Great video! I love _Naked Lunch_ for the sheer chutzpah of it 😆 “I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves, setting up their devil doll stool pigeons…” [that's how it begins, lol]
Haha, this is a fun list! 👍 You probably not going to like East of Eden more than The Grapes of Wrath, but have you read Steinbeck's Travels with Charley? Because if you haven't, as a dog person who fishes, that might be the one for you!
Luckily, only one of my eleven toes has been trampled (if you want to know, it's SCARLET from the injury). I thought I was the only person who hated Wuthering Heights, so I'm happy to know I'm in good company. This is a great video--I think people forget how much we can learn by discussing why we dislike what we dislike. Bravo!
This video has made me aware that lots of people hate _Wuthering Heights_. Sorry about _The Scarlet Letter_. Blame that damn Dimsdale! Thanks for watching.
I was so nervous that it would be my top 10 list ha. Luckily I have no qualms with any of this except Wuthering Heights, but you do a wonderful job explaining your dislikes!
Not a fan of Midnight's Children either but I liked Grapes of Wrath (though not as much as East of Eden or Of Mice and Men) and Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite classics! Each to their own 😄. Happy reading!
I started Naked Lunch 3 times by now and always gave up after a few pages as I just didn't get it and thinking maybe later Ill be in a better mindset. Thinking of looking for an audiobook for my next attempt :D
the film is fun! and takes much less of your time, so even if it still is mainly weird, it is only a short experience ;p (I have not touched the book, and probably never will)
The film is nothing like the book. Naked Lunch took nearly 4 decades to actually put in theatres. I read the book in 2 days the first time and have reread it at least once since. Just plow into it and you’ll get the idea. It almost changes your brainwaves in a sense- like entering an alternate reality. That was my interpretation.
Hi Brian, I couldn’t finish PD James death at Pemberley. I also couldn’t finish the Scarlet letter. I read gone with the wind at 11 and liked it very much but haven’t read it since. I loved Wuthering Heights. Aloha
I wish I had DNF’d Death Comes to Pemberly 🤓 I think The Scarlet Letter suffers a bit because to a modern reader the story is too obvious. Hester is so obviously good, Dimmesdale so obviously the father,etc There’s just little to generate interest other than the writing itself. Thanks Maya
Great video, thanks. I tried Grapes Of Wrath and persevered until about the last 15 pages and STILL abandoned it before the end. That's a first for me. Life's too short in some cases.
Wuthering heights is one of those books that, although I love it, I completely understand why other people hate it. The Grapes of Wrath, on the other hand... What the heck Brian lol 😂
I'm with you on Wuthering Heights. I've never made it all the way through. I have a lovely Bronte clothbound set and poor Emily gets no play while I keep rereading the others.
I reread it a few years ago thinking I just hated it because it was required reading at some point. Nope, I hated it more the second time. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I read A Thousand Acres not too long ago as part of an ongoing project to read every Pulitzer Prize winning novel and really enjoyed it. I'm not very familiar with the King Lear story beyond the basic setup (old king gives kingdom to his daughters), but I guess I found the melodrama in the novel to be in keeping with the spirit of Shakespeare. I'm also just not super against melodrama in general. I think it gets a bad rap because the only example of melodrama most people can think of that isn't trying to hide behind comedy are soup operas. I tend to think that most "classic novels" take themselves way too seriously (still love a lot of them though) and so it was refreshing to read a book that was melodramatic and owned it about itself.
Great comment about _A Thousand Acres_. I read it along time ago and it is possible that if I reread it (not likely) that I might see qualities that I didn't the first time. Thanks for watching.
Totally with you on WH. I had to teach it in a Great Books course 20 years ago and could never understand why so many students, mainly girls, swooned over Heathcliff. He's a monster, I said! Mr. Lockwood is the only sane voice in the book and he's gone after the first chapter or two.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was so disturbed by the part his ancestor, Judge Hathorne, had played in the Salem Witch Trials that he changed the spelling of his name to disassociate himself from the judge. As a Romanticist, Hawthorne argued for a loosening of the Old Testament-style, punitive approach to religion in favor of a kinder, gentler application. Love and idealism and a reverence for the "natural" had become all the rage. It's arguable that Pearl, not Hester, is the "heroine" of The Scarlet Letter. Sprung from the depths of temptation, guilt, and sin, Pearl embodies freedom and purity and spontaneity: characteristics that Hawthorne thought appropriate to a "new" age of enlightenment. I thought she was a spoiled brat, but Hawthorne loved her.
This is truly fascinating information. I didn't know much of this (other than the ancestor judge bit). Thank you for sharing it with me and watching this video.
Thanks again for your reviews! I haven’t read many of the books or if I have it was a very long time ago. Many, despite your reviews (😊) I plan to read or read again, namely TGOW (never read) & SL (haven’t read since Jr HS). The vid makes me wonder what you think of Jane Eyre, a book I’m really struggling to get through & am disliking immensely! Thanks again!! 😊
Thank you for your comment. I liked Jane Eyre a great deal though I found the romance between Jane and the preacher (?) tedious. I thought she should have stayed a teacher.
Fun video. I’m 100% with you on The Grapes of Wrath. Cartoonish characters, heavy-handed, the reenactment of some general idea without any subtlety whatsoever.
@@BookishTexan At least Steinbeck confronts poverty in all its ugliness. A courageous thing to do, though perhaps overdone. It there anyone today who deals with poverty in modern America in the same confrontational way?
@@cthoadmin7458 Steinbeck does confront the ugliness of poverty, but I have always thought that William Kennedy's novel _Ironweed_ was a more powerful and gritty depiction of poverty. For an author who confronts poverty in modern America you might read _Salvage the Bones_ by Jesmyn Ward
I love your list. You got some of my favs on it and you are right about Heathcliffe he is a monster, but I still loved the book. It showed that there is no redeeming factor to love. You love who you love and it doesn't make them any better because you do. Naked Lunch I loved, but for the life of me I can't remember why!
😂Thanks, Brian!😂I was indeed missing GWTW!😂I loved this list. I’ve read “Civilisations”, “Death Comes to Pemberley”, “The Return of the Native” and “Wuthering Heights” and… totally agree with all you say about them!!! The only book by Rushdie I’ve read is his memoir and enjoyed his style very much. I’ve had “Midnight’s Children” on my shelves forever, and was actually thinking of reading it, but it’s not that urgent😉I’m actually most intrigued by that King Lear in Iowa. Shakespeare is my favourite writer and I’m also curious about how his work has been reimagined in different settings. So I made a note of “A Thousand Acres”.
Thought I would give GWTW a break for one video. Glad we agree on so many of these books. Of all the books on the list I regret hating _Midnight's Children_ the most. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts about it when you read it. _A Thousand Acres_ was very popular and very praised. I am sure my opinion is the minority one. Thanks emma
@@BookishTexan Midnight's Children and A Thousand Acres were two on which I especially disagreed with you. Great books, as far as I'm concerned, and lovely writing. The one on which I really really DO agree with you is Wuthering Heights, and I hate it for the same reason. I was shocked when I read the book; I'd heard all about what a romantic hero he was, etc., etc. Really makes me wonder about people.
@@SDYoungren Thanks for your comment. I admire both Smiley and Rushdie's writing and I have no doubt they are great books. I just dont like them. It does sound like our reaction to WH was the same.
A goodly assortment...and I enjoyed the film adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberly...I also love that PD James got to do a heart project before she died :/
I think I watched part of the adaptation of "Death Comes to Pemberly". James' success as a crime writer no doubt gave her the opportunity to pursue her passion for Jane Austen's work. I just wish the book had been better. Thanks Margaret.
As a former high school English teacher, I found this video delightful! Thanks for sharing your frank opinions. (Even as a teacher, I hated the required summer reading lists my English department was forced to compile at the end of every school year. Way to make students hate reading!)
Haha! My mom is a retired English teacher and my sister still teaches English. I'm pretty sure they would take issue with some of my choices. And many of these titles are here because I was forced to read them. Thanks for watching and commenting susan
I'm a reader, and reading the required list each year was about the only thing I enjoyed about school, besides band practice. If it weren't for band practice, I would have dropped out of school. My mother would have killed me, but I think I would. Funny thing is, I got the opportunity to go to community college for a two-year degree for free (Nafta paid for it) at 48 yrs old, and it was the best time of my life, I loved every minute. Got my ASS in addictions counseling. Good thing I did finish high school.
