Books You Wish You Could Like

[Haiku]

For me it's A Wrinkle in Time. I tried reading it as a child and as a young adult. My son and I recently tried listening to it on cd. Neither of us can get into it. I want to like it because it's such a classic series.

 

Also, I was never able to get into the Narnia series. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was ok, but everything after that was a snoozefest (to me).

 

What books do you think you should like/wish you could like, but don't?

[Ellie]

I wish I could like Inkheart. I *wanted* to like it. I like the genre, I like the concept, but oh, I wanted to poke my eyeballs out. I read it to the very last page, and then I threw it away. ::heavy sigh::

 

Redwall. Yeah. Wanted to like it, too. I thought it was dreadful, poorly written, full of plot holes. Another poke-my-eyeballs-out moment.

 

Girl of the Limberlost....'nuff said.

[boscopup]

I've tried Wind in the Willows twice, and none of us could get into it. Oh well.

[Haiku]

Bosco, I see that you are currently reading A Wrinkle in Time! LOL! How's it going?

[CrunchyGirl]

Narnia.

[boscopup]

Bosco, I see that you are currently reading A Wrinkle in Time! LOL! How's it going?

I did think that was funny! :lol: We finished it the other day. We liked it. Then we watched the movie. I was glad we read the book first.

 

We're reading Cheaper by the Dozen now.

[Haiku]

Cheaper by the Dozen is one of my absolute favorites!

 

I really disliked The Great Gatsby, too, when I read it in 10th grade. When my dd read it in 10th, I decided to try it again. I was more mature, more sophisticated, and would be better able to appreciate the book. I read the first chapter and gave up. Yuck.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I started a whole thread on the self ed board a couple of months ago about not being able to like Wuthering Heights!

 

I can't read To The Lighthouse, either.  I've started it 3 or 4 times, but just fizzled it.  I've read about it, and it should be interesting, but it is so boring for me!

 

The Princess and the Goblin was ok, but I did not like The Princess and Curdie at all.  :leaving:

 

OTOH, I love Gatsby!  ;)

 

Oh, yeah, I detested Robinson Crusoe and won't even pick up Swiss Family Robinson (I read it as a kid).  My tolerance for being preached at has gone way down as I've gotten older.

 

Anything where animals suffer and die, I don't care how classic it is - Call of the Wild and that ilk, Old Yeller, Where the Red fern Grows, The Yearling.  None of those books are getting the time of day at my house.

[Farrar]

Rose, To the Lighthouse and Wuthering Heights are two of mine too!

 

Also, a lot of Dickens.  And all those David McCullough books that dh loves.  I feel like I should too, but I don't.  And Moby Dick.  I can't do Melville.

 

In children's books...  All the Little House books.  I know, now I'm not a good homeschooler.

[Penguin]

Farenheit 451. Hated it.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Farenheit 451. Hated it.

 

Yeah, that's another one people here rave about that I didn't like much.

[littlebug42]

Middlemarch.  I was supposed to read it in college.  Gave up and bought Cliff's notes.  

 

Also, in high school, Lord of the Flies.  Hated it.  On our reading lists for the year with my girls, I give them two passes.  If they encounter a book they really loathe, they can pass twice and get a substitute book.  My Lord of the Flies experience colored my decision with this policy. 

[HRAAB]

I'm always reluctant to admit it, but I have a difficult time with Dickens except for A Christmas Carol.

 

I realize I have very strong feelings about books.  Don't like Wind in the Willows - blasphemy.  :laugh: The Great Gatsby - wonderful dialogue.  I spent a very pleasant week with To the Lighthouse.

 

On the other hand, I don't care for stories about animals.  The last one I tried reading aloud was Beautiful Joe, and I didn't make it very far because my dd wouldn't stop crying.  I liked the Little House books the first time I read them.  The second time they were just okay.  By the third time, I wanted to run away.  That makes you feel like you're committing homeschooling heresy.

