Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Angels and Demons - Published 2000
Da Vinci Code - Published 2003
Which book is a rewrite of which? So many people read the Da Vinci code first, I'm so glad I read them them in the correct order.
Deception point is his best book and the Lost Symbol by far his worst.
Da Vinci Code - Published 2003
Which book is a rewrite of which? So many people read the Da Vinci code first, I'm so glad I read them them in the correct order.
Deception point is his best book and the Lost Symbol by far his worst.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Hm, yeah, I'd definitely say the Da Vinci Code. In my mind, it was poorly written and filled with ridiculous ideas.
Personally, I also don't understand the Chuck Palahniuk novels that keep popping up on bestseller lists, and people's lists of favourite authors/books/etc. I just can't read his books, and I've struggled with it!
And Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Cool idea, since I love both P&P and zombies... but I couldn't finish it. It was like they took away the biggest things I like about Elizabeth Bennet (bookish-ness, etc) and replaced them with ninja-like zombie-fighting skills. Do ninja skills really have a place in zombie literature? Come on, I'm on team pirate.
Personally, I also don't understand the Chuck Palahniuk novels that keep popping up on bestseller lists, and people's lists of favourite authors/books/etc. I just can't read his books, and I've struggled with it!
And Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Cool idea, since I love both P&P and zombies... but I couldn't finish it. It was like they took away the biggest things I like about Elizabeth Bennet (bookish-ness, etc) and replaced them with ninja-like zombie-fighting skills. Do ninja skills really have a place in zombie literature? Come on, I'm on team pirate.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
not to turn this into Dan Brown Haters Club, but I thought Angels and Demons was one of the worst books ever. I struggled to make it through the first 50 pages and then I just gave up in anger and disgust at the thought of the time I'd wasted (not that I'm bitter or anything). I made it through Da Vinci Code, but I'm not sure how.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Oh, i'm joining in!
I feel bad, because I'm with the Davinci Code haters. I will say this, I think it's well written. I like the concept. What drove me crazy was all through the book I could hear Dan Brown's smug voice saying "I did so much research. I am so witty and intelligent. Wasn't that plot twist great?" I want to hear the voices of the characters and all I could hear was the screaming tone of Dan Brown's intelligence. Props to him for being brilliant. I just don't want to remember it every time I turn the page.
I know this is going to get me blacklisted, but honestly, i really didn't understand why Rick Moody's The Diviners was so great. Of course, this might have something to do with me hating Dickens. I think he's a modern Dickens. The opening of that book was riveting. For the first two pages. And then I got really sick of it. Plowing through that book was an accomplishment for me. Again, great writer, but his style totally put me off.
And I know we're avoiding Twilight hate, so I won't say I hate it. I don't. I have dog-eared copies of all four books and I own the two movies that are out so far, but Iw ill say this: if you played a drinking game where the only two rules were drink at exclamation points and comma splices, you'd have alcohol poisoning by halfway through the first book.
I feel bad, because I'm with the Davinci Code haters. I will say this, I think it's well written. I like the concept. What drove me crazy was all through the book I could hear Dan Brown's smug voice saying "I did so much research. I am so witty and intelligent. Wasn't that plot twist great?" I want to hear the voices of the characters and all I could hear was the screaming tone of Dan Brown's intelligence. Props to him for being brilliant. I just don't want to remember it every time I turn the page.
I know this is going to get me blacklisted, but honestly, i really didn't understand why Rick Moody's The Diviners was so great. Of course, this might have something to do with me hating Dickens. I think he's a modern Dickens. The opening of that book was riveting. For the first two pages. And then I got really sick of it. Plowing through that book was an accomplishment for me. Again, great writer, but his style totally put me off.
And I know we're avoiding Twilight hate, so I won't say I hate it. I don't. I have dog-eared copies of all four books and I own the two movies that are out so far, but Iw ill say this: if you played a drinking game where the only two rules were drink at exclamation points and comma splices, you'd have alcohol poisoning by halfway through the first book.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
I just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Now, don't get me wrong, it's a thought provoking book and written in a unique style, but, I couldn't help thinking it was kind of like Mad Max, without the cars. The theme of it, I mean. Everyone is out to get everyone else, it's bleak,it's depressing, and the ending kind of sucked.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Yo! (Sorry for not replying for so long, I forgot I was registered here...)marccolbourne wrote:Craig, I absolutely loved the Cellist of Sarajevo but I read while in Sarajevo during a backpacking trip through Eastern Europe. That might have added to the experience. I thought the description and emotion was right on.craig wrote:I'm currently slogging through "The Cellist of Sarajevo" -- don't know about down in the US, but it was a big seller up here in Canada. I find it... a sluggish chore of a read.
Marc
I was in Sarajevo a couple years ago, so I was excited to read this. But I found that having been to places like Mostar and Srebrenica (which are still very much in the initial stages of healing, whereas I found Sarajevo to be a little further along), the emotional tone didn't really resonate with me. Mostar and Srebrenica are still very much in pain, more so, I thought, than was represented in the Sarajevo of the book.
Hope that made sense...
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"The Shining"
"The Shining" by Steven King in that the 1980 Kubrick film was far more chilling and disturbing. Ironically King himself didn't like the film and produced a 1997 television miniseries that was subpar. This is one of the few instances where I believe a film adaptation to be better than the book, and given that it's King that's all the more surprising. But horror is meant to frighten, and the movie did that, and then some, whereas the book fell short. "The Shining" isn't one of his best.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
I don’t agree with Daryl regarding THE SHINING. Kubrick’s movie was excellent but Jack Nicholson’s character Jack Torrance looked half-crazy from the start and Shelley Duvall’s Wendy Torrance was a bit of a doormat all through as well. Not much character development. No fault of the actors, by the way, it’s clear that’s how Kubrick wanted things.
I do like King’s 1997 mini-series (filmed in and around the real hotel that inspired the novel) and found his DVD audio commentary very interesting. Incidentally, there are several published versions of Jack Torrance’s book ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY(!)
I do like King’s 1997 mini-series (filmed in and around the real hotel that inspired the novel) and found his DVD audio commentary very interesting. Incidentally, there are several published versions of Jack Torrance’s book ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY(!)
Last edited by J. T. SHEA on June 7th, 2010, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
I'll admit, I'm like a book junkie. Even when a book is not great, a disappointment, what have you, I still tend to enjoy it. That being said, I just finished Laurell K. Hamilton's Bullet, and I have no problem saying that when I finished it, I went, "Eh?" Part of that is the simple fact that the author herself hyped the book as being the answer to a lot of unanswered plot questions from previous books, and really, she just left more things unanswered, and the entire novel served as a setup for the next one. The other part of that is that the main character did something that just made me go, "I kind of really don't like you anymore. You're a selfish, whiny, domineering, thinks she knows it all but doesn't, bitch." I think I'm more upset about that part than about the lack of forward plot movement.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Brisingr sucked. Bad.
Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
I couldn't make it through the first two chapters of Eragon! The story seemed okay, but I couldn't believe how juvenile the writing felt. The whole time I wanted to take my red pen to it. Yes, I know he was 15, but there's a reason that most of the novels WE wrote when we were 15 are trunked and will never see the light of day. (It helps to have an uncle in the business after all, I guess.)BrokenChain wrote:Brisingr sucked. Bad.
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Inspiration isn't about the muse. Inspiration is working until something clicks. ~Brandon Sanderson
Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Let me see...
1) Twilight. There were so many writing mistakes in this, but looking past that was an even bigger issue I could not ignore. I did not like the portrayal of Bella or of Edward. And the relationship between them gave me the freakin creeps. And before anyone says I am just bitter because she made all this money...its not that. I LOVED J.K Rowlings books, and she is richer than the queen of England. Twilight just wasn't my cup of tea, simple as that.
2) Anything by Dan Brown. The one I remember having the most of a pain with was Angels and Demons. I just really hated his writing, although the story was kinda interesting. He just ruined the idea though with his execution of the whole thing.
3) Eragon by Christopher Paloni. (And probably his other books. It was overlong and just...boring.)
There are others, but these are off the top of my head.
Oh, and I should mention I am a book lover of all genres. I don't just read bestsellers. I read whatever catches my eye. It's quite an adventure that way.
1) Twilight. There were so many writing mistakes in this, but looking past that was an even bigger issue I could not ignore. I did not like the portrayal of Bella or of Edward. And the relationship between them gave me the freakin creeps. And before anyone says I am just bitter because she made all this money...its not that. I LOVED J.K Rowlings books, and she is richer than the queen of England. Twilight just wasn't my cup of tea, simple as that.
2) Anything by Dan Brown. The one I remember having the most of a pain with was Angels and Demons. I just really hated his writing, although the story was kinda interesting. He just ruined the idea though with his execution of the whole thing.
3) Eragon by Christopher Paloni. (And probably his other books. It was overlong and just...boring.)
There are others, but these are off the top of my head.
Oh, and I should mention I am a book lover of all genres. I don't just read bestsellers. I read whatever catches my eye. It's quite an adventure that way.
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Hey all,
I'm going to leave this thread open, but I do hope people will abide by the golden rule of speaking about other writers' books - speak about others' books as you'd have them speak about yours. I think there's a way of registering your opinion about a book without being unduly rude.
There are authors behind these books who are doing the best they can, and they deserve a bit more than just a quick pithy denouncement. Even if they're megabestsellers who are rich beyond their wildest dreams and don't inspire your sympathy, well, at the very least you might want a blurb from them someday.
Carry on!
I'm going to leave this thread open, but I do hope people will abide by the golden rule of speaking about other writers' books - speak about others' books as you'd have them speak about yours. I think there's a way of registering your opinion about a book without being unduly rude.
There are authors behind these books who are doing the best they can, and they deserve a bit more than just a quick pithy denouncement. Even if they're megabestsellers who are rich beyond their wildest dreams and don't inspire your sympathy, well, at the very least you might want a blurb from them someday.
Carry on!
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Hey all,
From here on out I'm deleting posts that don't represent a thoughtful critique of a book that didn't work for you. If it's just "such and such is trash" or the equivalent, well, there are other places for that. It's really not fair to the author, no matter how successful they are and no matter how little you thought of the book.
Elevated discourse, people!!
From here on out I'm deleting posts that don't represent a thoughtful critique of a book that didn't work for you. If it's just "such and such is trash" or the equivalent, well, there are other places for that. It's really not fair to the author, no matter how successful they are and no matter how little you thought of the book.
Elevated discourse, people!!
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Re: Bestsellers that don't live up to the hype
Bravo!Nathan Bransford wrote:Hey all,
From here on out I'm deleting posts that don't represent a thoughtful critique of a book that didn't work for you. If it's just "such and such is trash" or the equivalent, well, there are other places for that. It's really not fair to the author, no matter how successful the are and no matter how little you thought of the book.
Elevated discourse, people!!
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