The Scarlet Letter is a complex, difficult novel and I cannot believe that this book is assigned to high school students. Same with Virginia Woolf--you need to be a strong reader to appreciate or love her novels. Please don't force them onto high school students.
@@laurenhahn101 I think you underestimate high school students, many of whom are engaged in sexual relationships these days. But the level of education they are receiving now makes me change my mind and agree with you. They wouldn't be able to read them let alone understand them. This just came to mind: Some years ago I read a collection of novelettes by the French author Maupassant, a stunning work. I asked my mother if she had read his work and she replied Phiff! We read that in high school! I highly doubted it, it was six stories of how women were reduced to prostitution at different levels of 19th-century French society!
@@christinerobinson9372 I wasn't referring to students' sexual experience when I said that The Scarlet Letter wasn't appropriate for them. I was referring to the dense writing, long sentences and the sophisticated vocabulary of the novel. I teach college freshmen; some of my students' reading skills are horrifying weak, and I am not talking about ESL students.
Interesting list. I’ve only read two: Wuthering Heights and Scarlet Letter. I don’t remember them really so may do re-reads (emphasis on maybe). I saw the movie A Thousand Acres and have never read King Lear. Grapes of Wrath is on my TBR. Now I’m trying to think of what books would make my list. 😊💙
I have zero bones to pick. The books on your list I’ve read, I hate also. The Scarlet Letter, The Grapes of Wrath etc. and the ones you mention I haven’t read, I don’t want to read. Ever. Starting with Wuthering Heights. Thanks for your candor!! PS the only thing worse than reading 1000 Acres was watching the adaptation.
This is just my belief but I really think it comes down to The Emperors New Clothes. Books art and drama are too many times held up for praise by people we look up to. We think they know better than we do so it must be wonderful and I’m the only one who doesn’t understand it. I’ve finally learned that it’s ok to not like popular things. Sometimes people come for me but more often they agree.
I agree about The Grapes of Wrath. I haven't actually read the novel, but the play based on the novel. It was rather clumsy, ham handed and preachy. Steinbeck was famous for this sort of thing, although sometimes his approach worked as in Tobacco Road which I liked because it kept these elements in check. The other works, I haven't read except for Wuthering Heights and the Scarlett Letter, and I liked both. Both are tragedies. Long ago, I read somewhere that Wuthering Heights and Moby Dick are the two books that make a tremendous and unsettling impact on their readers. I agree. Heathcliff is a strange and not very good man. But the story is more about the woman who loved him. At least I thought so. And at the time I read it, it had a powerful impact on me. That has faded over time. As to the Scarlett Letter, the main story has the impact of Greek Tragedy, Puritan style. I grew up in Boston in the 40's and 50's. There was still a strong element of Puritanism active even at that time. One of the strongest scenes in the story for me was when the town fathers visit Hester in her home and are appalled at the way she is bringing up her daughter. The other powerful moment is towards the conclusion where she lets down her hair. She's in full rebellion at that point. I think, to some extent, you have to be a New Englander, to fully appreciate both the moral intensity and hypocrisy which Puritanism imprints on all it touches. Because Puritans genuinely have high, strict, and uncompromising moral standards. Unfortunately, the rigidity of this uncompromising rectitude forces those who don't share it, or who do share it, but cannot live up to those standards into concealing their failures by hypocrisy and outright lies. Hester might have been no different, but once pregnant, lies couldn't help her, and she didn't want to ruin the man who had been her lover. And Dimsdale eventually, in a very theatrical way, denounces himself from overwhelming feelings of guilt. So, there you have a tragedy waiting to happen and easily repeated.
Thank you for the great comment. Having grown up in a church that came from the Calvinist tradition I think I have a pretty good handle on the imprint of Puritanism though not New England Puritanism certainly. Your insights into the the novel and its characters is excellent. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
I totally agree with most your list. Some of them I have not read. I can't stand Wurthering Heights, Scarlet Letter, and Grapes of Wrath. I have never read Return of the Native, but I have read Far From the Madding Crowd, which I liked. Naked Lunch I have tried to read ,several times, but I can't get into it.
Bless you! I hated The Scarlet Letter. I read it three times, then watched the movie. I still hated it. Some of my students is Spanish class mentioned hating the book, and I told them I did too. Boy, did I get reamed by the English teacher who was teaching the book. I'll never understand why some people think it's the great American novel.
I got in trouble with the English Department at the high school where I taught for something similar. I was thinking about _The Scarlet Letter_ and I think there are two things that make it so boring. First, it is like a one note song. Everything is about one thing. Second, there is no real character development. The characters stay pretty much the same throughout. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I would add Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” as #11. I know that it’s an extended allegory of Europe between the wars but it’s one turgid read. As a professional musician I think of Mann as the literary equivalent of Mahler-something you have to try to get through and seems to last forever. However I did enjoy Mann’s “Dr Faustus” but that was probably due to its music world setting.
@@BookishTexan Maybe it’s better in German, but reading the term “the rest cure” about every other page almost made me lose my mind. Never finished it.
A glutton for punishment! I think I was a tad bit traumatised by the ending of Grapes of Wrath in my younger yrs. Couldn't get that out of my head. And agree with Hawthorne and of course your final unofficial selection, the book who shall not be named. But leave Poor Heathclif to his demons.
My Grapes of Wrath trauma was boredom related when I read it in school. I reread it a decade or so ago and the more I read it the more things I find to dislike. I decided to give GWTW a break this time.😁 Thanks penny.
I like Steinbeck, but there's a lot of his stuff I don't like, especially his more comedic writings, but I've put off The Grapes of Wrath. I really ought to read it, though. East of Eden is great for sure.The only book I've read from your list is The Scarlet Letter, in school of course, and I remember actually liking it for the most part. I've not read Death in the Afternoon, but I did read The Dangerous Summer, which I thought fantastic, despite hating bull fighting itself, and so I never felt the need to read Death in the Afternoon.
Haha! My favorite Steinbeck's are the funny ones, but I do want to read _East of Eden_. I think you are better off not reading _Death in the Afternoon_ unless you really just like reading Hemingway's writing. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I was hoping to see Wuthering Heights on this list. It gets so much love and I thought it was terrible. Agree with you on heavy handedness of Grapes of Wrath. East of Eden is great. I really enjoyed first read. Decades later I loved it again, forgetting how pivotal one of the characters was. I want to say the Irish farmer, but it's been a while since 2nd read. Maybe he wasn't Irish.
Wuthering Heights is on the list😁 I couldn't make a book hate video without it. I am looking forward to East of Eden. A lot of my assessment of Steinbeck will rest on how I feel about that book.
Thanks for the great video. I hated most of the books I've read on that list too, but the one I hated most of all was Death Comes to Pemberley. Writing Jane Austen fanfiction, whether you're P D James or my friend Louise (who got hers published by some vanity press), it's clear from the first paragraph that you're not Jane Austen so give it up :D
Thank you. Death Comes to Pemberley is just a mess of a book. Its like James focused more on the writing style than the story, couldnt quite pull off the style, and left readers with a very weak story.
@@BookishTexan I think there is a special problem with that book. All the other books on your list, be they good or bad, are books written by the author - their own books. What PD James is doing is trying to write someone else's book. It's like making a copy of a great painting - good or bad, it's still a copy. Never much liked her regular mysteries anyway
A fun topic that probably ruffled some feathers. I am in the hate group for Wuthering Heights as well. I've read it twice, both times years ago, and I hated it both times. I have considered reading it again though since I have seen many videos of why it is people's favorite book. I didn't hate Midnight's Children but I think I missed a lot of nuance since I don't know Indian history well enough. I completely agree about Death Comes to Pemberley. It's horrible. Your comments about hating the translated books struck a cord with me. I hated one of the translated books I read for the Booktube prize this year and it pained me that I couldn't dnf. I felt like a kid in school being forced to read something I hated.
I became fascinated with William Burroughs after picking up Naked Lunch, mainly because I couldn't believe he'd managed to get it published. I've since read all of his books, and while he and his work are flawed in several ways there is always a lot of humour and stark honesty in his writing. His cut-up technique can produce amazing results but in the end it has been much more influential in music than in literature. Part of the difficulty many people have with Naked Lunch involves the sections where he's deliberately trying to disgust you, such as the hanging scenes or the racist county clerk. He's going for an effect similar to Swift's 'A Modest Proposal', calling attention to the horrors of capital punishment or racism; whether or not he was successful is up to each reader.
