ITT discuss disappointing books to avoid

[llillilll]

Cengiz Aytmatov was probably the most disappointing writer i have ever read, he has soo much hype behind him because soviets were pushing him soo hard but he doesn't deliver. Any book i read from him(which there are a lot of) was bad but "Selvi Boylum Ay Yazmalim" was the worst by far, Cengiz writes about cheathing too much and this book has just too many cheating. Robin Sharma's "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" is really close to it but all self help books are bad by nature soo i let it pass. Dreadfull Tale of Prosper Redding was quite disappointing but that was because the cover art was soo charming it outshines the book. Skullduggery mortal coil was a disappointment, the series was always about close calls but the fifth book where everyone constantly ALMOST dies just got too boring, i also hate Fletcher and his dinamic with every other character.Derek clearly doesn't like him either considering Cain cheats on him with a vampire right after they start dating. I didn't finish Mortal Coil thought, maybe it gets better. The most obscure disappointing book i read was called "helpfull knowledge" and it was basically "sunnis good other sects of islam bad" stretched into a real book. Quran was also insanely disappointing, after hearing how great it actually is and how no human could ever imagine writing such a masterpiece, i thought i would learn soo much but it just repeats manipulation and fear word by word for nearly 1/3 of the book and the other 2/3 aren't anything to write home about. You could shorten it to quarter without losing any imformation. Mesnevi was also a disappointment, i used to live by that books teaching but when i read it, it is basically another religion that has no connection to islam. You can't follow both Quran and Mesnevi.

 

[Sketch Relics]

My brother got a copy of this from the author while he was at some sort of con, it just isn't very good.
It's a sort of sci-fi military fiction book about the titular "Phalanx Alpha" group as they investigate a series of disappearances related to the sudden appearance of "angels" large, pink colored humanoids that seemingly cure any illness. The thing is it's just not very well written overall, like for example, early on in the book some chick who's a part of the group gets killed after having a minor disagreement with the protag and the next chapter immediately opens up with 2 or three people calling her a bitch and saying it's for the best that she died. She has basically ZERO characterization before this happens and exist for all of 2~3 paragraphs before biting the dust. The book has quite a few interactions like this with no proper build up to events and characters just acting plain off-putting in response. Though I suppose I can't blame the author too much, if my brother is correct he was only 14 when he wrote it.

This one is more for disappointing sequels than anything else.
The first book is basically the life story of the villain, the culture of the country she's in is rather unique and on the whole her rise to villainy is just fun to read, it's actually hard to call her a villain without the context of the next two novels, cause it shifts to the perspective of a very generic medieval European country/ quirky resistance group as they try to defend against the protag from the first book and god it's just boring. I feel like the series would have been better off continuing to follow things from her perspective even if the same events played out overall.

Read the first book, skip the other two, or maybe read them till you get bored idk.

 

[MySpace Tom]

"Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain. I was recommended it by a girl working at a bookstore. I don't think I finished it, actually. It basically explained that extroverts get energy from interacting with others while introverts tend to avoid social situations and get energy from doing things alone

First, dividing people into "introvert" and "extrovert" (or even "omnivert" or "ambivert" or whatever) is oversimplifying people and their personalities. Secondly, the author would keep describing introverts in the same way that a teacher would describe a kid who doesn't belong in a group, but wants to give them a participation trophy for being there to make them feel included. It was grating and boring, like a dime-a-dozen self-help book that has only a few paragraphs of something to say, but stretched out to fill up a paperback

 

[VOX_]

Under the Dome by Stephen King.
Such a fantastic concept for a book, and the first ⅓–½ of the book is exceptionally executed. As an avid reader and writer, the first chapter makes me wet every time I come back to it. Though I nevertheless do not recommend the book entirely, I do urge all of you to read its opening chapter—it is masterfully done.

Spoiler: First Chapter

How King describes the resplendent day for flying, the two realistic and amicable characters flying the aeroplane and how they observe people and locations below that will turn up again later in the story, forshadowing future storylines. But most of all, how King describes the sudden crumpling of the nose of the aircraft before one of them even knows what's happened. It all comes together to make my favourite opener to a story ever.

