Books I Don't Love, But Feel Like I Should
I love reading, there’s no doubt about it. It’s always been one of my favorite things. I do have some particular tastes, which you can read about in my blog on what makes a “good” book. I also have a list of my favorite books and recommendations if you are interested.
Unfortunately, not everything we read will be our favorite book. The novels below are some that I have, in fact, read, but do not care for.
Many of them, though, are books that have historically been well-loved favorites by many people! It is for this reason that I always feel a tinge of regret that I don’t like them. They are not in any particular order.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Brief Synopsis: To be honest, the plot of this novel is very complicated. I don’t even feel comfortable trying to sum it up in a few sentences! So I will let SparkNotes do the talking on this one.
Overall Impression:This is actually one of the first books I remember disliking. I read it when I was taking introductory composition my senior year of high school, and struggled every bit of the way to finish. I was not really interested in the plot, and I think there are a lot of intricacies and larger discussions I probably missed as an inexperienced reader who hadn’t really learned to read critically. The plot is also very complicated, as you can see in the link above, and I don’t think I had the tools or interest to really get involved in figuring it out.
Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare
Brief Synopsis: This play has been a small part of most of our lives since high school when we all got assigned to read it. A classic play written by the famous playwright William Shakespeare about two feuding families: the Capulets & the Montagues. Juliet Capulet & Romeo Montague “fall in love” despite the feud. In order to be together, Juliet fakes her own death (because this is a logical conclusion). When Romeo finds her, he actually commits suicide. Juliet wakes up and she commits suicide because she can’t be with Romeo. By the way, did I mention this is all over a matter of 3 days? At least after these tragedies occur, the families agree to stop feuding.
Overall Impression: Look, Shakespeare was a master of words and brought a lot of great new words and ideas into the world; BUT, this story is about two teenagers who commit suicide because they can’t be together after 3 days. Definitely not my idea of a great love story.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Brief Synopsis: It’s war time, and a group of boys survives a plane crash and live alone on an island. They form a society, with all that entails, and it highlights the issues present in all societies, as well as how savage people can ultimately be. They are eventually rescued before one of the main leaders, Ralph, is killed.
Overall Impression: I wasn’t mature when I read this book. I was in high school. But my lasting impression was utter boredom and dislike. I didn’t connect to it on any level, which is part of what draws me into a book. Even though I feel as though I should read this novel again to see if it was immaturity driving my dislike, I really just don’t see the draw here.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Brief Synopsis: Like many other epic fantasies, this tale follows the adventures the main protagonist, a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, as he becomes a “burglar” helping a bunch of dwarves take back their home. Mind you, hobbits are not creatures that like adventures, so it is very abnormal for Bilbo that he ends up battling a dragon, visiting kingdoms of elves, and more.
Overall Impression: I love these movies! I have watched them about a thousand times! But the description in the book is just too thick for me. I’ve tried several times to read this and I’m always overwhelmed by the minutiae.
Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Brief Synopsis: This fantasy epic is hard to sum up in just a few lines! All of the typical fantasy arcs take place: heroes, villains, overthrow, war… and most people you come to love and root for as a reader die.
Overall Impression:Martin’s prose is great. I actually really like his writing style. There are just way too many characters and subplots for me to follow. I liked the show! So I expected to like the book; however, it’s just not my cup of tea.
Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte
Brief Synopsis:This novel is purported to be love story of Heathcliff (an orphan) and Catherine Earnshaw. They flirt with the idea of love, but Catherine chooses to marry another man despite her feelings for Heathcliff. The story is told from the memory of a housekeeper who lived through the tempestuous times and is now relating the events to the current tenet.
Overall Impression: It took me 3 tries to read this all the way through, and I had to buy a fancy edition to bribe myself. The prose is beautifully written, but the people in the book are terrible! For something that’s been hailed as one of the greatest love stories ever told, I was expecting a lot more. If you’re expecting a fairy tale ending (I see you, Jane Eyre), you will be disappointed.
Ulysses by James Joyce
Brief Synopsis: Who the heck knows? But really, it’s supposedly follows (loosely) the plot of Homer’s Odyssey. Encyclopedia Britanica describes the novel as, “Stylistically dense and exhilarating.” People far smarter and more dedicated than I were able to figure this one out.
Overall Impression: I tried to read this in grad school - we were reading it for a class - and I didn’t understand one bit of it. Now, to be fair, I was extremely overextended that semester, so I might not have paid as close attention to the smaller details as I could have. That being said, nothing about this book drew me it. Period.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Brief Synopsis: This novel is told from the point of view of a young girl, Scout, whose father is a lawyer in a small Southern town during the 1930s. The father is a lawyer who is defending an African American man who is being accused of raping a Caucasian woman even though he couldn’t have possibly done it.
Overall Impression: This is another book I read as a young adult. My biggest memory of this book isn’t necessarily bad, but definitely bored. I do feel like this is one I have a chance of liking as an adult, because when I was younger, I don’t think I picked up on all of the intricacies and bigger conversations surrounding it. The last time I picked it up (maybe a year ago?), however, I just didn’t get into it.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Brief Synopsis: The novel is set in the 1800s, largely in Transylvania. Lawyer Jonathan Harker travels to a castle for a real estate transaction with Count Dracula and immediately becomes aware of the creepy vibe in the surrounding town. As it turns out, Count Dracula is a vampire! So, when Harker escapes and goes back to England, naturally he rallies a team, led by Professor Van Helsing, to go kill Dracula...Spoiler alert, after a lot of other deaths and cross-country travel, Van Helsing’s team does end up killing Dracula.
Overall Impression: This book is actually very creepy! The prose is well-written, but I do not tend to enjoy books that give me the heebie-jeebies. Because let me tell you, Dracula has been majorly Hollywood-ized! He is way creepier in his original prose form. Not to mention, there’s a lot of death & vampires in the novel (to be expected), which is not really what I like to read about in general.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Brief Synopsis: The title pretty much gives this one away, on the surface at least. The book follows a young boy named Huckleberry Finn as he goes on many adventures down the Mississippi River. But who can forget Jim, a runaway slave who accompanies Huckleberry, or the other cast of memorable characters they meet along the way.
Overall Impression: I read this book when I was a young adult, and I did not connect with the characters very well. I remember laboring to finish the book, and being glad when it was done. The characters are very memorable! So it has that going for it, but Twain’s prose is not my cup of tea. I am sure that I also missed the bigger racial and controversial undertones of the novel when I was reading it, so perhaps it could mean more now that I have critical reading skills (like Things Fall Apart & To Kill a Mockingbird...is there a pattern here?)
BONUS!
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Brief Synopsis: In this zombie apocalypse book, the living have finally won the war over the living dead (zombies) after 10 long years. The man who wrote the final war effects report gathered many first hand stories of those who fought the war.
Overall Impression: I am not a fan of zombies or apocalypse type stories to begin with, but I was assigned this novel for a class. In general, I like the oral history aspect, but zombies kind of freak me out! I couldn’t finish the book because I was in college and mainly reading at night before I went to sleep...with the effect of having nightmares about zombies under my bed. I do know people who like the post-apocalyptic world in books, and it seems to be of decent quality in that respect? The movie was decent, as well. But, I don’t much enjoy having zombie nightmares.
Do you love these one or more of these books? Make the case and convince me to retry or reread! I would love to read a book with a new perspective in mind.