I don't doubt the (for a lack of a better term) genius of Burroughs. I appreciate that its there, but I'm pretty sure he isnt for me and _Naked Lunch_ certainly isnt. Thanks for your great comment.
@@steveneardley7541 The movie is almost completely unrelated to the book. Cronenberg decided early on that a direct adaptation would be too expensive and would probably get banned everywhere so he just spun a story based on Burroughs' life instead.
'A thousand Acres' is on my to be read pile, maybe I should approach it with caution! I couldn't agree more about 'Wuthering Heights' - never understood why anyone would think it's a great romance. One of my pet hates are books which have a lot of dialect, and it's the first to do that, yes it's skilled but such a slog if you're not enjoying the novel anyway. The antidote to 'Wuthering Heights' is 'Cold Comfort Farm' such good fun! I also hate authors messing with other authors' work. Even if they're great novelists, you always think, '...but Elizabeth Bennet wouldn't have done that.' If you're writing an homage, it's got to be radically different, I think.
Please don't let my opinions dissuade you from reading any of these books. Dialect doesn't usually bother me. Thanks for the _Cold Comfort Farm_ recommendation.
I love that you cushioned Hardy's entry in this list by naming the Israeli terrible novels Nightlights Children and Naked Lunch either side of it. I often call The Return of the Native the quintessential Thomas Hardy novel, so I'm going to take your hatred of it as agreement with my statement. Your Wuthering Heights statement reminds me of Moby Dick, that book is brilliant, I hate it with intensity of a small to medium sized neutron star. Loved the outro. Steinbeck 🤯
I do think _Return of the Native_ may be the most Hardy of all the Hardy novels and so my dislike is indeed an endorsement of a sort. I didn't hate Moby Dick (did hate the whaling parts sometimes). Thanks Scott
Great video. I too hated the corn cobby adjectives and heavy handedness of Steinbeck-Reductive melodrama. Hated GOW. I have to say I liked the writing style of Midnight’s Kids but would have to agree with you. WH agreed.
By my understanding, much of NAKED LUNCH was written (in Tangier) by Burroughs as individual "routines", (Burroughs' term), that is, short pieces he mailed to Allen Ginsberg in NYC, intended for Ginsberg's amusement. That it, they're intended to be darkly funny, no-holds-barred literary "bits," (as in "comedy bits"), drawing from the world of junkies (of which Burroughs had extensive experience). Burroughs was just riffing, letting his imagination go, trying, in his way, to make Ginsberg, who Burroughs was infatuated with, love him. Just imagine if you were writing to your desired love object and you wrote a wild and elaborate story (to be enclosed with your letter) to delight and charm that person. This is essentially how much of NAKED BUNCH came to be. Much of it was inspired by or drawn from Burroughs' experiences with heroin and other drugs, and much of his language is derived from junkie slang (of the era in which he wrote, the 1950s). As these were disconnected routines, they could have been sequenced in any number of ways. I read it years ago, and I found it difficult to read and to understand. I had read his biography and I could recognize that some parts were transformations of experiences he had had or of people in his life, so I could appreciate what he had done, but I could not say I "liked" it. I loaned the book to a woman I knew, at her request, and I warned her it was difficult to get through. However, when she returned it to me, she said she LOVED IT and thought it was great! I can only say, she probably had more personal experience of the milieu about which Burroughs was writing, (the underground world of social outcasts, drug users, etc.) I assume she easily understood many passages that I found difficult to comprehend. Most of Burroughs' work is difficult to read, but his two early short novels, JUNKIE and QUEER are written in concise prose very much like Dashiel Hammett's hard-boiled prose.
This is really great information. Thank you so much for taking the time to share it with me. Interesting point about the woman you loaned the book to having experiences that helped her understand the book. I was just confused and could not connect to it at all. Thank you for the great comment.
I've read very few of these - only Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights, neither of which I hate but don't particularly love, either. I've not read Return Of The Native, but I find Hardy to be a crude tragedian, a man who could be relied upon to lay it on with a trowel whenever possible - Tess and A Pair Of Blue Eyes were enough for me. I have a ravening hatred of Jane Austen, so am unlikely to enjoy Death Comes To Pemberly. If you find Naked Lunch weird, you'd find Nova Express even weirder .....
Oooh, as a fellow Hardy hater I love your description of his writing style.👍🏻 I love Jane Austen though. I have a weather beaten copy of _Nova Express_
Lol poor turtle 🐢 I didn’t like wuthering heights much at all - mostly I think I thought it would be something else - and I don’t know much about bill fighting and that does sound terrible. But biggest oh no is Return of Native- it’s in my tbr stack and me and Hardy… I have a love hate relationship and now I am not optimistic about which side that one will fall into. Guess we will see! Thanks for the thoughts and reviews!
I think people that like Hardy have a tendency to really like _The Return of the Native_. I just never have liked Hardy. I look forward to your thoughts on it. Thanks Kristin.
Emily intended Heathcliff to be a hated, tragic figure. Some of his personality forged by circumstances, but most by his own intrinsic evil. Enjoyed listening to your list.
Thanks for your insights. I'm probably wrong, but when I see a character described as "tragic" I think that I should be able to muster some empathy for them. I could find none for the adult Heathcliff. WH is objectively a great book, but I just hate it. Thanks for watching and commenting.
@@BookishTexan I agree, I felt no empathy for Heathcliff, he had no redeeming traits, the novel leaves you devastated. Unlike for example, Rodion Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.
What fun. There are a few on this list that I think are outstanding novels, but that’s what makes it interesting. Midnight’s Children and Grapes of Wrath are fabulous. Return of the Native isn’t my favorite Hardy, but he is probably my favorite 19th Century author from England. I didn’t hate GWTW, but there wasn’t much to like about it.
I know that _Return of the Native_ and Hardy in general suffer from the fact that it was assigned reading in High School. The same may be true of Grapes, but I did reread it after that I found new things to dislike. Thanks Greg.
I predicted _Wuthering Heights_ and _Death Comes to Pemberly_ would make the cut. _Return of the Native_ surprised me. Hannah of Hannah’s Books has a recent video talking of Hardy, which made me decide, if ever I read another of his novels (after _Tess_ ) it will be that one. But one may have been enough lol. I’m neither a Hemingway nor a bullfight fan, so I support your abhorrence. Steinbeck is an author I’ve never read. Recently I picked up _Travels with Charley_ (?) and I may start with that, unless some “Where not to start” video tells me that’s not a good place. It’s short though. I still want to read _Joseph Anton_ but that’s (excuse my vernacular) a big MF. I love Rushdie’s writing on free speech and his courage, and am relieved to hear he’s doing better. Naguib Mahfouz was similarly stabbed and never made a good recovery-
Scott from the channel Gunpowder Fiction and Plot is a huge Hardy fan and he considers _The Return of the Native_ as the quintessential Hardy. He and Hannah are for more informed than I so I hope you will read it. I don't think I will do a where not to start with Steinbeck because I'm really not a fan. I like to do those videos over authors that I really like. I remember the Mahfouz stabbing because I think I had just finished _The Palace Walk_. Thanks David.
Six or now seven years ago I read _The Cairo Trilogy_ a milestone reading event for me (because it had sat on my shelf for so long) and of those I consider _Palace Walk_ the best part.
I hated Grapes of Wrath so much when I read it in high school! Most of these books I actually haven't read because I felt like I would hate them. I have to say though, I really enjoyed Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. So I'm not a Hardy hater. I just haven't felt emotionally prepared to tackle another Hardy! One day. I also liked The Scarlet Letter but haven't read it in many years and need to revisit. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, you've confirmed some of my decisions!
I hated it in high school and then reread it and hated it more😁 I'm just not a Hardy fan. I've tried, I really have. Dimmsdale is just such a weenie. I can't stand it. Hester is awesome, but Dimmsdale! Thanks for your great comment.
I'm kind of relieved to hear you hate Midnight's Children! 😅 I just sort of fizzled out about 30% in and just dread picking it back up! But, after hearing your comments, I think I figured out why... I don't like Saleem! I also feel like I'm missing something from the story. I can recall everything I have read, and really liked most parts just fine, but... I feel lost.
It does seem like a book that requires prior knowledge. And I had no knowledge of Indian independence or the partition before I picked up _Midnight's Children_. I definitely think that hindered my understanding and enjoyment. Thanks for your comment Misty.
