/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.1195551]

>Pick a piece of literature
>look it up on Amazon
>post bits from the lowest rated review

The Odyssey

I thought this story was very gross. I mean come on... It's like Scylla comes out of the water and chomps these people out of the ship and blood showers everywhere... I almost threw up.... If you really like gory stories you will like it. If you don't then I wouldn't read it or watch the movie if I were you.

[Anonymous No.1195560]

Atlas Shrugged:
This book is now proudly working as a doorstop at my house. I put it face down so as not to embarrass myself in front of company.

>best review

[Anonymous No.1195562]

Lolita

"This book is not funny."
"This pedophile clearly stalks young girls"

No shit, sherlock.

[Anonymous No.1195564]

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare:
Having read some of this mans works I have to say I'm thoroughly dissapointed. Considering most of his works have been made into blockbuster films I think it's important to note that this really is a case of the films being better than the books (in all cases). The language used is outdated and terrible for most people to understand. I'm surprised this man has become as sucessful as he is and I think he is massively overrated. Many of the plots have been done before or just been copied from history. Let's just hope he doesn't write anymore of this crap! Don't waste your money.

>ok, this HAS to be a troll...

[Anonymous No.1195565]

Twilight

"I am not even close to the target audience , but Five stars!...Edward is so uber male that he fairly reeks testosterone but lets put things in perspective, he's the ultimate predator and has had nearly a century of dominating his prey so on that score I'm willing to forgive him his overly masculine nature for now"

[Anonymous No.1195573]

I ROBOT

I cant believe it! I saw the movie with Will Smith. I thought that the movie was decent so I decided to read the book. I have to say I am disappointed with Isaac Asimov for waisting my time.

Definetely one of the worst books I have ever read! If 0 stars were possible, this book would have 0 stars.

[Anonymous No.1195569]

>>1195564

>mon visage: D:(

[Anonymous No.1195575]

Catch-22

>I always wanted to read Catch 22 because it was a famous book (and of course the term was used in a Metallica song). I began reading it three times but after 50 pages or so, I always lost interest. I never could discover a story and the many dialogues and events are strange, to say the least. Someone once told me it is a great book after page 100 but I never got that far. So I can only say: don't even try reading Catch 22', read '1984' by George Orwell and listen to Metallica.

why.jpg

[Anonymous No.1195589]

To any UKbros on /lit/, I find this game works better if you use the American Amazon site.

Here's two awesome Dracula reviews.

>After owning the book for three years, I've yet to finish it. In style it is archaic, the method being used to advance the plot being in disuse since quite some time and as a result it is a great deterrent to the modern reader.
Nigga wat?

>Just one word. Blah. It's hard to understand, creepy, and disgusting. If you're like me, just tring this book to make yourself feel brave, forget it. I recommend The Name Of This Book Is Secret, or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.(Remember to not get the original book) In the long and short, this book is @&?#%$!

[Anonymous No.1195591]

1984:
Do not buy this book if you're expecting to find out anything at all about 1984, as this writer seems to have been living on a different planet. I was trying to do a bit of research into the influence of New Wave on cross-over dance music in the Mid-Eighties, but I found "1984" a complete waste of time... Jackson's "Thriller"?(the soundtrack of the summer, and the biggest selling album of all-time) - not mentioned; Frankie Goes To Hollywood (their breakthrough year leading to world pop domination) - not a whisper; Style Council? (Not Paul Weller's finest hour, but still an honest nod to the white soul roots of Mod culture) - you'd have thought they didn't exist if you read this book. Nik Kershaw? Ray Parker Junior? Sister Sledge? Nope, nope nope. Instead this man seems to have moped around in his room and at work, watching some kind of depressing news channel (was his remote broken? This isn't explained - but you'd have thought they'd have had MTV on at least one of the channels in his office). Orwell completely fails to capture the uplifting vibe that was the pop explosion of the summer of '84... maybe he lived in Norwood. 0 Stars.
Oh, and don't read "the Road to Wigan Pier" either, as we drove around for ages last August Bank Holiday before asking a traffic warden, who said that the sea was about 30 miles away, by which time it was too late. I don't think Orwell had actually ever been to Wigan. What does he do - just sit in his room making this stuff up for kicks or something? 0 stars also."

[Anonymous No.1195599]

>>1195591

Jesus fucking christ.
You would learn the true nature of the book by reading the FUCKING BLURB or ANY synopsis. It's like being annoyed that Atlas Shrugged wasn't about Greek mythology.

