Annoying Novels I Know (and possibly love)

imagegod · Jan 26, 2007

From my perspective, being an annoying novel isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm reading 'Youngblood Hawke' (which I highly recommend to anyone interested in a Novel about a novel writer), but it annoys me to no end...it's wonderfully written and Youngblood is an absolutely terrific Main Character, but there are so many tangents...far too many for my taste.
But there's no way I'd stop reading it...and I refuse to skip the tangents.

Any thoughts?

triceretops · Jan 26, 2007

I don't know what it was about Dune, but I staggered and got hung up about midway through it on two ocassions. I know that it deserved further reading, since it has been so highly acclaimed. That book sends regrets up and down my spine. I'm thinking that it was the politics that turned me off. I craved action. Although, I believe that the scope and majesty of the world-building was the true jem, and I never gave it a chance to digest the whole thing. I think Dune is the sum of all its parts. I wished I'd had more patience to discover that.

Tri

imagegod · Jan 26, 2007

triceretops said:
I don't know what it was about Dune, but I staggered and got hung up about midway through it on two ocassions. I know that it deserved further reading, since it has been so highly acclaimed. That book sends regrets up and down my spine. I'm thinking that it was the politics that turned me off. I craved action. Although, I believe that the scope and majesty of the world-building was the true jem, and I never gave it a chance to digest the whole thing. I think Dune is the sum of all its parts. I wished I'd had more patience to discover that.

Tri

Yeah, me too...it's been a (very) long time since I read Dune, but your assessment really hits the mark for me.
Definitely annoying...definitely a must read.

AndreaGS · Jan 26, 2007

Oh jeez, I LOVE the politics in Dune! That and the world-building. To each their own, I s'pose.

For me it was Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. Great book, but oh my goodness it was difficult keeping track of the characters. How many names do they each have? I did a lot of page-flipping, trying to figure out who was who.

lfraser · Jan 26, 2007

Foucault's Pendulum. About a third of the way through I decided I was just too stupid to understand it, but ploughed on, thinking that I must finish it anyway, since it seemed to have the resonance of a Great Novel about it. About fifty pages on I decided that it was merely incomprehensible, and chucked it in.

PeeDee · Jan 26, 2007

Charles de Lint stuff. I spent half my time reading his novels and complaining about little things, and yet.....I never stop reading 'em. Don't know why.

KiraOnWhite · Jan 26, 2007

Flavia Bujor's Prophecy of The Stones...kind of annoying at some parts, especially the ridiculous 'love at first sight' thing, but I can't help but still enjoy it. Guilt pleasure, maybe?

IrishScribbler · Jan 26, 2007

Possession by A. S. Byatt. I'm reading it now, and it's a bit heavier than I expected.

I really love it thusfar, it's just been slow-going.

Gabriel · Jan 27, 2007

Star wars, I enjoyed it but certain things reduced me to chewing on my fist.

CaroGirl · Jan 27, 2007

lfraser said:
Foucault's Pendulum. About a third of the way through I decided I was just too stupid to understand it, but ploughed on, thinking that I must finish it anyway, since it seemed to have the resonance of a Great Novel about it. About fifty pages on I decided that it was merely incomprehensible, and chucked it in.

I read it too, but I might as well not have bothered. I get more entertainment out of reading a cereal box.

Marlys · Jan 27, 2007

For years I kept reading a certain author's mysteries (hey, I'm under my own name here, and don't want to be caught by Google dissing another author in public--but I will tell you her initials are E.G.), even though I thought them hopelessly melodramatic and owing a LOT to Dorothy Dunnett (plus, they contained a character who was so useless and annoying that the only possible reason for her existence was to be killed off to torment the hero...and yet, book after book, she didn't die). There was enough good in them that I kept thinking if she could get a hold of herself, she could write a really great book. Finally, it paid off in the ninth book in the series (the one where the supporting character was given center stage) I read and thought, "Wow--this is the book I've been waiting for." Terrific read.

The next book was okay, but the one after that was so dreadful and unlikely that I gave up on the author altogether. Too bad--I hear she finally killed off the character I didn't like, but too late for me.

jess b · Jan 27, 2007

Against my better judgment, I recently started The Clan of the Cave Bear. It's all right--moderately entertaining--but then I got to the whole thing about how the clan members have giant occiptal lobes that make them telepathic, and all the scientific credibility kinda went out the window. Preposterous. But I'm sort of into the story, now, so I'll have to keep going....

Jamesaritchie · Jan 27, 2007

Novel

imagegod said:
From my perspective, being an annoying novel isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm reading 'Youngblood Hawke' (which I highly recommend to anyone interested in a Novel about a novel writer), but it annoys me to no end...it's wonderfully written and Youngblood is an absolutely terrific Main Character, but there are so many tangents...far too many for my taste.
But there's no way I'd stop reading it...and I refuse to skip the tangents.

Any thoughts?

Great novel.

The Lady · Jan 27, 2007

I read and loved all the Dune books .way way way back. Nothing annoying about it at all and a great great read.

I recently gave up on the latest Stephen Donaldson book in the Thomas Covenant series though. Having read all the others, I was delighted to see The Runes Of The Earth appear. Oh dearie me, I haven't analyzed it, but either Stephen Donaldson has fallen off as a writer or I was a wonderfully accepting reader years back, but that book was a solid trudge of nothingness.

Most boring book I ever completed, Love In The Time Of Cholera. I found it totally unexciting yet I persevered for some reason. I'm glad I finished but I will never read a book by that author again. I can still remember the main character in the book though so I guess that's good.