East of Eden. My mother loved it, my sister loved it. I forced myself to crawl all the way through it to the end. Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again. Couldn't get past the first two or three pages. Maybe it really is a great book, I don't know because it put me to sleep each and every time I tried to read it. Dune. Actually, Dune was readable, but I hated the social structure. And any Robert Jordan book, same thing, I hated the social structure that was the basis of all his novels. I LOVED Gone With The Wind! It's one I can read over and over again. I love Scarlett O'Hara's narcissistic personality and I love that by the end of the book, although she is a tad sorry for lost opportunities, she really has not changed at all. She hasn't learned a damn thing. You go, Scarlet! Ditto Grapes of Wrath, that's a book everyone should read. And The Scarlett Letter. As for Wuthering Heights, I could not, for the life of me, understand why these two people could not get their act together and be happy, so they deserved what they got. I'm embarrassed to admit I have not read the other books you have mentioned. I know for sure I don't want to read a book about bullfighting! The Old Man and the Sea was good but I've never been inspired to read another Hemingway novel. Wow, why don't I remember the stuff you mention in Wuthering Heights? I do remember was Heathcliff was not someone I would admire, but now I have to read it again, I don't remember that stuff about Catherine's body. Or the dog. Two more on my list: Anna Karenina (The whole book was hardly even about her), and Madame Bovary. I should read that one again, I know I didn't get it when I read it and that was longer ago than I care to mention. And The House of Seven Gables, wth was it about? I don't know how much your parents have told you about the Depression, maybe they were better off than my grandparents, but it is not heavy-handed. It is just what happened. I have a picture of my mother, 2 yrs old, standing alone in a yard of mud, in handed-down clothing, with the most miserable look of deep depression you never want to see on a 2yr old's face.
I plan on reading _East of Eden_, but your comment here makes me very nervous. I havent read Dune or any Robert Jordan. I can't agree with you about _Gone With the Wind_ I'm afraid. I liked Anna Karenina and was kind of meh about Madam Bovary. Never read The House of the Seven Gables We'll just have to disagree about The Grapes of Wrath as well. Its the heavy handed symbolism that bothers me. Thanks for your great comment.
You and I share a similar take on real-life bullfights. My first exposure came when I traveled with a friend to Mexico and attended one live in the mid 70s. I expected to witness a battle-of-equals, human wit vs raw animal strength. What I saw instead was much as you describe. It disgusted me, much to the amazement (but not amusement) of my friend, who was both Latino-American (or whatever the accepted term is these days) and quite in to the "sport".
Glad to know that someone who has witnessed a bullfight first hand feel the same. Hemingway actually addresses the grossness of the bullfight, but to him the "courage" and skill of the matador raised to to the level of art. Like you, all I can see is a ritualistic slaughter of an animal. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I was traumatized by that book in High School so I think I erased that from my memory😂 I have learned to appreciate Hardy, but I don’t think I will ever like his books.
Thanks for this list! For some reason I didn't have to read The Scarlet Letter in school, and have avoided reading it all my life - and I think I will continue to avoid reading it. I feel the same way as you about Wuthering Heights - the writing is amazing but the characters are so unappealing. One book I truly disliked was The Good Earth. Just could not relate. Thanks again!
I didn't have to read in high school either. Glad to know we agree about _Wuthering Heights_. I have never read anything by Pearl Buck. Doesn't seem like I am missing much. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I haven't read most of those, and now I don't want to. Having grown up Mormon, I did relate to The Scarlet Letter. All of those objectionable elements seemed so real. My parents and I should've been able to spot the bad parts a mile away. They still can't. It makes me hate parts of my life.
Please keep in mind that my opinion is definitely the minority one on most of these books. Others love and admire them and they are probably right. I am sorry that your experience in the Mormon faith has had that effect. I can see how _The Scarlet Letter_ would be relatable. Wishing you all the best.
4 books from your list are some of my most favourite books. I just don’t care for the plot and enjoy the random musings, outrageous details, strange philosophies, stretching or experimenting with the form as much as possible and don’t judge the characters . Guess we have absolutely polar tastes.😅
Ha! Yes we might have very different tastes, but some of my best and favorite BookTube friends and channels are run by people whose tastes and mine rarely agree.
It’s very interesting (and fun) to see a list of books that another reader hates! I’m with you on A Thousand Acres. Lear is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I had high hopes for ATA when I read it many years ago, but I was greatly disappointed. One aspect of Shakespeare’s brilliance was to stir empathy for characters like Lear, who make really awful mistakes that they eventually regret. In my memory, none of that happens in A Thousand Acres - the father is awful and the daughters are unlikeable, and all the book did for me was depress the heck out of me. I have read other books by Smiley that I’ve liked, so they aren’t all stinkers, ha. Wuthering Heights is not a favorite, but I don’t hate it. It’s been misrepresented as a romance practically since it was written I think, and therein lies the problem. I don’t think Emily Brontë intended it to be read as a romance, nor do I think Heathcliff was intended to be a good or likable character (or Catherine, either, for that matter). It is a dark melodrama about obsession and revenge and how the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. I do better with it when I read it that way. I read Scarlet Letter in a class, and that helped me have a greater appreciation for it. Hawthorne was interestingly subversive for his time and place, such as in the scene when Dimmesdale, the Puritan minister, tells Hester that what they did in the natural world of the woods had a sanctity of its own. But like you, I didn’t like his weakness in the end. And the daughter (Pearl), is just awful. She’s a device rather than a character. Thanks again for another great video!
Thank you for your great comment. I agree completely about the strength of Lear v. the weakness of ATA. The fact that the father in ATA is just a monster alters the nuance Lear for the worse. I agree that EB didn't intend for WH to be a romance. But that makes me wonder what she did intend for it to be? I appreciate the books greatness, I just don't like it. The same is true for _The Scarlet Letter_ I appreciate what Hawthorne was up to and I agree that he was subversive and brilliant in the way he structured many of his scenes. But on a strictly subjective level, I hate Dimmsdale so much that I hate the book.
The only thing worse than reading The Scarlet Letter is having to try and get high school juniors to read it. To mix my literary metaphors, the teacher becomes a reluctant matador and the students are the tortured animals (or we are all bull *bleep* fighters). How many reading futures have been stunted by required reading lists? Thanks for your cogent comments.
Perhaps the worse thing from my experience was to be an 8th grader who loved reading having to waste time on Pearl Buck’s horrendous “The Good Earth”. I wonder if that book is still torturing and destroying the nascent reading habits of middle schoolers today.
I do agree with you. My hated books mostly come from forced high school reading too. Of Mice and Men, Death of a Salesman, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Called Desire, etc. I did enjoy the movie of Death Comes to Pemberly though. Almost anything by Charles Dickens. My bad books are the tragic and sad ones. Bullfighting is abhorrent
Forced reading does create resentment, especially in a lot of us when we are teens. I watched part of the _Death Comes to Pemberly_ adaptation, but never finished it. I like Dickens pretty well. Thanks for watching and commenting.
It's nice that someone will admit when they don't like something and I agree with you on The Grapes of Wrath. I actually like The Scarlet Letter (not the beginning, I agree with you there). Personally, I hate The Great Gatsby.
Haha! my first reaction to your topic was “I bet all 11 are Hardy books...but no, Brian hasn’t read 11 Hardy books🤷♀️”. “The Return of the Native” not a favorite Hardy for me either. Ranks about 6 of 14. For many people Diggory Venn, the reddleman was the stand out character not only for his redness but also for his heroism. He doesn’t appear that much in the story. Have absolutely no memory of the turtle 🐢 in The Grapes of Wrath. I do remember the remarkable closing scene. Your comments on The Scarlet Letter just sparked an interest in rereading it. Don’t remember anything about the customs office framing of the story. Hester’s story is what I remember. I think The Lord of the Flies & The Old Man and the Sea 🎣 were my least favorite high school novels. [As for short stories, I hated The Bear by Faulkner. ]
HA! I purposefully included only one Hardy. I could have included one or two more. The fact that you don't remember the Customs House framing story helps confirm my belief that it is almost completely unnecessary and way too long. Is it possible the edition you read didn't include it? I didn't have to read any of those three in high school. If I had my reading taste might have turned out completely different. Thanks Mary.
I do love Return of the Native, though Woodlanders is my favorite Hardy novel, and I admire Midnight's Children, and love Wuthering Heights, but I have a fondness for Victorian novels.
