Ask Lemmy

Every time i read the water babies my grandfather had a stroke.

Jane Eyre: Every moment of this book was absolute torture. I could never get into this genre of book but this book took the cake. It was like the reading equivalent of trying to force down a terrible meal without gagging because it would be rude. I actually devoted my time to speed read it just so I could finish it faster.

Wicked: It was just a lot of, "Oh god, this isn't like the musical at all 😰."

The Hyperion series in general was hard for me to read and it took me a few tries to get through the first duology, but it ended up being ok. I tried to read the second duology, but Endymion is just so boring I still haven't tried again.

Worst book because of bad book was when I had to read and watch Tristan and Isolde for a school project. It was so bad with SO brain dead characters, but at least it was quick.

The worst book because of the experience however was the full version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We know interrupt the story to spend 10 pages talking about the special meaning of a throw away line said by Frollo. 5 pages of story later, and we know interrupte the story to spend 20 pages detailing Parisian roof tops to the minutest of details.

I made it through the smug, insufferable foreword and one agonizingly shitty, self-important chapter of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers before I chucked it across the room. Eventually I decided that there’s probably SOME kind of value in the book so I picked it back up. I started using it as a cutting board for various arts and crafts.

Seveneves. Halfway through when they don't kill that monster on sight. A rare point when I've been nearly stopped a book midway and thrown it away. And it just kept getting worse, so maybe I should have.

Dropped the book on my face scratching my eye

A 1200 page book on architecture too

One Second After - W. R. Forstchen

Please everyone, read this book. It's sad, disgusting and heavy, but it's probably a documentary for events that may happen one day. It's very well researched and the plausibility and realism make it even scarier. It hasn't turned me into a prepper, but in part motivated me to make our house as self-sufficient as possible. Also it made me aware of small useful things in my surroundings that I used to be blind to.

I read the book Paper Towns by John Green as a teen, and out started out good, then just kept getting better and better and way more adrenaline inducing. The characters were going on this crazy exciting midnight excursion and I was up reading until like midnight.

At a certain point, the mood just dropped straight off of a cliff. It was so depressing and draining but I was in too deep at that point, so I kept reading. After like two chapters of emotional torture, I knew I had to stop so I stopped reading and fully deleted the book off of my kobo and went to sleep.

The next morning though, I woke up desperate to know what happened, so I booted up my computer, went through Adobe's proprietary mess of a program to redownload the book onto my kobo, skipped the entire middle section, and kept reading. In the end, the ending was okay, but definitely not worth that rollercoaster of emotions.

I read John Green's The Fault in Our Stars right after, and I enjoyed it!

Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns. I started reading it a long time ago, got about twenty pages in and gave up. Much later, I forgot I had tried, and tried again, and got even fewer pages in when I remembered how it is chock full of the most inane pandering exposition I have ever read. Just a torrent of trite, hackneyed, cliché. I can't understand how it got published, let alone warranted 7 books. Maybe it gets better. I will never find out. I haven't heard much good about the Dune books he co-authored, either.

I should add that I've read Battlefield Earth, and actually enjoyed it. I generally do not have super high standards. If something is entertaining, I'll give it a chance.

Best staying up all night reading Frankenstein the first time in high school, or reading treasure Island in a tree stand in a forest during bow deer season.

Worst was probably the second time reading the Lord of the rings trilogy on smaller sized versions; really terrible size and binding or most Dickens I just have a hard time connecting.

The Last of the Mohicans

Read it in high school because it's "classic American literature." If I remember right, a number of the main characters are killed off towards the end. It was a depressing story.

Perhaps a hot take, but East of Eden was an absolute trudge to get through. I think I made it almost halfway and gave up because I was not enjoying it at all. I wasn't sure what the main points were and there were too many details unrelated to the plot.

A less hot take, The Fountainhead was also a pain to read. It was just boring as hell and I stopped about halfway as well. I only read it because I loved Anthem and became disappointed to find out it's only related philosophically.