've never read so many gratuitous swear words on one page in my life. Most other blokes I know that have read the book, swear it's the best thing ever put onto paper, But I thought the whole thing was was just crudely written. Did not enjoy one bit.

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One of mine concerns Wuthering Heights. I think it sucked. I wanted Heathcliff to just "die already!!!". I found him and Cathy to be extremely selfish and annoying. I felt sorry for Cathy Jr and Hareton. The rest of the characters I just found mental. I know passion drove many characters, Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw, but in the process they wrecked too many lives which made me unable to root for them. Heathcliff as a child was nice and rootworthy, but when he grew up he became a big jackazz and there was no excuse for it.

 

uuuhh. That hurts my very soul. :cry: I'll have to gently caress and whisper to my copy tonight. :P

 

I really didn't like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Snoozer. To be fair I only made it to page 225, but that was far enough.

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I really didn't like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Snoozer. To be fair I only made it to page 225, but that was far enough.

I made it almost halfway through, but got shot of it after that as I found it exceedingly dull and incredibly predictable. I later discovered that the prediction I made literally a couple of pages into the book was bangon the money, meaning that reading the rest of the book would have been pointless anyway. If I can work out what's going to happen within a couple of pages, then it must be blindingly obvious - to my mind, it's bad writing to make things too easy to spot - I like a little bit of mystery and intrigue.

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