Comments on eclectic / eccentric: Bad Reader, Bad, Bad Reader

I feel like I'm getting a list of books to not...

2010-02-20T19:53:36.973-06:00

I feel like I'm getting a list of books to not read!

Jess - I can't wait to read it.

Read Heart of Darkness because someone I respect t...

2010-02-20T15:46:39.476-06:00

Read Heart of Darkness because someone I respect told me it was one of his favorite books. Hated it. However, I did really like Red Badge of Courage when I read it many years ago. I read Billy Budd by Melville last year and was not a fan.

Read Heart of Darkness because someone I respect t...

2010-02-20T15:46:17.153-06:00

Ah forgot to tell you, just finished Her Fearful S...

2010-02-19T22:35:46.893-06:00

Ah forgot to tell you, just finished Her Fearful Symmetry tonight...good book but highly disturbing, much in the same way the film Vertigo is disturbing, it's fine right up until the end.

I don't think you have to love a classic simpl...

2010-02-19T22:34:05.363-06:00

I don't think you have to love a classic simply because it is a classic. I hated Red Badge of Courage, and although I have tried many many times I simply cannot get through War and Peace or even begin to understand why Wuthering Heights was such a great book. I did really like The Jungle and Jane Eyre and most of Jane Austin's books.

I prefer heart of darkness to some of conrad's...

2010-02-19T13:21:01.765-06:00

I prefer heart of darkness to some of conrad's other works, but I never did finish it! LOL It wasn't has horrid as some of his others...what I really can't get over is the hatred I have for Brothers Karamazov when I liked Crime and Punishment.

Hate, hate, hate Wuthering Heights. Oh, and to e...

2010-02-18T23:58:33.749-06:00

Hate, hate, hate Wuthering Heights.

Oh, and to echo Fizzy, I hated Poisonwood Bible.

Moby Dick Pride and Prejudice The Catcher in the R...

2010-02-18T20:14:01.376-06:00

Moby Dick
Pride and Prejudice
The Catcher in the Rye

and because it probably be on a classics list someday, I have to add:

The Poisonwood Bible

I am so happy to know that not only am I not the o...

2010-02-18T18:02:06.150-06:00

I am so happy to know that not only am I not the only one but also others think this is perfectly acceptable!

I slogged through Lady Chatterley's Lover last...

2010-02-18T17:02:03.154-06:00

I slogged through Lady Chatterley's Lover last year.

It was torture.

Joseph Conrad's style of writing doesn't d...

2010-02-18T16:56:54.871-06:00

Joseph Conrad's style of writing doesn't do it for me. I've read Heart of Darkness 3 times and each time has been torturous. Although I love F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing, The Great Gatsby is my least favorite book. Jane Austen is a classic author who puts me to sleep. But I can appreciate how each of these authors and their most famous works have influence and continue to influence other works of art and literature.

I feel a bit afraid to admit this, but I am not a ...

2010-02-18T16:02:55.663-06:00

I feel a bit afraid to admit this, but I am not a fan of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Also, I did not care for the Great Gatsby.

I was schooled by monkeys it seems as a child, so ...

2010-02-18T10:57:49.235-06:00

I was schooled by monkeys it seems as a child, so I have relatively no experience with classics. I guess I am trying to catch up slowly now as an adult. But Wuthering Heights? What a miserable beast of a book! I was entertained only because the characters were so detestable. I wanted to hang myself by the end.

I have an English degree (planned on being a prof....

2010-02-18T08:49:08.402-06:00

I have an English degree (planned on being a prof. but that didn't work out LOL) and there are lots of classics that I just hated. I couldn't even finish Heart of Darkness and The Brothers Karamazov. And I'm not a Dickens fan at all.

I can appreciate these classics, but you can't make me like them. LOL

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric

Coming from a girl who loves classics and reads th...

2010-02-18T07:23:53.787-06:00

Coming from a girl who loves classics and reads them a lot, I think it's rather horrible for anyone to say a person should love all classics just because they're classic. We all have different tastes and enjoying a book is very different from appreciating why it exists.

For example, I hated Don Quixote with a passion. It was so, so bad. But I understand why it's important. It was fun to study it and realize its significance in modern fiction. Madame Bovary - another book I absolutely hated, but was interesting to study. Will I ever read it again or recommend it to anyone? No. It sucks. But I understand why it's a classic.

I can think of a whole host of classics I hate: Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina, Dr. Zhivago, Lady Chatterly's Lover, etc. Classics are just like any other books when it comes to enjoyment: it's all about taste. Disliking them doesn't mean they aren't important, no, but appreciating a classic is very different from liking a classic.