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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:21:29 AM EDT
[#1]
1984. While, I understand and appreciate the message...I thought it was just a horrible book. I couldn't get into it at all, I honestly did not like any of characters, and really did not care what happened to them. I only finished it because of how well revered it is. I liked Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451 much better, and I was actually interested in their storylines.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:23:05 AM EDT
[#2]
Quoted:
To kill a mocking bird. J.k I actually do dislike that book. One of those novel's that is a "classic" because of it's subject matter, not because of the writing. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:30:01 AM EDT
[#3]
War and Peace, except for Denisov.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:36:48 AM EDT
[#4]
Siddhartha and Les Miserables.
We had to read both in sixth grade. Jesus...what normal sixth grader would read somehting so heavy if he wasn't forced to? 
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:43:47 AM EDT
[#5]
Quoted:
+1 on Beowulf. OMG, its an aneurysm in print. Much Ado About Nothing: I absolutely fucking hate this goddamned peice of shit. Its Seinfeld circa 1600. I have never wanted to jump off a cliff and slit my throat on the way down more so than when I was confronted by this book. Until I saw KEANU "Like, whoa" REEVES in that festering pestule of a movie adaptation.   
However, I do not hate all Shakespeare. I was enthralled by Julius Ceasar. Good play, Great Film (the Marlon Brando one). War and Rememberance. +1 to the Caine Mutiny. Monotonous as hell. Anything by Mark Twain. I cant stand him, and I cant understand why he's a great writer. Catch 22. I like the message, I understand it. But when I read it, it didnt really bring me there. I liked Winds of War and War and Rememberance. Just finished them. He could have left out a LOT of the drama and made them half the size however. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:44:41 AM EDT
[#6]
Quoted: What movie was better than the book? Jaws. ETA: And I see someone on Page 1 agrees.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:47:35 AM EDT
[#7]
Pride and Prejudice.
OMG Look, I'm a voracious reader, I read anything and everything. But I had to read this POS in HS for AP English and it was so bad I couldn't even finish the cliff notes. You know it's bad when you can't even finish the cliff notes. fucking terrible. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:55:55 AM EDT
[#8]
Finnegans Wake
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:58:06 AM EDT
[#9]
I thought the movie MASH sucked.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:08:22 AM EDT
[#10]
A Farewell to Arms.
You would think a book with nothing but war, alcohol, sex, and rain - rinse, lather, repeat - would be good. Nope. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:16:03 AM EDT
[#11]
Streetcar Named Desire
and Brave New World... 
two God awful books I never wish to see again. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:42:41 AM EDT
[#12]
Quoted:
A Farewell to Arms. You would think a book with nothing but war, alcohol, sex, and rain - rinse, lather, repeat - would be good. Nope. You are mistaken, sir. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:43:06 AM EDT
[#13]
Quoted:
A Farewell to Arms. You would think a book with nothing but war, alcohol, sex, and rain - rinse, lather, repeat - would be good. Nope. I second this |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:51:32 AM EDT
[#14]
Ethan Frome
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:07:10 AM EDT
[#15]
My AP English teacher in high school was going around the room looking for verbal critical analysis of The Scarlet Letter and I told her she didn't want to hear mine. She insisted. I told her that in the pantheon of alleged great American writers, Hawthorne is among the weakest and that The Scarlet Letter is at the bottom of the compost heap of his writing. Hester Prynne is a vapid bag of neuroses, incapable of any human function more critical than lying on her back and Chillingworth is one of the more inept plotters of revenge ever committed to paper. Dimmesdale's self-flagellation is tedious, his incessant moralizing boring beyond measure. The characters, one and all, are flat and it is only by a measure of supreme effort that the reader can muster enough emotion about any of them to simply wish them dead. On the whole, The Scarlet Letter is conceivable the worst book ever written in the English language and the fact that we had just been subjected to it was reason enough to question the existence of a benevolent and loving God.
