milee
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Post by milee on May 9, 2013 14:31:57 GMT -5
Eat,Pray, Love. Hated the character so much I stopped reading it when she arrived in India. I barely made it through her Italy journey. I did watch the movie with my cousin (who seems to think Eat, Pray, Love is one of the greatest books ever written) and I didn't hate the movie as much as the book. They cut out a lot of her whining in the movie. Yes. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who thought that. Man, that woman was whiny! I couldn't even properly describe it to other people because the whole premise was so ridiculous (author cheats on her husband, husband -understandably - leaves, author is so sad that husband has left her sorry, cheating ass that the author needs an entire year to wallow in pity while undertaking on a full time basis every self-indulgent thing she can think of, fully funded by a royalty advance? Seriously?) The other one that everybody in the world loved but I just didn't find all that interesting was Memoirs of a Geisha.
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amishgal
Established Member
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 14:47:37 GMT -5
Posts: 368
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Post by amishgal on May 9, 2013 14:33:13 GMT -5
The Giver. We had to read it in 8th grade and I didn't get it. I found it really dry too, it was hard to get thru. Twilight. I read the first one, I wanted my $10 back. The writing was so bad and I wanted to OD Bella with prozac. At least Sookie has the fairie thing going for her, Bella's got nothing! 50 Shades of Grey. It's basis is a Twilight fan fic and I hated Twilight. Second reason is its writing is even worse than Twilight. Third this book is supposedly a "revolutizing" book that therapists are recommending to married couples and I don't get it. I found the sex scenes pretty vanilla or stupid. "Her sex" and "his throbbing manhood" don't strike me as very revoluntionary. I've read way better Harlequin Romance bodice rippers. She also has no clue what S&M really is. If you're going to write about it at last do a little homework. Though I suppose the target audience doesn't know what S&M is either. I finished Life of Pi but it was really hard. I found it to be very slow. I felt like the author took way too long describing things, like the Pondicherry Zoo before getting to the plot. Wicked and every single book written by that guy. His books don't end, they just.. .stop. It's like he decided he's done writing and that's it. He also doesn't transition well so I'd find myself reading and next thing I know he's discussing something else and I have to go back a dozen pages or more to figure out what he's talking about. I also think throws in a lot of grautious sex, especially beastiality in the Wicked series. I wanted my $10 back after reading the first 50 Shades book and had no desire to read the other 2. Total boring drivel and her "inner goddess" made me want to scratch my eyes out. It's hard for me to hate a book, I love, love, love to read, but this one was total crap, the author has no writing skills whatsoever.
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Deleted
Joined: Oct 6, 2024 2:33:24 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2013 14:35:19 GMT -5
Sometimes you can get past bad writing if the concept is intriguing enough, but not audio. I read Davinci Code and The Host and liked them a lot... But when you are reading you can go fast and get the gist, read the 'story' without necessarily internalizing all the words and language. I bought those on audio cause I thought husband/ kids might like them. Ouch. When they are read the less than stellar writing becomes much more obvious.
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kittensaver
Junior Associate
We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love. - Mother Teresa
Joined: Nov 22, 2011 16:16:36 GMT -5
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Post by kittensaver on May 9, 2013 14:36:42 GMT -5
A Mind That Found Itself, by Clifford Beers. He is widely regarded in my industry as the founder of the modern mental health movement. I'm told he just about single-handedly changed the way mental hospitals were run at the turn of the last century, based on his published experiences. I really, REALLY want to be inspired by it, but found the stilted, achronicistic Victorian language to be impossible to read. It was almost like reading another language
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on May 9, 2013 14:38:07 GMT -5
I read the entire Hunger Games trilogy. My whole office did. Those drew me in and I found them to be an easy read. I did too. I read the entire 2nd book on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Sometimes I really enjoy an easy and interesting read. The 3rd book was my least favorite but I still enjoyed it.
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Miss Tequila
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Post by Miss Tequila on May 9, 2013 14:38:08 GMT -5
Eat,Pray, Love. Hated the character so much I stopped reading it when she arrived in India. I barely made it through her Italy journey. I did watch the movie with my cousin (who seems to think Eat, Pray, Love is one of the greatest books ever written) and I didn't hate the movie as much as the book. They cut out a lot of her whining in the movie. I've never read teh book but the author lives by one of my friends in Frenchtown, NJ (or at least she did the last time I was there, which was a few years ago). I had the chance to meet her when we bumped into her at the store that she owns (very new agey, Budha type crap)...she seemed very pleasant but was definitely "differen't" than me.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 9, 2013 14:39:01 GMT -5
Sometimes you can get past bad writing if the concept is intriguing enough
I must be weird because I don't find 50 Shades intriguing or titilating at all. Even if I had listened to her her sex scenes are so STUPID and I found several of them to be offensive. In actual S&M you NEVER do anything without the person's consent but Chrisitan ignores that rule several times. It disturbs me when I hear women say they want their men to be like him. Uh. .. no you don't. Maybe I'm just not that good at escaping that I can ignore the abusive parts in 50 Shades.
