The worst book you have ever read.
Discussion
Genau said:
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. In my defence, I was in a foreign country so the English language section of the bookshop wasn't great.
Pages of tedious technical detail on word processors followed by rape porn with some half-baked leftie lecturing thrown in. It's a good thing the smug, fat b
d is dead because his obsession with sexual violence would warrant a visit from Wallender or Beck. You can almost hear the pasty nonce licking his lips as he writes it.
It is an odd book. I couldn't understand why it was so popular.Pages of tedious technical detail on word processors followed by rape porn with some half-baked leftie lecturing thrown in. It's a good thing the smug, fat b
d is dead because his obsession with sexual violence would warrant a visit from Wallender or Beck. You can almost hear the pasty nonce licking his lips as he writes it.coppice said:
Just like that bloody Bill Shakespeare then , with his unhealthy appetite for murder, torture and rape. I rather enjoyed 'Girl with ' in fact, but as with many writers of that school , I suspect a one trick pony .
Shakespeare didn't stick several pages of intricate detail on the development history and inner mechanics of the Gutenberg press into the middle of Macbeth.LordGrover said:
1984
I know it's supposed to be a classic, but I've tried several times; first as a teenager, again mid-thirties/early forties and again earlier this year (now late fifties). Nearly made it to half way this time which is a record I think. It's just dull and depressing.
I read it at the age of Fourteen/Fifteen. I thought it was excellent and much of it stayed with me.I know it's supposed to be a classic, but I've tried several times; first as a teenager, again mid-thirties/early forties and again earlier this year (now late fifties). Nearly made it to half way this time which is a record I think. It's just dull and depressing.
It is not supposed to be a rom com
coppice said:
Not much gets past you huh ?
You mean like you seizing on the sexual violence part of my original post to counter the whole post but ignoring the first bit when I mentioned Larsson's love of irrelevant detail? Yeah, I did notice that. It's such an old trick there's probably a Greek word for it.I could go on to point out that Shakespeare might have loved a bit of punch up but he didn't go into excruciating torture porn detail. That would be like equating Nabokov's Lolita with Joop Wilhelmus's Lolita. Nabokov gets a bit too close to the edge but Wilhelmus goes over and does a backflip on the way down. It's not the same thing at all.
Genau said:
Larsson's love of irrelevant detail? Yeah, I did notice that. It's such an old trick there's probably a Greek word for it.
Michael Connelly often goes into great and unnecessary detail about coffee shops and eateries in the Hollywood/Van Nuys area. It does paint a picture of the area, though, and I'd like to visit to have a look. MC Bodge said:
A few claim to have liked it. Maybe my mind just doesn't work like Pirsig's.
For those who are curious, this is a very good summary
Loved the last line of that summary!!!For those who are curious, this is a very good summary
LordGrover said:
1984
I know it's supposed to be a classic, but I've tried several times; first as a teenager, again mid-thirties/early forties and again earlier this year (now late fifties). Nearly made it to half way this time which is a record I think. It's just dull and depressing.
The parallels with today's society get so overdone it's starting to reflect badly on the book. Mention CCTV, some bright spark says 1984, everyone gets bored.I know it's supposed to be a classic, but I've tried several times; first as a teenager, again mid-thirties/early forties and again earlier this year (now late fifties). Nearly made it to half way this time which is a record I think. It's just dull and depressing.
The really interesting parallel is not the surveillance state, it's the "'How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?" The authorities getting people to truly believe things that are patently untrue is a more important warning message.
I think I gave up on "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" but read most of the other novels. The Diaries suffer like most diaries from being one page of genius for every hundred pages of dullness and there is a limit to how much you can edit that away. Samuel Pepys and Kenneth Williams had the same problem.
Sea Room - by Adam Nicholson
Gist- his father purchased the Shiant Islands in about 1937 from money he inherited - seems to be a continuing complaint that he didnt buy a street in Chelsea with the funds instead.
They appear a magnificent yet desolate place - a haven for seabirds and bugger all else - the only book i can recall having to force myself to read- seemed to be a page-by-page dirge on st weather, black cliffs and bugger all else. I found "The Worst Journey in the World" easier going and more lighthearted!
Gist- his father purchased the Shiant Islands in about 1937 from money he inherited - seems to be a continuing complaint that he didnt buy a street in Chelsea with the funds instead.
They appear a magnificent yet desolate place - a haven for seabirds and bugger all else - the only book i can recall having to force myself to read- seemed to be a page-by-page dirge on s
t weather, black cliffs and bugger all else. I found "The Worst Journey in the World" easier going and more lighthearted!MC Bodge said:
Genau said:
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. In my defence, I was in a foreign country so the English language section of the bookshop wasn't great.
Pages of tedious technical detail on word processors followed by rape porn with some half-baked leftie lecturing thrown in. It's a good thing the smug, fat bd is dead because his obsession with sexual violence would warrant a visit from Wallender or Beck. You can almost hear the pasty nonce licking his lips as he writes it.
It is an odd book. I couldn't understand why it was so popular.Pages of tedious technical detail on word processors followed by rape porn with some half-baked leftie lecturing thrown in. It's a good thing the smug, fat b
d is dead because his obsession with sexual violence would warrant a visit from Wallender or Beck. You can almost hear the pasty nonce licking his lips as he writes it.RizzoTheRat said:
MC Bodge said:
Genau said:
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. In my defence, I was in a foreign country so the English language section of the bookshop wasn't great.
Pages of tedious technical detail on word processors followed by rape porn with some half-baked leftie lecturing thrown in. It's a good thing the smug, fat bd is dead because his obsession with sexual violence would warrant a visit from Wallender or Beck. You can almost hear the pasty nonce licking his lips as he writes it.
It is an odd book. I couldn't understand why it was so popular.Pages of tedious technical detail on word processors followed by rape porn with some half-baked leftie lecturing thrown in. It's a good thing the smug, fat b
d is dead because his obsession with sexual violence would warrant a visit from Wallender or Beck. You can almost hear the pasty nonce licking his lips as he writes it.Miserablegit said:
Sea Room - by Adam Nicholson
Gist- his father purchased the Shiant Islands in about 1937 from money he inherited - seems to be a continuing complaint that he didnt buy a street in Chelsea with the funds instead.
They appear a magnificent yet desolate place - a haven for seabirds and bugger all else - the only book i can recall having to force myself to read- seemed to be a page-by-page dirge on st weather, black cliffs and bugger all else. I found "The Worst Journey in the World" easier going and more lighthearted!
I was just about to post that Cherry-Garrard’s feted account of that expedition is one of the dullest, most tedious things I have ever attempted to read (and I’ve read Dickens!).Gist- his father purchased the Shiant Islands in about 1937 from money he inherited - seems to be a continuing complaint that he didnt buy a street in Chelsea with the funds instead.
They appear a magnificent yet desolate place - a haven for seabirds and bugger all else - the only book i can recall having to force myself to read- seemed to be a page-by-page dirge on s
t weather, black cliffs and bugger all else. I found "The Worst Journey in the World" easier going and more lighthearted!I’m not much of a non-fiction reader but that finished my engagement with factual writing for 15 years. Even now non-fiction is approached cautiously and any sign of unending intricate detail gets short shrift.
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