# Why do people like THAT book?



## Violanthe (Oct 31, 2006)

Some books are universally beloved, and deservingly so. But have you every read a book based on tons of glowing recommendations and ended up hating it?


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## Starbrow (Nov 21, 2006)

I never could figure out why everyone raves about Dune. I thought it was one of the most boring books I ever read. I really tried to get into it, but I just couldn't.

I know the Redwall books by Brian Jacques are also popular, but I wasn't impressed with the first one I read.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2006)

Why does everyone like "Dune"? Perhaps because it is the greatest science fiction novel of all time? But there's no point in trying to convince, if you don't like it, ya won't like it.

"Eragon" got lots of good reviews and publicity. *Shudders.*

Ah yes, and Harry Potter. That was recommended, by a teacher of all things back in grade six. Didn't like it then. Still don't like it now.


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## Majimaune (Nov 23, 2006)

Starbrow said:


> I know the Redwall books by Brian Jacques are also popular, but I wasn't impressed with the first one I read.


I used to like them when I was 11, 12 and 13. I think thats the age their written for. Dont read them anymore but have the majority of the series. What one did you read first?



Mike said:


> "Eragon" got lots of good reviews and publicity. *Shudders.*


 That I can understand.



Mike said:


> Ah yes, and Harry Potter. That was recommended, by a teacher of all things back in grade six. Didn't like it then. Still don't like it now.


Now that I don't understand. I quite like HP and am rereading them at the current time. Am up to the fourth book. Although I do know some people that don't like them the most I know that have tried them liked them.

And then theres a friend of mine who cant stand Tolkien.....

Book _I_ didnt like was 'To Kill A Mocking Bird'. We had to read it for english and almost everone said it was great and I HATED it.


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## HLGStrider (Nov 23, 2006)

Redwall. I just missed something there, I guess, but they didn't really interest me that much and gave me weird nightmares. . . Don't ask me why, but I've read two Redwall books (Redwall and Mattimo, I think) and after each of them I would wake up sometime the next night in a cold sweat . . . generally I couldn't remember the dream, just that it had something to do with the characters involved in those books, but when it happened the second time I decided the books weren't worth it.


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## Majimaune (Nov 24, 2006)

HLGStrider said:


> Redwall. I just missed something there, I guess, but they didn't really interest me that much and gave me weird nightmares. . . Don't ask me why, but I've read two Redwall books (Redwall and Mattimo, I think) and after each of them I would wake up sometime the next night in a cold sweat . . . generally I couldn't remember the dream, just that it had something to do with the characters involved in those books, but when it happened the second time I decided the books weren't worth it.


And those two are probably some of the least dark ones. I mean Rakety Tam has cannibals in it and the one before had flesh-eating lizards.

Well cant think of any other books and I have to go and reply to some emails.


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## Lindir (Nov 24, 2006)

The Da Vinci Code came highly recommended and I really couldn't see why. It was not very well written, the characters were pretty shallow and the story old. I was very much less than impressed.


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## Eledhwen (Nov 24, 2006)

Violanthe said:


> Some books are universally beloved, and deservingly so. But have you every read a book based on tons of glowing recommendations and ended up hating it?


Any book whose publisher claims it's as good as or better than Tolkien is a fail-safe disappointment. I read Raymond Feist on such a recommendation (yawn!).


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## Majimaune (Nov 25, 2006)

Lindir said:


> The Da Vinci Code came highly recommended and I really couldn't see why. It was not very well written, the characters were pretty shallow and the story old. I was very much less than impressed.


Never read it and am not considering reading it. The reason it got so much publicity is because some guy called plagurism on it from his book. I did see the movie though cause my sisters got it out and so i just watched it and I thought it was extreamly bad.


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 26, 2006)

Lindir said:


> The Da Vinci Code came highly recommended and I really couldn't see why. It was not very well written, the characters were pretty shallow and the story old. I was very much less than impressed.



I can see where you're coming from with the shallow characters and bad writing, even though they didn't bother me especially, but old story? You may have been well acquainted with the subject beforehand, but the plot was actually very fresh and interesting to me, and I bet it was such for many readers.


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## Majimaune (Nov 27, 2006)

Ithrynluin said:


> but old story? You may have been well acquainted with the subject beforehand, but the plot was actually very fresh and interesting to me, and I bet it was such for many readers.


From the movie the story didnt seem that old. But it was the same old some one looking for something and avioding the authorities and doing things they cant normally do. I mean that is in so many books that its the old story.


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## Lindir (Nov 27, 2006)

Ithrynluin said:


> I can see where you're coming from with the shallow characters and bad writing, even though they didn't bother me especially, but old story? You may have been well acquainted with the subject beforehand, but the plot was actually very fresh and interesting to me, and I bet it was such for many readers.


I only meant it was old to me since I had heard basically the whole story many years before. And that altogether ruined many of the surprising revelations of the book and made it less than interesting to me. I can, of course, not speak for what other readers experienced.


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 27, 2006)

Majimaune said:


> But it was the same old some one looking for something and avioding the authorities and doing things they cant normally do. I mean that is in so many books that its the old story.



If that pattern can be dubbed old then over 50% of films and books succumb to it and are old as well. What about quests? Aren't those a bit 'old' as well? What's going on in LOTR again?

It's not some sort of general pattern that's important, it's the stuff of the story itself and its execution.


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## Violanthe (Nov 27, 2006)

Eledhwen said:


> Any book whose publisher claims it's as good as or better than Tolkien is a fail-safe disappointment. I read Raymond Feist on such a recommendation (yawn!).


 
I too wasn't a fan of Feist. I quit a few chapters in.


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## Majimaune (Nov 28, 2006)

I remember starting Colour (it has a 'u') Of Magic by Terry Pratchet. Didnt like it at all.