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movingforward
Junior Associate
Joined: Sept 15, 2011 12:48:31 GMT -5
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Post by movingforward on May 9, 2013 14:40:09 GMT -5
Sometimes you can get past bad writing if the concept is intriguing enough, but not audio. I read Davinci Code and The Host and liked them a lot... But when you are reading you can go fast and get the gist, read the 'story' without necessarily internalizing all the words and language. I bought those on audio cause I thought husband/ kids might like them. Ouch. When they are read the less than stellar writing becomes much more obvious. I can't do audio books. I tried a couple on long road trips and stopped after a half hour, popped in the 80's rock and pretended I could sing
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movingforward
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Joined: Sept 15, 2011 12:48:31 GMT -5
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Post by movingforward on May 9, 2013 14:41:32 GMT -5
I don't have the desire to read 50 Shades of Grey. It just doesn't seem like my type of book
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 9, 2013 14:43:04 GMT -5
I read The Good Earth about 2 years ago. I missed having to read it in HS. I'm attempting to read (or re-read) the classics as an adult. The thing I'm finding is that as a teenager I just didn't have the 'life experience' to appreciate these books/stories. I actually liked the The Good Earth as an adult. I think I would have had trouble reading it as a teen. I read My Antonia (Cather) and was astounded - because I had to keep reminding myself that the book (1918) wasn't copying modern images/themes that I had seen - that this was probably where those images had orginated. Alot of this book played out in my head like a movie - even though I've never seen this book as a movie. I also LOVE that in Stevenson's Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde - there's a scene where Jeckyll mixes up a potion and when he combines two liquids in a beaker - the liquids turn different colors and a cloud of steam/smoke comes off the top and rolls down the sides of the beaker as he slugs down the potion. I had a Bugs Bunny cartoon playing in my head as I read this... and realized that anytime someone mixes a 'potion' in movies/tv shows... it's an allusion to this story. Stevenson did it first. I'm also really appreciating H.P. Lovecraft - as an adult. I wasn't much impressed or frightened by the few stories I had read as a teen. But as an adult I'm finding them 'cool' because I can see some connections from modern SciFi/Horror back to Lovecraft (beyond the obvious Arkham assylum in Batman...) The zombie short stories were oddly humorous to me.
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Deleted
Joined: Oct 6, 2024 2:33:24 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2013 14:43:41 GMT -5
Sometimes you can get past bad writing if the concept is intriguing enough
I must be weird because I don't find 50 Shades intriguing or titilating at all. Even if I had listened to her her sex scenes are so STUPID and I found several of them to be offensive. In actual S&M you NEVER do anything without the person's consent but Chrisitan ignores that rule several times. It disturbs me when I hear women say they want their men to be like him. Uh. .. no you don't. Maybe I'm just not that good at escaping that I can ignore the abusive parts in 50 Shades. No, I said sometimes ... I didn't even try 50 shades, my mom told me it was badly written so I didn't bother. As for audios, we love them especially if its a good book well done... Those two were now!
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milee
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Post by milee on May 9, 2013 14:43:56 GMT -5
OK, since we're dishing here, tell me the truth. I have a friend that refers to listening to audio books as "reading." As in, "My son didn't want to read his summer reading book, so we read it in the car." But when she says "read", she means they listened to it on tape. While I'm not against trying creative things to get your kids to be exposed to new things and if that's the only way to do it, go for it, I don't think that's "reading." I think that's "being read to" or "listening". Again, not necessarily inferior, but different. Depending on your child's learning style that might have a different impact.
So do you consider listening to an audiobook "reading" and I'm just being snotty?
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 9, 2013 14:46:21 GMT -5
I didn't even try 50 shades, my mom told me it was badly written so I didn't bother
So glad there are people that agree with me. I'm surprised peopel don't come after me with pitchforks when I say I hated this book. And DEFINETLY don't say you hate it AND Twilight.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on May 9, 2013 14:46:49 GMT -5
I don't think that's quite the same as reading. I think it's just being spoon fed to you that way. Do you really stop and think about what you are hearing?
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