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Topic ClosedWhat famous book were you most disappointed by?

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BaldFriede View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: What famous book were you most disappointed by?
    Posted: July 27 2013 at 09:23
For me it is definitely "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger. I had to force myself to finish it and am completely at a loss what is supposed to be so good about it. I have no sympathy whatever for Holden Caulfield. But I did not feel hatred for him either. He simply left me completely cold. Why the heck does this book get so much praise?


Edited by BaldFriede - July 27 2013 at 09:25


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 09:32
The Dune series. Dune wasn't bad but it definitely hinged on Paul Atridies being the only character I cared about, but I seriously disliked Children of Dune and haven't bothered with anything in the series since. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 09:40
I didn't read the whole Dune series just one or two, one of which was the first one and just because I really liked the movie.  Yeah I'm a freak.

For me it is easier to write about the classics that I actually did like - 1984, Catch 22, The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy...

I might add that I think I did try a little Catcher, but frankly I'm not a big one for fiction these days.


Edited by Slartibartfast - July 27 2013 at 09:41
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 09:58
I'm currently reading the very short "A Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and so far it has been a disappointment. It started pretty good, with a powerful description of early morning in a gulag, but about halfway through it becomes a construction-worker diary and loses, for me, the point about painting the real gulag prisoner. I hope the pages I have yet to read bring the novel back to the level it started with.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 10:02
I think Catcher only really gets you if you're:
a) a guy
b) adolescent

Otherwise you're missing it's charms. I devoured it in a single night and remains one of my all-time favorites. 

Most of my literary disappointments have been books by authors I otherwise love, such as Tom Sharpe or Saramago. A couple of Nobel laureates have left me cold, as well.

Bigger on the inside.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 10:29
Originally posted by Kotro Kotro wrote:

I think Catcher only really gets you if you're:
a) a guy
b) adolescent

Otherwise you're missing it's charms. I devoured it in a single night and remains one of my all-time favorites. 

Most of my literary disappointments have been books by authors I otherwise love, such as Tom Sharpe or Saramago. A couple of Nobel laureates have left me cold, as well.


Maybe I simply have the wrong gender and was too old when I read it.


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 10:32
A good book should be good for any gender. Age might be more of an issue but gender shouldn't be one.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 10:47

Had trouble getting through several of Joyce's books......Ulysses and Finnegans Wake..never got more than 30pages into that one. Never finished Gravity' Rainbow by Pynchon nor Infinite Jest by Wallace. I found them to be a chore to read at times.



Edited by dr wu23 - July 27 2013 at 10:56
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 11:12
Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

Originally posted by Kotro Kotro wrote:

I think Catcher only really gets you if you're:
a) a guy
b) adolescent

Otherwise you're missing it's charms. I devoured it in a single night and remains one of my all-time favorites. 

Most of my literary disappointments have been books by authors I otherwise love, such as Tom Sharpe or Saramago. A couple of Nobel laureates have left me cold, as well.


Maybe I simply have the wrong gender and was too old when I read it.

I hated Catcher too.....so much  I couldn't be bothered to  finish it. Others I  found disappointing include Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 11:29
Originally posted by Kotro Kotro wrote:

I think Catcher only really gets you if you're:
a) a guy
b) adolescent

Otherwise you're missing it's charms. I devoured it in a single night and remains one of my all-time favorites. 
so it is in your opinion a question of "sunt pueri pueri pueri puerilia tractant" ("boys are boys, and boys behave boyish")?

there are a few novels by Günter Grass which I don't like at all, especially "Katz und Maus" ("Cat and Mouse") and "Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke" ("From the Diary of a Snail"). I do like "Die Blechtrommel" ("The Tin Drum") though. but my favorite book by Grass is "Das Treffen in Telgte" ("The Meeting at Telgte")




Edited by BaldJean - July 27 2013 at 11:30


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 11:32
Margaret Lawrence's The Stone Angel-infinitely boring.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 11:33
Sense and Sensibility.  Never could dare try Jane Austen again after that book. 

Also, Bram Stoker's Dracula.  It's not that the book was particularly bad.  It's just that the character lent itself so well to the big screen that I felt disappointed by the book, especially the anti-climactic climax.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 11:52
^I love Dracula, it's probably my favorite book in many ways but I know its serious limitations and flaws. I'm a vampire book and movie buff (not the teenage type nor the ultra sensual gothic type) and I think Stephen's King Salem's Lot is actually the best vampire novel ever.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 11:55
"Dracula" did not disappoint me at all. I especially liked the idea of the book being a collection of snippets (diary entries, newspaper articles, letters and so on). this gives the book a very modern appearance


A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 12:08
Ivo Andric's The Bride On The Drina (Na Drini cuprija, Nobel prize in 1961).

A friend of mine who studied Andric's worksat the university works told me many good things about this novel, but it didn't convince me:
 -  I found the chronological choices rather dubious: the story runs from the 15th to the 20th century, but the 5 first centuries are described in the first half, the whole second half being dedicated to the 20th.
 - you don't have one character per chapter, but two or three, and each portrait runs on... let's say, 2 or 3 pages. Each portrait is promising, but the story of each character is so quickly told that it looks like an anecdote.
 - I read in French, so I guess there's a loss in the writing style, but still... I wasn't struck by Andric's writing.

Strangely, I prefer The Woman of Sarajevo (Gospodjica), a shorter novel which reminds of the best works of Balzac.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 12:13
Edit: oh, wait, that's not a famous one.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - July 27 2013 at 14:25
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 12:42
Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were intolerable.
The Scarlet Letter was also not one that encourages you to keep reading.
Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 12:44
I can't think of one of the top of my head. I avoid most famous pieces that I feel wouldn't appeal to me.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 12:46
Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

For me it is definitely "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger. I had to force myself to finish it and am completely at a loss what is supposed to be so good about it. I have no sympathy whatever for Holden Caulfield. But I did not feel hatred for him either. He simply left me completely cold. Why the heck does this book get so much praise?
As said above, it is for the adolescents of the world. Speaking as a 17-year old, it definitely appealed to me, and I also felt no sympathy for Holden, but that's not entirely the point. It appeals to youth so much simply because it depicts a youth in revolt.

At least I think so.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2013 at 12:52
Originally posted by The Truth The Truth wrote:

Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

For me it is definitely "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger. I had to force myself to finish it and am completely at a loss what is supposed to be so good about it. I have no sympathy whatever for Holden Caulfield. But I did not feel hatred for him either. He simply left me completely cold. Why the heck does this book get so much praise?
As said above, it is for the adolescents of the world. Speaking as a 17-year old, it definitely appealed to me, and I also felt no sympathy for Holden, but that's not entirely the point. It appeals to youth so much simply because it depicts a youth in revolt.

At least I think so.
I read it when I was 15 and found him to be a whiney... character. I'm just glad that it was so short because hearing him complain about absolutely everything gets old fast.
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