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nihilisticglee
Joined: Oct 12 2007
Posts: 821
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I didn't see a thread like this here, so I figured I start one.
My teacher is having us read Summer, by Edith Wharton, and I have to be honest, this book is angering me. It is suppose to be all about feminine sexuality, and all these other feminist concepts, but all that doesn't matter when she marries the creepy man who helped raised her! It completely nullifies the pain of the whole damn book! it doesn't help my teach loves this book and gushes over it, telling us how it is a great book.
Anyone, anyone have any other books that were suppose to be good but weren't?
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Blackout
Title: Captain Oblivious
Joined: Sep 01 2007
Location: That Rainy State
Posts: 10376
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All of Steven King's endings, The Sword of Truth, and Dante's Inferno.
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the_almighty_spehornoob
Joined: Sep 22 2008
Posts: 289
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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
Fuck that book. It's nothing but socialist propoganda, and completely abandons its plot near the end.
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Blackout
Title: Captain Oblivious
Joined: Sep 01 2007
Location: That Rainy State
Posts: 10376
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I was never impressed with Oliver Twist either.
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Lady_Satine
Title: Head of Lexian R&D
Joined: Oct 15 2005
Location: Metro area, Georgia
Posts: 7287
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The "Great" Gatsby.
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"Life is a waste of time. Time is a waste of life. Get wasted all the time, and you'll have the time of your life!" |
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Knyte
2010 SLF Tag Champ*
Title: Curator Of The VGM
Joined: Nov 01 2006
Location: Here I am.
Posts: 6749
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Lady_Satine
Title: Head of Lexian R&D
Joined: Oct 15 2005
Location: Metro area, Georgia
Posts: 7287
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"Life is a waste of time. Time is a waste of life. Get wasted all the time, and you'll have the time of your life!" |
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Captain_Pollution
Title: Hugh
Joined: Sep 23 2007
Posts: 1591
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Dan Brown, The Edible Woman, Moby Dick.
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<Drew_Linky> Well, I've eaten vegetables all of once in my life.
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IceWarm
Joined: Dec 22 2008
Location: Breckenridge, Colorado
Posts: 1691
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Return of The King:
GREAT book...but Frodo just leaves after it is over.
Random Interviewer: "Frodo...you just saved Middle Earth, what are you going to do next?"
Frodo: "I'm going to Valinor."
If you don't get the joke...you fail at pop culture.
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"Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it."
"Fighting in a basement offers a lot of difficulties, number one being, you're fighting in a basement."
"You're Not So Tough Without Your Veggie!" |
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Ross Rifle
Title: Rock N Roll God
Joined: Oct 29 2006
Location: Chilliwack, BC
Posts: 4844
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House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I have no idea how people have finished this book. It's so backwards and twisting. I started seeing shit after I started reading it, and I couldn't tell what was reality. It's the only book I've put down and said 'ok, you win'. Fuuuuck.
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Dr. Jeebus
Moderator
Title: SLF Harbinger of Death
Joined: Sep 03 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 5228
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"A Movable Feast" by Ernest Hemingway. It's supposed to be filled with great advice for writers, but open up the book to ANY point and what you will read is:
left page: Hemingway trash talking some other famous writer of the time
right page: Hemingway getting totally shitfaced.
Fun fact: "shitfaced" is in my spellcheck's dictionary.
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dr.jeebus.sydlexia.com - Updated sometimes, but on hiatus!
UsaSatsui wrote: |
The three greatest heels in history...Andy Kaufman, Triple H, and Dr. Jeebus |
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SoldierHawk
Moderator
Title: Warrior-Poet
Joined: Jan 15 2009
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 6085
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the_almighty_spehornoob wrote: |
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
Fuck that book. It's nothing but socialist propoganda, and completely abandons its plot near the end. |
Aww, The Jungle has always been one of my quiet-favorite books. Not as much because of the message as just because I really grew to care about the characters, and felt bad about all they went through. And, for what its worth, the expose factor at the time was pretty important.
I also agree the Great Gatsby sucks, but I didn't go into it expecting amazing things either.