I am not a Hardy fan, but I am determined to at least give him a reread and to read a few of his novels that I haven’t read. I wanted to like Midnight’s Children but it was a pretty impenetrable slog for me. WH is a great novel. I just hate it.🤓 Thanks for your comment.
Great subject to discuss and I totally agree with you regarding A Thousand Acres. The problem wasn't the quality of the writing. Smiley is very talented but what really bothered me was the cruelty of the book and to be specific there is a character that is blinded in the novel. Now he's not a nice guy but still what happens to him is sadistic. I also felt the relationship between the father and the three daughters was over the top. I felt the author was using King Lear as a backdrop to make political points which is fine but there I no subtlety.
No subtly is a perfect assessment of A Thousand Acres. Smiley can definitely write, but the product on this case wasn’t for me. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I applaud you for being honest about your 11-book hate list. I totally agree about Wuthering Heights, although I think you're too generous calling it a great book. I have read dozens of English classics, and love many of them, but I think it's a terrible book - zero likeable or redeeming characters, plus the child and animal abuse. Horrible. I also agree about Midnight's Children. I really tried with that one. I also didn't especially like Cutting for Stone, and I really hated The Lincoln Highway. This is another one I really wanted to like after A Gentleman in Moscow, but I got about 200 pages into Lincoln Highway and realized that life is too short to waste on such an awful book (my opinion, only, obviously as I know many people loved it).
Thank you Julia. I hate WH for the same reasons you think it is a bad book. And, while I don't disagree that the things you listed are reasons that the book fails, I think the skill and ingenuity with which EB wrote the books make it a great one. Just my opinion of course. I have not read any of Amour Toles books. But I am intrigued by _A Gentleman in Moscow_. I've heard more than one person who was disappointed in _The Lincoln Highway_. Thank you for watching and leaving a great comment.
Hard to pick books I hate (as opposed to just dislike or am meh about), but definitely #1 on the list would be Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. I can wax poetic over how much I loathe it.
It was a bit of a challenge to come up with 11 for me. I’ve only read one Tom Wolf (not Vanities) and my reaction was meh. Thanks for watching and commenting
I agree about a thousand acres, I was very underwhelmed. She’s a good writer but it was a bad story lol. Haha i saw someone say the same thing you said about Wuthering Heights about Jane eyre recently, I can’t believe anyone thinks of these books as romances 😳 but it definitely sets people up for failure in reading them 😆
I like your description of _A Thousand Acres_ much better than my own. I'm not sure how I would label _Jane Eyre_ . I agree that it isnt a Romance. Maybe coming of age is a better label.
@@BookishTexan How about a wish fulfilment ? Critical reaction changes over time. Sixty years ago, Wuthering Heights was considered a work of Genius, and Jane Eyre a readable but not a great novel. That seems to have changed, and now everyone thinks Charlotte, not Emily, was the real genius, When I read it many years ago, my reaction to it was that many a poor girl working for a well to do man would be drawn to a novel like this. The man is mysterious and good looking and obviously has a secret. Despite herself, she is attracted to him. And the secret ? He has a wife who is mad and kept hidden upstairs and who eventually starts a fire and burns the house down, conveniently killed in the fire she herself started. So now the way is open for her to marry this attractive man with no sense of guilt. Doesn't this read like a fantasy many a poor girl would have had who was in service to a family where the husband is attractive, but has a horrible wife who stands in the way of their happiness ? Conveniently the awful wife--and she is awful-- is eliminated and Reader I married him. I cannot think of any other work of fiction that is so openly a fantasy of wish fulfilment. And a powerful one that resonates to this day.
@@frankmorlock9134 Wish fulfillment is an interesting take, but I would think Jane Eyre would then appeal more to 19th Century working young women than post 1960s working women. For the record I think there is much more genius on display in WH than JE, but I prefer Jane Eyre. Thanks for the great comment.
@@BookishTexan I suspect that a lot of 19th century lower class working women couldn't read, or, if they were able to, lacked money for frivolities such as books. I also suspect that a lot of modern women still secretly nourish the hope to marry a millionaire regardless of what their feminist ideology tells them, and in fact they would probably deny it, even if they did,
I agree with Scarlet Letter. I had to read that one at least twice for high school back in the 80s. Hated it both times. It's a short story stretched to an overly long novel. The first chapter is just a description of a rose bush that doesn't lead to anything. The symbolism is too obvious (ohhhhhh, he rubs his chest, wow, deep.) Yes, the characters are annoying or odd. Gods how I wish teachers would stop requiring it. Give it a rest, teachers! Never read Hardy but I remember a friend in high school hating Tess of the D'urbervilles. He used to joke about how awful that novel is. I've never seen anyone say they actually like Wuthering Heights. Three O'Clock in the Morning sounds like a movie I once saw called Rodger Dodger. That's a movie about a teenage boy who meets his exciting uncle for the first time, I think, and they go on a day long adventure across town. And yes, there is an encounter with some sexy women. Disagree about Grapes of Wrath, however. I remember liking it back in high school. It was one of the better books I was forced to read. Watching the Joads get destroyed and essentially enslaved by the Californians was horrifying. If you want a reason to embrace unions and socialism read Grapes of Wrath.
I like the idea that The Scarlett Letter is just a bloated short story and I liked all your criticisms of it. I've never been a Hardy fan and I've read a few. There are a number of people responding to this video who love WH and I know more than a few., but I'm with you.
I watched the play of Wuthering Heights and I hated it. I haven't read the Scarlet Letter since high school so I don't have much of an opinion on it. I feel like we read some of it and then watched the movie??? I'm not certain as it was 9th grade I think lol.
There is a play of _Wuthering Heights_ ?! That's a little terrifying. I tried to watch a movie adaptation but hated it right out of the gate. Never attempted to watch The Scarlett Letter adaptation. Thanks Karen
Just diving into your videos and loving them (thanks,#CriminOlly)! FINALLY, someone else who hates A Thousand Acres! As a huge fan of Lear, I found that book to be blasphemous. Lear is such a rich complex character, yet Smiley relegated him to an old cranky perve. I amost threw it across the room when I finished reading it. And it won the Pulitzer!!??? !THANK YOU!!
Haha - just waiting for another wonderful GWTW rant and it only gets a final credit in the dying seconds! Sorry to see Midnight’s children on the list but that’s ok. One of the main reasons I would hate a book is if it starts lecturing the reader - George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss would be one. I’d have House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende for shamelessly trying to imitate the style of my favourite book and doing such a poor job of it!
I thought two GWTW rants was enough. I dislike moralizing and lectures in fiction as well. I read Eliot's Adam Bede and, while it avoided lectures for the most part, it was a very moralizing novel. Thanks for watching and commenting.
How _dare_ you! 😂 You know I disagree w ya on _Naked Lunch_ and _Grapes of Wrath_ and--especially-- _Whuthering Heights._ I think you will like _East of Eden,_ tho. Ive read it twice and would read it a third time. Good one, Brian! 😎🎸😋
Death Comes to Pemberley was very disappointing, I agree. I haven’t read most of the other books on your list. I thought Wuthering Heights was ok; I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it either. And now I am thinking of my own list… 🤔
I couldn’t agree with you more about The Scarlet Letter. And the only character in literature I hate more than Dimmesdale is Angel Clare from Tess of the d’Urbervilles… two puritanical weaklings. I would love to see Heathcliff knock their heads together like coconuts. I do love Wuthering Heights though but you need to read it as a character study keeping in mind that Heathcliff is not a nice guy…don’t look for any romance in him.
I need to reread Tess. I don’t like Hardy very much, but I need to try him again. I think WH is a great book. I just hate it.🤓 I reread it a few years ago with no romantic expectations and I liked it less. Thanks for your great comment.
Refreshing! Delightful! Books, even novels, matter! Many of your titles I've refused to even read, though in search of classics to be swept off my feet by! And so many of these are really not suitable for High School classes, and students with such scance life and reading experience, especially in social science, social history, etc. The latter cannot be replaced by experimental and ideology-critical novels... The same author can provide very different level novels, but the background and philosophy debates need still to be explained and highlighted - Silas Marner, and Middlemarch; The Secret Sharer, and The Heart of Darkness; Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. Great differences within the same oeuvre. The idea that High School students should read literature in the order and selection that scholars think "The English Novel" developed is absurd - many books should be hated just because they are introduced in such a context and for such reasons.
