Ayn Rand’s fountainhead, by a fat mile. I was young and didn’t know better
I tried reading two different series from Stephen R. Donaldson, and it seemed to me he was somehow unable to write a book without a horrific rape. I just stopped reading the first book in each case because I felt like they were salacious and hateful.
Three Body Problem.
I just had a friend tell me he loved the whole series (with caveats), why didn’t you like it?
‘How to write with style’
me, clueless thinking its going to be a good resource to help with my fiction writing
Author in the first 50 pages;
So heres why the USSR was evil
bro who asked
Ready Player One
The cringe is massive with that one.
Twilight
War and Peace. Heard so many good things about it. Despite everything, went in not having super high expectations.
The whole book turned out like a reality tv show. All the characters had some petty drama that they blew out of proportion. Hundreds of pages where nothing really happens, people just complain or bad mouth other characters.
I had to stop half way through.
I could only make a few pages in to the first chapter, it was hard to read, very, very detailed, which should be a good thing but I found myself losing track of where we even were or what the scene was about for all the detail. Once they started describing the buttons on the coat of one of the characters and how it had been the fashion some years prior at some point in the 19th century to wear them that way… I gave up. I’d like to try again some time but I can’t see myself experiencing it differently. Curious about the 7 years in the making Soviet film adaptation, but its also 7 hours long.
True, he straight up admits many times in the books that he would lie about his wealth so that other people would work with him. I assume that came out during his fraud case in NY.
He had a few deals that worked out - all starting with dad’s money. He managed to squander 4 out of 5 of everything he tried. Casinos in Atlantic City, Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Ice, Wollman Rink, etc. It’s a long list. But the 1 or 2 that worked is why he has any money at all. If I remember correctly, it’s mostly the golf courses and an option he bought in the 70s for an old railroad yard in lower west side Manhatten I think. He really fucked someone over on that one. He bragged about how much he screwed them for pages and pages. Like it brought him more joy to fuck someone over than it did to have a success. He’s a complete psychopath.
The Casual Vacancy
I forced myself to finish it at the time, but I hated every single moment. They were all bad people and I had zero sympathy for any of the kids or adults, except for the one girl who died at the end. Obligatory Rowling can jump off a cliff too.
Mein Kampf. I read it when i was still a succdem, expecting some genius rant that converted people en masse to nazism. Instead it was barely coherent disgusting racist drivel. I guess this book didn’t make anyone into nazi, it just given nazis what they would like to read. This and the fact nazi state bought huge amounts of it to distribute, making Hitler richest writer in Germany.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve read it, so this may not be a fair assessment. But, I fucking hated The Catcher in the Rye. I wasn’t even required to read it for school or anything, I just did. Perhaps I just found Holden to be insufferable. I think that was the point, but it did not make it a particularly enjoyable or insightful read at all, save for the overwhelming supertext of DO NOT BE LIKE THIS GUY. The part where he hires a prostitute and just cries in front of her really stuck in my mind. That was when it really sunk in for me that someone read this book and decided that Holden’s views were so accurate that he had to go shoot John Lennon with a gun for being phony. Almost unbelievable.
50 Shades… terrible writing and the sex was boring AF. The books were recommended to me. I couldn’t get through the first one. Time I’ll never get back.
The Alchemist, I had to read it for a community college class. It’s probably the most predictable book I’ve ever read, but not in an entertaining way. Just painfully boring.
I read Siddhartha for highschool a couple years before, I would say that the books are almost identical, except I liked Siddhartha more.
You want a book with similar themes but actually amazing? The wizard of Earthsea.
I know the books aren’t literally the same. But the vibes feel very similar. I want to say they have very similar structure, but my memory doesn’t work that great.
There are books I started and did not finish that I do not remember. However, there a few that I finished but hated. The worst was:
Reverie - this was a lgbt book club thing in Libby. The protagonist was a whiny incapable teen that never redeemed themself. I kept thinking it would get better and it never did. Things resolved because magic, so poor/lazy writing.
An introduction to organic chemistry
