Are there any books that you regret reading?

[lunababymoonchild]

I'm interested to know.

 

My regrets are the Thomas Harris books, Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter 1), Silence of the Lambs (book 2) and Hannibal (book 3). I saw the film Silence of the Lambs and immediately read the book so ended up reading the other two. Although I enjoyed them at the time for what they were, I really wish now that I hadn't read them (there is some very sick stuff in Red Dragon alone).

 

I didn't particularly enjoy Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck, just to be clear) either but don't actually regret reading that.

 

So, what are yours?

[Hux]

I don't regret reading anything but Blood Meridian by Cormack McCarthy and Murphy by Samuel Beckett gave me a headache.

[KEV67]

Are we talking just about fiction? There are books that can change your life. They might make you change your religion, radicalise your politics, or jack in your safe, steady job to become a lumberjack in British Columbia.

 

Among fiction, I cannot really think of anything I regret, but I sometimes think the books you are made to read at school can put you off reading. A lot of kids hate Lord of the Flies. I did not appreciate having to read Jane Eyre as a fifteen-year-old boy. It was romantic fiction as well as Victorian, so double girly. I think a lot of kids are put off reading Dickens at school, including me.

 

I suppose I slightly regret reading Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. I really did not like what he was trying to do. I suppose there are other books I did not like because they were great until the end. I did not like the endings of Captain Corelli's Mandolin nor Oscar and Lucinda. If it's a choice between an artistic but unhappy ending, and a sappy ending, I usually prefer the sappy ending.

[Raven]

Mod note: Moved to the general book discussion thread.

 

[lunababymoonchild]

8 hours ago, KEV67 said:

Are we talking just about fiction? There are books that can change your life. They might make you change your religion, radicalise your politics, or jack in your safe, steady job to become a lumberjack in British Columbia.

 

Among fiction, I cannot really think of anything I regret, but I sometimes think the books you are made to read at school can put you off reading. A lot of kids hate Lord of the Flies. I did not appreciate having to read Jane Eyre as a fifteen-year-old boy. It was romantic fiction as well as Victorian, so double girly. I think a lot of kids are put off reading Dickens at school, including me.

 

I suppose I slightly regret reading Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. I really did not like what he was trying to do. I suppose there are other books I did not like because they were great until the end. I did not like the endings of Captain Corelli's Mandolin nor Oscar and Lucinda. If it's a choice between an artistic but unhappy ending, and a sappy ending, I usually prefer the sappy ending.

Any and every book.

[lunababymoonchild]

4 hours ago, Raven said:

Mod note: Moved to the general book discussion thread.

 

Thank you. Wasn't sure where to put it.

[Kudz]

I don’t think I have ever regretted reading a book. Yes, there have been some I haven’t necessarily enjoyed reading but I don’t think I’d go as far as saying I’ve regretted reading them in the first place.

 

If a book is that bad to begin with, I wouldn’t spend any more time finishing it.

[timebug]

I read one novel may years ago that was being 'pushed' as a horror story, and it was the vilest most foul piece of rubbish that I have ever read. I will not name it here, as a caual reader may be tempted to find out the cause of my revulsion by checking it out. Suffice to say that it was really awful, in the truest senses of the word, and whilst I would defend banning anything and the 'burning of books' in this one case, I would happily make an exception.

[lunababymoonchild]

1 hour ago, Kudz said:

If a book is that bad to begin with, I wouldn’t spend any more time finishing it.

I don't either, what I'm talking about is a book that you've read and enjoyed at the time but later on regret.

[France]

At the time I regretted reading The Painted Bird (at my brother's suggestion), I was about 13 and it was horribly violent and gave me nightmares. I can't think of any that I've looked back on later and though 'I wish I hadn't read that'.

[Hayley]

On 9/8/2022 at 11:08 PM, KEV67 said:

romantic fiction as well as Victorian, so double girly

Why does being Victorian make it extra girly?

 

 

I do remember having this feeling of regret after reading a scary book when I was probably about 13, but I can't remember what it was now. It had a particularly gruesome/creepy image in it that I just wished I hadn't ever imagined! 

 

[KEV67]

39 minutes ago, Hayley said:

Why does being Victorian make it extra girly?

 

 

I do remember having this feeling of regret after reading a scary book when I was probably about 13, but I can't remember what it was now. It had a particularly gruesome/creepy image in it that I just wished I hadn't ever imagined! 

 

Not entirely sure why I thought that. It might be because Victorian costume dramas were the sort of thing my mother liked.