Great books that disappointed you

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Have you ever read a book that everyone else loved but you found disappointing?

I started "Hitchhiker's Guide..." and while I am only halfway through the second book, I can tell it is likely I will never finish the series.

The author has a quirky sense of humor and I have had a few good laughs, but the characters are absolutely two-dimensional and the plot is obviously ad hoc.

It reminds me of a sci/fi comic for brainy thirteen-year-olds. I think I just might have missed my "Hitchhiker's Guide..." window and am now a bit too old.

So does anyone else have a classic they've regarded as a dud?

Don't be ashamed, I am sure you are not the only person who didn't enjoy "Title: Required Reading for the Cultured".

So lets hear what you really think...

 

Finally someone who understands me. *sigh*

I had the same feeling with this book. Read it first when I was 16, but could only laugh one or two times. The part with '42' is actually quite funny.

In addition to the characters and the plot, the style is awful. It seems that Adams could not hold onto one thought for more than two minutes. He is digressing all the time.

The title should say "Alledged great books that disappointed you".

Another one was the "Silmarillion". It is just to dry for me.

 

"Ringworld"
The idea was brilliant and the concept of the Ringworld simply blew my mind away... but I found the rest of the book too boring. I had to force myself to finish it, and that's not a good sign.

 

Let me think, Dune instantly comes to mind - probably because I posted about it fairly recently in the Dune thread. It wasn't bad but I didn't find it to be the "great novel" that everyone claims it to be.

The Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories - these "classics" of fantasy were very dull and poorly written.

War and Peace - I never managed to make it past the beginning. All I can remember of it is a huge string of character introductions that consisted of name, occupation and very little else.

 

You need to really like a specific type of humor for the Hitchhikers Trilogy (all five books). I found them all a riot -- my wife just thinks they're stupid. Ah well, to each his or her own. The movie was good, too. The series was better -- did anyone else notice Marvin from the series in the movie?

Although I enjoyed Hitchhiker, I don't think I would call it a 'Great Book' by any definition.

I just couldn't read Crime and Punishment -- it was just a book about a petty coward, I never wanted to sympathize with the main character. I have a difficult time with books where the main character is a waste of space (Catcher in the Rye ranks in there too).

I can't recall the title (it might have been A Farewell to Arms), but there was a Hemmingway novel that had A LOT of dialog -- it was during that book I found dialog was not Hemmingway's strong point.

 

The Shannara books by Terry Brooks I always felt there was a great story trying to get out but nobody would let it out.

Tad Williams books every time I try to read them I'll see something else and read that instead.

Thomas Hardy hate his books, his style of writing just sets me on edge.

 

Farfhd and the Grey Mouser is utter crap, I really tried to read it and got quite a long way through but it was just boring and confusing.

Hithchhiker is awesome as is Crime and Punishment.

There are quite a few books I have been told are great but which I was sorely disapointed in. Cant remember any out of the top of my head.

 

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, so far!! Nearly 100 pages into it and still can't work out what's going on. It's doing my head in. Parts of it are really good, but other parts leave me scratching my head and I don't like that.
I'm going to go back and finish the Dragonlance series and maybe come back to it later.

 

Barmy! You're missing something awesome if you give up on Steven Erikson. We have all warned you that Gardens of the Moon is really hard to get into so you shouldn't be surprised by your reaction. But we've also all raved about what a brilliant series it is. So we've all been in your position. I think Joacquin summed it up when he said something like "when you're reading Erikson, you have no idea what's going on, but when you get to the end, you think what a fantastic book that was"

Dragonlance is kiddie fantasy in comparison.

The most disappointing "great" book I have ever read was "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens. Oliver is such a little whining weaner.

 

I won't be giving up on the bloke. It's just that the book is hard for me to read properly. I like to know what's happening and what's going on. His characters are incredibly rich and individual, but he doesn't describe their locations or situations very well at all. I mean, what is this 'Moons Spawn' thing I just read about. At first, I thought it was some kind of fortress under siege, but then it seemed to move and change shape, by the way he was describing it?!
All a bit too strange and wierd for me right now. I don't like things that bosh my head out. I'll come back to it later!

 

Catcher in the Rhye, which I hated, and which is one of the VERY few books I've started and couldn't get myself to finish.

 

Dragonlance. There you go. One of the worst series of fantasy books I have ever read.

 

i'll second, er, third that motion chandos

for me it's (hold the eggs and vegetables) Narnia. yup, I'm reading it at the first time at the age of 21 and I can't get into it. And it's not because I can't enjoy fantasy that's supposed to "make you feel like a kid again" because Stardust by Neil Gaiman is one of my favorites.

 

To a certain extent, Lord of the Rings. The hype probably killed it. Tolkein was a mastermind, and brilliant at creating new worlds. Fantasy owes him a *lot* but his stories had a way of dragging on and/or going at a snails pace.

Hitchhikers Guide I agree with - the humour good in places but it became apparent that Adams started trying too hard to be silly/funny.

I enjoyed the first two books of Dragonlance, but haven't read any further - I can see what someone said when they said it was sort of "kiddie fantasy"

 

Catcher in the Rye. So overrated.

 

Cattcher in the Rye, good choice. Anything by Ludlum. Hitchhikers. Goodkind. Pride and Prejudice -- in fact, pretty well anything written by Austen or any of the Bronte sisters. Solid writing, maybe. Earth-shattering, life changing literature? No way.

 

What's wrong with Dragonlance? It's easy to read and get on with. I can't put it down me when I get reading it a bit.

 

Well, I dont reckon Dragonlance is reckoned as a great piece of literature but many people love it, people I respect and I cant just understand it. It is utter tripe, it is basically some DnD adventure written out, poorly.

Oh and Barmy, Moon' Spawn is a floating fortress, a "spawn" of the Moon so to speak. A big floating piece of rock.