Have you ever got a book and got all cozy and ready for a good night of reading and to your dismay found out you were holding the worst book you ever laid eyes and wanted to toss it in the garbage? well what was it?
one of mine and I hope I dont get slapped for this but it was Maya Angelou's autobiography of her childhood in Arkansa called 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' I couldnt stand it. I had watched a bio on tv about her and it was interesting shes a great speaker but this book just made me angry
TimeLine by Micheal Crichton. I heard that the movie was coming out so I wanted to read the book. It just didn't appeal to me. I found it really boring, half way through it I thought "Why am I reading this?" I didn't really care about the characters at all, which is essential for any story. So I guess that was it's major flaw for me, I just didn't care if they ever got back so there was no reason to keep reading.
I'm reading it right now - The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche. It's not that philosophers typically have horrific literary abilities, or that their ideas are poorly developed, or that the guys translating the original texts and notes from the original languages into English did poorly, but philosophy just isn't good reading, and The Will to Power epitomizes that statement. Most of the "sentences" are fragments, and while they all go along the same themes, and in some rough sort of order, there is somehow little to no congruence.
Every single page is a chore, seemingly made even more difficult than it has to be on purpose, so as to test the conviction and/or maturity of those so bold as to wish to comprehend the words (or an approximation of the words) of one of the greatest philosophers of all time.
Also, I remember strongly disliking much of what I was required to read in high school - Slaughterhouse Five, Brave New World, The Scarlet Letter, Canterbury Tales... I disliked them not because they were written poorly, or I couldn't comprehend them, but simply out of principle - hatred of the pompous deification of them by school boards across the country. You get worked up for something great, then get something okay...
__________________ It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Never eat more than you can lift. - Miss Piggy
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Mohandas Ghandi
Of what is great one must either be silent or speak with greatness. - Friedrich Nietzsche
so true! I read the scarlet letter out of the ones you mentioned and was let down,but if it hadnt been soo built up in my mind I know I would have loved it.
I have a book called 'a history of knowledge' by charles van doren that totally seems this way... its so interesting because it is a compendium of everything that humankind has thought,invented,created,considered and perfected from the beginning..but he describes things in such a way I feel I have to read a pg 2-3 times for me to understand..making it a painful read.
Looking back at my own high school classes, I feel that my teachers were terribly unhappy with their positions in the educational process. Most of those that taught advanced courses taught advanced courses exclusively - essentially being as close to a collegiate level as possible, without much hope of ever reaching the real thing. They seemed to approach the curriculum not as a precurser to the real thing, but as the definitive class and their opinions on subjective materials as informed doctrine. I'd leave classes feeling as if they were trying to convince me that I don't need college - that everything they were teaching me was enough for me to become an educated, cultured, productive member of society.
Poor unhappy, underpaid, dead-end job-having teachers, screwing with the minds of their students...
__________________ It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Never eat more than you can lift. - Miss Piggy
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Mohandas Ghandi
Of what is great one must either be silent or speak with greatness. - Friedrich Nietzsche
ballad of lucy whipple and year of wonders. terrible books. of course, i HAD to read them, so i forced myself too, but i've been scarred fro life since reading yow. ah! shield the children's eyes!!!
crime and punishment... how does it end? i was 3 quarters through and i lost the book... i was moving from one location to another and poof it disappeared. but it was a very good book... maybe i'll rent it from the library.. unless you just tell me how it ended..
Gender: Male Location: Dreaming...Or am I living...
two words,
Great Expectations
classic my butt, soooo boring, hated it. AND i accually had to read it for school. I can usuallly whip through books, because i like to read and can read fast but that took FOREVER!
The scarlett letter. I know its a classic and people view it in great reverance but it was too boring. I don't even think I got past the first chapter.
__________________ I want a lover I don't have to love
I want a boy so drunk that he doesn't talk
Where is the kid with the chemicals?
I got a hunger and I can't seem to get full.
I need a meaning I can memorize
the kind I have always slips my mind.
KMC Community Forums
whats the worst book you ever attempted to read?
Nov 22nd, 2003 10:05 AM
