30 Days of Books Meme - Day 5

[uberreiniger]

Day 5 - A book or series you hate.

I know I'm going to catch hell for this one but The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I was told again and again before reading that "OMG this is the FUNNIEST book you will ever read! And if you like Monty Python you'll LOVE this book!" Maybe people hyped it up too much for me but I tried reading it and didn't find it funny at all. The humor was so dry it crumbles to dust as you read it. It was British alright, but not laugh-out-loud funny the way Python is. The main reason I didn't like it is because I kept waiting for the plot to get going and it just wouldn't. I disliked another literary favorite, Catch-22, for the same reason: they don't really have plots that go forward. They're just episodic exercises in absurdity. I really enjoy movies that are like that but books that are like that just bore me and make me impatient. Unless you're Kafka. I found THGttG to be too tedious to finish so maybe it gets better later and I don't know it. Maybe some day I'll try again on it but I'm in no hurry.

Day 1 - A book series you wish had gone on longer, OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already
Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 - A book or series you hate
Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time
Day 07 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A book that disappointed you
Day 12 - A book or series of books you've read more than five times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Day 15 - Your comfort book
Day 16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 - Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 - Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 - Most annoying character ever
Day 24 - Best quote from a novel
Day 25 - Any five books from your "to be read" stack
Day 26 - OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 - First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 - Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 - What book are you reading right now?

Comments

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

No, I'm guessing that if you didn't like the first book in the Hitchhiker set, you're probably not going to like the rest of them either.

Also, I loved Catch-22 immensely. This is a subject of great contention in my house, because triadruid, like you, was like, "What? This is a book? Where is the plot?". My tolerance for that sort of thing is apparently super-high, though, based on some of the commentary I got yesterday on my favorite books.

[thelastmehina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if you don't like the dry, aimless absurdity of the first part of HHGttG, you're not going to like any of the subsequent novels. It's really more of the same.

And I kind of liked the aimlessness of Catch-22 because I got the idea Heller was trying to demonstrate the aimless absurdity of war within the structure of his novel.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I think I get enough aimless absurdity in my day-to-day life; but then, I work for the government. ;)

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I understood Heller's point. I just didn't think it made for entertaining reading. Not for me, anyway, since I like my novels to move from point A to point B.

[cherith.livejournal.com]

I didn't make it past the first chapter of THGttG. HOWEVER. I greatly enjoyed both listening to the audiobooks, and listening to the BBC radio plays for all of the books in the series. Something about it doesn't work well when read, but it's worth a try to listen to one of those versions.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

This is a good point. Peter Jones' voice helps immensely...

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I've heard that before, that it's better to listen to. It's one of only two books that has literally put me to sleep while reading it. (The Illiad was the other one.)

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

That's amusing; I'm reading the Iliad right now. The right translation makes all the difference... (depending on what you're looking for, Fagles is engaging and poetic but modernized, Lattimore is apparently the gold standard for accuracy).

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

This was a reeeallly old copy, very stately and turn-of-the-century and whatnot.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read a pretty bad/mediocre translation when I went to Greece (I was 8), but am enjoying Fagles much, much more after trying to reread Rieu earlier this spring.

Still, there's a lot of 'lists of people' and stock phrases, a la the Bible, so it may not be your thing in any event.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was slogging through all the lists of "And Dave slew Steve, and Larry slew Ed, and Frank slew Jeff..." that had me dozing off.

[redstar826.livejournal.com]

I liked the books that you mentioned, but I wouldn't call them great books either

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I appreciate what Heller was doing, but not my style of book. Adams? I don't know what he was trying to do.

[celesma.livejournal.com]

Hitchhiker was okay, but I found the movie adaptation a lot funnier.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen it but I'm sure it would beat reading it.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

It's pretty good, but the radio plays are better IMO. Check the library? Or, y'know, this is 2010, I'm sure someone has a torrent or something. :P

[persephone-20.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on these ;)

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised so many people are. Frankly, I'm used to getting reactions of "OMG HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE IT!!!????"