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Post by Nalkarj on May 31, 2018 16:18:38 GMT
The Catcher in the Rye is unbearable.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2018 1:12:40 GMT
The Catcher in the Rye is unbearable. THIS x 100,000,000,000 My reaction of disgust is: So...you think you're the only person who's got problems?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2018 1:14:02 GMT
I got 10 pages into To The Lighthouse. I see the words. I know what the words mean. I cannot follow the text they make AT ALL.
I think I have to give up on Naked Lunch after 20 pages. I'm not saying that style of writing is wrong or anything, but it's a big ask to sit through 250 pages of it.
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Post by ck100 on Oct 23, 2018 2:05:16 GMT
Johnny Tremain.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 0:56:18 GMT
So yeah, the two WSB books I own are now pitched into the trash.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Oct 24, 2018 1:59:06 GMT
The Bible is definitely overrated. Painful to get through.
The Iliad on the other hand--I found it and the Odyssey quite moving and profound. Once you got past the catalogue of ships.
I did read Moby Dick but I have to admit most of it slips the mind.
I would take most 20th century critically acclaimed works with a hefty grain of salt. The critics are not representing public tastes at all. They decide what you should read based on their own esoteric interests--in the same way they praised Picasso.
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Post by amyghost on Oct 24, 2018 18:31:12 GMT
Pretty much anything by Jonathan Franzen.
Pretty much anything by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Pretty much anything by Toni Morrison.
Pretty much anything by Dave Eggers.
Pretty much any fiction by David Foster Wallace.
Pretty much any fiction by John Updike (in both his and DFW's case, I think they're superlative essayists).
The Lovely Bones. (There is a special place in Hell for this bit of trash.)
Pretty much anything by Amy Tan.
Pretty much anything by Paul Auster.
Pretty much anything by Neil Gaiman (how this man has become so highly ranked is beyond me).
A good bit of Ian McEwan.
Anything by Zaidie Smith.
Pretty much anything by about several hundred other overpraised contemporary novelists whose names escape me at the moment.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2018 23:45:32 GMT
^ out of that list, I tried reading American Gods and it was just....not very good. Same with Good Omens. Massively disappointing.
And I do like the DFW essays I've read.
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Post by amyghost on Oct 28, 2018 14:52:14 GMT
^ out of that list, I tried reading American Gods and it was just....not very good. Same with Good Omens. Massively disappointing. And I do like the DFW essays I've read. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, his first collection, is probably the best. After Infinite Jest, he started going off the deep end with the arcana even in some of the essays. But a novelist he never made, far too intent on trying to be a good student of the School of Pynchon to be able to tell an actual, readable story.
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Post by Morgana on Oct 28, 2018 15:25:17 GMT
I don't get all the hate for Catcher in the Rye. I liked it. Tried to read To The Lighthouse, but I gave up after a few pages.
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Post by amyghost on Oct 28, 2018 15:29:32 GMT
I don't get all the hate for Catcher in the Rye. I enjoyed it. Trying to read To The Lighthouse, was torture so I gave up after a few pages. I still find Catcher an enjoyable read; nowadays, it could be published as any old current-era YA novel and no one would bat an eye. To the Lighthouse isn't an easy read, but it helps if you visualize it in film terms. which I believe Woolf was attempting--especially in that midsection, where the passage of time is embodied in the minute descriptions of the slowly decaying house.
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Post by Morgana on Oct 28, 2018 16:10:08 GMT
The Bible is definitely overrated. Painful to get through. The Iliad on the other hand--I found it and the Odyssey quite moving and profound. Once you got past the catalogue of ships. I did read Moby Dick but I have to admit most of it slips the mind. I would take most 20th century critically acclaimed works with a hefty grain of salt. The critics are not representing public tastes at all. They decide what you should read based on their own esoteric interests--in the same way they praised Picasso. I've found The Illiad is easier to read than The Odyssey.
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Post by Morgana on Oct 28, 2018 16:11:08 GMT
The majority of them, especially since realist drama is so praised. I'm also not a fan of writing that's too poetic and "roundabout"/not straightforward. I don't want to play a game where I've got to figure out what the fnck someone is talking about. Maybe the one I hated the most, though, was James Joyce's Ulysses. I agree with you. I prefer books that are straighforward and don't leave me feeling frustrated.
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Post by thornberry on Jan 2, 2019 2:07:02 GMT
On the Road Brothers Karamazov I agree about "On the Road". Short as it is, I can't get through it. Preposterous story about restless beatnik intellectuals living off their rich aunts, traveling endlessly between east and west coasts, and having hookup sex with strangers (who knew that was so prevalent in the 50's?). Actual, it sounds like today's millennials. And it sounds better than it reads. I happen to be giving "Brother Karamazov" another go, also. Read and finished it many years ago.
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Post by llanwydd on Jan 2, 2019 2:52:56 GMT
On the Road Brothers Karamazov I agree about "On the Road". Short as it is, I can't get through it. Preposterous story about restless beatnik intellectuals living off their rich aunts, traveling endlessly between east and west coasts, and having hookup sex with strangers (who knew that was so prevalent in the 50's?). Actual, it sounds like today's millennials. And it sounds better than it reads. I happen to be giving "Brother Karamazov" another go, also. Read and finished it many years ago.I gave up on it after fifty pages.
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Post by thornberry on Jan 2, 2019 3:25:22 GMT
I agree about "On the Road". Short as it is, I can't get through it. Preposterous story about restless beatnik intellectuals living off their rich aunts, traveling endlessly between east and west coasts, and having hookup sex with strangers (who knew that was so prevalent in the 50's?). Actual, it sounds like today's millennials. And it sounds better than it reads. I happen to be giving "Brother Karamazov" another go, also. Read and finished it many years ago.I gave up on it after fifty pages. It's too early for me to give up but I marvel at the fortitude I used to have.
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Post by thornberry on Jan 2, 2019 3:27:35 GMT
^ out of that list, I tried reading American Gods and it was just....not very good. Same with Good Omens. Massively disappointing. And I do like the DFW essays I've read. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, his first collection, is probably the best. After Infinite Jest, he started going off the deep end with the arcana even in some of the essays. But a novelist he never made, far too intent on trying to be a good student of the School of Pynchon to be able to tell an actual, readable story. I have no desire to read one of his novels. He loves obscure vocabulary and uses too many words I've never heard of. I would be spending too much time looking up words. His two books of essays were fun, though.
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Post by mmexis on Jan 2, 2019 4:58:27 GMT
The Great Gatsby. I thought they were all spoiled brats that needed to be slapped. most of Shakespeare's comedies -- sacrilegious as I'm an English teacher. Give me anything else but those! Have never been able to get through anything by Tolkien.
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Post by Morgana on Jan 2, 2019 8:16:19 GMT
I don't get all the hate for Catcher in the Rye. I enjoyed it. Trying to read To The Lighthouse, was torture so I gave up after a few pages. I still find Catcher an enjoyable read; nowadays, it could be published as any old current-era YA novel and no one would bat an eye. To the Lighthouse isn't an easy read, but it helps if you visualize it in film terms. which I believe Woolf was attempting--especially in that midsection, where the passage of time is embodied in the minute descriptions of the slowly decaying house. I find I don't have the patience I used to have so giving it another try would be useless.
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Post by OldSamVimes on Jan 2, 2019 12:01:43 GMT
I thought 'The Divine Comedy' sucked.
I can sit and read a bit of 'Paradise Lost' here and there.. but not Dante's Inferno.
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