This week's topic: what are three books you thought you would like, but ended up hating? Once again, thanks to Lost in Books for this idea.
For this topic I stuck with books I actually finished, as opposed to ones I stopped reading because I disliked them so much.
First up, we have The Ghost Writer by John Harwood. The problem I had with this book was the ending. I literally said "What the hell?" and then went back and reread portions of it trying to figure out what had happened, and if I had missed something. I was never able to figure it out. Extremely disappointing and confusing.
Next we have Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. I had never read anything by Grisham and I thought this short little funny book about Christmas would be a good place to start. Wrong! First of all, it isn't funny. Secondly, none of the characters struck me as either likable or sympathetic. In my review on Shelfari I called the book pure drivel.
Finally we have Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews. Hoo-boy! This book suffers from a horrible identity crisis. The cover synopsis presents it as a tale of jilted woman gets revenge and finds true love, but this is not the case. The book starts off that way, and then turns into a lame murder mystery, and then has the main character end up with the dullest and stupidest leading man ever, after virtually no sparks whatsoever. Absolutely awful book.
Hmm. Interestingly enough, I read all three of these books during my miserable time living in Fayetteville. I don't think that really played a role in it though since I read so many books there that I loved, including A Year in Provence and A Walk in the Woods. But these three were stinkers.
3 comments:
Let me add three if I may. The Historian, it seems like you liked this one but as much as I enjoyed the bulk of the book the ending completely ruined it for me. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, it was suppose to be kind of a quirky mystery but by the end of the book I really didn't care if all the characters ended up dead or not. Breakfast of Champions, I had read two other Vonnegut books and liked them and this one was a complete waste of time. As for a Walk In The Woods I thought I'd really like it, and parts of it I did, but overall I didn't really care for it. To each his/her own.
Your comments on these books had me giggling! I never read Skipping Christmas because I had heard it was not worth bothering with. I guess Grisham needs to stick to his formulaic books. It works, so why not?
I haven't read the other two, but you still had me giggling.
Nice list! I think sometimes a place can have a profound effect on reading. It's not that if you hate your situation you'll hate all books. It's just that you'll have different reading taste. At least, that's my experience. I'd never read so much escapist fantasy before I lived in Gainesville, FL. Armpit of America, right there. Now that I'm in DC and happy, I'm reading with more variety. *grin*
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