You Just Feel It...

[DragonNighthowler]

Has it ever happened to you that, from the moment you read the very first pages of a book, you just get this feeling you're not going to enjoy it?

 

Well, I admit I've rarely had that feeling, but it's happening to me now. With; The Magicians, from Lev Grossman. I am about 50 pages through, and I just get this feeling that the book is going to go downhill.

 

Right from the beggining the main character is completely unappealing. His name irks me (although that shouldn't be a defining trait, I find his name to be the ugliest ever), his personality irks me, and just about everything about him irks me. I have a hard time portraying him as a 17 year old, when he speaks like a child, completely obsessed with a Narnia like world.

 

There is this curious mixture between childish attitude and a failed attempt at a grown up attitude I don't like. The author tries to make his characters look mature, in a way that's absolutely unrealistic. There are points in dialogue where I feel ashamed I'm even reading this thing.

 

I'm not sure, I spoke with the girl who lent it to me and she said; "You're disliking him now? Just wait. It gets worse."

 

Maybe I'm a bit biased by her, but I just... I don't know, not even Twilight was this unappealing in the first pages.

[Dr. Paine]

Ah... give me a moment. I actually tried to like Eragon when I first read it, but I didn't have that 'this is gonna suck' feeling for a while.

 

Oh, The Long Walk. From the freaking title, I knew I was going to hate it... and I did. My tastes have changed and that might no longer be the case, but when I first read it, it was... it was not a pleasant experience.

 

I know there's like, one other book I've picked up and tried and had this reaction to, but I can't remember what it was.

[Completely Different]

Ah... give me a moment. I actually tried to like Eragon when I first read it, but I didn't have that 'this is gonna suck' feeling for a while.

 

Oh, The Long Walk. From the freaking title, I knew I was going to hate it... and I did. My tastes have changed and that might no longer be the case, but when I first read it, it was... it was not a pleasant experience.

 

I know there's like, one other book I've picked up and tried and had this reaction to, but I can't remember what it was.

I get that when I read most King/Bachman novels. Its a combination of his writing style, but partly that I'm not really into dark horror type stuff. Of course, my dad and all of my friends love him, so I currently have an entire shelf full of his stuff from gifts.

 

I remember having that when starting 'Thomas Covenant'. The style was meh- I wasn't getting into it, but that alone isn't enough to turn me onto a book. The main character was a bit gruff, but I could deal with that also- I like more morally grey protagonists. But then he goes and rapes a woman? Eek. Nope. I tried a bit longer, but I just couldn't get into it.

[Quinney]

I tried reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke but knew it wasn't for me.

 

Friends on a different forum were in raptures about it and it wasn't until I said I couldn't get on with it that a few others came forward and agreed with me. I forced myself to read it until I got about half way through and could stand it no more.

 

I've since given it away.

[DragonNighthowler]

Read a bit further into the book, and I'm still not liking it.

 

The point I see in this one is that it's not the kind of bad it's fun to critizice, like Eragon or Twilight, but rather the kind of bad it's simply bad. The fact that it's been written by a literary critic makes things even worse. That added to some rumours I've read about Grossman, that mention how he fakes accounts in Amazon to rate highly and comment his own books. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but doesn't speak very well of him.

[soupnazi]

I had the same thing with some series I read (can't remember the name). The main character arbitrarily switched from some type of wannabe grown-up brat to a little squealing girl every time magic or fairies were mentioned. Neither were likeable, and I put down the book after fifty pages or so.

[AAurion]

A Prayer for Owen Meany. I'm reading it for class, and my teacher warned us that the first chapter is pretty dull, but it gets interesting later. I believed her, I value her opinion and we actually have very similar tastes. But now I'm three chapters in (about 100 pages) and I just don't like it. It seems like the rest of my class does, but I'm not that into it. I guess my main reason is that I don't like any of the characters. Can't read a book if you don't like a single character.

[Zovesta]

Hm, I should read the Magician, just to see how bad it is.

 

TBH, all the time with books I just pick up from the library. I can't remember any of the names, though.

 

Oh, and an odd example - Monster, by A. Lee Martinez. I dunno why. He's one of my favourite writers, he wrote my top favourite books... but that book just sort of made me bored and depressed from the first few pages.

[HawktalonOfRiverClan]

Touching Spirit Bear. The main character is a real jerk. Or at first. He turned into this nice, caring person, and I ended up enjoying the book. Except the parts where the author decided to describe in excruciating detail the wounds the main character received from the white bear that mauled him.

 

Oh and Secret Garden. I liked the movie and decided to read it, and trust me, don't. The main character is even more spoiled and selfish in the book than she is in the movie.

 

Where the Red Fern Grows is another one. I thought it was incredibly boring. The only exciting part was the fight with the mountain lion at the end. And then the dogs died. It was so SAD! :'(

Edited February 15, 2011 by HawktalonOfRiverClan

[Infinis]

I tried reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke but knew it wasn't for me.