[Anonymous No.1195600]

>I can only say that I believe all reading is worthwhile, so reading this book wasn't a complete waste of time. I found a great deal not to like about this book. First, and most important, Jones doesn't give the reader any characters that are very likeable at all. If he had presented one even remotely worthwhile character, it might have made the experience a bit more tolerable and worth seeing through to the end. Second, he so overwrites the thing that after about 100-150 pages you start hearing a voice in the back of your mind begging for it to end. I began to wonder if he challenged himself to see how many different ways he could describe Welsh's grin or whether he just kept inserting references to it, slightly varied, to fill words on a page. I also began wondering if he challenged himself to try and refer to every act of war as some kind of erotic, sexual thrill. Further, I believe he overdoes it with the references to homosexuality - totally degarding the memory and dignity of every soldier who's served his country. Finally, while I've only read this one book by Jones so I haven't anything to compare to, he seems to needlessy inject far too many '$2 words,' which to me came across as almost condescending. I've always been trained that when it comes to art 'less is more.' All that said, there were a couple compelling and relatively well done battle sequences. However, by the last 30 pages or so of the book, I just quit. Why? I really didn't care about any of the characters or what happened to them and had had enough already. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend the book, nor would I be inclined to read anything else by James Jones.

This guy is duuurp personified.

[Anonymous No.1195603]

>>1195591
>>1195599
i think that ones far far too dumb to be a troll.

[Anonymous No.1195602]

The Count of Monte Cristo

I was looking for a good read, so I asked my friend what a good piece of literature was, and he recommended this book. So I headed to my Wal-Mart and looked for it, and when I could not find it, I went back to him and asked, "Why isn't this book at Wal-Mart?" My friend just scoffed and said that Wal-Mart only carries generic mainstream novels like Twilight and the hottest book currently. I laughed and said that they carry Twilight because it is a fine piece of writing. So since the latest Barnes and Noble was an hour away, I hopped into my car and drove. Now you may ask how come I didn't just order it on Amazon, but everyone knows that if you order a product online your bank account will be drained.

I saw this, and was kind of shocked at this book's length. But then again, it had the word 'Count' in it, so it had to be about vampires, hopefully a very long vampire romance with hawt scenes in it. I was wrong.

The plot is one of the most generic stories in the world, and it does not involve vampires. Basically, some guy named Dante is falsely accused by a jealous man who has the hots for his girlfriend, and as a result he is sent to prison, probably dropping the soap many times, before eventually escaping and finding a bunch of moolah on some island. He then returns as the Count of Monte Cristo to get revenge on his accuser, who has since been nailing his girlfriend and has a kid. So that's pretty much it, but Dumas has to be all detailed and he makes this book tl;dr, with over 9000 pages in it. Fortunately there is the much better Great Illustrated Classics version. Plus the English in it is not modern at all, and why is there an M. in front of people's names? Obviously a ripoff of M. Bison. And Monte Cristo isn't even a vampire. Edward Cullen could beat him up and suck his blood any day.

But hopefully with the Twilight fad at full throttle, Dumas can get some kicks from Meyer and write a good vampire romance.

[Anonymous No.1195609]

>>1195591
Y-you must be trolling! T-t-there is no way that an individual of my species would write this kind of blasphemy!

[Anonymous No.1195610]

Here's a couple from The Hobbit...

An awful book that should get 0 or less stars: This is just a horrible book. My school is forcing me to read it. It is just so boreing. I don't even think my teacher can take it anymore beacause we have been reading it for 3 monthes and we only got up to chapter 10. You see, we have to read it outloud in class. I dought we will ever finish this horrible book. Spend your money on Harry Potter instead.

I think that this book is THE WORST BOOK THAT I HAVE EVER READ! If you see this and are thinking of buying it, DON'T! I chose to do it for a book report because my mom liked it (what's wrong with her? ) and literally had to force myself to read it! I almost burned the stupid book and would have if it were mine. I was looking through the reviews for Dragons of Autumn Twilight and someone rated it badly because it was no "Hobbit" of "J.R.R. Tolkien" and I'm thinking THANK GOODNESS! Read Dragonlance or Tamora Pierce instead.

one day while sitting in my class at school, we watched a movie. instead i chose to read The Hobbit. it should have been good right? after all...it is so famous. i soon learned i was wrong. what a horrible book. do not read it. forget about all the other reviews. they just think bilbo the bimbo is hot. (however they could think that...) STUPID BOOK! id rather be forced to read the story of how grass was given the name grass.

