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Gingernut2
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Registered: 12-2006
Posts: 25
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Re: Books that make you want to poke your eyes out
Oooh, good topic!
Have to agree with the inclusion of James Joyce - I skim read Ulysses at uni (skipping huge chunks) and probably didn't miss anything at all. So PRETENTIOUS! Ugh. I automatically know that I won't get on with anyone who says they like this book.
Trouble is, a lot of people like to say it's, like, so meaningful, dude, when actually they either a) haven't read it or b) like to pretend to be erudite. These people are to be avoided at all costs. Books that also fall into this category include:
• Love in the Time of Cholera and 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Oh my God, so DULL!);
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (you know it's bad when the most exciting thing to happen in 100 pages is the construction of some wicker baskets);
• Wuthering Heights (sorry Nat - overblown, OTT, illogical and plain daft).
I have to say, though, that D!ckens is one of my faves. You absolutely have to be in the right mood to read him, and that mood has to include extreme patience as he does love to ramble on. The payoff is huge though - excitement, rip-roaring plot, tension and lashings of humour. Persist!
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1/29/2007, 7:57 am
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Valancy
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Re: Books that make you want to poke your eyes out
Uh oh, Gingernut, I started Love in the Time of Cholera last night...
But then again, I adore Wuthering Heights. hmmmmm...
But then again, we agree on Joyce.
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1/29/2007, 8:35 am
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maisonvivante
Ann without an E
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Re: Books that make you want to poke your eyes out
I found "Doctor Zhivago" flat, unengaging and slow-going. It has all the right ingredients for an epic story, but the characters are so distant that I could barely make it through. But I persisted. I much prefer Tolstoy.
D!ckens is an amazing writer. But his books take commitment. They are best read in large chunks of time, much as readers would have devoured his novels back then. I think "David Copperfield" is one of his most engaging novels for a modern reader, so start there if you think you don't like him. You may find out you do after all.
Once, long ago, (silly boy that I was), I thought I detested Jane Austen for being too calculatedly clever and dull at the same time. A year later, I picked up "Pride and Prejudice" and realized what a fool I had been.
Last edited by maisonvivante, 1/29/2007, 4:27 pm
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1/29/2007, 4:27 pm
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Gingernut2
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Registered: 12-2006
Posts: 25
Kindredness: 11 (+11/-0)
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Re: Books that make you want to poke your eyes out
Well it's a good job I didn't see this BEFORE I met you, Bets. We wouldn't have spent nearly as long gossiping on if I had. 
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5/31/2007, 8:23 am
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Valancy
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Re: Books that make you want to poke your eyes out
quote:
Bets Wilcox wrote:
i shall announce the fact, for val and nat's benefit, that i dragged my visiting mother to haworth parsonage this weekend. we found the original" of wuthering heights, and i was so, SO excited.
(gingernut might murder me when she sees me tomorrow. :b unless my love for ****ens might redeems me.)
Yeaaaa! Please share Haworth photos one day. 
How was the meeting between Bets and Gingernut? I would like to here both versions of the story. 
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5/31/2007, 10:25 am
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Gingernut2
Run-By-Slater
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Registered: 12-2006
Posts: 25
Kindredness: 11 (+11/-0)
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Re: Books that make you want to poke your eyes out
It was awful. Nothing to talk about, awkward pauses, totally incompatible personalities....
Bahhh! As if.
It was tres fabulous, and everything you've ever suspected about Bets – well, it's true. She is a tiny little pixie made of spangles and glitter, and her hair is the colour of candyfloss.
OK, maybe not. BUT, she has walked through a rainbow which is pretty ******* cool. And she drinks Strongbow.
Three thumbs up from me.
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6/1/2007, 3:10 am
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