 

Friends on a different forum were in raptures about it and it wasn't until I said I couldn't get on with it that a few others came forward and agreed with me. I forced myself to read it until I got about half way through and could stand it no more.

 

I've since given it away.

I tried reading it too but I got kinda bored. It wasn't so much that I got a "I'm not gonna like it" feeling so much as an "it's too LONG @_@" feeling. I might like it more now though.

 

@Hawktalon: That was basically my reaction to Touching Spirit Bear.

 

I loved Where the Red Fern Grows.

 

===

 

Books that give me the "I'm gonna hate this" feeling are generally books I have to read. The one that I hated the most was The Color Purple...I found it boring. >_>

 

Another one I hated was Almost Moon by Alice Sebold (the author of The Lovely Bones). It was depressing and I ended up not even bothering to finish it.

 

Generally I avoid even picking up any book that gives me that feeling, though I should probably try actually reading them at some point...

[TPishek]

Aww, I loved Where the Red Fern Grows. I cried for hours ): (note that I was about... 8 the first time I read it)

 

There was a book we were assigned for a college lit class that was so bad I don't even remember the title. Something about a jungle in Africa.

 

And I never enjoyed the Golden Compass. Lyra just absolutely annoyed me.

[Sinsdaemn]

TPishek, was it Heart of Darkness? I quite liked it, but it's understandably difficult to get into.

 

Morgansville. DEM BOOKS. I read the first three pages and INSTANT DISLIKE. Read more because of morbid fascination but by the Nine this book was horrid.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Sinsdaemn

[TPishek]

Oh yes, that was it Sinsdaemn.

[Omen]

I've got that feeling with the book I've started reading. It's title is The Human Pool written by Chris Petit. I read through the first few pages and I literally frowned. Normally by the first few pages the book seems pretty decent. This one however doesn't. I'm going to read it anyway, as there's no point in not reading it. Surely it will get better as the book progresses, well I hope it will.

 

I think the main factor for not liking the book to start with was the first person viewpoint. I dislike reading books written in first person, it just seems weird. Don't get me wrong, sometimes they offer a better mental image and you can see yourself as the main character, but this one; it just seems weird.

[Eluin Gentry]

I have a thing for Teeny Bopper Vampire novels. However this one was so bad, I could barely finish it. Romeo & Juliet & Vampires by Claudia Gabel. It was possibly the worst pile of ripped off horse plop I've ever read. She went on to rip off Little (Vampire) Women after she was done with destroying a good work of Shakespeare. The woman should be staked and I'm not even beginning to be joking. I went in with an open mind though, since Boyfriend got me the book for Christmas. Ever read a Romeo and Juliet story that had a happy ending? This is the information she puts at the end of the book, just before the teaser for her massacre of Little Women.

"William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England in 1564. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language...... We're pretty sure he would think this version of his play is awesome."

William Shakespeare has rolled over in his grave, thrown up a couple of times, and completely agreed with me that this author should be staked immediately before she passes this crap on to others.

[TikindiDragon]

I confess, books that give me that feeling are ones I don't tend to buy. It's very rare that I'll get a book home form the shop and then decide I don't like it. The only one I can think of in recent years was Chosen by Jerry Ibbotson. From the back of the book it should have been funny. The couple of pages I read in the store weren't too bad.... and I totaly didn't deliver. I gave up on it after a couple of chapters - just couldn't get interested enough to read the rest when I had other things available.

 

@ComlpetelyDifferent - I've always rather like both King and the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Covenant *does* go on to redeem himself somewhat in the books, but I know an anti-hero that's that... well, anti, isn't really everyones cup of tea. He's also got the same wordy styles of prose that King has, and I guess I wouldn't recommend the books to anyone that didn't really like King in the first place.

[Kamak]

Usually from books I have to read for school... though it's funny, the ones I usually hate are the ones I'm generally more interested in. Like for my Senior year I had to read Out of Africa and Things Fall Apart during the summer for English. I thought I'd love Out of Africa, but I found it boring.

 

Books that I choose though... very rarely do I hate a book... but mostly if I put down a book for an extended time, it's because my stress level is too high to enjoy it, like with the 6th HP book, I didn't get the chance to read it (because we were on vacation for over a month, leaving the day before it came out...) until I was back at school, and with AP classes and the fact that the 6th book was really boring to me at the beginning, I ended up putting it down and forgot about it until the Spring... It definitely was a good book, but I just didn't have the patience to enjoy it.

 

There was one other book that I thought that would suck though. It was about an idealistic kid that basically lived in the greatest world ever and lemented the fact that not everyone could enjoy the world as much as him, so he basically tries to convince people to be like him... So basically a Gary Stu, which was REALLY grating...

 

But the book ended up being satisfying because it took his idealism and completely destroyed it over the course of the book by slowly convincing him that things are much more horrible and that even his sugary-sweet life is crappy...

 

Horribly, horribly dark book... but satisfying to show a fresh(ish) approach to how artificial these characters are and an interesting way to get the audience to suddenly connect and care for a character that was originally deemed to be "too perfect", along with the sad truths that come with being overly idealistic.

