Confessions of a literary sinner

Posted by jukkahoo

I'm going to nick this from Matthew Cheney's brilliant Mumpsimus blog, since I really would like to hear from you guys. What do you consider to be the so called literary sins you've committed?
We all have our favourites, our guilty pleasures and comfort reads, but what are all those have-to-read classics and/or notable books, that you haven't been able to process thru? Or in some cases, can't stand the sight of. Confess your sins! What has irked your wrath? What is not really good, even though simply everybody says so? WTF?

I'll go first. Krhm.

I don't really get Phil Dick. Yeah, it is evidently a sin, but I just can't seem to to enjoy him. I have read few of his books and the ones that I seem to be able to appreciate, are the old, straight-forward amore pulpish tales like the Eye in the Sky. I did enjoy The Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears the Policeman Said (or is it Policeman Sayid?) somewhat, but Ubik and Valis I just coudn't care less. or even finish. I have no idea what's going on in those books, but more importantly, I don't care. My eyes glaze over, I lose the will to live, I fell asleep.

What else? Oh yes, Kimmo Saneri. Nope. A short story or two, but nothing more. And really, a short story is enough. Been there, done that. Greg Egan. I tried Distress, but couldn't get past first thirty pages. Should have another go, evidently, but alas. And Stephen Baxter... *sigh* Greg Bear's Blood Music was crap from the word go. Then again, that and most of the previous ones have one thing in common, they write more or less hardcore-sf, which really lets me down every single time. Painovoima 700, Lohikäärmeen muna etc. Dullness galore. I just cannot fathom the Bore city. Hoyle, vomit. Ian Watson is another bore. I also really don't care for Joanna Russ' Female Man (Naisten planeetta), but that I've said many a times, so that's no real revelation here.

OK, now you. Play along and went out. Go for it!

Comments

[Anna]

Anais Nïn. I just don't get the idea that her literature is somehow worthy. Also James Joyce... graah. Is being bloody boring the synonum to great literature? D.H. Lawrence can also stay on the library book shelf as far as I'm concerned.

[Johan A]

I bget both Dick and Joyce, big time. And I don't think either Baxter or Bear are considered such prose masters that not getting them counts as a literary sin.

I don't get late Delany, late Le Guin, or anything by Gene Wolfe. In particular Gene Wolfe is a huge sin that I am sometimes reluctant to confess. I read and I read, turning page after page, and I am bored to death. I don't know why.

[Sari]

Ian M Banks. Tried. And tried again. And again. My eyes always glaze around page fifty or so of whatever book. The strange thing is, I have read two Ian Banks books and liked them. Weird, huh?

Late Henry James just bores me to tears. And that book with the Whale...

[Mekku]

Oooooh, good meme! (One of David Lodge's protagonists famously confessed to not having read Hamlet... and he was a literary scholar.)

William Gibson is one irksome case - or maybe cyberpunk generally. Just cannot get interested by characters whose biggest problem is the chip in their brain or a malfunctioning hyper-arm.

Primo Levi bugs me no end since I've decided that he ought to be right up my street, but all my attempts have ended on page 30 or thereabouts.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: Read it again (in Finnish this time) and feel that I understand the arc of the story a bit better now, but still wasn't gripped. Too many incidental details and not enough shape. And I suppose the same goes for my embarrassing inability to enjoy Dickens or Austen... Me and my sister - one of us must be a changeling. ;-)

[Teemu]

China Miéville. It seems that I'm not that big fan of new weird. And I can't even tell why, I started reading Perdido Steet Station perfectly happy and ended up going through the Appendixes of LotR again... Changelings, huh? I think you BOTH are!

[jautero]

M. John Harrison's Light. It is like modern science fiction version of Jordan or Eddings. I foughtmy way throough it only because it seemed like it would get more interesting. Nope, it didn't.

[Tarja]

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon was boooring!

I'm not a big fan of Terry Pratchett. Some of his stuff is ok in small doses, but I don't find it that funny. Jonathan Carroll is another author who is occasionally ok, but not always (I hated Voice of Our Shadow).

I haven't read Hamlet, and I'm an English major.

