[bookshare-discuss] Re: Just for Fun - Name Five Books You Wish You Hadn't Read
- From: "Bob W" <rwiley45@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 03:31:42 -0500
Oooo only five? There are so many.
Well, here goes.
The two criteria a book had to meet to make this list were:
1. I can't have finished the book either asleep or awake. Those who read
with screen readers will know right off what I mean by finishing a book
asleep, your computer may have finished pushing all the phonemes that go to
make up the book into the ether, but you were nowhere to be found.
2. I must never ever plan on touching that damned book again.
1. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce.
I loved Ulysses by the same author, but... this book wasn't even in English.
2. At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien.
This book was in English, but that's the best thing that can be said about
it.
Here's the first paragraph of the book just to give you it's flavor.
"Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes' chewing, I
withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my
mind,
my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression.I reflected on
the subject of my spare-time literary activities. One beginning and one
ending
for a book was a thing I did not agree with. A good book may have three
openings entirely dissimilar and inter-related only in the prescience of the
author,
r for that matter one hundred times as many endings."
I rest my case.
3. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner.
This was probably a good book, but it was way too discordant. Some person or
event might be mentioned on page 3 and suddenly further discussed on page
300.
Hey, wasn't Bruner the one who wrote Neuromancers? I hated that book too.
4. The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren.
This book describes the reflections of a heroin addict. It's supposed to be
on the must-read list of all the intelligentia, but it was just flat boring.
But, I've read it so you won't have to, and we'll all call ourselves
intellectuals.
5. An Intellectual History of Cannibalism by Catalin Avramescu and Alistair
Ian Blyth.
I went looking for sensationalism, and what I got was scholarly pedanticism.
6. (So sue me Judy) Third World America by Arianna Huffington.
I actually finished this book and loved it. But, some truths are too hard to
face.
p.s. Note to Judy S, the red pony? How could you?
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy s." <cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "bookshare-discuss" <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 2:37 AM
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Just for Fun - Name Five Books You Wish You
Hadn't Read
I read a thread today on the Amazon UK site, where people were listing
five books they wished they hadn't ever read, and if they wanted, why.
I thought some of us might enjoy doing the same. Here goes for me:
Books I Wish I'd Never Read:
1. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck. What a horrible, depressing book!
2. As I Lay Dying by William Falkner. OK, if you haven't read this
book, spoiler alert: I had to read this in high school. I remember my
teacher asking us about the cultural significance of Jewel getting his
broken leg cemented to the coffin. My thoughts: Hello? Where was
social services when a parent was using cement to cast his son's broken
leg to his dead mother's coffin? Um, apparently that wasn't the right
answer that the teacher wanted, by the way. grin.
3. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. I want the hours back
I've spent trying to read this book. Has anyone actually ever read the
book, or is this a case of The Emperor's New Clothes where no one want
to be the one to admit that they thought it was just awful, obtuse, and
poorly written, even though it is. Yes, Hawking is a genius. No, he
doesn't do a good job of explaining the relativistic universe, at least
in my biased opinion. smile.
4. Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy. I know this is
a favorite of many people, and it is well-written, but I couldn't stand
it. I've tried to read it several different times and can't ever get
past the first few chapters.
5. And to finish my list, I just don't get the Harry Potter craze. Read
the first three, tried the rest, didn't like any of them, and actually
thought they were boring, although I love books like the Lord of the
Rings Trilogy and the Narnia series. It's not that I think the Harry
Potter books are bad books, but they're definitely not my cup of tea.
Anyone else want to jump in with their five books they wish they hadn't
ever read?
Judy s.
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