I agree with pretty much all of this. Not all author's works are suitable for high school (not because of content because of the life experience necessary to appreciate). And the idea that learning the history of the development of the novel through reading books in a certain order is indeed absurd. That is not something I had thought of, but of course it is true. Thanks for the great comment.
@@BookishTexan Indeed, I have to agree with myself on this point. Haha! An English teacher for young adults should only help young readers to love reading and find their own language (nuanced and working) and a set of authors of their own to be impressed by. I hate to see The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye among the books young people mention as the best book ever. I get the feeling they haven't read even 10 books of their own choice. Can you make a list for young readers, to really fascinate them? I think quantity should come before quality in this case...
Gravity's Rainbow.... anything by Dickens...... Tom ( how boring can you be?) Jones...... The Sot Weed Factor..... The French Lieutenants Woman..... there's quite a lot you missed😁
I can agree with some (I have not read them all) I hate Moby Dick... I was a literature professor in university.... I hated Wuthering Heights too....I am glad I was able to chose what to present to the students....I was merciful since I chose short stories by the classic authors ...worked out well for harried students.
I like the idea, and always like professors, who focused on short stories or only assigned partial works instead of novels or full length pieces in survey courses. I actually loved the old, onion skin paper Norton Anthologies for that reason.
I didn't hate Wuthering Heights -- I thought it had great atmosphere -- but I believed that all the characters deserved to be autopsied while still alive.
I wanted to like it so much. I loved _The Satanic Verses_ , which I read first, but I just could never find my way into the book. Love _Lonesome Dove_ though. Thanks for watching.
Bad reviews are just as interesting as good for a bit of perspective There should be more I actually loved the The Naked Lunch - a fantastic / bad hallucinogenic trip Nearly 50 years ago Maybe I should read it again - as an old man ! Different Perspective
I may have read the Scarlet Letter in HS but that's it. And I saw an actual bull fight in Spain in the 1960's because that's what you did in Spain at that time since they didn't have the Vatican. Incredibly boring it was to watch a narcotized bull get slaughtered. Hey and I could connect the books with the author 9 of 11 times. That said this was an entertaining video So I'm putting on my blindfold and will either hit the subscribe button or the pinata key. Thanks for making reading approachable.
Haha. I love these kinds of videos. I've read three of these novels: Midnight's Children, Wuthering Heights, and The Grapes of Wrath. It's been years since I read Midnight's Children and I mean to revisit it, but I did love it when I read it. I read The Grapes of Wrath in high school and really liked it, but I wonder how much I'd like it now, as a much more sophisticated reader. Unpopular opinion: I did not like East of Eden. I had the same problem with it that you had with Grapes of Wrath. I thought it was too heavy-handed and the allegory too obvious. I also hated all but one character. And then there's Wuthering Heights. Oh, man, do I despise that book. I hate the characters and, dare I say, it's boring. I've read it twice, thinking that maybe I just didn't get it the first time. Nope. HATE IT. As far as The Scarlet Letter goes, it's books like that that pushed me to study British Lit rather than American. I don't get on with the Puritan mindset of earlier American Lit at all. I find it to be both infuriating and mind-numbingly dull. I don't get why people get offended when someone dislikes a book they happen to love. Reading is so subjective. People can talk up Hemingway all day long and I still have absolutely no interest in reading him. I liked A Moveable Feast, but in general his style leaves me cold and I refuse to read anything at all that features bullfighting. But I can see why someone would enjoy Hemingway's sparse and straightforward prose. On the other end of the spectrum, I don't really get on with Henry James. Yes, I can see why a lot of people think he's great, but he just doesn't seem to be for me. And probably my most unpopular opinion is that I don't much care for Dickens. I liked David Copperfield and Miss Havisham is a great character, but for the most part, I'd rather read almost anything than read Dickens. These opinions may change at some point as I do believe that reading tastes change and evolve, but I can't see myself ever liking Wuthering Heights. I really, really detest everything about it.
Your first paragraph feels like something I might have written (though I wouldn't have written it so well). We share a lot of opinions about these books. As far as the subjectivity of evaluating books, I do think that books can be objectively evaluated based on an informal rubric as long as the evaluator is consistent. BUT, I think it is possible to separate "liking" or "loving" a book from a critical evaluation. This video is just my uncritical reaction. James is a great example I can appreciate the art of Henry James writing , but I don't like it or his books. I do like Dickens, usually. Thanks for your great and thoughtful comment Regina.
I pretty much hate anything by that misogynist Steinbeck. For a different take on the Dust Bowl years, read Now in November by Josephine Johnson which came out the year before Grapes. I'm currently re-reading Madame Bovary and I'm hating it because there are no redeeming characters, similar to Wuthering Heights.
Thank you for the recommendation. I have heard of _Now in November_ but never read it. I didn't like _Madam Bovary_ very much either, but it did spark an interest in 19th Century French novels. Thanks for you comment.
I am alarmed by Wuthering Heights rather than hating it. It is deeply fascinating whilst often horrid. Death Comes to Pemberley is trash which was disappointing from James. I think it is best if we don't discuss Hardy. Don't want to fall out 😘
I would never let Hardy cause us to fall out. I accept that he was a great writer, I just don't like most of what I have read. Similarly I can see the genius in WH, but I still find it a miserable read.
All the characters in “Wuthering Heights” are despicable. That’s part of what makes it so fascinating. It’s not like any other novel of its time. PS: Regarding The Scarlet Letter, nobody likes the Custom House section. Just skip it. PPS if liking characters is a big deal for you, what would you think of Lolita? :)
@@Tolstoy111 If you watched my video I acknowledged the greatness of Wuthering Heights. Good advice on Tge Scarlett Letter. Humbert Humbert is one of the greatest awful, despicable characters in literature.
@@BookishTexan indeed he is! WH is remarkable in that it’s actually a bit amateurish. Especially compared to Jane Erye. Emily had a volcanic vision that she may not have had the craft to polish but what a vision it was.
I’m a huge John Steinbeck fan, and I hate the Grapes of Wrath. The first part is OK, but most of it is unadulterated socialist realism. The Soviets loved this book and even invited JS to come visit Moscow. His book about that visit called A Russian Journal is an interesting read. East of Eden and Cannery Row are great books, beautiful written, worth reading and rereading. I love them.
That's good to know. Honestly, the socialism in GoW isnt an issue for me. It was the Great Depression and lots of writers and Americans were embracing the basic tenets of socialism. Cannery Row is my favorite Steinbeck
@@BookishTexan Socialist realism is a style of writing and a way of presenting plot, characters and content. It’s a bit different from Socialism as a political system.
If I had a channel nearly everyone would block or unsubscribe because I really nearly hate Little Women. Grapes of Wrath I very much enjoyed. I think perhaps it was a product if it’s time being somewhat melodramatic?
I wouldn't argue with you about GofW being a product of its time, I think it is. In some ways it feels like it was written to be made into a movie and I think that kind of reflects Steinbeck's sensibilities. Thanks for watching.
Heathcliff is a horrible person. I love Henry James' short stories, but Portrait of a Lady put me to sleep 3 times before I got through it for my class. I love The Scarlett Letter tho. Her daughter was Pearl.
There are definitely some on your list that I dislike a lot. Like *Wuthering Heights* . And some on the list are still on my POP. I'm probably not prioritising those now. 😂Apart from *Wuthering Heights* there are some other popular titles; *Terms of Endearment* , *The Goldfinch* , *One Hundred Years of Solitude* and *Peter Pan* and a few more. No need to apologise. We can't all agree on every book.
Please don't let my completely uncritical ranting dissuade you from reading the books on your POP. I've never read _Terms of Endearment_ or _Peter Pan_. I liked _The Goldfinch_ mostly. I think _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ is a great, great book. But, it is definitely a book from a time when things that go on in its pages were acceptable and today they are (for good reason) not. Thank you for watching and commenting.
I love that you are invested in the characters enough to hate. Loved it.
I do hate some of these books and characters pretty passionately. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Great video! I love _Naked Lunch_ for the sheer chutzpah of it 😆
“I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves, setting up their devil doll stool pigeons…” [that's how it begins, lol]
_Naked Lunch_ is strong on chutzpah!
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Haha, this is a fun list! 👍
You probably not going to like East of Eden more than The Grapes of Wrath, but have you read Steinbeck's Travels with Charley? Because if you haven't, as a dog person who fishes, that might be the one for you!
I always forget about _Travels With Charlie_. I am hoping that _East of Eden_ is a book that I will like.
