We all have them. Beloved books that we just didn’t get, that make us question the sanity of the world for liking said books in the first place. It inevitably goes something like this: “Clearly I’m not crazy, so the fact that so many people liked X book is a sign that the rest of the world is crazy.”
But of course it’s just a reflection of the subjectivity of books and the fact that no one will ever agree on one book. And also, I hope people will consider this subjectivity before they describe something as a “piece of trash” in an Amazon review. (You know who you are, nearly everyone in America.)
So You Tell Me: What revered/beloved/classic book did you just not get into? PLEASE RESTRICT YOUR ANSWERS TO DEAD AUTHORS, and let’s even try and treat them with respect. I don’t need to be haunted by the ghost of Edith Wharton this week.
mkcbunny says
It’s amazing how some people’s favorites are other people’s bane. Love Gatsby, Wharton, James …
I couldn’t get through Ulysses. I will probably try again someday. I’m trying to think of other revered books that I started but could not finish. There aren’t very many.
It’s probably unfair to include books that my grumpy 10th grade English teacher abused her class over. That situation wasn’t the best for fair assessment. That said, The Good Earth and Tale of Two Cities are two books that I feel no desire to revisit. Ever.
Confessions of a Serial Rebounder says
War and Peace…it just never grabbed me. There’s also something about having to read books for school that makes them less appetizing.
Anonymous says
I thought about this when I first read the post earlier, and it occurred to me there isn’t one single revered book I didn’t get. Some I like better than others, but I can’t say any were bad. I’ve never been a mystery fan, but the ones I’ve read I liked.
I could be wrong, but so many of the books (and authors: Henry James? 😮 ) people despised are usually part of high school or undergrad reading lists. Could it be a few bad teachers and bad profs spoiled a few good books and good authors for some people? I’m sure that’s not the case for everyone, but I’d bet it is for some people.
It might be interesting for people to go back and re-read these books now, at a different time in their lives, to see if they still feel the same way.
Literatus says
Hi guys. Didn’t like Pilgrim’s Progress, Pamela, Paradise Lost, Anna Karenina, Ulysses. Want to stick up for Moby Dick, House of Mirth and the Scarlet Letter, though. What makes me dislike a book is moralizing that breaks the context instead of fitting into the story, or that is used instead of characterization and actual story. I’m sorry, you wanted fiction? But I have a sermon- that’s close enough, right? Also thought Ulysses didn’t have enough story. Yeah, it was a novel about how to write a novel, kind of, but I like stories about something other than how to write literature(with a significant and well-argued message). And really, if you haven’t made it all the way through Moby Dick, do yourself a favor and try again. Ahab is one of the best characters in all of literature, and the ending is stupendous. Though if the ending’s all you want, I suppose you could just rent Wrath of Khan.* *-JOKING…
Anonymous says
Elyssa … did you finish Great Expectations? ‘Cause you’re right, of course. Pip is more than a bit of pompous ass to Joe after he becomes a gentleman. He’s a downright flagrant you-know-what. But that’s the point … and then the rug gets pulled out from underneath him … and then Dickens completes one of the more lovely character arcs I can think of … and then there is that awful moment in the end when (even in the revised end), Pip realizes that his arrogance may have cost him Estella and at least cost him his youth.
And is it true, what they say? Is Moby Dick really Nathan’s most favorite book? It makes wish I could query you, but alas, I am elsewhere represented …
LurkerMonkey
Anonymous says
whoops.
seriously, sorry.
didn’t realize my comments were about a still living guy until you removed them. Sorry.
didn’t mean to break the rules.
Alison says
I totally agree with bunnygirl about Wuthering Heights. Great novel, horrible love story.
The Red Badge of Courage and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea can pretty much slug it out for most painful reads ever, but the book that I really wanted to like and just couldn’t get into was On the Road. I have tried no less than three times to read it in print and once to do the audiobook thing, and I just can’t get into it. I have not idea why.
Anonymous says
Everything James Joyce wrote; War and Peace; Moby Dick; Ethan Frome – I “got” the message, just don’t know why anyone would care enough to wade through the rambling prose. On the opposite side, the big Southern writers are wonderful even when an individual story line isn’t – I mean Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Conner, Carson McCullers, even Erskine Caldwell.
William Womack says
A dozen years ago, I read Moby Dick while traveling in Italy. I thought my eyes would cross before I finished. My wife got really sick of me yelling “a whale is NOT A FISH!” at the poor, battered book.
I downed The Picture of Dorian Grey on the same trip and thoroughly enjoyed it.