I got tossed into in-school suspension for that. Unbelievable. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:16:30 AM EDT
[#16]
Quoted: "Silas Marner" "The Scarlett Letter" just about any thing we had to read in school. I could not understand that even w/ cliff's notes. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:17:26 AM EDT
[#17]
Quoted:
My AP English teacher in high school was going around the room looking for verbal critical analysis of The Scarlet Letter and I told her she didn't want to hear mine. She insisted. I told her that in the pantheon of alleged great American writers, Hawthorne is among the weakest and that The Scarlet Letter is at the bottom of the compost heap of his writing. Hester Prynne is a vapid bag of neuroses, incapable of any human function more critical than lying on her back and Chillingworth is one of the more inept plotters of revenge ever committed to paper. Dimmesdale's self-flagellation is tedious, his incessant moralizing boring beyond measure. The characters, one and all, are flat and it is only by a measure of supreme effort that the reader can muster enough emotion about any of them to simply wish them dead. On the whole, The Scarlet Letter is conceivable the worst book ever written in the English language and the fact that we had just been subjected to it was reason enough to question the existence of a benevolent and loving God. I got tossed into in-school suspension for that. Unbelievable. I want to buy you a beer because thats how i felt |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:18:57 AM EDT
[#18]
Quoted:
Catcher in the Rye. Ive read it twice trying to understand its greatness. All I can get out of it is the understanding of why sociopaths and serial killers read it and enjoy it. Beat sleeping pills though. I second this one. It actually made me feel hyper when I read it. If only I could get those hours back I wasted on this one. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:19:06 AM EDT
[#19]
I'll agree with the Godfather movies- boring as fuck, and as a general rule, mob movies are stupid (it had great actors).
The Jungle was a decent book, heavily overstating the misery of being a laborer at that time, until the communist diatribe at the end (I didn't make it more than a few pages of that waste of paper). |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:20:35 AM EDT
[#20]
Quoted: ATLAS SHRUGGED! I agree with the message, but what a godawful, tedious, and repetitive book. +1, could've been great if it were about 500 less pages. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:25:27 AM EDT
[#21]
And On the Road by Jack Kerouac. boing and pointless.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:28:21 AM EDT
[#22]
Quoted: Quoted: Catcher in the Rye. First one that came to my mind. +1 |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:28:44 AM EDT
[#23]
With apologies to my ancestry, James Joyce's Ulysses is the most incomprehensible literary work in history. That massive tome's highest function is use as a door stop. More than a quarter of a millions words about fuck all.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:31:21 AM EDT
[#24]
Quoted:
I have to add Citizen Cane to the list. you beat me to it. it is the poster child for over-rated. sure there was some novel (for the time) cinematography, but the story sucked |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:31:53 AM EDT
[#25]
Catcher in the Rye is the shortest book I couldn't finish.
I read all the time and have read hundreds of 'classics' or other fiction books. Cather in the Rye was the worst I have gotten into. I stopped reading it because I couldn't get into the characters. The main guy is a psycho. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:35:53 AM EDT
[#26]
Citizen Kane sucked? Godfather I and II sucked? Beowulf (the poem, not the movie) sucked? No, sirs, you suck.
That is all. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:37:12 AM EDT
[#27]
anything by Dickens- i heard the bastard was paid by the word, not by content. been the bane of high schoolers ever since.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 7:25:27 AM EDT
[#28]
Quoted:
Now, the classic novel that I had a really hard time liking was War And Peace. I understand a lot of these classic novels were written as serials, but how many freaking people do you need with the same or a similar last name, or trivial stories about people that have nothing to do with the plot? I was constantly losing track of characters and having to go back almost entire chapters to figure out what happened to the person we're talking about in the familiar, now. [/div] I can see that book being great, if you are a Russian and Tolstoy scholar. He apparently wrote in tons of references of Russian politics, his friends, his family, and his enemies, most supposedly humorous and sarcastic. I am not a Tolstoy or Russian scholar, however, so all of those went straight over my head. Instead of finding the intended humor in these scenes and characters, they just seemed pointless. The various naming differences are another Russian thing, but I wish they would have just dropped that in the translation. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 8:08:32 AM EDT
[#29]
Quoted:
I second the motion.