 

 

[foxbridgeacademy]

I would say most classics, but that's not true.  I love Jane Austen, can't stand Dickens (writing, I like the movies).  I tried Wuthering Heights, no thank you.  I loved Alice and through the looking glass, Wizard of Oz, and To kill a mockingbird. But Grapes of wrath and Lord of the Flies were more then I could bear. And forget anything NOT written in modern English (Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare).  I tried Gatsby after H.S., nope couldn't do it. 

[ocelotmom]

Also, I was never able to get into the Narnia series. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was ok, but everything after that was a snoozefest (to me).

 

I liked The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Magician's Nephew, and The Last Battle (always had a thing for apocalyptic fiction). The rest, I never liked much. 

 

I really disliked The Great Gatsby, too, when I read it in 10th grade. When my dd read it in 10th, I decided to try it again. I was more mature, more sophisticated, and would be better able to appreciate the book. I read the first chapter and gave up. Yuck.

 

I've never liked that one, either.

 

At the moment, I wish I liked David Sedaris. Short little humorous things are exactly what I feel like reading right now. I checked out one of his books that I hadn't read yet, and it's falling flat for me, just like the others I tried. I keep trying because everyone seems to love him, and it keeps not working.

 

And I agree about "all the classics". I might have considered a degree in something English-related if it didn't involve slogging through all the classics. In great depth, at that. (From a career perspective, I guess it's better that I'm not fond of "the classics")

[Critterfixer]

The first half of Don Quixote. I say this because by the end of the book, I was into it, and cried at the end. I grew to really care about those characters. But, oh, slogging through the first half! I maintain it took Cervantes time to hit his stride. 

[Ellie]

 

  I'm not crazy about The Swiss Family Robinson.  I haven't cared for several of the books by H.G. Wells.  I didn't like Moby Dick.  Wuthering Heights...total snoozer. 

 

You know, there is apparently more than one translation of SFR, or something. I did not know this until there was a conversation *here* about it within the last couple of years, and then I downloaded a translation to my Nook that must have been one of the aberrant translations I had read about, and it was dreadful.

[Kathryn]

I was not a fan of Wind in the Willows. We listened to it on CD this spring. I couldn't wait to be done.

 

To the Lighthouse. I have tried so many times. I don't even start over because I know there's no way is make it through what I've already read again. I just leave the bookmark in and keep going. But I never get far.

[AimeeM]

I don't think I've enjoyed a single "classic" that I've read. :leaving: :leaving: :leaving: :leaving:

[kubiac]

Beowulf makes no freakin' sense to me. Not just the archaic language, the whole thing.

 

 

[Amy M]

The first half of Don Quixote. I say this because by the end of the book, I was into it, and cried at the end. I grew to really care about those characters. But, oh, slogging through the first half! I maintain it took Cervantes time to hit his stride. 

 

Oh dear, I'm just starting TWEM challenge, and have heard two people say how awfully boring Don Quixote is.

 

I hated Wuthering Heights. Felt like I was "wuthering" just by reading it.

 

And we are currently reading Wind in the Willows. I'm trying to like it. We shall continue, but so far, I'm not impressed.

 

 

[Critterfixer]

Quixote is hard at first. You get some funnies up in the very first of the novel to keep you going, but then it's a slog through all the people he meets along the way. You can tell he's making fun, and he's so in love with his joke that he revels in it.

But then there is the second half...and you start to see that there is something heroic in Quixote. Deluded, but heroic, and I swear Sancho steals the show. It's worth the slog.

[Pen]

 I do not especially like Wind in the Willows, Catcher in the Rye, some others too ... but cannot say I've ever especially wished I could like them.  There are so many books there is no point wasting time on ones that I do not like.

[LibraryLover]

Eragon.

 

So much guilt, but I have tired.

[PachiSusan]

Farenheit 451. Hated it.

 Ha ha - thank you for mentioning this - I have been meaning to get this out of the library and read it again to refresh my memory. 

