Books Not to Read

Amazer said:
I actually like Clive Cussler... his books are awesome to read while I was travelling... on bumpy roads... and where it's not really important if you jump a couple of sentences forward or backward... just lovely timepass with no actual thinking required.
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There's very little by Cussler in "his" recent books.
 
Guybrush Threepwood said:
Ah but there used to be in the good old days when Dirk Pitt would meet an old prospector in the desert/jungle/tropical island who would introduce himself as "Clive Cussler" :)
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Ugh. The only "Cussler" books I found worth reading are the Isaac Bell series. Mostly free of nautical nonsense.
 
OK, here's one:

Boy Wonder -- My Life in Tights.

Burt Ward's autobiography of his sexperiences while filming the Batman TV show. I thought it would be lighthearted and fun. (I think Adam West wrote one like that). But no, it left me feeling skeevy and needing a shower afterwards.
 
catsmate said:
Anything by James Joyce.
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I guess I'm going to be the odd one out here and say that I love Joyce. Yes, his work is difficult to read, some bits more than others, for me at least the effort is worth it. I find his word plays in particular to be fascinating.
 
luchog said:
I guess I'm going to be the odd one out here and say that I love Joyce. Yes, his work is difficult to read, some bits more than others, for me at least the effort is worth it. I find his word plays in particular to be fascinating.
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I like Joyce up to __Finnegans Wake__.

What's so bad about __Dubliners__? I ask this of people who don't like any Joyce. There's a range there.
 
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calebprime said:
I like Joyce up to __Finnegans Wake__.
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The best way to read Finnegan's Wake is to have someone else read it to you, ideally someone with the proper accent. Or at the very least, read it out loud paying special attention to the pronunciation (if you do it right, you should end up with a vaguely Dubliner accent). The music of his language really shines through.

What's so bad about __Dubliners__? I ask this of people who don't like any Joyce. There's a range there.
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The problem with most people who don't like Joyce is that they've only tried to read Finnegan's Wake or Ulysses. They've almost never picked up Dubliners or his early poetry.
 
Dave Rogers said:
As a balancing view, I'm a bit sad O'Brien never lived to finish the 21st book in the Aubrey series.

And also that he killed off Barrett Bonden in the 19th.


Dave
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Nitpick: O'Brian. He was a fake Irishman, but not a very good one. Fun to read for the characters and the food, but the plots....

And Diana.
 
luchog said:
The best way to read Finnegan's Wake is to have someone else read it to you, ideally someone with the proper accent. Or at the very least, read it out loud paying special attention to the pronunciation (if you do it right, you should end up with a vaguely Dubliner accent). The music of his language really shines through.
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I got frustrated when (with my limited german) I spotted a German pun* and wondered how much else I'd missed.

*or a pun on German "Wait one eye gone black"
 
Most of F. Scott Fitzgerald. One of the sappier books I ripped up and threw out.
 
jimbob said:
What about the plots? You can't say they were unrealistic?
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The Cochrane-based ones, especially the first of the series, were a bit closer to reality than most. But Aubrey would have needed a TARDIS to make all those voyages halfway around the world and back in about five years.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an O'Brian fan. Just not of most of his plots. That's why the movie didn't actually use any of them.
 
Trebuchet said:
The Cochrane-based ones, especially the first of the series, were a bit closer to reality than most. But Aubrey would have needed a TARDIS to make all those voyages halfway around the world and back in about five years.
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To be fair, O'Brian (I feel like I should call him Russ because I can spell it) admitted exactly that in one of his forewords. Though, of course, he blamed Cochrane for not contriving to have his voyage in the Speedy conclude till 1801, and completely glossed over his own negligence in having Aubrey do nothing whatsoever between 1805 and 1810.

Dave
 
angrysoba said:
Let me guess, your father was very much into Freud which is why you hate him.
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I actually found him having sex with a blow-up doll that bore Freud's face. When I was five. But yes, close enough.
 
luchog said:
I guess I'm going to be the odd one out here and say that I love Joyce. Yes, his work is difficult to read, some bits more than others, for me at least the effort is worth it. I find his word plays in particular to be fascinating.
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Not alone there brother...I have this annual ritual of reading Ulysses...enjoy it. I like books that goes beyond telling a story and does things with language and style...
 
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