Luckily, only one of my eleven toes has been trampled (if you want to know, it's SCARLET from the injury). I thought I was the only person who hated Wuthering Heights, so I'm happy to know I'm in good company. This is a great video--I think people forget how much we can learn by discussing why we dislike what we dislike. Bravo!
This video has made me aware that lots of people hate _Wuthering Heights_. Sorry about _The Scarlet Letter_. Blame that damn Dimsdale!
Thanks for watching.
This is great! I absolutely love differing opinions on books/classics. Your honestly and authenticity shines through. 👏🏻
Thanks MJ. This was a lot of fun and a little cathartic.
I was so nervous that it would be my top 10 list ha. Luckily I have no qualms with any of this except Wuthering Heights, but you do a wonderful job explaining your dislikes!
I just saw that you posted your top 10. I will be watching that this afternoon.😁
Thanks Brandon
I was wondering where Gone with the Wind was, but the closing card helped me relax. There were some real stinkers on this list.
I decided to give Mitchell's book a break from my hatred, for the most part.
Thanks for watching.
So many high school classics on the list, was there tension between you and the English teachers in the teacher lounge at school?
Bingo! That is the thing that ties so many of my hates together.
Thanks for watching and for your comment.
Not a fan of Midnight's Children either but I liked Grapes of Wrath (though not as much as East of Eden or Of Mice and Men) and Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite classics!
Each to their own 😄.
Happy reading!
I love the variety of opinions about books.
Thanks for watching and commenting. Happy reading to you!
I hated WH but loved Grapes of Wrath too..
I started Naked Lunch 3 times by now and always gave up after a few pages as I just didn't get it and thinking maybe later Ill be in a better mindset. Thinking of looking for an audiobook for my next attempt :D
the film is fun! and takes much less of your time, so even if it still is mainly weird, it is only a short experience ;p (I have not touched the book, and probably never will)
An audiobook might be the way to go. I'm not sure even on audio that I am willing to reread it.
Thanks Wiebke
@@njdinostar good to know, thanks :)
The film is nothing like the book. Naked Lunch took nearly 4 decades to actually put in theatres. I read the book in 2 days the first time and have reread it at least once since. Just plow into it and you’ll get the idea. It almost changes your brainwaves in a sense- like entering an alternate reality. That was my interpretation.
@@viciousdope66 Good to know, I found an audiobook, so we'll see if that works better than reading. :D
Hi Brian, I couldn’t finish PD James death at Pemberley. I also couldn’t finish the Scarlet letter. I read gone with the wind at 11 and liked it very much but haven’t read it since. I loved Wuthering Heights. Aloha
I wish I had DNF’d Death Comes to Pemberly 🤓
I think The Scarlet Letter suffers a bit because to a modern reader the story is too obvious. Hester is so obviously good, Dimmesdale so obviously the father,etc There’s just little to generate interest other than the writing itself.
Thanks Maya
Great video, thanks. I tried Grapes Of Wrath and persevered until about the last 15 pages and STILL abandoned it before the end. That's a first for me. Life's too short in some cases.
DNFing with 15 pages to go?!?! I salute you. That is impressive.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Wuthering heights is one of those books that, although I love it, I completely understand why other people hate it. The Grapes of Wrath, on the other hand... What the heck Brian lol 😂
Haha! I figured I'd get the most grief for me Grapes of Wrath opinion
I'm with you on Wuthering Heights. I've never made it all the way through. I have a lovely Bronte clothbound set and poor Emily gets no play while I keep rereading the others.
I reread it a few years ago thinking I just hated it because it was required reading at some point. Nope, I hated it more the second time.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
I read it and disliked it , the worst characters were the two main characters..
Glad to hear someone else who doesn’t like The Grapes of Wrath. I’ve read all of Steinbeck’s work and this is one of my least favorites.
I have tried to like Grapes but I just cant. I am going to read East of Eden sometime this year and that may be my last Steinbeck.
@@BookishTexan, I'll be interested to hear what you think of East of Eden. Some people don't like it but I count it as one of my favorites.
I read A Thousand Acres not too long ago as part of an ongoing project to read every Pulitzer Prize winning novel and really enjoyed it. I'm not very familiar with the King Lear story beyond the basic setup (old king gives kingdom to his daughters), but I guess I found the melodrama in the novel to be in keeping with the spirit of Shakespeare. I'm also just not super against melodrama in general. I think it gets a bad rap because the only example of melodrama most people can think of that isn't trying to hide behind comedy are soup operas. I tend to think that most "classic novels" take themselves way too seriously (still love a lot of them though) and so it was refreshing to read a book that was melodramatic and owned it about itself.
Great comment about _A Thousand Acres_. I read it along time ago and it is possible that if I reread it (not likely) that I might see qualities that I didn't the first time.
Thanks for watching.
Totally with you on WH. I had to teach it in a Great Books course 20 years ago and could never understand why so many students, mainly girls, swooned over Heathcliff. He's a monster, I said! Mr. Lockwood is the only sane voice in the book and he's gone after the first chapter or two.
Swooning over Heathcliff is beyond my understanding.
Good points about WH and Mr. Lockwood.
"Every woman adores a fascist...". Something to that effect.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was so disturbed by the part his ancestor, Judge Hathorne, had played in the Salem Witch Trials that he changed the spelling of his name to disassociate himself from the judge. As a Romanticist, Hawthorne argued for a loosening of the Old Testament-style, punitive approach to religion in favor of a kinder, gentler application. Love and idealism and a reverence for the "natural" had become all the rage. It's arguable that Pearl, not Hester, is the "heroine" of The Scarlet Letter. Sprung from the depths of temptation, guilt, and sin, Pearl embodies freedom and purity and spontaneity: characteristics that Hawthorne thought appropriate to a "new" age of enlightenment. I thought she was a spoiled brat, but Hawthorne loved her.
This is truly fascinating information. I didn't know much of this (other than the ancestor judge bit). Thank you for sharing it with me and watching this video.
First class talk about reading, funny to watch and we learn a lot, thank you from Venezuela, man
Fun to watch
Thank you.
Thanks again for your reviews! I haven’t read many of the books or if I have it was a very long time ago. Many, despite your reviews (😊) I plan to read or read again, namely TGOW (never read) & SL (haven’t read since Jr HS). The vid makes me wonder what you think of Jane Eyre, a book I’m really struggling to get through & am disliking immensely! Thanks again!! 😊
Thank you for your comment. I liked Jane Eyre a great deal though I found the romance between Jane and the preacher (?) tedious. I thought she should have stayed a teacher.
Fun video. I’m 100% with you on The Grapes of Wrath. Cartoonish characters, heavy-handed, the reenactment of some general idea without any subtlety whatsoever.
Thank you Tom.
I feel that way about most of Steinbeck, but I still need to read _East of Eden_.
@@BookishTexan At least Steinbeck confronts poverty in all its ugliness. A courageous thing to do, though perhaps overdone. It there anyone today who deals with poverty in modern America in the same confrontational way?
@@cthoadmin7458 Steinbeck does confront the ugliness of poverty, but I have always thought that William Kennedy's novel _Ironweed_ was a more powerful and gritty depiction of poverty. For an author who confronts poverty in modern America you might read _Salvage the Bones_ by Jesmyn Ward
I love your list. You got some of my favs on it and you are right about Heathcliffe he is a monster, but I still loved the book. It showed that there is no redeeming factor to love. You love who you love and it doesn't make them any better because you do. Naked Lunch I loved, but for the life of me I can't remember why!
_Wuthering Heights_ is a great book, but I just do not like it. _Naked Lunch_ was too bazaar for me.
😂Thanks, Brian!😂I was indeed missing GWTW!😂I loved this list. I’ve read “Civilisations”, “Death Comes to Pemberley”, “The Return of the Native” and “Wuthering Heights” and… totally agree with all you say about them!!! The only book by Rushdie I’ve read is his memoir and enjoyed his style very much. I’ve had “Midnight’s Children” on my shelves forever, and was actually thinking of reading it, but it’s not that urgent😉I’m actually most intrigued by that King Lear in Iowa. Shakespeare is my favourite writer and I’m also curious about how his work has been reimagined in different settings. So I made a note of “A Thousand Acres”.
Thought I would give GWTW a break for one video.
Glad we agree on so many of these books. Of all the books on the list I regret hating _Midnight's Children_ the most. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts about it when you read it.
_A Thousand Acres_ was very popular and very praised. I am sure my opinion is the minority one.