The first chapter is masterful at setting up an amazing story, and then it just derails at the climax. I won't bother detailing it because it's a waste of time, honestly. Ultimately, it's just unfortunate how the end turned out, but oh boy do I love the first chapter all on its own.
The Simpsons pulled off the plot better than Under the Dome did, which sure says something, eh?

Under the Dome was really interesting, I thought the end was cool but I think there were a lot of loose ends tied up in vaguely spooky and too inscrutable fashions.

 

[starbreaker]

Sword of Truth, by Terry Goodkind:

It's basically a children's fantasy novel that tries to be 'mature' by including an excessive amount of graphic rape scenes. The heroes are dumb and need every single bit of exposition spoonfed to them, the cast of villains are so bland and generically evil they make Palpatine look like something out of Shakespeare, and nobody ever shuts up. The part that really worries me is that I've only ever read part of the first book, and supposedly that was 'the good one.' Apparently the constant monologuing gets much much worse as the series goes on and I honestly do not know how that's possible.

You have no idea. It very rapidly descends into Ayn Rand fanfiction. Once Darken Rahl is out of the picture, the Major Threat becomes something called the "Imperial Order", which is basically Catholic Communism.

Really, the only good thing about Wizard's First Rule was the rule itself; I've found it a fairly useful heuristic against advertising, marketing, and all kinds of political demagoguery ever since I first read the book.

Otherwise, Terry Goodkind writes like the unholy bastard love child of John Norman (Gor) and Ayn Rand.

 

[LostintheCycle]

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
I was a HP fan as a kid, got the script book for Christmas when I was 13. I read it in two days, and was immensely disappointed because the story sucked. It felt like a fanfiction, throwing out weird random ideas that shouldn't ever have been in a Harry Potter story, like Voldemort having a baby, Harry Potter's kid hating him, time travel, etc. They made the original characters feel really off. It probably wasn't the worst thing ever but I was expecting a Harry Potter standard story, and instead it was just regular garbage. I decided after I finished it, that it didn't count as a real Harry Potter story, and pretty much stopped being a fan of Harry Potter too. Even then, I could see this book was clearly Rowling clutching to retain the relevancy of the franchise, and wouldn't you know it! following this came a flock of new movies and videogames, and the stage play still has regular performances.

 

[PraxHeadroom]

I read Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw recently cause I really liked Zero Punctuation back in the day. It sets itself up as a goofy parody of fantasy and video game tropes but completely changes tone once the actual plot gets going. The main character is a piece of shit who insults and screws over his friends. It's set up like there's going to be some kind of redemption arc where he realizes that even though he's not supposed to be the hero he can still be one, but it never happens. There is no character development whatsoever and he only gets worse as the book goes on.
Yahtzee's fedora tipping >reddit atheist worldview comes out here much more than it ever did in his game reviews.

 

[Lucky 38]

Death Object: Exploding the Nuclear Weapons Hoax by Akio Nakatani was both good and bad. Like a lot of books mired in conspiracy theory, there is a lot of getting into the weeds on ideas that are only given a very basic initial explanation. The actual namesake of the book is disappointing for that reason. But then it has interesting cultural insight on things that were actually happening in the 1940's, mostly with regards to how a World War narrative can be shaped when information travels slowly. I'd recommend it just to see someone's research and views on such a radically different wavelength.

 

[seroquelshawty]

anything by hemingway its all fake machismo bullshit and him glorifying being a misogynistic drunk

 

[Some_porcupine]

anything by hemingway its all fake machismo bullshit and him glorifying being a misogynistic drunk

bukowski?

 

[seroquelshawty]

bukowski?

I've read a lot more bukowski when I was younger and I do think they're pretty similar but I think bukowski wrote more from actual experience. I do like some of his poetry and used to own a big collection of it at one point. Bukowski is a pretty awful person but his own self destruction was, to me at least, more engaging. He also had a sort of sexy piece of shit dad vibe to him lmao

 

[Lucky 38]

anything by hemingway its all fake machismo bullshit and him glorifying being a misogynistic drunk

I'm not sure what this could mean. Hemingway lived a pretty impressive life to the point where his notorious later-life alcoholism was a direct coping mechanism for the illness and injuries he'd suffered while down there. His views weren't unusual for the era and even his most bitter rivals (Faulkner comes to mind) admitted openly that Hemingway was a gifted writer, even if he was absolutely in love with cascades of purple prose. The few things in his writing that I can think of that might be misconstrued as misogynist (Margot Macomber) don't strike me as shallow, either.