JES says
I’m with a number of commenters on this great question: a LOT of the names and titles being bruited about* just flat-out amaze me, and make me wonder what sort of crowd I have inadvertently fallen into. 🙂
Not that there aren’t great books that I haven’t “gotten.” There are some; there are lots, actually. I might read only 25 pages of a classic and say to myself, OK, too many books, time to move on… But I honestly think I’ve never done that and thought to myself, “I HATED THAT.” Instead, my reaction is more along the lines of, “I can understand why people think this is great — why they value it. I’ve just got different things I value.”
…All of which can be interpreted as making a big deal of how tolerant I am. I don’t mean it that way. But I’ve felt the sting of critics’ (and Amazon readers’) lashes, and know how flat-out wrong readers can be about what I intended. (In a lot of cases, people object not to a book per se; they just wish the author had written the book which THEY would have written, if they only had the time, wit, etc.) I assume that’s what’s going on when I’m tempted to “hate” a book… especially one which has endured for decades, even centuries, as a Great Book.
*Gotta love a verb phrase like “being bruited about,” which just seems to dangle in space. Are things ever flat-out bruited, or are they always bruited ABOUT?
A Paperback Writer says
Literature I just really don’t understand, even after reading several times, taking classes, etc.
1) Ulysses
2) The Waste Land
And I’m not even going to touch Finnegan’s Wake. Forget it.
Books others seem to love and I have no clue why anyone thinks they’re great:
1) Moby Dick (and I see I am far from being alone on this!)
2)Catcher in the Rye (I truly cannot see why some folks think this is a life-changing book.)
Books I could not finish because I found them stiflingly long in getting around to any kind of plot:
1) The Brothers Karamozov
2) The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Authors whose style drives me nuts:
1) Faulkner (Intruder in the Dust has one sentence that is 4 1/2 pages long. Oh my.)
And a couple of non-dead folks who are really famous, and I haven’t a clue why…..
Caroline says
Both school books: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (so wordy, took forever to get anything to happen, and I didn’t even finish) and THE GREAT GATSBY. Unfortunately GATSBY was my English teacher’s favorite book in the world. He’s crazy, so I don’t put too much stock in that, but I got some crap for loudly disparaging it in class.
Elyssa Papa says
Anon @ 4:47:
I did finish reading Great Expectations and didn’t like it. I could never get past Pip’s characterization but to each her own.
sdailey says
I’m going to go with Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. Wrote a paper on it, gave an oral presentation on it, got an A on both. The gift of BS came in handy on that day in college.
Icarus says
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Everything by Joyce. Everything by Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Jane Austen.
On the other hand, I like a lot of the things put down here. I like all of Dickens but especially Great Expectations. I liked Moby Dick, The Scarlett Letter, Lolita, Catch-22, everything I’ve read by Steinbeck, Hemmingway, and many others dissed here.
I have a theory on the vehemence people have for revered books that they don’t like. I majored in literature as an undergrad and as a grad student. I had good grades. I’m a smart guy. Not liking Joyce, Eliot, Yeats, etc makes me feel like an impostor. It makes me feel stupid. If I were truly someone who “got it,” I would love these like every other English major. I take the unpleasantness I experience reading these revered books as a very personal affront. James Joyce routinely insults me, why isn’t it okay for me to insult him?
–Joe
Faustus, M.D. says
Does this mean that there are weeks you do need to be haunted by the ghost of Edith Wharton?
Sharon says
I homeschooled my kids and we read a lot of the classics. My 12 year old loves Verne and Shakespeare, my 18 year old loves Tolkien and both love Poe. I can’t get into any of them. Verne’s books just aren’t my style, I can’t understand what Shakespeare and Tolkien are saying from page to page and Poe is just too dark for me. I do enjoy Shakespeare in modern English, though. We have some authors we all like, but I felt I needed to expose them to all sorts of literature, even if I didn’t care for the stories or authors myself. Oh, and Nathan? My 12 year old loves Moby Dick but my 18 year old doesn’t even care to finish reading it. I’ll try to finish it again & see what I think.
Sarah says
I’m reading all of these comments from people about how much they hated Moby Dick. I suspect this is because they tried to read it on their own, or had to read it for a class in which the teacher didn’t like it or taught about it poorly. I really liked Moby Dick, but I think part of it was the class I took and the eye-opening discussions that went with it. I think taking a good class on Moby Dick (or Faulkner, for that matter) is a must for really appreciating them.
I will say, though, that I also didn’t get into Lord of the Flies, Slaughterhouse Five, Brave New World, and the Scarlet Letter. First three were read for high school, last for college. By the same teacher who taught Moby Dick, actually.
Icarus says
Just skim when you get a cetology lesson, and you’ll discover an enjoyable tight little book.
DeadlyAccurate says
The Grapes of Wrath. Well, really, anything by John Steinbeck. I didn’t like Of Mice And Men either. It’s simply a matter of taste. I know he’s a talented writer; I simply don’t like what he writes.
