what books HAVENT influenced your worldview?

[vault]

inspired by ChristopherL's thread of the similar name.

what books did you wish you had never read, and chucked them away (hopefully in the recycling!) vowing to forgot about them as much as you could, taking on board nothing of what they said? and if you feel like writing about it, why did you hate so much? i think it would be interesting to see if other people disagree and in what ways.

mine is twilight. i hate it! toxic, rotten filth! already written about why on another thread regarding the success of the thing. also, i didnt like american psycho, because i thought the level of misogyny outweighed the value or quality of the satire. and basically, it all just made me feel very disgusted, to the point of nausea. the author's knowing little undertone was too much for me also and i probably wont read any of his other stuff. (ever).

 

[MissQuote]

Worst book I have ever read in my entire life. I only kept going out of pure appalled horror that anything could be so hideously illogical and poorly written and blatantly stereotypical and just plain foofy and uhg.

Spoiler

 

[snafupants]

Worst book I have ever read in my entire life. I only kept going out of pure appalled horror that anything could be so hideously illogical and poorly written and blatantly stereotypical and just plain foofy and uhg.

Spoiler

With a title that original, I'm going to have to call your bluff.

The main character should be named Faith to consummate the cheesy pun.

 

[MissQuote]

With a title that original, I'm going to have to call your bluff.

The main character should be named Faith to consummate the cheesy pun.

heh, no kidding.

I can't even remember what she was named.

That book is a crime against all that is humane and good in this world!

 

[nanook]

i would never read a really bad book (cover to end)

that said, one of them has to be the worst - buy.

it was probably pinchbecks breaking open the head.
no, that's only second worst (it was somewhat entertaining, but pinchbeck is tripping and he won't come down, just to write a gnarly tripreport)

the worst was actually a book about schamanism, written by a brainless author, forgot the title. her instructions for practice were highly technical *irony*, the first instruction for a meditation would read "lay on your bed and expand your boundaries to the limits of the kosmos." yeah, i'm gonna do that right now, you turkey. then i will need further instructions from you, because being the buddha isn't good enough for me. tell me to ask for arcangel whatnot, next, i'm sure he will pop up on demand. thank's for making me pay for your trance induction book. maybe 5 incarnations from now the aliens will imprint it on your soul, that doing something, or describing it, is different from learning something, or teaching it, also imagining something might be different from doing it. it's a verry advanced teaching, you don't have to worry about that now.

 

[Pizzabeak]

pinchbeck's breaking open the head was a rather entertaining read.

also, there was this shamanism book i found for a dollar that i couldn't finish.

and, this one book called the way that my black power roommate let me borrow (once he found out that i read, i only accepted it to be polite & figured i'd actually read it). got about 20 pages into it then decided i just couldnt do it. i chose pale blue dot next and was immediately captivated by it, for means of comparison.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

i would never read a really bad book (cover to end)

Yea, why would anyone continue to read a horrible book?

 

[Puffy]

Yea, why would anyone continue to read a horrible book?

Masochist of the eyes.

 

[opheliaesque]

Books that everyone else thought influenced their worldview?

Orwell's 1984.
Anything by Jane Austen.

...Can't think of anything else, really. Most classics are classics for a reason, and I tend to enjoy them.

 

[vault]

Yea, why would anyone continue to read a horrible book?

well, i like to finish books im not enjoying for two reasons. the first is that after finishing and considering the thing more carefully rather than in the heat of my emotional response, i often find that my opinion is changed, that i have found value in the work, and my mind is expanded. the second reason is that i think my critical opinion cant have any weight if i have not actually consumed the entire product - it is an incomplete evaluation and in that sense compromised. if i were approaching a book purely for entertainment purposes i guess those things would be of no importance to me, but for whatever reason i cant, i cant!!