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## Eledhwen (Nov 28, 2006)

Majimaune said:


> I remember starting Colour (it has a 'u') Of Magic by Terry Pratchet. Didnt like it at all.


We Brits always put a 'u' in our colour. It makes html more difficult though!

Terry Pratchet has written an interesting short piece on Tolkien's work here, and so has gone up in my estimation.
*edit* _note the 'next' and 'previous' buttons on this web page - there are other tributes if you're interested._


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## Mike (Nov 28, 2006)

To be fair, "The Colour of Magic" (we Canadians spell it with a 'u' as well) and the early Discworld books was more aimed at satirizing Sword & Sorcery than Tolkien. If you aren't familiar with Conan (i.e. Cohen in the Discworld Books) or Fafrhd and the grey Mouser (Compare Lankhmar to Ankh-Makpork) the first books weren't nearly as funny as they could be. The later Discworld Books are much more universal, and in my estimation, far more hilarious (though I still love "The Colour of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic", plus Cohen has always been my favourite Discworld Character, that and Rincewind's chest.) I suggest "Soul Music" and "Men at Arms" for Discworld initiates.


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## Niirewen (Nov 30, 2006)

I enjoyed The Colour of Magic. It wasn't my favorite of the Discworld books, but Terry Pratchett has never let me down. By the way, has anyone read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman? I think I have it on my bookshelf somewhere but I haven't read it yet...

I never liked The Lovely Bones. I've heard so many people rave about how great it is, but I thought it was way too depressing. I got about halway through it, and then just thinking about reading it would give me such a feeling of dread that I never finished it.


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## Lindir (Dec 1, 2006)

Niirewen said:


> By the way, has anyone read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman? I think I have it on my bookshelf somewhere but I haven't read it yet...


Read it now! It's really, really good.


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## Majimaune (Dec 1, 2006)

Maybe I'm just a Pratchett hater. I dunno. Now Eragon is a book that has alot of plagurism and that was one of the reasons I didnt like it much but we wont talk about that book here (theres a thread for it in Green Dragon).


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## Violanthe (Dec 4, 2006)

While American, myself, I guess we got assigned a lot of non-American anglophone authors to read in school, because up until my family got a computer with spell check (I grew up in the days when a cutting edge computer had a 40MB hard drive), I thought "colour" was the way to spell it. I still spell "moustache" and not "mustache".

By the way, I also was not terribly impressed with Colour of Magic.


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## Majimaune (Dec 5, 2006)

Violanthe said:


> (I grew up in the days when a cutting edge computer had a 40MB hard drive),


Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *draws breath* hahahahahahahahahahaha. 40MB hard drive. I think mine bad now and its 80 Gig.

Wooooooh some one else who agrees with me.

Thought of another one. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (its the 5ht one). I know, I know, its a HP book but it isnt the best. I find it quite boring at many stages of the book and yet loads of people love it.


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## Eledhwen (Dec 5, 2006)

*Eledh veers off on a Secret Policemans Ball theme...*



Majimaune said:


> 40MB hard drive. I think mine bad now and its 80 Gig.


40Mb???? I used to install MULTI-USER systems of 10Mb (Altos, for the geeks).



Majimaune said:


> Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (its the 5th one). I know, I know, its a HP book but it isnt the best. I find it quite boring at many stages of the book and yet loads of people love it.


The Order of the Phoenix is part of a long story - a transition phase. In it, JKR cannily portrays a Neville Chamberlain-like Minister for Magic, an innervingly realistic interference in an organisation (the school) that won't toe the party line; and the pupils preparing themselves for a war the wizarding world is denying will happen, with Harry at the helm; furious at being kept in the dark by the adults protecting him. 

Which was the boring bit?

Has anyone read 'Paint your Dragon', by Tom Holt? I first discovered him in the early 1980s when I was helping the bibliographer at W H Smith, and Holt's first (I think) book 'Expecting Someone Taller' came through. It's based on the Wagnerian theme - Valkyries and stuff, and set on the A39 Minehead road (in South West England). I bought copies for everyone that Christmas. The guy's a complete lunatic, but the history and myth he distorts into hilarious novels is well researched.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Dec 5, 2006)

I think the only reason Eragon got good reviews is because it was written by a 15 year old kid, and the guy who discovered him (whatever his name is) probly like never read Tolkien and thought, wow this kid is good!


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## Starbrow (Dec 6, 2006)

> Thought of another one. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (its the 5ht one). I know, I know, its a HP book but it isnt the best. I find it quite boring at many stages of the book and yet loads of people love it.



I agree. I think Rowling's editor is quite doing his/her job.


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## Eledhwen (Dec 9, 2006)

Erestor Arcamen said:


> I think the only reason Eragon got good reviews is because it was written by a 15 year old kid, and the guy who discovered him (whatever his name is) probly like never read Tolkien and thought, wow this kid is good!


I haven't read Eragon. The film posters - splattered everywhere - don't encourage me with a band of stereotype fantasy characters glaring out of them (though if Irons is in it...) and I haven't read many good reviews (but people _are_ buying it!). I may get the book out of the library so I can at least make informed criticism based on more than just one poster and other peoples' opinions.


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## Majimaune (Dec 10, 2006)

Eledhwen said:


> I haven't read Eragon. The film posters - splattered everywhere - don't encourage me with a band of stereotype fantasy characters glaring out of them (though if Irons is in it...) and I haven't read many good reviews (but people _are_ buying it!). I may get the book out of the library so I can at least make informed criticism based on more than just one poster and other peoples' opinions.


I'd say you should read it but if you can help it don't buy it. I dont like the look of the posters for the movie either.


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## Violanthe (Dec 13, 2006)

I read Eragon and thought it started out with some promise, but it quickly dissolves into fantasy cliche.


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