 

[Some_porcupine]

what about salinger? (infp energy, similar to hobbes (the comics, not the philosopher))?

 

[Some_porcupine]

what about salinger? (infp energy, similar to hobbes (the comics, not the philosopher))?

 

[Some_porcupine]

what about salinger? (infp energy, similar to hobbes (the comics, not the philosopher))?

 

[McGovern '72!]

For recent works read, I would have to say Heretics of Dune and the half of Chapterhouse I've gotten too are pretty subpar compared to the four before that (Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune.) I don't know what happened with Hebert during his time writing Heretics but it made the entire book a slog after he started up with his attempts at PLOT.
I've started Count Zero Interrupt as well, for the Sprawl series and while Gibsons books are good I often get distracted thinking about CD Projekt Red for having nearly zero creativity in Cyberpunk 2077.

It's been a while since I've read those two and I know they're objectively shit but I can't help but like Heretics & Chapterhouse because of just how insane they are. Herbert somehow managed to top the book about the guy turning into a sandworm through sheer Bene Gesserit madness.

 

[Netzgänger]

When I had first begun to genuinely read, one of the first books I had read was "Warrior Soul" by Chuck Pfarrer. It's a memoir of a navy SEAL, and I had got it when I was a teen and into military stuff, but never really got past the first couple of chapters. But when I finally read it, I was disappointed. In part due to the lack of action, with the "action" that there was just not really hitting the mark for me, since I had expected more from a navy SEAL. There was a scene of a bombing that was tragic and somber, but there are other pieces of media that do it better, in my opinion. Also, this book was described as being more "emotional" than other memoirs, but all I remember regarding that is he touched upon cheating on his wife a couple of times and then forgetting about it soon thereafter.

 

[dysgeusia]

ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert M. Pirsig

i picked it up because a friend read it (while she was in high school) and it basically was like her whole "wow philosophy exists" book, which for me was Walden, and obvi it's good for anyone to discover philosophy, and i had a crush on her so i read it lol

i practice zen. i read a lot of zen and i'm literate in daoism too. i counted. ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE uses the word "zen" 4 times. FOUR TIMES in like 400 pages. and basically if you know anything about eastern religion or if you want to learn, this is just about the worst place to find out.

otherwise it's plenty fine lol, for some people who maybe are new to philosophy it might blow your mind, but for the love of god don't take it as a primer on zen or daoism or anything like that. it also has a plot that doesn't go anywhere?

for that matter, i love Walden with all my heart. i owe a lot to that book. i can't recommend it to anyone, but if you do want to read it, think about like a journal of a lonely, creative nature guy who just needed to spend a couple years alone to figure some shit out. it's not a manual on wilderness survival and it's not the word of the law.

***also my friend didn't tell me to read it nor did she say she still liked it at all. i did this all to myself.***

 

[dysgeusia]

I'm not sure what this could mean. Hemingway lived a pretty impressive life to the point where his notorious later-life alcoholism was a direct coping mechanism for the illness and injuries he'd suffered while down there. His views weren't unusual for the era and even his most bitter rivals (Faulkner comes to mind) admitted openly that Hemingway was a gifted writer, even if he was absolutely in love with cascades of purple prose. The few things in his writing that I can think of that might be misconstrued as misogynist (Margot Macomber) don't strike me as shallow, either.

i was always of the opinion that hemingway was killed by his own personality. hunter s. thompson is like that, too. both of them basically created personae whom they couldn't escape.

bc of that i always read hemingway very sympathetically. sure, he might have a big personality, but i think that there's a hidden delicacy in him that his outward, macho personality won't allow for, so those things are always grappling, and that conflict imo basically kills him. I feel sorry for the guy.

He's not a big masculine hero and he's not an evil masculine bastard either, he's a poor bastard killed by masculinity. that's how i feel.

 

[Elbrus_uwu]

Hop on tiktok for a second and type "booktok" on the search bar.
whatever pops up just... avoid it like the plauge...

Some of them aren't even ironically good to read they're just low quality NSFW material most of the time.