Quoted:
My AP English teacher in high school was going around the room looking for verbal critical analysis of The Scarlet Letter and I told her she didn't want to hear mine. She insisted. I told her that in the pantheon of alleged great American writers, Hawthorne is among the weakest and that The Scarlet Letter is at the bottom of the compost heap of his writing. Hester Prynne is a vapid bag of neuroses, incapable of any human function more critical than lying on her back and Chillingworth is one of the more inept plotters of revenge ever committed to paper. Dimmesdale's self-flagellation is tedious, his incessant moralizing boring beyond measure. The characters, one and all, are flat and it is only by a measure of supreme effort that the reader can muster enough emotion about any of them to simply wish them dead. On the whole, The Scarlet Letter is conceivable the worst book ever written in the English language and the fact that we had just been subjected to it was reason enough to question the existence of a benevolent and loving God. I got tossed into in-school suspension for that. Unbelievable. I want to buy you a beer because thats how i felt 
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:23:27 PM EDT
[#30]
There are some great reviews in here. ARFCOM is a bunch of closet intellectuals who also understand and appreciate ballistics.
I'm going to post the flipside of this topic tonight. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 4:43:49 PM EDT
[#31]
Quoted: Quoted: Now, the classic novel that I had a really hard time liking was War And Peace. I understand a lot of these classic novels were written as serials, but how many freaking people do you need with the same or a similar last name, or trivial stories about people that have nothing to do with the plot? I was constantly losing track of characters and having to go back almost entire chapters to figure out what happened to the person we're talking about in the familiar, now. [/div] I can see that book being great, if you are a Russian and Tolstoy scholar. He apparently wrote in tons of references of Russian politics, his friends, his family, and his enemies, most supposedly humorous and sarcastic. I am not a Tolstoy or Russian scholar, however, so all of those went straight over my head. Instead of finding the intended humor in these scenes and characters, they just seemed pointless. The various naming differences are another Russian thing, but I wish they would have just dropped that in the translation. See, I liked what of Anna Karenina I've read, and I loved Dostoevsky's work. Dostoevsky does similar things with characters of a similar last name, or little anecdotes about characters that have nothing to do with the plot (The Idiot is a great example). Crime And Punishment put me to sleep on several occasions, but I still liked it more than War And Peace. I don't know if it's Tolstoy's style when he wrote it, or the fact that War And Peace is just so huge and slow. haha Oh and +1 on the person who mentioned The Scarlet Letter. I had an English teacher in 11th grade ruin that for me by spending four months dissecting it. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:21:52 PM EDT
[#32]
As many have already said, Catcher in the Rye
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:34:05 PM EDT
[#33]
Quoted: Quoted: Catcher in the Rye. Ive read it twice trying to understand its greatness. All I can get out of it is the understanding of why sociopaths and serial killers read it and enjoy it. Where did you hear that? Ive read it more than once, one of John Douglas' books for sure. Also Criminal Minds references it about every third episode and Im sure the writers must read the stuff I do. I meant to add The Good Earth and The Sun Also Rises. Oh and Death in the Afternoon. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:41:34 PM EDT
[#34]
I've read all the titles mentioned so far except The Jungle, Moby Dick, The Caine Mutiny, Lords of Discipline, and Ulysses. Just assume all those are italics.
Pride and Prejudice is a fine book. If you can't see at least some good in it you're hopeless. The book The Godfather is FAR superior to the movies. Agree on Aynn Rand or however you spell her gay name. The film Much Ado About Nothing was only besmirched by Reeves and Leonard. I thought it was fun. To Kill a Mockingbird. yep, the world's first Affirmative Action Classic.
Little Women. I read all of War and Peace, all of Darwin's works unabridged, and Hegel's Philosophy of History in high school. But this book? I put it down 2/3 of the way and said, Wow, that is some stupid shit. War and Peace has it's unique parts and characters. I wouldn't call it bad. I enjoyed following the revelations of Bezuhkov as he cut grass with the peasants on his estate. Quoted:
Pretty much anything Shakespeare. Did you parents have any children that lived?
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:47:08 PM EDT
[#35]
A classic Scifi that sucked: A Canticle for Leibowitz
It's whole premise is false because it overstates the physical effects of nukes and nuclear war like some rapid liberal or Wendell Berry. And the story is boring and stupid, as is the central theme. In fact, it's sitting in my fireplace now waiting for me to light the first fire of the season. A few books are there. 