[Anonymous No.1195612]

He's right, 1984 is the worst 80s coming of age story I've ever seen.

[Anonymous No.1195615]

>>1195602

>everyone knows that if you order a product online your bank account will be drained.

Stopped reading there.

[Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky No.1195617]

>In this inspired book, Dosoyevsky forwards a complex, brilliant and innovative world view - that you have to be punnished for your crimes!
>By a sexist, racist writer, we get the story to bore even the most adequate reader. It's so boring, dead people will rise to shut you up if you'll read it to them.
>This is the lamest so-called classic I've ever read. Read 'for Whom The Bell Tolls' read '1984'or 'The Picture of Durian Grey' even read 'It takes a village' for crying out loud! everything but this!
>And by the way, lots of people say they liked 'Brothers K'. It is, admittedly, somewhat better then this one, but that's like being drier then the ocean. Evoid at all costs!

>The only people who should read this book are people who belong to so called ' intelectual' parties, or people who have commited terrible crimes - it can replace death as ' The Capital Punnishment' .
>If you're intrested in good literature, smart writing, character analysis, ANYTHING... search elsewhere.
>If you shot your Teacher for forcing you to read this, you have my sympathy

>Well what can I say, I would much rather find myself engrossed in some soup label literature than this atrocity. Who is this guy? This book makes me feel physically ill and I have the continous urge to rush to the bathroom and deposit my last eaten meal everytime I come across the novel lying on the kitchen table.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

[Anonymous No.1195619]

This one made me fuckin lol!

Passion of the New Eve

>Rampaging feminism that bears no resemblance to any kind of reality, let alone this one. This novel puts forward literally no new ideas, and as it tries to do so succeeds at nothing but laugh-inducing ignorance. So perhaps my one-star rating is a tad too harsh, as there is quite a bit of unintentional fun to be had at Carter's expense. Read only if you enjoy self-mutilation and rather like the taste of bile rising in the back of your throat.

Butthurt misogynist is VERY butthurt. Just imagining the look on this asshole's face as I tried reading this novel makes me very happy indeed.

[WarLord !EzQF3NKB7U No.1195622]

Watchmen (original paperback cover)
>Finally, there's too much garbage in the middle of the novel. About two full issues' worth are wasted on a newspaper vendor talking to himself about the impending war and some black kid reading a comic about a pirate. These pages are meant to be "literary" and "insightful," but they are completely irrelevant and a waste of time, as are the literary excerpts of various essays and novels by and about the main characters. Later the disappeared author of the comic is mentioned as being involved in the final plot twist. It's a completely meaningless connection because it has no bearing whatsoever on the final outcome

[Anonymous No.1195625]

>>1195610

Stupid sexy Bilbo the Bimbo

[Anonymous No.1195628]

>>1195602
this is a troll.

[Anonymous No.1195634]

>>1195615
Go on reading, seriously. I can imagine the faces of people unaccustomed to trolling while reading this. Excellent excercise in trolling, I dare say.

[Anonymous No.1195652]

The Picture of Dorian Gray:
>I don't mind it when authors digress a bit from the story to reflect on a theme or two, but Wilde did it so often it seemed like I was reading a 100+ page philosophy essay on art.

I like this one because the guy dislikes the book because he actually understands what's going on. I know it's not really in the spirit of this thread, but it's nice to know not all the reviews on Amazon are written by idiots.

[Anonymous No.1195654]

>>1195652
I know what this guy is talking about, too. The moment Wilde starts describing Dorian's interest in precious stones I seriously considered putting the book down.

[Anonymous No.1195657]

The Remains of the Day

>This book is the most booring book I have ever read. Nothing really happens, and unless you are interested in an old butlers sick manners and strange behavior don't read it. Izhiguro can really writes pages up and down without getting anywhere. "What is a great butler?" is the main question in the book. I can't say Im interested to know about it. The love story between him and Miss Kenton is also not very exciting, if you want to read a romantic book - don't read this one.

And here's a bonus one:

>This book was abominably boring and pretentious. The protagonist was about as much fun as a roll of sandpaper Charmin. AP English classes every year are being forced to read this mind-numbing drivel. It must stop!

[Anonymous No.1195659]

This is the best review for the Bible on the UK Amazon site.

