Books you didn't "get". - Page 4 - Writers Forum

wittyusernamehere · 04-10-2007, 01:36 PM

I could never "get" One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I tried about nine times to get through that book. I just... couldn't. I dunno. I'd always end up somewhere around page 100, as well.

kerr511 · 04-13-2007, 04:35 AM

The Hobbit.

Read it when i was about 10, bored me then.
Read it again very recently thinking I was missing out on something, bores me now.

I seriously don't get why everyone likes Tolkien so much... sorry.

Crazy_dude6662 · 04-13-2007, 07:29 AM

i only liked the hobit (havnt read it in a few years) i never bothered with the others.

the one book i cannot stand is Life of Pi.
i read the first 14 pages or so and it made no sense, i have to read it for school >.< (that means readingit before monday and writing a book report) the whole class agrees that its crap.
i mean it sounds like a great book, but it made no sense to me...i dunno maybe it will get better (if not, i'll just make up the report on what i read and leave the rest)

Winged Sandals · 04-13-2007, 05:18 PM

The Chosen.

I didn't really get the point of it, heh. It seemed like there wasn't that much of a conflict, and the conflict that did arise seemed to solve itself without much work from the characters. That might have just been sleep deprivation on my part, though, haha.

archer88iv · 04-25-2007, 08:06 AM

There is a special level of hell reserved for John Steinbeck. The only thing that man ever contributed to modern society is a method of torture probably still allowed under the Geneva Convention. Read one of his books to me aloud and I'll tell you anything you want to know.

I'll even make the [censored] up if I have to.

The man was EVIL.

Dan Brown is only diet, decaffeinated evil by comparison. I suppose I understood the movie well enough (I refuse to buy the book, and I don't know anyone to borrow it from), but I don't understand the controversy. I had no idea it was such a terrible sin to wed and bear children.

Ideb8well · 04-26-2007, 07:07 PM

No one mentioned Big Fish? That was the most confusing book/movie ever. After reading it you say "wow, I hope the movie will explain something better", but it doesn't. It is probably one of those books you shouldn't get.

rosenthalpiano · 04-27-2007, 06:03 PM

One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Idiot are two of my favorite books. I can understand why some people might not "get" them though. The first seems to ramble on and on and on, but its brilliance lies in the way Marquez uses language. One of my favorite passages from it is this:

Quote:

They would gather together to converse endlessly, to tell over and over for hours on end the same jokes, to complicate to the limits of exasperation the story about the capon, which was an endless game in which the narrator asked if they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and when they answered yes, the narrator would say that he had not asked them to say yes, but whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and when they answered no, the narrator told them that he had not asked them to say no, but whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and when they remained silent the narrator told them that he had not asked them to remain silent but whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and no one could leave because the narrator would say that he had not asked them to leave but whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and so on and on in a vicious circle that lasted entire nights.

As for The Idiot, it can sometimes take a while to understand. Even Dostoevsky himself said he had trouble portraying the character of Prince Mishkin. The thing about this character is that he is supposed to be made out to have many characteristics of Jesus Christ, so that all the other characters in the book are made to look like terrible people, easily tempted by greed, sexual desires, etc.

velo · 04-30-2007, 06:13 AM

I recently read Dickens' "Great Expectations" and while the writing was....well, it was Dickens so you know what the writing was....despite his eloquence I was bored to tears. I got all the way to the end, and that is no single-afternoon-on-the-veranda read as you likely know, I still didn't give a flying turd about Pip, Estella, or any of it. I felt some pity for Old Joe, but mostly because of the way Dickens described his shrew of a wife. All I took away from that book was the ability to say that I've actually read it.

The DaVinci code was not that bad of a read once I realized I wasn't going to have any literary revelations from it and so I took it for what it was worth. I liked the concept and the smattering of historical fact he put in the book caused me to read some more on the subject. I read a couple non-fiction works that explore, in excruciating yet fascinating detail, the issue of JC having knocked boots with Mary M and the history is actually pretty compelling and interesting.

I also have to say I don't get much of Kafka at all. Probably not all that unusual. The trial was a bore fest (FYI- it was an unfinished work edited into a novel structure after kafka's death) and even The Metamorphosis was a yawner. Once Gregor woke up as a bug, I kept expecting something, anything...a great epiphany, something profound about the human condition, some metaphor I could glean some personal truth or meaning from.....but I got nada. No more Kafka, thank you.

Rahvin · 04-30-2007, 09:44 AM

Uh-huh, I just read Great Expectations for my English course. Bored to tears. I almost didn't finish it (and that's a big thing for me, I usually read anything, just for something to do, but this...). Dicken's writing may be technically good, but it has no emotion to it. The chacters; I didn't care about. The plot; just circular and ultimately pointless (the end is still unclear whether Pip learns his lesson). The (supposed) humour; more like depthless wit (and not very good wit at that).

I don't know why I don't like it. I "get" it, and I even write in sort of the same style. His wrting just makes me want to stop and sleep.

Actually, come to think of it, I've never actually read a book that I didn't "get". I just found most of the "classics" pretty rubbish (to me, and that's only the one's I've read).

We had to read "Of Mice And Men" in GCSE English. That was the worst waste of a lesson I've ever experienced (especially the next two months the teacher spent getting the rest of the class - some of whom had never read a book before (I kid you not) - to finish it. Yeah, the message is nice and everything, but the actual book is pretty rubbish.

velo · 05-01-2007, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahvin

Dicken's writing may be technically good, but it has no emotion to it.

Part of the problem for a modern reader of GE is that it deals with very antiquated subjects and that we are so far out of the societal/political/moral context in which it was written. The Victorian era search for status (not necessarily the same as the modern quest for power/wealth) is, I would think, hard for many readers today to identify with. I found myself thinking more about the inequities of the class system in that era than I did rooting for Pip to scrape his way out of the lower echelons of society. There was little relevance to my life, little I could identify with, and so I was left with a blase, apathetic attitude towards Pip, Miss Havasham, and all the rest. I think Dickens' readers of 150 years ago would have found far more in this book to identify with and care about.

Rahvin · 05-01-2007, 09:56 AM

That's my main problem with the "classics". The morals and concerns in them are not relevant to our time and lifestyles any more. They were relevant (and probably enjoyable) when they were written - in fact they would have to have been, otherwise they wouldn't be classics now - but reading from a 21st century viewpoint, we have already learned the lessons, what remains is simply an insight into culture at the time of writing.

velo · 05-01-2007, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahvin

what remains is simply an insight into culture at the time of writing.

Which, I will submit, is still a valuable aspect of reading them. Although GE didn't garner my sympathy, it did give me a little more insight into that era.

Short Tooth · 05-01-2007, 12:42 PM

I forget the full name of the book but it's by

Haruki Murakami, and it's called "..... and the Hard Boiled Wonderland"

Fascinating book, but I just, as the thread title says, 'didn't get it?'

Charlie_Eleanor · 05-01-2007, 12:54 PM

Um, all that crap you were forced to read in high school. Among the worst (in my book): Grapes of Wrath and Billy Budd (<---the last was the worst)

Short Tooth · 05-01-2007, 01:24 PM

lol, i've heard nothing but good things about grapes of wrath. I did love OF Mice and Men. What's so bad about grapes...