 

I'm also reading "1984" and Huxleys "A Brave New World"...

[snowbeltmom]

Alice in Wonderland

 

Brave New World

 

Moby Dick

 

Lord of the Flies

[duckens]

Catcher in the Rye

 

I've read it at least twice, maybe three times.  I never really understood it.

One acquaintance was a Middle School Librarian for years.  She said that she had never really liked it either, until she retired and re-read it.  That time, she said, it was hilarious.

So, I'm waiting to retire in 20+ years before slogging through it again.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

In looking back over what I've read to the kids, a few books stand out. Just So Stories is one of those books. I managed to finish it because DD loved it, but I cursed every page. I still haven't read it to my youngest, but I will. Someday.

 

 

The Princess and the Goblin was ok, but I did not like The Princess and Curdie at all.  :leaving:

 

Oh, yeah, I detested Robinson Crusoe and won't even pick up Swiss Family Robinson (I read it as a kid).  My tolerance for being preached at has gone way down as I've gotten older.

 

Anything where animals suffer and die, I don't care how classic it is - Call of the Wild and that ilk, Old Yeller, Where the Red fern Grows, The Yearling.  None of those books are getting the time of day at my house.

 

Oh, thank you. I feel like a freak every time I come across the MacDonald books on another "must read" book list. I gave up on The Princess and the Goblin halfway through, and my kids didn't even care. 

 

I love the IDEA of the Swiss Family Robinson, but whew! It ended up being so dragged out that I only made it halfway and then quit. I wasn't particularly sad about about it. 

 

And we recently read The Incredible Journey, which I loved passionately, but DD11 hated it because of the animals suffering--and no one even died! Lesson learned. I had high hopes for The Call of the Wild etc., but we may end up passing those by :(

 

Middlemarch.  I was supposed to read it in college.  Gave up and bought Cliff's notes.  

 

Also, in high school, Lord of the Flies.  Hated it.  On our reading lists for the year with my girls, I give them two passes.  If they encounter a book they really loathe, they can pass twice and get a substitute book.  My Lord of the Flies experience colored my decision with this policy. 

 

This is a brilliant idea. Thanks for sharing it.

 

The first half of Don Quixote. I say this because by the end of the book, I was into it, and cried at the end. I grew to really care about those characters. But, oh, slogging through the first half! I maintain it took Cervantes time to hit his stride. 

 

To quote someone else here, Don Quixote is my kryptonite. I've tried FOUR times. I cannot stay awake while reading that book. And I can't let myself get any further on the WEM list until I've read it. It has lived on my bedside table so long I can write my name in the dust on it. You give me hope that I'll eventually conquer it!

 

I'm embarrassed to admit that my literature education was sorely lacking--I haven't read half the books my DH read in high school alone. I'm trying to remedy that now. It's slow going!

 

[kirstenhill]

I've tried Wind in the Willows twice, and none of us could get into it. Oh well.

This is mine too. Except I've only tried it once so far.

[Critterfixer]

I thought I would never get through War and Peace. Months.

And worth it just for Tolstoy's comparison of Moscow to a diseased bee-hive. Once I hit that section I literally connected with the story. I knew exactly what he was talking about.

Sometimes it is worth coming back to something when your life experience changes. I hated Chopin's The Awakening. I still don't think I'll care for it, but it's time to take it on again.

[LibraryLover]

Since I don't enjoy certain works other people love, I will try not to take Wind in the Willows dislike personally. lol :) But really? Awwww....

 

The Toad -came-home!

There was panic in the parlour and howling in the hall.

There was crying in the cowshed and shrieking in the stall,

When Toad-came-home!

 

When the Toad came home!

There was smashing in of windows and crashing in of door,

There was chivving of weasels that fainted on the floor,

When the Toad -came-home!

 

Bang! go the drums!

The trumpeters are tooting and the motorcars are hooting,

As the-Hero-comes!