Nuoren Wertherin kärsimykset olivat todellakin kärsimystä.

[Néa]

I've tried Perdido Street Station twice, and got about 60 pages into it each time. I will try again, sometime.

I really disliked To Kill a Mockingbird. The first half dealt with uninteresting people doing mundane things described in a dull manner; then things started happening but by then it was too late to get interested. And the important topic (Black People Are People, Too) was presented in such a heavy-handed way that I felt preached to, no matter that I was already converted and singing in the choir, so to speak. I think I'd have liked the book better at 12 or so - I was 28 when I read it.

Sinning in the other direction... I rather like Anne McCaffrey's juvenile fantasy (the Dragonsinger books). And I enjoyed the early Jordan (up to book 4 of the WoT).

[Néa]

Agree about Stephen Baxter, by the way. His tea is not in my cup.

[Veriveli]

The Lord of the Rings is boring. Well, the Frodo parts are kinda okay, but the rest just sucks.

I forced myself to read aloud the first Harry Potter book to my daughter, but was immensely relieved when halfway through the second book she learned to read herself, and I did not have to read Potter anymore, ever.

Da Vinci code advised me to stay clear of any further Dan Brown experiences.

There. What do I win?

[Stefan]

I never finished Don Quixote.

I cannot get New Weird.

I read through most of the Kalle Paatalo's books as a younger lad. Shocking, isn't it?

Tapani

[Omppu]

Tätä ei voi tunnustaa maailmankielellä. Esiteininä ahmin harlekiini-kirjoja!

En tajua, mitä hienoa on Tuntemattomassa sotilaassa, vaikka olen lukenut sen (ihan kokeeksi) kahdesti. Anna Karenina oli tylsä, ja päähenkilöä pidin typeryksenä.

Suurin syntini on se, että olen pitkään lukenut enemmän sanomalehtiä kuin kirjoja...

[Teemu]

Minä en ymmärrä sinua.

[Anna]

Ai ketä?

Minäkin luin teininä ja vähän vanhempanakin harlekiinijuliauusionni-pläjäyksiä. Aivotonta hömppää, mutta usein kovin viihdyttävää. Vieläkin saatan kaupan jonossa plärätä hömppäromskujen takakansia ja ottaa yhden luettavaksi, jos juoni kuulostaa hyvältä.

katson minä hömppäelokuviakin vai chick-flikeistäkö sitä puhutaan.

Tuntematonta sotilasta en ole lukenut. Yksi Linnan leffaversiokerta riitti ja jos haluan verestää muistoja tai ajatuksia, selailen isän sotilaspassia.

[Marko]

Victor Hugo - ei sovi minulle ;)
Jules Verne - en ole koskaan pitänyt hepun tuotannosta.
Ray Loriga: Tokio ei välitä meistä enää. kovasti kehuivat tätä, mutta minusta tämä on huonolla ajattelulla varustettu kupla.
Sartre: Inho. Koitin lukea mutta jäi kesken. Ehdolla "maailman tylsin kirja" -kategoriaani

Filosofit:
Ranskalaiset ja Schopenhauer ovat huuhaata (lievä kärjistys).

[johanna]

Näitä olis paljonkin, mutta sanotaan nyt vaikka että venäläiset klassikot. Strugatskit, Bulgakov ja näytelmät menee, mutta Dostojevskiin ja Tolstoihin en ole ikinä päässyt kunnolla kiinni. Ja olen olevinani jonkinsortin fantasiaharrastaja, mutta suomeksi julkaistuista fantsusarjoista monia en ole raottanutkaan.

[Ben]

I still haven't read The Silmarillion.
I seem to have some kind of a problem with Guy Gavriel Kay, his books just get left by the wayside. recently I have been reading Tigana and though I mostly enjoy it, I haven't been able to finnish the book. My present real life situation might have something to do with it. I'll try to pick up the story again as soon as I find the book in one of the boxes where everything is packed away. (Moving is hell!)
M. John Harrison's Light got left by the wayside also; I got maybe one third through it. Will try again real soon though.

On the whole my biggest sin is that I just don't read enough and especially haven't read enough "real" classics. I manage to bluff my way through most situations, but I really would like to read more.