Quoted:
I read Asimov's Foundation series, and it stuck me as just as much socialist propaganda (at least in the final novels) as The Jungle. I haven't read any of his other stuff, so I'm not sure if it carries over or not. What's strange is that the first book, Prelude to Foundation, seems to be an absolute counterpoint to the final novel. He wrote those in a haphazard fashion and decades apart. I read the original three before getting tired of the uni dimensional characters and dry writing style. No more after that. The idea of psychohistory is interesting, but not enough to carry the series. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:49:44 PM EDT
[#36]
Quoted:
Silas Marner I could not understand that even w/ cliff's notes. It addressed a problem that has no connection with 99.99bar% of people today. We had to read it, too.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:50:37 PM EDT
[#37]
The English Patient
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:00:20 PM EDT
[#38]
Quoted:
I've read all the titles mentioned so far except The Jungle, Moby Dick, The Caine Mutiny, Lords of Discipline, and Ulysses. Just assume all those are italics. Pride and Prejudice is a fine book. If you can't see at least some good in it you're hopeless. The book The Godfather is FAR superior to the movies. Agree on Aynn Rand or however you spell her gay name. The film Much Ado About Nothing was only besmirched by Reeves and Leonard. I thought it was fun. To Kill a Mockingbird. yep, the world's first Affirmative Action Classic.
Little Women. I read all of War and Peace, all of Darwin's works unabridged, and Hegel's Philosophy of History in high school. But this book? I put it down 2/3 of the way and said, Wow, that is some stupid shit. War and Peace has it's unique parts and characters. I wouldn't call it bad. I enjoyed following the revelations of Bezuhkov as he cut grass with the peasants on his estate. Quoted:
Pretty much anything Shakespeare. Did you parents have any children that lived? The above post proves that each and every member will surprise the fuck out of you sometimes. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:01:32 PM EDT
[#39]
Quoted:
A classic Scifi that sucked: A Canticle for Leibowitz It's whole premise is false because it overstates the physical effects of nukes and nuclear war like some rapid liberal or Wendell Berry. And the story is boring and stupid, as is the central theme. In fact, it's sitting in my fireplace now waiting for me to light the first fire of the season. A few books are there.
[. 
You have to REALLY hate a book to do that to it. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:02:26 PM EDT
[#40]
Quoted:
What movie was better than the book? Blade Runner. It was based on Do androids dream of electric sheep? which is...err, less cogent. To Kill a Mockingbird. Why waste 10 hours when you can get away with 2? Apocalypse Now. More compelling than Heart of Darkness and with more cool guns. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:05:41 PM EDT
[#41]
Generally I've found that the longer the introduction the crappier the classic is in terms of readability. The worst is when half the pages in the book are what 2, sometimes even 3, holier than thou retards have to say about the classic work you are about to "enjoy".
In other words, the more the academic community (i.e., English teachers and professors) cream over the classic the more likely you are to hate it. For example, every Arthur Miller play sucks balls. They aren't works of art, they are art perverted to serve a sociopolitical agenda. They are populated with flat characters and saddle the reader with boring plots. Thus they are perfect for permanently turning blossoming young minds away from literature. Arguably you could say some of the same thing about 1984, but at least that work has a higher calling as a portent of our eventual doom. You'd be hard pressed to say the same thing for an Arthur Miller work. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:06:42 PM EDT
[#42]
Quoted: Just picked this one up to read. Now everyone on here says it sucks. Damn. Quoted: ATLAS SHRUGGED! I agree with the message, but what a godawful, tedious, and repetitive book. +1, could've been great if it were about 500 less pages. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:06:50 PM EDT
[#43]
On the Road Again by some beatnick author. Thought it was horrid.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:07:27 PM EDT
[#44]
the great gatsby, catch 22
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:08:41 PM EDT
[#45]
Quoted: anything by Dickens- i heard the bastard was paid by the word, not by content. been the bane of high schoolers ever since. Yes, they were paid by the word back then, and he was. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:10:54 PM EDT
[#46]
Quoted:
What movie was better than the book? While the book was very good, I think the movie version of The Princess Bride is better than the book. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:15:09 PM EDT
[#47]
Quoted:
Generally I've found that the longer the introduction the crappier the classic is in terms of readability. The worst is when half the pages in the book are what 2, sometimes even 3, holier than thou retards have to say about the classic work you are about to "enjoy". In other words, the more the academic community (i.e., English teachers and professors) cream over the classic the more likely you are to hate it. Funny you should say that. I do agree. But I was just looking at my bookcase as a result of this thread and happened on St. Augustine's Confessions, which I pulled from the shelf to read again tonight. Well, I pulled it down to read the introduction. Because I've read the intro, which is the best I've ever read, far more times than I've actually read the title of the book. 