 

Shout- Hooray!

And let each one in the crowd try and shout it very loud!

In honour of an animal of whom you're justly proud,

For it's a Toad's -great-day!

 

(That is just so much fun to read. :))

 

 

[waa510]

Any stories about being marooned on an island with a shoe and a rock for survival. OK, maybe not that extreme, but they seriously freaked me out as a kid. So, Hatchet and The Cay will never be read here.

 

Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. I just can't get into either one! I really want to like them but just can't seem to stomach them. Moby Dick too. That one was just painful.

[itsheresomewhere]

I loved Gatsby.

 

I hated Gone with the Wind.  I have tried to like this several times but I still want to slap Scarlett every time I read it.  

[PachiSusan]

The Swiss Family Robinson hate is worrying me. It's Melissa's Book Report Book 1st quarter next year!!  :huh:

[Haiku]

Eragon.

 

So much guilt, but I have tired.

 

No doubt. This is my husband's second-favorite book (behind Watership Down). My kids loved it, too. I got halfway through and gave up. Just couldn't connect, and it was going nowhere.

 

And Watership Down ... *I* am the bunny lover in the family! Couldn't get into it. Read 1/4 and quit.

 

One acquaintance was a Middle School Librarian for years.  She said that she had never really liked it either, until she retired and re-read it.  That time, she said, it was hilarious.

 

Hmmm. Hilarious is certainly not a word I would use to describe Catcher in the Rye. I loved this book. My husband hated it.

 

The Swiss Family Robinson hate is worrying me. It's Melissa's Book Report Book 1st quarter next year!!  :huh:

 

Have you ever read it? It's a nice idea, but the language is far too effusive, descriptive, and, frankly, clunky to work well today. I realize that the writing style of that day was what it was and that part of what makes a book a classic is appreciating the literary style, but goodness ... Swiss Family Robinson is just painful.

[srs]

Anna Karenina. Glad to see that I am not alone.

 

Moby Dick was the only book I wrote a report for without actually reading it. I remember that I got an A. :-)

 

Never made it through A Wrinkle in Time or the Narnia series or the Lord of the Rings series, but I really dislike the genre. Going to outsource those read alouds to DH. He adores those books and read The Hobbit independently as an eight year old.

[prairiegirl]

Now that I am giving this some thought, there are quite a few books that I just can't  get into, like:

 

Eragon

Redwall

Inkheart

The Princess and the Goblin

anything by Jules Verne  with the exception of Around the World in 80 Days

5 Children and It

Ivanhoe

 

Dare I say it?   Lord of the Rings  trilogy.  I like the first one but the other two,  well, I have to slog through them.

[ocelotmom]

The Swiss Family Robinson hate is worrying me. It's Melissa's Book Report Book 1st quarter next year!!  :huh:

 

My brother and DS both love it. My brother used it yearly for a book report between 2nd and 6th grade :)

 

 

Dare I say it?   Lord of the Rings  trilogy.  I like the first one but the other two,  well, I have to slog through them.

 

Oh yes, me too. I tried to slog through the first book, and didn't make it through the first half. I slogged through the LOTR movies and the first Hobbit movie. When I found out that the second movie wasn't the last, I refused to slog any longer. They just don't do it for me. 

[Bree]

Alice in wonderland and the little house books

[jenn&charles]

Lord of the Rings. Probably the only instance where I hate the books but love the movies. Usually it's the other way around.

[73349]

I like Dickens and don't even mind Melville, but spare me from the Brontes (never got through anything any of them wrote!) and Hemingway (got through several things and always wondered why he bothered).

 

For kids' stuff, let's just say that Amelia Bedelia and Junie B. Jones don't make it into my library bag any more.

[PachiSusan]

Whisper: I tried. I really tried. I attempted to read them more than once. Just can't do it.

 

Harry Potter, Hunger Games,  and Lord of the Rings. 

