Bad Books
Recently we went to the Public Library and I checked out 3 books. I have already finished two of them and the nicest thing I can say about them is “At least I didn’t pay for them.”
The first one, “The Last Templar” by Raymond Khoury was pretty disappointingly predictable with a horrible ending. HORRIBLE ENDING. I’m still annoyed that I wasted a few hours of my life reading it.
The other book was “The Christmas Train” by David Baldacci.
I would say “Worst Author Ever,” but after what I read about the hack who cobbled together the book behind this monstrosity of a holiday movie called Eragon, I’m pretty sure that that guy is the worst author ever. Baldacci merely sucks without elevating it to an artform. He has taken “foreshadowing” to a new low. How does this guy get published with writing like this? I don’t know if all his books are this formulaic, but wow, I was blown away at the suckitude of the book. Of course I finished the damned thing because I hate not finishing a book, but wow, it really sucked.
My third book is written by the Louis de Bernieres who also wrote Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. I never saw the movie because I was convinced it would ruin what I thought was a wonderful book, but I’m hoping his style of story telling holds up in this book entitled “The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman.” I have to return to the library soon to unload these books. I’m hoping that maybe I can find some actual readable books while I’m there.
Suggestions would be appreciated — even if they are not very good books. It’s better that way, because if I really liked them then I’d want to buy books I already read and we already have a metric assload of books, so buying something I’ve already read seems stupid.
bad bookage
I have faculty who buy me gifts from time to time. Those who have purchased books “that they thought I might like” have roundly sucked. I have two such wastes of paper that are sitting in my bookcase because I’m not sure what else to do with them.
Simply put, sucky books ruin the whole experience. My condolences.
PS. I thought I had some sort of horrible stain on my screen until I navigated away from your page. Hmmm…interesting commentary.
Free yourself from bad books!
I highly recommend learning to stop reading books you realize you hate. The first time I did that was with Mists of Avalon (no comments, please. I know lots of people loved that book, but it just made me too sad and irritated at the stupid people in it). Since then, I’ve stopped reading several other books including House of Sand and Fog. It’s an incredibly freeing experience! Put down the bad books!
-E.
books
You might have seen on my sidebar that I just made it through “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”. That book got rave reviews. The beginning was interesting, the end was interesting, but the middle 300 pages or so just bored the heck out of me. It was WORK to finish that book, but I’m glad I did read the end, because the stuff toward the end was the best part of the whole thing. I guess I’d give it a C overall. Worth it? Maybe.
B&N had an anthology of Sherlock Holmes in 2 volumes, and I had to work pretty hard at that (and take breaks). It was worth it in the end though, because there is so much in there that explains some of the catch phrases and stereotypes we still use. I can’t think of any examples right off hand, but they’re in there. I read vol. 1 in 2004 and I intend to pick up vol. 2 someday.
I’m reading “A Breath of Snow and Ashes” which is book 5 or something in Diana Gabaldon’s massive Outlander series. I’ve enjoyed those books. They’re sometimes classified as fantasy, sometimes romance, depending on the store. I don’t know where the library would put them – “fiction”? I had a heck of a time figuring out the order of the books for some reason, but the first one is “Outlander”. Sometimes they get a little predictable and repetetive, but they’re pretty good overall.
The only book I remember starting and not finishing was LOTR. I really have no patience for battle scenes, fighting, and war strategy, and skipping that really isn’t an option. That may have been part of my problem with “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” as well.
I don’t know much about “Eragon”. I just saw the commercial and thought it looked like a ripoff of Anne McCaffrey’s “Dragonriders of Pern” trilogy, which I read 5 years ago or so.
I love almost everything by Guy Gavriel Kay. At least for me, if it’s got his name on it, it will be worth reading.