Just_Me says
You mean I can’t admit I didn’t buy the (name removed to meet publishers requirements) books everyone loved?
Pity.
The well loved books that never made my shelf are most of the “classics”. Old Man and the Sea, Moby Dick, Oliver Twist, Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind…. there are very few dead authors I enjoy reading. I love Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Ovid but there entire generations of authors that have been praised and petted and that I just can’t be bothered with.
I love sci-fi books. I love action and comedy and so many of the older books are morbidly depressing. They’re heavy with symbolisim. They shove opinions in your face- I can think for myself, thanks, please don’t tell me what to think.
I did like 1984. I will read (some) Jane Austen. Not all of those older books are terribly written just the ones college professors seem to think are wonderful. We need to pay college professors better, then they could go out and buy *real* books.
🙂 And an advanced apology to those of you who love the old-style books. 🙂
Julia says
I taught Moby Dick in summer school. Summer school. Moby Dick. Summer school.
And yet, more than half of the students said it was their favorite. So go fig. Moby Dick is the anchovy of literature; the people who love it (like me) love it to pieces, and the people who don’t like it really don’t understand how anyone can even tolerate it.
My unfavorite revered book by a dead person is A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I know many other people like it a lot, but I couldn’t get into it.
And Ayn Rand in general. I can’t get past the length and preachiness and flat characters.
And Clarissa squicks me, but that’s my personal loathing of books that are really, really creepy about rape.
mlh says
Lord of the Flies. Enough said.
Anonymous says
Elyssa … me again. Fair enough. To each their own. I thought that maybe if you had set the book down in disgust halfway through, then perhaps I could entice you back.
But in disliking Great Expectations you join good company: my wife.
LurkerMonkey
Colleen says
Madame Bovary. After about 100 pages I was calling her Madame Bovine and after 250 pages I threw the damned book against the wall.
Afterward, I picked up Les Miserables, which I LOVED and have since read five times.
Go figure.
Can we talk about “wow” movies we didn’t get next? Cos I have a few choice ones…
ORION says
Proust.
Remembrance of things Past
It might just be the translation but I have no desire to brush up on my french and find out…
Proust is one of those authors that many people pretend they’ve read all the way through – like James Joyce…
Colleen says
And, um, cos technically Salinger isn’t dead yet, I won’t post my own opinion of Catcher in the Rye but instead will point you with glee to this 2004 column by Jonathan Yardley about said classic. Enjoy!
Sarah Garrigues says
See I disagree…my husband and I love CATCH-22, anything Jane Austen, and ATLAS SHRUGGED/FOUNTAINHEAD. Ayn Rand may not have described passionate emotion, but her characters did display great passion.
There you go, Subjectivity.
I will second the previous mentions of ETHAN FROME and the works of H. G. Wells.
Personally, I tried reading THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde and could not get past the paragraph long sentences.
Adaora A. says
@Patricia – LOL! Isn’t that the truth. There is a list of authors who people pretend they read but haven’t even got half past.
Anonymous says
I’m sorry, but this whole discussion smacks of television-addled idiocy or pervasive ADHD. H.P. Lovecraft would roll over in his grave if he heard such nonsense.
Sorry, to use words this group would understand, that Lovecraft dude would totally, like, freak and stuff.
To write off great literature because the reader is too dense or lazy to read a lengthy sentence or figure out a plot is simply unconscionable. Regardless of your genre of choice, a basic command of the English language and its historic usage is essential to good writing.
Good day, sir, I say, good day!
Diana says
I guess I’ll say “The Turn of the Screw.” I’ve enjoyed James’s other ghostly work, but this one seemed to choke on it own detail. Couldn’t finish it.
I empathize. I love the idea of this book. I love the storyline. And I consider myself intelligent and patient. But I just don’t seem to have what it takes to stick with this book long enough to finish it.
Renee Collins says
Huck Finn.
I know, I know, Mark Twain is an American icon.
Even so, I disliked most of what I have read of his.
Anonymous says
Um… who mentioned Lovecraft Anon 9:08???
Get off your high horse and realize the whole POINT of the discussion is to talk about books we secretly (or not so secretly now) can’t get through. It’s not a moral failing, or an English failing, it’s simply PERSONAL PREFERENCE. We are allowed to have those, right dude?
Kristin Laughtin says
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Hemingway. Catherine’s choices ultimately frustrated me.
Although I rather liked ANTHEM, I couldn’t get into any of Rand’s other works. Her philosophy was rather at odds with my own, which doesn’t necessarily make a book bad, but I felt that her writing was smug and pretentious on top of it.
