What great books are actually lousy?

[strollingbones]

Call me crazy, but with an opening like this, Beowulf failed to grab my attention, and it goes on for another 40 some chapters. Oh the essays!:

what can i say....i love it...beowulf...love it...read it often...

 

[GigiBowman]

Catcher in the Rye

and a contemporary book that got great acclaim that I just could not finish

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

 

[random3434]

Never! LOL! "Animal Farm", "The Outsiders", and "1984" are all good. Believe it or not, I've had 3 classes really like, "The Invisible Man," I never understood why, but you can almost tell which classes will like which novels.


I don't know why, but I grew to like Tolstoy, both "Anna Karenina" and "War and Peace." Then again, I liked Hugo's, "Les Misérables," go figure.

Another nomination for worst, absolutely worst classic, "Beowulf." I was lucky enough to have that torture once in high school and 3 times! in college. Egads.

I love that you teach 1984! My daughter ( in 8th grade) had me take her to our public library because she wanted to read that and Animal Farm-ON HER OWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that she loves to read as much as I do! (shew!)

 

[random3434]

The Cat in the Hat is highly over-rated...

If you put down "Green Eggs and Ham" I'll hunt you down...........



As a matter of fact, I'm turning GE&H into a play for my students to put on, they LOVE that book! (Grades 1, 2, 3-Special Needs Students)

It's another way to help them read, because it's a book they love.

 

[del]

If you put down "Green Eggs and Ham" I'll hunt you down...........



As a matter of fact, I'm turning GE&H into a play for my students to put on, they LOVE that book! (Grades 1, 2, 3-Special Needs Students)

It's another way to help them read, because it's a book they love.

i did not like it in a box
i did not like it with a fox
i did not like it in a house
i did not like it with a mouse

jesse jackson reading it on SNL was hilarious however....

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPxPciXcJvc]YouTube - Jesse Jackson reads Dr. Suess[/ame]

 

[random3434]

i did not like it in a box
i did not like it with a fox
i did not like it in a house
i did not like it with a mouse

jesse jackson reading it on SNL was hilarious however....

YouTube - Jesse Jackson reads Dr. Suess

Yeah, that one is a classic!

That's why I hired him to direct my play!

 

[del]

Yeah, that one is a classic!

That's why I hired him to direct my play!

good choice. my daughter was in 2 productions of Seussical this past year
couldn't get the damn song out of my head
now it's thoroughly modern millie- can't get THAT song out of my head

 

[Shogun]

catcher in the rye

crime and punishment

I totally agree. Catcher was some of the lamest shit to read. Especially given its link to famous murders. LAME.


I also thought Dracula was waaaaay too frivolous with victorian era dialog that didn't really get into the body of it's subject until the narrators were done kissing hands and shit.

Lord or the rings, all three books, are FAR inferior to The Hobbit.

Vonnegut's Cats Cradle and Timequake sucked but almost everything else kicked three shades of ass.

Palahniuk's Haunted is nowhere near the caliber of Fight Club, Survivor, Choke and Invis Monsters.

Skip the Zombie Survival Guide and go strait to World War Z

Anything by Stephen King this side of Needful Things (and I'm being generous with even that book)

I was a little disappointed with Matheson's I Am Legend. It's better than the movie but would have been a better novel than short story.

Oh, and while i'm at it, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test was great stuff but every other Tom Wolfe book i've read reminds me of a line from Shaffer's Amadeus:

Emperor Joseph II: My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?


In regards to Wolfe's work I am inclined to agree with the Emperor.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

I definitely have to second (or third or fourth or fifth) Catcher in the Rye.

Like Shogun said: Lame.

Though I like a lot of the ones that have been said, especially 100 Years of Solitude. Goshdarnit, that's gotta be basically my favourite book ever.

 

[DavidS]

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. I fucking hate James Joyce.

 

[tigerbob]

Agreed. Highly overrated.

But Horton Hears a Who! still makes me weap.

"A person's a person, no matter how small."
​

Love Horton (movie sucked), and love Thidwick the big hearted moose.

 

[tigerbob]

I definitely have to second (or third or fourth or fifth) Catcher in the Rye.

Like Shogun said: Lame.

Though I like a lot of the ones that have been said, especially 100 Years of Solitude. Goshdarnit, that's gotta be basically my favourite book ever.

I only liked Catcher until Holden leaves Pencey Prep (what's that, 50 pages?). After that, no matter how dull it got, there was even greater dullness still to come. To paraphrase Samuel Foote, it is not only dull itself, it is the cause of dullness in others.

Actually, the first bit kinda sucked as well, but that was the only bit with Stradlater in it. I liked Stradlater. Great character and the book's one redeeming feature.

 

[Gunny]

Dracula was an exercise in verbosity. It's the of classic novels once the action leaves Dracula's Castle and moves to England, speed is required to read the rest.

The Great Gatsby just sucks from word one.

The Three Musketeers is another snoozer.

 

[Toro]

I can't say I've ever read any over-rated books.

I quite enjoyed both books I've read.

 

[Diuretic]

I can't say I've ever read any over-rated books.

I quite enjoyed both books I've read.

Damnit I near spilled my beer laughing

 

[random3434]

I can't say I've ever read any over-rated books.

I quite enjoyed both books I've read.

There is a certain Pulitzer Prize vibe to "Dick and Jane" and "See Spot Run" now, isn't there Toro?

 

[Anguille]

The Bible.