I am WELL PLEASED with my Collins Authorised King James Bible. I have both read and studied other so-called versions, but this is THE one. And Collins is THE company to get from. Zondervan tampers with the Word of God, Collins keeps it EXACTLY as was translated first by Tyndale and later by those who completed the work. It is refreshing, yes - refreshing, to read the King James, and it has been beautifully done up by Collins. I carry it to meeting now, and am so pleased I made this purchase. Thank you Collins, and thank you Amazon - it was the only way I found it.

[Anonymous No.1195663]

> A Whale of A Bore

>Many of the reviewers seem to enjoy this. I however, think its one of the longest, most boring works of art ever created. It starts off fantastic, but then out of nowhere it goes into this dull drum solo. Yawn. Check out, Immigrant Song, much better.

[Anonymous No.1195664]

>>1195654
It has a purpose, you twat.

Also, you guys should post reviews that aren't obvious trolls...

[Anonymous No.1195671]

This review is from: Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (Hardcover)
I bought this book for my 21 month old as she loves so many of the Dr. Suess books. We didn't even get through the first couple of pages before she was bored with the story and illustrations. Maybe she'll like it better in a few years, but for now it is just sitting on the shelf...

[Deep&Edgy !pSkjEcB9sQ No.1195675]

>Regeneration

>Sorry, but I can't see what this superficial fictional treatment added to the already rich mix of Sassoon's own (internally inconsistent, or just honestly perspectivist?) memoirs and Max Egremont's probing, nuanced telling in his biography of Sassoon. The sharpness and humanity of Egremont's insights make this novel seem banal by comparison.

It's not about Sassoon. Dude has also never heard of historiographic metafiction.

[Anonymous No.1195676]

>Pale Fire
Oh, it sounds cute--to embed a novel in the form of footnotes to a meaningless poem. And one has to admit, it was well done. But there is something contrived. Of course, this was a time in which almost all literature had to be "new" in some way, and that led to all sorts of strained productions. But I think in a good novel, you need to identify with the protagonist -- even if you see him as flawed, even evil (as in Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov [see my review!]). But this narrator is just pathetic. There's no way to see this as anything other than a joke that goes on too long.

I think the reason we can't identify with him is precisely because he is so self-indulgent -- to hijack this poem which is supposed to be a tribute to his deceased friend with his own rather petty concerns. We end up wishing he would just shut the heck up and let us finish the (dreadful) poem. I know it is supposed to be humorous, but I just get mad -- what if I were to hijack these reviews to foist my own personal problems on you, the reader? I'd be betraying a sort of trust. Even though that's how Nabokov wanted it to read, I just can't take it

[Anonymous No.1195678]

Aristophanes: The Complete Plays

do NOT purchase this translation. it makes one of the funniest writers of all time boring. this translation is as bad as the previous reviewers have indicated. the best, and most hilarious, translation that i've seen is a 1938 version that , i think, eugene o'neill worked on as an editor or something. however, aristophanes should definitely be checked out by afficionados of ancient greek literature as well as anyone interested in comic writing that'll make you laugh out loud. he's one of the titans of world literature.

[shit, now I have to find a better version because this is the copy I have and I found it very funny]

[Anonymous No.1195679]

>>1195664

You know that whole segment of the novel is a nod to "Against Nature", right?

That aside, the segment I linked isn't a troll in the slightest. At its core, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is essentially an exploration of Aestheticism. Why do you think the reviewer was trolling exactly?

[Anonymous No.1195683]

(1/3)
I don't get it. I just don't get it. I thought young adult fiction had hit its low point with Eragon, but apparently I was wrong. Bella Swan (literally, "beautiful swan," which should be a red flag to any discerning reader) moves to the rainy town of Forks, and the whining begins on page 1. She goes to live with her father Charlie, and is quickly established to be a mopey, ungrateful, self-pitying little toerag. Bella then attends her new school, which turns out to be an all-out caricature of high school with about zero (rounding up) grounding in real life. Her classmates' reaction can be summed up thusly: "OMG. NEW STUDENT. OMG YOU GUYS, NEW STUDENT. STARE AT HER, FOR SHE IS CLEARLY SUPERIOR TO US." Bella Sue is promptly adored by everyone in the school, except the mysterious Cullens, who spend their time brooding, being pretty, smoldering, being perfect, and sparkling. No, seriously. NO, SERIOUSLY. Bella meets Edward, the Culleniest of the Cullens, (meaning he is more perfect and emo than the rest of them,) they fall in love within thirty pages, (much of this time is spent in Bella's head going back and forth between "Does he like me?" "Does he hate me?" "Do I like him?" "Why does he hate me?" and on and on and on AND ON. That is, when she's not being a horrible snobby twit to the boys at school who show affection in genuinely sweet ways, i.e., not breaking into her house and watching her while she sleeps. While she sleeps. Not knowing that he's there. IN HER HOUSE.) The plot shows up somewhere in the last fifty pages, which involves an EVIIIIIILL vampire named James who wants to eat Bella. James is the only character I like.