THE HOBBIT. I love Tolkien’s stories; I just don’t love the way he writes them. I appreciate detail, but I didn’t need five pages to figure out that Bilbo Baggins’ door was green. This is one I’d like to give another try, though.
Kelly Guentner says
Lord of the Flies. I get that it’s a commentary on the horribleness of human nature, but I guess I prefer my books with less torture and brutal pig murdering.
Oh, and Slaughterhouse Five. I really hated that book because the main character just accepted every bad thing that came his way. To me, he seemed like a weak willed character because he just lived through all these terrible events and never tried to change them.
Though I did really enjoy the unique idea that time could be viewed simultaneously and is not fluid and moving forward.
Both are books I had to read in high school, so I suppose being pushed to read them might have something to do with not enjoying them as much. Maybe if I read them again, I would really enjoy them. Maybe.
Icarus says
::points to Anon 9:08::
See what I mean? I can read a complex sentence just fine, thank you. I’ve got the pieces of paper that prove it hanging on my wall. ::rolls eyes::
People are passionate about the highly regarded art they dislike because there is always some snob around hoping to use it to browbeat them.
–Joe
annerallen says
Henry James has lots of votes, but nobody’s mentioned The Golden Bowl–my candidate for the best example of an author running away from his own plot–if there was one. I forget now. I wouldn’t have read the whole thing except I was stuck on a Greek beach with nothing else in English to read.
Jessica says
The first book I can think of that I ever didn’t finish (I ALWAYS finish books, no matter how slow or difficult I might find them) is The Sun Also Rises. I don’t even remember why. I haven’t been able to bring myself to touch another Hemingway since.
David de Beer says
James Joyce – Ulysses.
(longest) most pointless book I ever read.
Whatever is so brilliant about it that makes people rave generation in and out, it’s not for me.
Vanessa says
While I love the Victorians (and Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite books) I simply cannot read Jane Austin. And, well, Lord of the Rings left me underwhelmed.
beth says
*dodges Nathan’s sputtering protests*
I hate Moby Dick. It is number one on my worst books ever list. I remember with pain the weeks wasted in high school, reading about a stupid whale.
And Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury is number two on the list.
scott jones says
To Anonymous 4:49. In singing the praises of the big Southern writers, you did not mention William Styron?
Jessica says
Anything by James Joyce. I know I’m not alone on that one.
scott jones says
Mr. Bradford asked a different question than perhaps many of us answered — “what book didn’t we get?” not “what didn’t we like?”
The first is more like asking us for our literary judgement, not our emotive taste as readers. We shouldn’t be afraid to make judgments unless we buy into the total relativism of current literary criticism. Maybe the criteria are:
1. What was wrong about the plot?
2. What was untrue about the characterisation?
3. What was bad about the purpose of the book?
4. What was false about the values presented?
For me, Finnegans Wake loses on 3 above, because it wasn’t a book as much as a demonstration of how deeply you could layer cross references to culture and myth and make sly linkages that few could access.
As for not liking a book, surely we’ve all got a twitch about one book or another that just rubbed us wrong, but that really is relative, and, as some posters have pointed out, personal rather than general.
Southern Writer says
I’m not Anon @4:49, but I’d like to say I LOVE Styron. There aren’t too many novels out there (Lonesome Dove, maybe) more beautiful and gut-wrenching than Sophie’s Choice.
debiwrites says
Moby Dick.
Even thinking of that book makes the idea of watching grass grow sound exciting!
This was also the only time I ever purchased Cliffs Notes, and I couldn’t read those either!
Kendall Hanson says
Sometimes you just need a bit of distance to try a book again. When I first read Heart of Darkness, its incomprehensibility flunked me out of English 102–and into the draft. Seven years and one war later, it became the centerpiece of my Master’s study of Joseph Conrad because I had learned to keep my attention on the rivets as well as the jungle.
Indu Nair says
Ulysses, couldn’t even browse through it. But I liked a collection of Joyce’s short stories and found parts of ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young man’ inspiring.
Also ‘A Room of one’s own’ by Virginia Woolf is one of my favourite books. But I put away ‘To the lighthouse’ and ‘Mrs Dalloway’ after exactly 2 pages. Found the prose very dense and complex to keep reading.
Lisa says
Love The Hobbit (and reread it every once in awhile) but I cannot get through the rest of the books in the series. Another one I could never get beyond the first page: Silas Marner.
Chro says
Heart of Darkness.
I COULD NOT get into that book. Even though it was less than 200 pages, to this day it remains the only book that I fell asleep reading, on a day when I wasn’t even tired. Even was was when I had to go into AP English class the next week and try to find the underlying meaning in a book I couldn’t stand.
I’ve never seen Apocalypse Now, either; I’m afraid it will bore me to tears.