 

I can't for the life of me remember the name of the title currently though... and it's bugging me.

 

-K-

[bloodred-dragonfly]

When I don't like a book right from the start it's mostly because of the bad writing style. I'm trying to give every kind of genre or storyline a chance but if the sentences consist of ten words maximum and every fifth and sixth word is 'classy blonde' I just cant go on reading.

 

Since I'm into trashy horror novels (like when the author went overboard with the plot... NOT like in poorly written) that happens quite often.

But as long as I have my John Sinclaire novels I'll be happy

 

the sad thing about this is that it doesn't only happen with books you already expect to be bad.

I once startet reading Dickens' Great Expectations, being a classic and all. It was interesting from the very beginning and I liked about the frst quater of the story... but then the main character became so... so... (Trying not to swear)

I just came to hate that guy and after I got half through the book I just put it back into the book shelf and never touched it again. Because I don't friggin care what happens to that guy I hate! >.<

 

[Lagie]

I tried reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke but knew it wasn't for me.

 

Friends on a different forum were in raptures about it and it wasn't until I said I couldn't get on with it that a few others came forward and agreed with me. I forced myself to read it until I got about half way through and could stand it no more.

 

I've since given it away.

I gave that one away after only two pages in!

 

I read the first chapter of Twilight, months later made it to the second, and that's as far as I ever got. I had students who loved it who were quite concerned I'd think less of them for liking it, but I explained some people just don't like certain books, that doesn't make it wrong for other people to read them.

[Eluin Gentry]

I read the first chapter of Twilight, months later made it to the second, and that's as far as I ever got. I had students who loved it who were quite concerned I'd think less of them for liking it, but I explained some people just don't like certain books, that doesn't make it wrong for other people to read them.

Thank you! I have no problem with someone hating a book that I liked as long as they have reasons for it (IE: I couldn't get into it, the characters were boring, it just didn't work for me) but don't hate me for enjoying it. Different strokes for different folks. I never got into any of Steinbeck's work and I was one of the 3 or 4 in my english class who hated Of Mice and Men. They tried to talk me around for whole class periods and it felt like the whole class ganged up on me for not liking the book. It was supposed to be my choice, right?

[Pinkie]

I got the mother of all books for this. Anyone ever heard of a book called Grand Openning? I opened it up and within the first four pages, I was deathly afraid to continue. Let me sum it up for you. It's a story about a family entering a random town and deciding to open a grocery store. Their personalities fall flat to me and I felt no connection whatsoever with the characters. In fact, at the end when their thrice damned store finally burnt down, I was filled with this giddy joy.

 

So basically, a horrible concept to base a book around. Writing can take you all around the world, to other countries and to other worlds even. Yet the author chose a grocery store. There could have been something cool mixed in like To Kill a Mockingbird, but there wasn't. The characters were easy to forget...don't remember a one of their names. Writing was flat. Over all, nothing enjoyable about any of it.

 

Why was I reading it? Class. A rather god awful teacher taught it too. She had us read another thing about a grocery store, written by a guy I've deemed a pedafile, since the whole thing was about him watching this girl in a skimpy bathing suit walking through a grocery store.

[Way_Beyond_Myself]

I've had this feeling about a lot of books -- except, every time I think it, I like it (except with a few books ::coughTwilightcough:: I read a few pages in the library and was like "okay, never mind...how 'bout we get 1984 now?" .. haha .. )

soo yep..

[ChocolateIzzy]

Actually this book, Switched (Trylle Trilogy) by Amanda Hocking I thought, I might not like this...

But I ended up loving it!

[Twyro]

Tried to force myself to read The Vampire Diaries - no way.

[Syiren]

Hmm, well there have only been two book series that have done that to me, because I refused to read Twilight because just the whole concept turned me off. (Vampires that sparkle? Really? I miss Dracula.)

 

The first Harry Potter book. Reason why? The first five chapters are all about the Dersleys. What they do, what their normal life is, etc. I don't care what they do, they're minor characters, merely tools to kick off each book or movie. I don't need five chapters on what they do, it can be done in just a few paragraphs. The third book on the other hand was great, it went right into the plot and the action.

 

The other has to do with the warrior series. The first story arc was great! The second was, sad, but okay. The third one lost my interest. It just seemed like the flow of the story was rolling over the characters like water off a duck's back. It wasn't seeping in and giving me a feel for the characters. Some things that were a big deal according to the Warrior code just seemed to not matter to the leaders. It's taking forever to get to the point of what the danger is, the characters that was suppose to be the focus or that I had been focusing on suddenly don't matter and I have to get to know these new characters while they keep mentioning the other characters and I keep focusing on them wondering what's going on with their story when the author isn't really going anywhere with them anymore.

 

Personally I think Hunter may have too much on her plate. She's writing for Warriors still, she's writing for Seekers which is about bears, and now a new series about dogs called Survivors? With how she's handled the Warriors series lately I'm not sure I want to read the other two. I still love to read the first Warriors story arc, but that's about as far as I'll take it.