[Anonymous No.1195688]

>>1195664
Whatever purpose that might have been, it still didn't fit with the rest of the book.

[Anonymous No.1195689]

>>1195683

(2/3)
I generally try to find something redeeming about books, but I honestly have nothing good to say about this drivel. Meyer writes as if the reader is an absolute idiot who has to be told every sing tiny little thing; we are never given the chance to interpret what's going on in the characters' heads. There is no mystery, no intrigue, no suspense. The characters themselves are cut-and-dried, stereotypical, and maddeningly unoriginal. Bella's (supposedly) the clever, beautiful heroine, Edward's the dark, brooding bad boy, James is... uh, the guy that wants to eat Bella. Meyer clearly wants Bella to be a strong female character, but the horrible sad truth is that she's pathetic. Bella follows Edward's every word religiously, never sticks up for herself, has no spine to speak of, plays Suzie Housewife to her father, and has no existence outside of her "romance" with Edward. On that note, let it be said that Nathaniel Hawthorne got more romance into a few lines about a rosebush than Meyer managed to cram into 400 pages. Edward and Bella's relationship consists almost entirely of staring at each other dewey-eyed and arguing about who's prettier (NO I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.)

[Anonymous No.1195690]

>>1195689

(3/3)
You know what? This could have been a great book if Meyer had focussed more on the relationship between the leads, (and treated it for what it is: unhealthy, creepy, pathetic, borderline psychopathic,) and less on how perfect Edward is (interesting note: the word "perfect" or related terms like "flawless" are used to describe Edward more than a hundred times. That's just bad writing, guys.) What burns me up most about this book is that Edward and Bella are obviously meant to portray the perfect couple. Yeah, I really want my hypothetical daughter to walk out on her family for a guy she barely knows, invite said guy to sleep in her bed, have absolutely no life outside of said guy, and turn into a sniveling wreck when this guy looks at her the wrong way. And I also really want my hypothetical son to break into his girlfriend's house and watch her sleep (SERIOUSLY, GUYS?) , abandon whatever life he has so he can stalk this girl, and be so possessive of her that he throws a fit whenever she so much as looks at someone other than him. And people think these two are good role models? WHAT. JUST WHAT.

This book really wouldn't bother me if it were being taken for what it is: a silly, sappy, shallow, juvenile, wish-fulfilling rag. The fact is, everyone is going on about how its literary merit rivals the frakking "Scarlet Letter" and how Bella Swan is the new Elizabeth Bennet (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?). "Twilight" should be rotting on some publisher's desk in a pile of rejection letters; not being lauded as the greatest novel since "Pride and Prejudice." I weep for literature.

tl;dr
Twilight is bad.

Also, the majority of the reviews (there are 4,931 of them) are long like this. People really hate this book.

[Anonymous No.1195691]

>>1195551
AWWWWWWW LOOK AT DA PUPPPY WHOSE A GOOD BOY? YES YOU ARE YES YOU ARE

[Anonymous No.1195701]

Beyond Good and Evil (Nietzsche)

>Nietzsche is very mean and not nice to Jesus and to Christians also. My pastor said it is important to love Jesus and to let poeple know when Jesus is being made fun of.
stopped reading there

another one:
>Imagine sitting down and simply writing out every random thought that comes to mind. That is this book- congratulations- you are now a world-famous philosopher!

>Nietzche is a misogynist- see his discourse on women. Nietzche is an elitist- see his discourse on the wonders of aristocracy and the needs for a caste system. Nietzche is a racist- see his discourse on the Germans amongst Europe. It isn't hard to see how Germany progressed to Hitler since Germans were consuming Nietzche as their first course.

