{"id":312,"date":"2016-08-04T11:23:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T11:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/04\/books-istrongly-dislike\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T02:40:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T02:40:15","slug":"books-istrongly-dislike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/04\/books-istrongly-dislike\/","title":{"rendered":"Books I…Strongly Dislike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"southbank<\/a><\/div>\n

I almost wrote “hate” but early conditioning kept telling me I couldn’t say that. Does anyone else remember the teachers who wouldn’t let you use the word hate? \u00a0“No” they would say “you don’t really hate squash, you strongly dislike it.” \u00a0Huh, really? \u00a0I think I hate it. \u00a0Anyway, I still feel bad about using the word so we are going with “books I strongly dislike.” \u00a0Though, I must admit, immediately after having read them I would have said hate. I am not talking about books that are poorly written. \u00a0I usually cannot work up a good hate for a book that is not well-written and does not have possibilities. \u00a0I am talking about the books that bothered me in some way, the books that made me angry, the books I wanted to throw against a wall.<\/p>\n

The first book that comes to mind is Angela’s Ashes<\/i> by Frank McCourt. \u00a0I just checked Goodreads and this book has a rating of 4.1 out of 5. \u00a0Huh, apparently I am in the minority. \u00a0A friend of mine highly recommended it. \u00a0I should have known better. \u00a0She likes gloom and doom in her books and I don’t. \u00a0I understand a book is possibly going to be sad at times but unrelenting depression and misery are more than I can handle. I also found the main character self-centered and completely unsympathetic. \u00a0Actually, I don’t think I liked a single character in the book and I don’t think one positive thing ever happened. \u00a0My memory is of babies being born, babies dying, children going hungry, and the main character being supremely annoying. \u00a0This is a book I wanted to throw against a wall and just thinking about it is making me angry all over again. \u00a0Apologies to anyone who loves it. \u00a0I just couldn’t.<\/p>\n

I love The Diary of a Provincial Lady<\/i> by E.M. Delafield. \u00a0It is witty and funny and relatable. Her novel, Consequences<\/i>, did not impress me. \u00a0It made me angry. \u00a0I read that it was Delafield’s favorite of her works. \u00a0I understand what she was doing. \u00a0The novel highlights the plight of girls who have no option except for marriage. \u00a0My problem, again, is that I disliked the main character. \u00a0She seemed to be constantly making decisions that just made her life more miserable and there seemed to be a general ‘woe is me’ feel to the whole thing. \u00a0And let’s not even talk about the ending. I stayed up late to finish the book. \u00a0I had a morbid fascination at this point, convinced that it just had to get better, that something had to go right for the main character. \u00a0It didn’t. \u00a0I was so filled with rage that I went upstairs, woke up my husband, and ranted to him about it. \u00a0I read this quite a while ago as a free book on my Kindle. \u00a0I was quite bemused when I found out that Consequences<\/i> is in the Persephone catalogue since I usually love their books. \u00a0Delafield wrote another book with a similar theme and I enjoyed that book much more. \u00a0I actually thought Thank Heaven Fasting<\/i> was excellent. \u00a0You can read my review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My last disliked book is Never Let Me Go<\/i>\u00a0by Kazuo Ishiguro. \u00a0I reviewed this <\/a>a while ago. \u00a0It had an interesting premise but it never got off the ground. \u00a0Again, it had characters I just could not care about and they seemed incapable of doing anything to improve their lives. \u00a0I am sure there is a message and a meaning behind that but I just wanted to yell at them for being idiotic. \u00a0I spent the whole book feeling like it was leading up to something big but it all just felt so anticlimactic. \u00a0This is a book that actually irritates me more and more the longer it has been since I read it.<\/p>\n

While writing this I have realized there are several things all these books have in common. \u00a0For one, they all have characters I found to be irritating and unlikeable. I don’t need a character to be perfect but I do need them to be someone I can picture myself talking to without wanting to push them off a cliff. \u00a0They can have flaws and defects, we all do, but they have to have strengths too. They have to be admirable in some way. \u00a0Second, all these books were unremittingly grim. \u00a0I know life is hard and sad. \u00a0That is just a fact. \u00a0But life is also funny and interesting. \u00a0The dark needs to be highlighted by the light or it becomes too one dimensional. \u00a0Dickens understood this. \u00a0His novels could be heart-breaking but they also were frequently leavened by a good dose of humor. \u00a0I also found all of these novels to be too heavy-handed. \u00a0When I read Angela’s Ashes<\/i> I felt like yelling “Okay already. \u00a0I’ve got it. \u00a0Life was miserable. \u00a0You were miserable. \u00a0Move on. \u00a0What did you do with it?” \u00a0I don’t need to be beaten over the head with the message. \u00a0A light touch is preferable.<\/p>\n

With all of these books, I felt like I was missing something. \u00a0All of them are, as far as I can tell, beloved by many. \u00a0I…disliked them. \u00a0But that is the thing about reading. \u00a0Much as I would like to think that I am the definitive guide for what is and is not a good book, that just isn’t true. \u00a0I know, I am as surprised as you are. \u00a0Though I have to say, if you don’t like Jane Austen then I don’t think we can be friends anymore. \u00a0But I suppose if you back me into a corner and threaten me with no books for a year I will have to admit that you even have the right to dislike Jane Austen. \u00a0I think I feel like a traitor even saying that. \u00a0But my point is that I can hate these books and you can love them because we all read a different book. \u00a0The words are the same but we are not. \u00a0Our emotions, our experience, our background, our mood of the moment, all of these combine to make a book good or bad. \u00a0Good or bad for us, maybe, just possibly, not good or bad for everybody.<\/p>\n

