Least Favourite Books?

[Captain Jeeves]

What's a book you absolutely hated? Why?

For example, I loathe Jane Eyre. I find the title character to be vain and unfeeling and her actions to be idiotic. Also the plot seems a bit implausible.

[sirenita4]

mmmmm probably the book '' my cat is flying over the window''

[Guest]

a book i didn't particularly like was "Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan" by Brecht (i read it in german... hence the reason why i wrote the german title.) also known as "The Good Person of Szechwan". I don't really know why i didn't like it... i liked (most of) the ideas and themes the book tried to convey and agree with (most of) them, but idk... i guess it was just the way my german teacher taught and how a lot of people in my class were completely demotivated to do anything with and for the book/play.

Edited March 26, 2014 by dvirchow

[Sandwich]

Northanger Abbey.

Not only is it boring as **** but it's sold as a parody which is about the last thing that it is unless Jane Austen was trying to do a parody of how incredibly boring and pointless her own writing is. Did I mention it's boring? Even the BBC had to invent scenes that never happened in the book just to adapt it for TV - and with the BBC we're talking about people capable of enduring endless hours of period costume tedium. Insipid characters, no plot, just literally... nothing. NOTHING. It outrages me.

Having said that, I would merrily dance around a pyre of burning Jane Austen books, I would time travel back to destroy them and save myself hours and hours of my life having to read them, but you know at least something happens in some of the other books.

[Captain Jeeves]

I'm normally a great fan of Jane Austen, but I didn't like Northanger Abbey either! I think Jane Austen in general is a bit of an acquired taste for sure. You kind of have to get used to how she writes and how nothing really happens but at the same time many things are happening... But then again Dickens is much the same way, in my experience.

[flinquinnster]

Umm... I'm a fan of Jane Austen and I don't hate Northanger Abbey. Whilst I agree that it doesn't really do a great job of being a parody, I found it interesting enough to read - though far from riveting, or my favourite Austen novel. I would, however, totally agree that the 1986 BBC adaptation of Northanger Abbey is one of the most woeful pieces of film that has ever made its way onto television - adding electronic synthesisers to the score, excessive make-up and lines like "since you left us, the white rose bush has died of grief" managed to completely undermine any of the humour or light-heartedness of the book. I cried with laughter for much of that film.

Keeping up the Austen theme, a book that I hate with a passion is Mansfield Park. The heroine is painfully passive and the supposed 'hero' just seems insensitive to me. The only characters that I ended up liking were the Crawfords, and they're the ones that are supposed to be immoral and all that.