For my own answer, I'll say Great Expectations. I love Charles Dickens, his writing style, and almost all of his work. Then I read this. Its not that the concept, story, or execution is so bad, really, because its not; I just fucking, fucking, FUCKING HATED how wussy Pip was, and how he basically bent over and took everything that Estella gave him up the ass, then turned around and asked for more. I know he's supposed to be some kind of paragon of virtue or something, but god it pissed me off so bad I could barely finish the book.Then the ending happened, and I wanted to throw the thing across the room.
On a related note, if you know the story and haven't seen South Parks riff on it, oh my God you are missing out. Despite the fact that its totally out of left field and has nothing to do with ACTUAL South Park, the English major in me, combined with my loathing of the book, makes this one of my top three episodes of all time:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103918/?autoplay=false
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William Shakespeare wrote: |
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. |
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Dr. Jeebus
Moderator
Title: SLF Harbinger of Death
Joined: Sep 03 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 5228
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Great Expectations was originally published in newspapers with one chapter being published each week. People were so mad at the original ending that Dickins received numerous death threads (possibly attempts on his life, I forget), so he had to rewrite the end of it.
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dr.jeebus.sydlexia.com - Updated sometimes, but on hiatus!
UsaSatsui wrote: |
The three greatest heels in history...Andy Kaufman, Triple H, and Dr. Jeebus |
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SoldierHawk
Moderator
Title: Warrior-Poet
Joined: Jan 15 2009
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 6085
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Dr. Jeebus wrote: |
Great Expectations was originally published in newspapers with one chapter being published each week. People were so mad at the original ending that Dickins received numerous death threads (possibly attempts on his life, I forget), so he had to rewrite the end of it. |
Yeah, I had come across that tidbit while reading up for an essay I had to write on it. We read a version with the "revised" ending, which is why I was so frustrated. Honestly, had he left the original ending intact, I would have been far less pissed with the whole thing.
For those unfamiliar, here's wiki's summary of the two:
Original ending:
Pip meets Estella on the streets. Her abusive husband Drummle has died, and she has remarried, to a doctor. Estella and Pip exchange brief pleasantries, after which Pip states while he could not have her in the end, he was at least glad to know she was a different person now, somewhat changed from the cold-hearted girl Miss Havisham had reared her to be. The novel ends with Pip saying he could see that "suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be."
Revised ending:
Pip and Estella meet again at the ruins of Satis House:
'"We are friends," said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the bench.
"And will continue friends apart," said Estella.
I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.
Basically, the revised ending ends up with Pip walking off with the total fucking bitch who spent the entire fucking novel treating him like something lower than dirt. Not to mention the fact she convinced Pip to turn on Joe, which might be one of the most awful moments in literary history. And worse, it leaves open the idea that they MAY GET TOGETHER??? WHAT THE FUCK?
The original ending makes more sense. Estella learns empathy the hard way, Pip lets her know he's no longer wrapped around her finger, and they both move on with their lives. It doesn't make up for the rest of the book, but at least that ending made some sense. Boy does not always have to get Girl, particularly when Girl is a raging harpy from the lowest depths of hell, controlled by a female embodiment of Satan meeting Norman Bates. GOD I hate those characters. And Pip, for being such a damn wuss about the whole thing. Dickens needed to have some of his ghosts from Christmas Carol show up, and knock some sense into all three of them.
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William Shakespeare wrote: |
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. |
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MOGHARR
Title: The Original CandyWafer
Joined: Apr 05 2007
Location: Under Jolly Roger
Posts: 2718
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Pretty much any book I have to read for a Lit Circle in school ends up pissing me off. And what really sucks is that sometimes the books aren't that bad, I just have bad experiences reading them since I can read like a normal human being, but everyone else at my school is a dumb hick and it takes us three weeks to finish a book I could finish in one or two days. ( Sorry for the run on).
Other than that...I guess I don't read too many shitty books. I either find out about stuff on Wikipedia that's related to music or videogames I like, or my parents recommend me stuff. Most things I read usually turn out to be pretty good actually. Sweet, I'm happy now!