And a bunch of other butthurt women rating him 1 star. They say nothing about his philosophy though, they only whine about the few mysogynist things he wrote. I guess he was right

[Anonymous No.1195703]

>I am a literature major, so please know that I am not giving a biased and uncalled for opinion. I've read many books, and I have even liked those books that most people detest. However, I must say 2001: A Space Odyssey is not all that great. It's boring, takes forever to get to the point, and truly pointless. The movie is even worse. In reality, the movie came first and then the book---it is usually the other way around. Both are horrific.

2001: A Space Odyssey

[Anonymous No.1195709]

>>1195679
Yes I know, that's why I said it has a purpose. À Rebours is the yellow book Lord Henry gives to Dorian which changes his life.

[Anonymous No.1195707]

Clockwork Orange. These are two separate reviews:
Clockwork Orange is a classic, eh? Hmmm. I for one just didn't like it. After the first several pages laden with unintelligible, invented slang, the novel contains enough English to be understandable, but the writing style remains unengaging and flecked with that neologic nonsense. The English language can be precise and beautiful, as proven by authors ranging from Edgar Allan Poe to William F. Buckley Jr; however, Anthony Burgess chooses to masscre it. Alright, I'm a purist, but, diction aside, the story still does nothing to engross the reader--at least not the reader pythia. Not wanting to reveal too much to those who do want to read this (fine, try it, but don't expect the thought-provoking masterpiece this novel is often reckoned!), I will simply say that the narrator/protagonist is a kid with a penchant for gang violence and classical music. Tasteless.
Now that I'm done, I'll admit that I only read about a third of this novel and merely skimmed the remainder, so invalidate my review if that pleases you.

2: After twenty pages I threw this book against the wall. I have never read a more frustrating and disturbing book. All the dialogue is gibberish. In the first twenty pages, Alex and his lackies beat a guy senseless and rob him; they steal a car and trash it, they get into a vicious gang fight; they attack a couple at their home, destroy the husband's life work (his book "A Clockwork Orange") beat him and his wife senseless and rape the wife. This really ticked me off. I read this expecting a great story because it's a "classic", but I was severly disappointed. If you want to read the book, save yourself the frustration trying to wade through the garbage and read the last three pages.

[Anonymous No.1195713]

Don Quixote:

>Yep. I read it. Boring? Yes. Boring beyond belief.

It is also mundane, vapid and worthless.

Read Hemingway or Faulkner. Read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Even the "comic section" of your local rag is better than this work of literaly trash.

[Anonymous No.1195715]

>Slaughterhouse Five

I didn't enjoy this book at all. I didn't like the constant skipping around of text.

[Anonymous No.1195725]

1984

"Something like that could never happen in my country I'm happy in communist China"

.... seriously?

[Anonymous No.1195743]

Les Misérables:

I bought this book because I had to for my bookclub. I HATE IT!!!! To wordy, too much French, it jumps around from topic to topic, hard to follow, starts a story line then just drops it - don't like this book at all!!!!

[Anonymous No.1195774]

Alice in wonderland

I hated it and thought it was really bad. It was twisted and is really scary to litte childern

[Anonymous No.1195782]

The Brothers Karamazov

"This book is all about some badly behaved brothers and their mean father and how they do nothing but shout and drink and threaten one another and are lewd and then, one of them anyway, goes to England, or at least he wants to. You call that a story?"

[Anonymous No.1195897]

>>1195617
MY FUCKING GOD I DON'T CARE IF IT'S A TROLL I WANT TO KILL IT

[Anonymous No.1195906]

>>1195617

>sexist
>racist
>herp the guy's an asshole so lets ignore his actual work

>Who is this guy?
>Dostoevsky

Fucking hell.

[Anonymous No.1195913]

"The novel's hero, Gordon Comstock, I find rather pathetic. He decides at a young age that he will be free of the "money god" and not accept a "good job." In so doing he willfully subjects himself to a life of poverty as a starving artist working at a bookstore. I have no sympathy for the character. If he were actually destitute and had no way out I would, but that is not the case. He chooses to be poor and then complains about it. The irony is he becomes more a slave to money by shunning it than he would had he accepted it. To Gordon I say get a life and stop complaining. "
>they clearly don't understand what the book was about

[Anonymous No.1195935]

These threas always make me depressed.

[Anonymous No.1195963]

>>1195935
Threads actually.