 

You can banish me now.

[Kathryn]

Oh yeah, from high school: Wuthering Heights and Silas Marner. I don't even remember anything about them other than I thought they were awful.

 

The first Harry Potter book was painful for me to read. I'm glad I was encouraged to keep going, because it did get better. But, I was having a hard time with descriptions such as "his feet were the size of baby dolphins."

[PachiSusan]

Oh yeah, from high school: Wuthering Heights and Silas Marner. I don't even remember anything about them other than I thought they were awful.

 

The first Harry Potter book was painful for me to read. I'm glad I was encouraged to keep going, because it did get better. But, I was having a hard time with descriptions such as "his feet were the size of baby dolphins."

 

Really? I loved HP 1 and struggled through 2 and never finished 3. It got more laborious and less interesting as it went on to me. 

 

And Wuthering Heights? I have a first edition and have read it over and over again. LOL 

 

I agree with Silas Marner...HATED IT - that and Owen Meany. THAT was a chore.

[Seasider]

I'm with Ellie on Inkheart. It would have been easier if I actually found any of the characters remotely likable.

 

I have to admit that though I did get into The Book Thief and ended up loving it, I spent many chapters shaking my head and wondering what was so great about it. I almost lost my commitment to it before it picked up steam and the story finally grabbed me.

 

I like but have had trouble reading Gabaldon's Outlander Series. I love a good story but just don't do s@ xually explicit, and a few scenes/scenarios in the third or fourth book caused me to forgo the rest.

[Aurelia]

Wuthering Heights

The Jungle Book

Swiss Family Robinson

Narnia, after the first two books (The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Robin Hood. I have a gorgeous copy of the Pyle version that I've had since I was a child, but I can't get past the first few pages. Ugh.

Brave New World

anything by Thomas Hardy. I was forced to read 3 of his books in high school and developed a passionate hatred for his writing.

 

I tried to like Eragon, but failed. I did make it through the whole book, though. I promptly sold it to the used book store. 

[Ellie]

Now that I am giving this some thought, there are quite a few books that I just can't  get into, like:

 

Eragon

Redwall

Inkheart

The Princess and the Goblin

anything by Jules Verne  with the exception of Around the World in 80 Days

5 Children and It

Ivanhoe

 

Dare I say it?   Lord of the Rings  trilogy.  I like the first one but the other two,  well, I have to slog through them.

 

I'm with you on the ones I bolded. I can't remember if I liked the Princess and the Goblin or not. Apparently I wasn't impressed, lol.

[Guest]

 

 

Harry Potter

 

I do not like Harry Potter. I took the first one out of the library and did not see anything bad or evil that would have made me not want my tweens to read it, I just thought it was boring and I've already read enough books about British boarding schools to make me very glad I homeschool and not take that for granted.

 

I want to like Wind in the Willows, I really WANT to....

 

I don't do Amelia Bedelia, Thomas the Tank Engine, or Berenstain Bears. I was very lucky to narrowly escape Captain Underpants with ds1 and hope to dodge that bullet again.

[rimk3]

Anna Karenina. I have started it three times and just can't finish it. My dh and I watched the movie and now I will probably never read it. Lol

 

1984 and Fehrenheit 451 were just okay to me.

 

I really like Wind in the Willows.

[RootAnn]

So much guilt, but I have tired.

 

Loved the (un)intentional typo here ... "tired"!  :tongue_smilie:

 

Haven't ever made it through Wind in the Willows. I even tried it on audio.  :smash:

Tried multiple times & just can't bring myself to like Johnny Tremain. Had the kids try it on audio & they begged me not to make them finish it.

 

Elle - I just ran across Girl of Limberlost & wondered if I should put it on my dd#1's summer reading list. Guess you'd say 'No'?

 

I'll admit I've never read any books by the Bronte sisters. I suppose I should try one or two before deciding if I'll put them in front of the kids at some point. ...  :toetap05: