This is another Top Ten Tuesday meme from The Broke and the Bookish.
My attitude to books may be generally described as “never say never”, so filling this list was a real challenge. The list actually covers more than 10 books, because rather than individual books, I mostly have genres and authors I don’t like reading. I tried to stay with books that are either considered to have literary merit or are bestsellers or considered "must reads". Starting with actual books, in no particular order:
1. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. One of the longest novels written in the English language, about a young woman whose virtue is under siege. It isn’t that its length is overly intimidating, but it seems to me that its fame these days is mostly due to its length.
2. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce. Experimental novels are fine, but I think reading Ulysses will be quite enough experimental Joyce for me.
3. Angelina: An unauthorised biography by Andrew Morton, and, for that matter, any modern celebrity biography or autobiography (ghost-written or not, with the possible exception of Stephen Fry). The latter generally glorify the subject, while the former often dish out so much dirt that one needs a shower after reading them. Besides, modern celebrities are so predictable.
4. Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. The mini-series was enough.
5. Hollywood Babylon II by Kenneth Anger. Read my review of the first volume to see why.
6. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. Hateful book, written by a hateful man, about a hateful subject.
7. Flowers in the Attic, by V.C. Andrews. The incest theme gives me the creeps.
8. Skýrsla Rannsóknarnefndar Alþingis um aðdraganda og orsök falls íslensku bankanna árið 2008 (The Report by the Special Investigation Commission of the Icelandic Parliament on the Prelude and Causes of the Collapse of the Icelandic Banks). At 2000 pages (and 9 volumes) it isn’t that long, but the chapters I sacrificed a weekend to translate into English (when I could have been having fun) were enough for me.
9. Anything by Danielle Steel. Ages ago, when I was quite young, I read and liked one of her books, The Promise, but several subsequent attempts to read more of her books showed that this book must have been a fluke. One of my worst reading nightmares is to be stuck in an airport lounge somewhere with nothing to read but Steele.
10. Any more Laurell K. Hamilton. The Anita Blake books jumped the shark in a big way for me when Anita started having sex with the monsters. It isn’t so much the monster sex iself that keeps me away, but rather than Hamilton did not give Anita a sufficiently good reason to go against her strongly stated principles.
My attitude to books may be generally described as “never say never”, so filling this list was a real challenge. The list actually covers more than 10 books, because rather than individual books, I mostly have genres and authors I don’t like reading. I tried to stay with books that are either considered to have literary merit or are bestsellers or considered "must reads". Starting with actual books, in no particular order:
1. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. One of the longest novels written in the English language, about a young woman whose virtue is under siege. It isn’t that its length is overly intimidating, but it seems to me that its fame these days is mostly due to its length.
2. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce. Experimental novels are fine, but I think reading Ulysses will be quite enough experimental Joyce for me.
3. Angelina: An unauthorised biography by Andrew Morton, and, for that matter, any modern celebrity biography or autobiography (ghost-written or not, with the possible exception of Stephen Fry). The latter generally glorify the subject, while the former often dish out so much dirt that one needs a shower after reading them. Besides, modern celebrities are so predictable.
4. Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. The mini-series was enough.
5. Hollywood Babylon II by Kenneth Anger. Read my review of the first volume to see why.
6. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. Hateful book, written by a hateful man, about a hateful subject.
7. Flowers in the Attic, by V.C. Andrews. The incest theme gives me the creeps.
8. Skýrsla Rannsóknarnefndar Alþingis um aðdraganda og orsök falls íslensku bankanna árið 2008 (The Report by the Special Investigation Commission of the Icelandic Parliament on the Prelude and Causes of the Collapse of the Icelandic Banks). At 2000 pages (and 9 volumes) it isn’t that long, but the chapters I sacrificed a weekend to translate into English (when I could have been having fun) were enough for me.
9. Anything by Danielle Steel. Ages ago, when I was quite young, I read and liked one of her books, The Promise, but several subsequent attempts to read more of her books showed that this book must have been a fluke. One of my worst reading nightmares is to be stuck in an airport lounge somewhere with nothing to read but Steele.
10. Any more Laurell K. Hamilton. The Anita Blake books jumped the shark in a big way for me when Anita started having sex with the monsters. It isn’t so much the monster sex iself that keeps me away, but rather than Hamilton did not give Anita a sufficiently good reason to go against her strongly stated principles.
Comments
I actually enjoyed Scarlett, but I also enjoy books relating to Jane Austen's books, while a lot of people don't like those kinds of books.
Love that I wasn't the only one who put Mein Kampf on a list.
Mine is here: http://www.sarahreck.com/blog/?p=281
Are you a translator too?
With you on Hitler's book, and celebrity biographies. I mean, really, why does anyone care?