If you're a member of Gen-Y who thinks that the trippier and more nonsensical a piece of writing is the more profound its contents, then this book will be for you.
This book was the biggest single waste of time I've ever encountered in my life. The only points a person with an eye for decent literature can gauge from reading this massive, steaming pile of crap is that you'll "sound" really hip if you say you've read it.
I will say that from about page 100 on the plot became quite fascinating. (That is, if you can stomach the excruciating description of any and every minute detail of the protagonist's emo-tastic existence.) The fact that the story actually became interesting after that point is what angered me so much about the book. The author essentially used a bait and switch tactic to get you to believe that the plot was really going somewhere and then nothing. Dead stop. I wouldn't even call the ending an anti-climax. The reader is left with absolutely no idea of what happened or what will happen to the characters.
From what I gathered from a Wikipedia article, Murakami himself admits the story was written as a riddle with the possibility of several different endings based on the reader's interpretation. But even then he seemed to imply that there is no solid solution. In my strong opinion, Kafka on the Shore was nothing but the author's 400+ page masturbatory obsession with his own writing.

[Anonymous No.1196021]

Now, this could be because I am inept with physics. I am. Besides watching "Star Trek" a couple hundred times, my exposure to physics has been limited to riding rollercoasters and reading a few physics book jackets. But this book was very hard to understand.

I have read some of the reviews here, stating that Mr. Hawkins is very lucid and very clear. I could not disagree more. This book is unclear and hard to understand. If you want to impress your friends who haven't read this book or don't understand it, certainly you can buy "A Brief History of Time", put it in your bookshelf, and pretend to know what it says. But, if like me, you simply want to learn more about modern physics, you should buy some other book, preferrable by someone else.

[NM No.1196050]

The Stranger by Albert Camus
"All I know is that at the end I was glad to see the malicous little bugger executed."

The Divine Comedy
"I consider it (brace yourselves) trash."

[Anonymous No.1196080]

"The further along I got in this book, the more I disliked the author. I worked in the criminal justice field for thirty-four years (not as a police officer or a forensic person, by the way) and she typifies the kind of person who gives us all a bad name. Smug, self-important, and arrogant. So quick to denigrate the public she was supposed to serve. In Chapter Seven she meets a pair of poor souls, an obviously mentally disordered mother and son. As they started running away from her she says "I split open with laughter..I snickered as Jimmy...loaded down with bags and sliping on the icy sidewalk, tried to keep pace with his mother...His mother was a fruit loop--but poor Jimmy, if he were any dumber, he'd have to be watered."

Decades behind a desk working a bureaucratic job with no exposure to the public. You try being politically correct after wading through a puddle of brains.

[Anonymous No.1196086]

The Catcher in the Rye

>The book mostly fails because the main character is not likeable. the book could just as easily be titled "Holden Caulfield's gripes and complaints against the world". I don't know about you, but i'd rather not read pedestrian, sycophantic complaints from a mentally unhinged rich kid. But that's just me.

>Catcher in the Rye is also extremely dated. If it were a decade that inspired nostalgia for dumb pop-culture, like the 70s or 80s, this wouldn't be as much of a problem. But, unfortunately, the book inspires the early 50s, before the decade defined itself as the rock n roll decade. Catcher in the Rye doesn't have much to say that hasn't been said much better and much more engagingly a million times.

>In short, don't waste your money on this "classic". Buy some Dave Eggers or Chuck Palahniuk or something *interesting*, for crissakes.

[Anonymous No.1196100]

"This memoir-stroke-expose pretty much violates every IRB and HIPAA regulation known to medicine -- not to mention some sort of personal honor code one should have to adopt in order to become a physician. Written by an attending psychiatrist at the (in)famous Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the US, Weekends at Bellevue is perhaps the worst book ever written on severe mental illness and the role of the provider. Not to hyperbolize, but any doctor who refers to her patients as "crazy" (she's a psychiatrist for chrissake), who writes about her propensity for literally sniffing out male pheromones, intern sex (eww), how her ass looks in scrubs and, let's be honest, has a lot of unexamined contempt for the mentally ill, gets her book tossed swiftly in the trash."

I love seeing feedback from people who work in that same industry, whose point is mostly: please don't tell the public how fucked up our industry is.

[Anonymous No.1196107]

>>1195610
>implying Tamora Pierce is better than Tolkien

[Anonymous No.1196137]

"H.P. Lovecraft is by far the worst author I've ever heard of. His stories are ten times longer than needed. He spends fifty pages telling you what the grass looked like but one or two telling you about the climax of the story. He uses literary cop-outs like "It was indescribable" "unimaginable" and "beyond description". He is by far the worst writer ever. DO NOT BUT OR READ!!!!"