What books have you…strongly disliked? Do you love any of the books I hate?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I almost wrote “hate” but early conditioning kept telling me I couldn’t say that. Does anyone else remember the teachers who wouldn’t let you use the word hate? \u00a0“No” they would say “you don’t really hate squash, you strongly dislike it.” \u00a0Huh, really? \u00a0I think I hate it. \u00a0Anyway, I still feel bad about using the word so we are going with “books I strongly dislike.” \u00a0Though, I must admit, immediately after having read them I would have said hate. I am not talking about books that are poorly written. \u00a0I usually cannot work up a good hate for a book that is not well-written and does not have possibilities. \u00a0I am talking about the books that bothered me in some way, the books that made me angry, the books I wanted to throw against a wall. The first book that comes to mind is Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. \u00a0I just checked Goodreads and this book has a rating of 4.1 out of 5. \u00a0Huh, apparently I am in the minority. \u00a0A friend of mine highly recommended it. \u00a0I should have known better. \u00a0She likes gloom and doom in her books and I don’t. \u00a0I understand a book is possibly going to be sad at times but unrelenting depression and misery are more than I can handle. I also found the main character self-centered and completely unsympathetic. \u00a0Actually, I don’t think I liked a single character in the book and I don’t think one positive thing ever happened. \u00a0My memory is of babies being born, babies dying, children going hungry, and the main character being supremely annoying. \u00a0This is a book I wanted to throw against a wall and just thinking about it is making me angry all over again. \u00a0Apologies to anyone who loves it. \u00a0I just couldn’t. I love The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield. \u00a0It is witty and funny and relatable. Her novel, Consequences, did not impress me. \u00a0It made me angry. \u00a0I read that it was Delafield’s favorite of her works. \u00a0I understand what she was doing. \u00a0The novel highlights the plight of girls who have no option except for marriage. \u00a0My problem, again, is that I disliked the main character. \u00a0She seemed to be constantly making decisions that just made her life more miserable and there seemed to be a general ‘woe is me’ feel to the whole thing. \u00a0And let’s not even talk about the ending. I stayed up late to finish the book. \u00a0I had a morbid fascination at this point, convinced that it just had to get better, that something had to go right for the main character. \u00a0It didn’t. \u00a0I was so filled with rage that I went upstairs, woke up my husband, and ranted to him about it. \u00a0I read this quite a while ago as a free book on my Kindle. \u00a0I was quite bemused when I found out that Consequences is in the Persephone catalogue since I usually love their books. \u00a0Delafield wrote another book with a similar theme and I enjoyed that book much more. \u00a0I actually thought Thank Heaven Fasting was excellent. \u00a0You can read my review here. My last disliked book is Never Let Me Go\u00a0by Kazuo Ishiguro. \u00a0I reviewed this a while ago. \u00a0It had an interesting premise but it never got off the ground. \u00a0Again, it had characters I just could not care about and they seemed incapable of doing anything to improve their lives. \u00a0I am sure there is a message and a meaning behind that but I just wanted to yell at them for being idiotic. \u00a0I spent the whole book feeling like it was leading up to something big but it all just felt so anticlimactic. \u00a0This is a book that actually irritates me more and more the longer it has been since I read it. While writing this I have realized there are several things all these books have in common. \u00a0For one, they all have characters I found to be irritating and unlikeable. I don’t need a character to be perfect but I do need them to be someone I can picture myself talking to without wanting to push them off a cliff. \u00a0They can have flaws and defects, we all do, but they have to have strengths too. They have to be admirable in some way. \u00a0Second, all these books were unremittingly grim. \u00a0I know life is hard and sad. \u00a0That is just a fact. \u00a0But life is also funny and interesting. \u00a0The dark needs to be highlighted by the light or it becomes too one dimensional. \u00a0Dickens understood this. \u00a0His novels could be heart-breaking but they also were frequently leavened by a good dose of humor. \u00a0I also found all of these novels to be too heavy-handed. \u00a0When I read Angela’s Ashes I felt like yelling “Okay already. \u00a0I’ve got it. \u00a0Life was miserable. \u00a0You were miserable. \u00a0Move on. \u00a0What did you do with it?” \u00a0I don’t need to be beaten over the head with the message. \u00a0A light touch is preferable. With all of these books, I felt like I was missing something. \u00a0All of them are, as far as I can tell, beloved by many. \u00a0I…disliked them. \u00a0But that is the thing about reading. \u00a0Much as I would like to think that I am the definitive guide for what is and is not a good book, that just isn’t true. \u00a0I know, I am as surprised as you are. \u00a0Though I have to say, if you don’t like Jane Austen then I don’t think we can be friends anymore. \u00a0But I suppose if you back me into a corner and threaten me with no books for a year I will have to admit that you even have the right to dislike Jane Austen. \u00a0I think I feel like a traitor even saying that. \u00a0But my point is that I can hate these books and you can love them because we all read a different book. \u00a0The words are the same but we are not. \u00a0Our emotions, our experience, our background, our mood of the moment, all of these combine to make a book good or bad. \u00a0Good or bad for us, maybe, just possibly, not good or bad for everybody. What books have you…strongly disliked? Do you love any of the books I hate?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2810,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/2810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}