Arguably you could say the same thing about 1984, but at least that work has a higher calling as a portent of our eventual doom. You'd be hard pressed to say the same thing for an Arthur Miller work. I would also value Brave New World, not because of it's enjoyability, but from it's usefulness in the language of describing authoritarian types of government. Doublespeak, big brother, etc...And insults - Who poured alcohol into your decanting fluid?
Quoted:
Quoted:
Just picked this one up to read. Now everyone on here says it sucks. Damn.
Quoted:
ATLAS SHRUGGED! I agree with the message, but what a godawful, tedious, and repetitive book. +1, could've been great if it were about 500 less pages. Library my friend, library. 
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:17:47 PM EDT
[#48]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Now, the classic novel that I had a really hard time liking was War And Peace. I understand a lot of these classic novels were written as serials, but how many freaking people do you need with the same or a similar last name, or trivial stories about people that have nothing to do with the plot? I was constantly losing track of characters and having to go back almost entire chapters to figure out what happened to the person we're talking about in the familiar, now. [/div] I can see that book being great, if you are a Russian and Tolstoy scholar. He apparently wrote in tons of references of Russian politics, his friends, his family, and his enemies, most supposedly humorous and sarcastic. I am not a Tolstoy or Russian scholar, however, so all of those went straight over my head. Instead of finding the intended humor in these scenes and characters, they just seemed pointless. The various naming differences are another Russian thing, but I wish they would have just dropped that in the translation. See, I liked what of Anna Karenina I've read, and I loved Dostoevsky's work. Dostoevsky does similar things with characters of a similar last name, or little anecdotes about characters that have nothing to do with the plot (The Idiot is a great example). Crime And Punishment put me to sleep on several occasions, but I still liked it more than War And Peace. I don't know if it's Tolstoy's style when he wrote it, or the fact that War And Peace is just so huge and slow. haha Oh and +1 on the person who mentioned The Scarlet Letter. I had an English teacher in 11th grade ruin that for me by spending four months dissecting it. W&P is the only Tolstoy I've read, and I didn't finish it. If it were shorter, I think I might have pushed on (I was on something like "book" three or four of 15, or a few hundred pages in, when I put it down), but the translation I had was also so dry. I don't know if it was a crappy translation or if it was an accurate translation of Tolstoy's writing style. Dostoevsky's on my to-be-read list. Two great Russian authors, I think, are Vladimir Nabokov (I disagree with the earlier poster, Lolita is a phenomenal book, though kind of creepy to read) and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn reads kind of dry too, though. Maybe it's a Russian author thing, or maybe Russian just doesn't translate well in literature. Nabokov doesn't do the last name thing that much at all. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:19:04 PM EDT
[#49]
Quoted:
Quoted:
A classic Scifi that sucked: A Canticle for Leibowitz It's whole premise is false because it overstates the physical effects of nukes and nuclear war like some rapid liberal or Wendell Berry. And the story is boring and stupid, as is the central theme. In fact, it's sitting in my fireplace now waiting for me to light the first fire of the season. A few books are there.
[.
You have to REALLY hate a book to do that to it. When you start it, you think, Oh maybe he made some deliberate concessions with the premise to make this awesome point. So I'll continue. Then when you're halfway down the last page, and there's no more room for redemption, you curse the author, the reviewers, the last eight hours, eye the fireplace, and let it fly.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:19:25 PM EDT
[#50]
While individual sections proved reather inspiring, I find that on the whole, reading "The red badge of courage" to be the equivelent of chewing on glass. As far as movies that actually surpass the imaginitive content of a good book.......not many......but I did like the ending of The Mist better in the film then the original story.
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