BlueTexas · Jan 27, 2007

The Lady said:
Most boring book I ever completed, Love In The Time Of Cholera. I found it totally unexciting yet I persevered for some reason. I'm glad I finished but I will never read a book by that author again. I can still remember the main character in the book though so I guess that's good.

I couldn't finish this one. About half in, I realized I just didn't care what was happening.

The Lady · Jan 27, 2007

BlueTexas said:
I couldn't finish this one. About half in, I realized I just didn't care what was happening.

I didn't care either. I don't know why I finished it. It's an unexplained mystery in my reading life.

Jamesaritchie · Jan 27, 2007

The Lady said:
I read and loved all the Dune books .way way way back. Nothing annoying about it at all and a great great read.

I recently gave up on the latest Stephen Donaldson book in the Thomas Covenant series though. Having read all the others, I was delighted to see The Runes Of The Earth appear. Oh dearie me, I haven't analyzed it, but either Stephen Donaldson has fallen off as a writer or I was a wonderfully accepting reader years back, but that book was a solid trudge of nothingness.

Most boring book I ever completed, Love In The Time Of Cholera. I found it totally unexciting yet I persevered for some reason. I'm glad I finished but I will never read a book by that author again. I can still remember the main character in the book though so I guess that's good.

The Dune novels annoyed the heck out of me in one way. You have a desert world with an oxygen atmosphere. This is impossible. I simply couldn't get past this.

Yuallica · Jan 27, 2007

The Dragonbone Chair. I enjoy reading it when I remember to, but when I put the book down, I can't really be bothered to pick it up again. I do like the story though (even if it does make Lord of the Rings seem fast paced to me) and I'm determined to finish it one day. I've been about halfway through for about a year and a half though... got distracted by some (many) other books.

The Lady · Jan 27, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
The Dune novels annoyed the heck out of me in one way. You have a desert world with an oxygen atmosphere. This is impossible. I simply couldn't get past this.

Ah, how much simpler life is when these facts don't jump out at you. I'm glad I didn't know that cos I really enjoyed those books. I don't get it though. We have deserts and we have an oxygen atmosphere. What is the science behind the impossibility?

The Lady · Jan 27, 2007

Yuallica said:
The Dragonbone Chair. I enjoy reading it when I remember to, but when I put the book down, I can't really be bothered to pick it up again. I do like the story though (even if it does make Lord of the Rings seem fast paced to me) and I'm determined to finish it one day. I've been about halfway through for about a year and a half though... got distracted by some (many) other books.

Slow paced. Very. I came close to the, throwing it across the room, cliche.Worst part was when I realised it had taken someone four pages to put on a jacket. Strange thing though, is that the man can write very succinctly. He wrote Child Of An Ancient City. A very beautiful little story with scarcely a superfluous word.

virtue_summer · Jan 27, 2007

All of Jean Auel's novels. I enjoy the story but she has such a habit of going off on tangents about the flora and fauna that sometime's I just want to scream. She does the same thing with love scenes. If she would cut out these pages upon pages of nonessential description, I think the stories would be much better for it.

andracill · Jan 27, 2007

"Ivanhoe" -- yikes! Totally annoying: 'Blessing' by Anna quindlen -- wanted to burn the thing when I finished!

Inkdaub · Jan 28, 2007

DaVinci Code is annoying for obvious reasons but I loved it because I'm a sucker for that sort of subject matter. Ditto for all the Brad Meltzer books I've read.

John Connolly writes some good books about murderers and supernatural type things. Very dark stuff. However, it annoys me that Charlie Parker is always 'suffering' for his actions and his girlfriend...who knows the score going in...is always on the verge of leaving him because she just 'isn't sure she can do this'.

Robert Jordan writes some of my favorite fantasy out there...probably my second favorite current series. Yet the man takes forever to get to the point. I sometimes feel like opening his books in the middle and starting there. Of course, his books reward patient readers as the payoff is better after reading all the hundreds of pages of buried hints...even if the payoff is often of the 'I knew it' variety. The last page of his last book reveals something Jordan fans have strongly suspected for many years. Well...sortof reveals it. I wouldn't be too surprised to find it's a small bit of misdirection, but I hope not.

Mr. Funktastic · Jan 28, 2007

Terry Goodkind's more recent novels. I loved his first four novels, the fifth was iffy, and the sixth was really good, but ever since he's just babbled about his philosophy and such. I'm glad he's finally ending it. Or so he says.

Vincent · Jan 28, 2007

Mr. Funktastic said:
Terry Goodkind's more recent novels. I loved his first four novels, the fifth was iffy, and the sixth was really good, but ever since he's just babbled about his philosophy and such. I'm glad he's finally ending it. Or so he says.

Yeah, no kidding. I was so into the early ones it was scary. And now? *sigh*

Annoying Novels I Know (and possibly love)

imagegod

triceretops

imagegod

AndreaGS

lfraser

Bored and Frantic

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

KiraOnWhite

IrishScribbler

Gabriel

Not just your average bear.

CaroGirl

Living the dream

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.

jess b

Jamesaritchie

The Lady

Critical Member

BlueTexas

Back from self-exile land.

The Lady

Critical Member

Jamesaritchie

Yuallica

The Lady

Critical Member

The Lady

Critical Member

virtue_summer

Always learning

andracill

Inkdaub

wrapped in plastic

Mr. Funktastic

The name says it all.

Vincent

Cheers