[Anonymous No.1196146]

>>1195610

>implying Tamora Pierce is better than Tolkien

[Take It EZ, m8 !2ryxNis8VA No.1196147]

Beowulf


This is possibly the worst book I have ever read. The book is so repetative. The same event is explained at least three times.

[Anonymous No.1196149]

>>1196137

those are completely legitimate, accurate criticisms

[Anonymous No.1196158]

>>1196149
I kind of agree. Some of his stories are still good reads, though.

[Anonymous No.1196160]

>>1196149
by giving short climaxes he invokes the 'your mind makes it real' trope

[Anonymous No.1196169]

This review is from: American Psycho (Paperback)
I'm somewhat disappointed - despite page after page of detailed descriptions of the clothing and it's designers (Why no Missoni? Was he just lucky?) the author fails to detail the brand and model of the different power tools used by the protagonist on his victims. We are left uncertain that this vacuous, narcissistic, fashion pedant knows anything about what's chic in power tools and what isn't. I've not decided yet what was more painful to read - the descriptions of the murders (be they real or imagined) or the music reviews. I hoped the denouement would be redeeming - it was'nt.

>what the fuck did I just read?

[Anonymous No.1196176]

>>1196149
One of the responses from amazon:
"His writing style details that the most horrible things a man can face are things he cannot wholly understand. That's the whole principle behind Lovecraft's work. To slam this book or his stories for his style would be akin to slamming J.K. Rowling as a perverted wizard fetishist."

The theme of cosmic horror is how insignificant we are, and that there are things out there so beyond our comprehension that encountering them would drive us insane. To complain that these things are indescribable... is like complaining that an author doesn't describe what the color blue tastes like.

[Anonymous No.1196187]

>>1196176

Funny that he goes on to describe things right after he says that they're indescribable. There are a million ways to suggest the incomprehensible that don't involve the laziness of "oh it was totally scary and you couldn't even understand it".

[Anonymous No.1196204]

Notes from the Underground - Dostoevsky


contrary to its title, this book does not contain the letters written by the miners who were trapped underground in west virgina. be sure you dont buy this book unless you know what youre getting!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I Lol'd.

[Anonymous No.1196207]

>>1196204

lol'd

[Anonymous No.1196214]

>>1196187
I'm sure even what he did describe was enough to give women the vapors back then. It wasn't until much later that horror stories explicitly described scenes of mutilation and mayhem, while graphically outlining the shapes of vast penis-monsters from beyond the stars.

[Anonymous No.1196220]

>>1195591

that's the most obvious and sorta funny troll.

[Anonymous No.1196223]

>>1196214

>suggest

[Anonymous No.1196231]

Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy

>I had to read this book and another of his for my english class. All of them were terrible. It was a waste of my time and money (about $22.00!!). It is too descriptive, too country, and too tedious. There is no plot, and I could not relate to its characters in any way whatsoever.

>Stay away from Cormac McCarthy books, AT ALL COSTS!!

[Anonymous No.1196241]

>>1196204
>mfw when this was real

[Anonymous No.1196248]

Green Eggs and Ham

If you're searching for a literary example of peer pressure, look no further than Dr. Seuss's subtly horrifying "Green Eggs and Ham." The "hero" of this tale, Sam-I-Am, spends the entirety of the book trying to force green eggs and ham upon a nameless skeptic. The "villain" turns down the offer several times, but Sam-I-Am persists, going so far as to follow him home in order to make him try the green eggs and ham. He uses several textbook methods of peer pressure, including the famous, "You'll never know that you don't like it if you don't try it." He refuses to respect the man's right to say no, and badgers him incessantly until he caves under the pressure.

What disgusts me most about the end of the story is that once the man tries the green eggs and ham, he loves them and is simply another addition to a pool of addicts. Dr. Seuss's tragic allegory for the rising drug use among young people that plagued his time period is brilliant, but certainly not appropriate for young children. Sam-I-Am is too easily twisted to become a hero, opening the antagonist's mind to new things, rather than a metaphor for Satan as I believe was originally intended.

In conclusion, do not read this book to your children unless you are willing to explain to them that people like Sam-I-Am should be avoided at all costs, and that they should never follow the path of the story's antagonist.