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"Well I don`t judge most things by graphics, reality has amazing graphics, and I don`t like it, that`s why I play video games." Laminated Sky on Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker |
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Eddie_Hyde
Title: Ernie with the Disposal
Joined: Apr 13 2009
Location: Gulag
Posts: 707
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MOGHARR wrote: |
Pretty much any book I have to read for a Lit Circle in school ends up pissing me off. And what really sucks is that sometimes the books aren't that bad, I just have bad experiences reading them since I can read like a normal human being, but everyone else at my school is a dumb hick and it takes us three weeks to finish a book I could finish in one or two days. ( Sorry for the run on). |
QFT
I didn't like The Lost World. Most of Micheal Crichtons' stuff I love, (read Jurrasic Park at 12) but The Lost World felt really poorly written and like it had been thrown together quick to make a couple of bucks. He did write it after the movie arrived, but that isn't an excuse for it seeming quickly, haphazardly written. I like most of his other books but just found this one worse than the rest.
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ReeperTheSeeker
Joined: Aug 26 2007
Posts: 2752
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The last Harry Potter book. I mean, it was all "Happily ever after" and suddenly with all this new contingency that through me off. the ending was just a mess.
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IceWarm
Joined: Dec 22 2008
Location: Breckenridge, Colorado
Posts: 1691
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ReeperTheSeeker wrote: |
The last Harry Potter book. I mean, it was all "Happily ever after" and suddenly with all this new contingency that through me off. the ending was just a mess. |
I have only listened to the first two books on tape and part of the third but after I read about the ending to book seven I thought it was lame. I'd rather see Harry Potter get killed off to save the world, but that's just my opinion.
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"Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it."
"Fighting in a basement offers a lot of difficulties, number one being, you're fighting in a basement."
"You're Not So Tough Without Your Veggie!" |
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Dr. Jeebus
Moderator
Title: SLF Harbinger of Death
Joined: Sep 03 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 5228
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Hawk, the people who were so violently mad about the first ending of Great Expectations wanted them to get together in the end, which Dickens didn't. The revised ending was sort of a compromise so if you wanted to believe they got back together that you could, without him actually having to write them getting together.
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dr.jeebus.sydlexia.com - Updated sometimes, but on hiatus!
UsaSatsui wrote: |
The three greatest heels in history...Andy Kaufman, Triple H, and Dr. Jeebus |
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24869
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Even worse is the 1946 film version of Great Expectations. It isn't just hinted that Pip and Estella will get together; they do.
I'm going to go with James Joyce's "classic" novel Ulysses. It is absolutely terrible.
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ReeperTheSeeker
Joined: Aug 26 2007
Posts: 2752
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Syd Lexia wrote: |
Even worse is the 1946 film version of Great Expectations. It isn't just hinted that Pip and Estella will get together; they do.
I'm going to go with James Joyce's "classic" novel Ulysses. It is absolutely terrible. |
hows finnegans wake, i've been told (by an english major) that it's pretty good.
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Dr. Jeebus
Moderator
Title: SLF Harbinger of Death
Joined: Sep 03 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 5228
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I'm gonna go with the myth of Sisyphus. It's an exciting, roller coaster ride of a story, and then when Sisyphus finally gets that boulder to the top of the mountain, it rolls back down and he has to do it again.
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dr.jeebus.sydlexia.com - Updated sometimes, but on hiatus!
UsaSatsui wrote: |
The three greatest heels in history...Andy Kaufman, Triple H, and Dr. Jeebus |
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SoldierHawk
Moderator
Title: Warrior-Poet
Joined: Jan 15 2009
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 6085
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Syd Lexia wrote: |
Even worse is the 1946 film version of Great Expectations. It isn't just hinted that Pip and Estella will get together; they do.
I'm going to go with James Joyce's "classic" novel Ulysses. It is absolutely terrible. |
Yep, that '46 movie version was the one we watched in class. God that sucked.
I've heard about Ulysses. I've read some of Joyce's stuff, but haven't enjoyed it enough to want to attempt to hack my way through his opus. From what I hear, its one of those books you have to invest a TON of time in careful reading, looking things up, and thinking about it to appreciate it. I have neither the time nor the inclination; his prose is difficult enough without having to decipher his ideas, too.
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William Shakespeare wrote: |
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. |
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24869
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ReeperTheSeeker wrote: |
hows finnegans wake, i've been told (by an english major) that it's pretty good. |
Haven't read it.
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Satirical
Title: 90's Girl
Joined: Apr 28 2009
Location: California
Posts: 35
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The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West- it was incredibly boring from start to finish and I never wanna read anything like it again.
Moby Dick-I couldn't even finish it.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy-ugh.n the plot moves too slowly for my taste
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