Thanks emma
@@BookishTexan Midnight's Children and A Thousand Acres were two on which I especially disagreed with you. Great books, as far as I'm concerned, and lovely writing. The one on which I really really DO agree with you is Wuthering Heights, and I hate it for the same reason. I was shocked when I read the book; I'd heard all about what a romantic hero he was, etc., etc. Really makes me wonder about people.
@@BookishTexan It may take a while, but I’ll let you know😊📚
@@SDYoungren Thanks for your comment. I admire both Smiley and Rushdie's writing and I have no doubt they are great books. I just dont like them.
It does sound like our reaction to WH was the same.
Yes, I reaaly liked King Lear so I jotted that one down too.
A goodly assortment...and I enjoyed the film adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberly...I also love that PD James got to do a heart project before she died :/
I think I watched part of the adaptation of "Death Comes to Pemberly". James' success as a crime writer no doubt gave her the opportunity to pursue her passion for Jane Austen's work. I just wish the book had been better.
Thanks Margaret.
As a former high school English teacher, I found this video delightful! Thanks for sharing your frank opinions. (Even as a teacher, I hated the required summer reading lists my English department was forced to compile at the end of every school year. Way to make students hate reading!)
Haha! My mom is a retired English teacher and my sister still teaches English. I'm pretty sure they would take issue with some of my choices. And many of these titles are here because I was forced to read them.
Thanks for watching and commenting susan
I'm a reader, and reading the required list each year was about the only thing I enjoyed about school, besides band practice. If it weren't for band practice, I would have dropped out of school. My mother would have killed me, but I think I would. Funny thing is, I got the opportunity to go to community college for a two-year degree for free (Nafta paid for it) at 48 yrs old, and it was the best time of my life, I loved every minute. Got my ASS in addictions counseling. Good thing I did finish high school.
The Scarlet Letter is a complex, difficult novel and I cannot believe that this book is assigned to high school students. Same with Virginia Woolf--you need to be a strong reader to appreciate or love her novels. Please don't force them onto high school students.
@@laurenhahn101 I think you underestimate high school students, many of whom are engaged in sexual relationships these days. But the level of education they are receiving now makes me change my mind and agree with you. They wouldn't be able to read them let alone understand them. This just came to mind: Some years ago I read a collection of novelettes by the French author Maupassant, a stunning work. I asked my mother if she had read his work and she replied Phiff! We read that in high school! I highly doubted it, it was six stories of how women were reduced to prostitution at different levels of 19th-century French society!
@@christinerobinson9372 I wasn't referring to students' sexual experience when I said that The Scarlet Letter wasn't appropriate for them. I was referring to the dense writing, long sentences and the sophisticated vocabulary of the novel. I teach college freshmen; some of my students' reading skills are horrifying weak, and I am not talking about ESL students.
Interesting list. I’ve only read two: Wuthering Heights and Scarlet Letter. I don’t remember them really so may do re-reads (emphasis on maybe). I saw the movie A Thousand Acres and have never read King Lear. Grapes of Wrath is on my TBR. Now I’m trying to think of what books would make my list. 😊💙
Thanks Jolene. Please don't let my completely reactionary opinions dissuade you. I am definitely in the minority on many of these.
I have zero bones to pick. The books on your list I’ve read, I hate also. The Scarlet Letter, The Grapes of Wrath etc. and the ones you mention I haven’t read, I don’t want to read. Ever. Starting with Wuthering Heights. Thanks for your candor!! PS the only thing worse than reading 1000 Acres was watching the adaptation.
Completely agree about the adaptation of _A Thousand Acres_.
Thank you for your awesome comment.
This is just my belief but I really think it comes down to The Emperors New Clothes. Books art and drama are too many times held up for praise by people we look up to. We think they know better than we do so it must be wonderful and I’m the only one who doesn’t understand it. I’ve finally learned that it’s ok to not like popular things. Sometimes people come for me but more often they agree.
Very wise comment.
Thank you for watching.
I agree about The Grapes of Wrath. I haven't actually read the novel, but the play based on the novel. It was rather clumsy, ham handed and preachy. Steinbeck was famous for this sort of thing, although sometimes his approach worked as in Tobacco Road which I liked because it kept these elements in check. The other works, I haven't read except for Wuthering Heights and the Scarlett Letter, and I liked both. Both are tragedies. Long ago, I read somewhere that Wuthering Heights and Moby Dick are the two books that make a tremendous and unsettling impact on their readers. I agree. Heathcliff is a strange and not very good man. But the story is more about the woman who loved him. At least I thought so. And at the time I read it, it had a powerful impact on me. That has faded over time. As to the Scarlett Letter, the main story has the impact of Greek Tragedy, Puritan style. I grew up in Boston in the 40's and 50's. There was still a strong element of Puritanism active even at that time. One of the strongest scenes in the story for me was when the town fathers visit Hester in her home and are appalled at the way she is bringing up her daughter. The other powerful moment is towards the conclusion where she lets down her hair. She's in full rebellion at that point. I think, to some extent, you have to be a New Englander, to fully appreciate both the moral intensity and hypocrisy which Puritanism imprints on all it touches. Because Puritans genuinely have high, strict, and uncompromising moral standards. Unfortunately, the rigidity of this uncompromising rectitude forces those who don't share it, or who do share it, but cannot live up to those standards into concealing their failures by hypocrisy and outright lies. Hester might have been no different, but once pregnant, lies couldn't help her, and she didn't want to ruin the man who had been her lover. And Dimsdale eventually, in a very theatrical way, denounces himself from overwhelming feelings of guilt. So, there you have a tragedy waiting to happen and easily repeated.
Thank you for the great comment. Having grown up in a church that came from the Calvinist tradition I think I have a pretty good handle on the imprint of Puritanism though not New England Puritanism certainly. Your insights into the the novel and its characters is excellent. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
I totally agree with most your list. Some of them I have not read. I can't stand Wurthering Heights, Scarlet Letter, and Grapes of Wrath. I have never read Return of the Native, but I have read Far From the Madding Crowd, which I liked. Naked Lunch I have tried to read ,several times, but I can't get into it.
I liked Far from the Madding Crowd for the most part. Thanks for backing me up on my hatred for the others. Nice to know that I am not along.
Bless you! I hated The Scarlet Letter. I read it three times, then watched the movie. I still hated it. Some of my students is Spanish class mentioned hating the book, and I told them I did too. Boy, did I get reamed by the English teacher who was teaching the book. I'll never understand why some people think it's the great American novel.
I got in trouble with the English Department at the high school where I taught for something similar. I was thinking about _The Scarlet Letter_ and I think there are two things that make it so boring. First, it is like a one note song. Everything is about one thing. Second, there is no real character development. The characters stay pretty much the same throughout.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
I would add Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” as #11. I know that it’s an extended allegory of Europe between the wars but it’s one turgid read. As a professional musician I think of Mann as the literary equivalent of Mahler-something you have to try to get through and seems to last forever. However I did enjoy Mann’s “Dr Faustus” but that was probably due to its music world setting.
I have never read anything by Mann. I have read a book about him though.
@@BookishTexan Maybe it’s better in German, but reading the term “the rest cure” about every other page almost made me lose my mind. Never finished it.
A glutton for punishment!
I think I was a tad bit traumatised by the ending of Grapes of Wrath in my younger yrs. Couldn't get that out of my head. And agree with Hawthorne and of course your final unofficial selection, the book who shall not be named. But leave Poor Heathclif to his demons.
My Grapes of Wrath trauma was boredom related when I read it in school. I reread it a decade or so ago and the more I read it the more things I find to dislike.
I decided to give GWTW a break this time.😁
Thanks penny.
I like Steinbeck, but there's a lot of his stuff I don't like, especially his more comedic writings, but I've put off The Grapes of Wrath. I really ought to read it, though. East of Eden is great for sure.The only book I've read from your list is The Scarlet Letter, in school of course, and I remember actually liking it for the most part. I've not read Death in the Afternoon, but I did read The Dangerous Summer, which I thought fantastic, despite hating bull fighting itself, and so I never felt the need to read Death in the Afternoon.
Haha! My favorite Steinbeck's are the funny ones, but I do want to read _East of Eden_. I think you are better off not reading _Death in the Afternoon_ unless you really just like reading Hemingway's writing.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Already back in 1968, a Catalan author published a novel about the discovery of the Old World by the Aztecs. Not a new idea.
Thank you for that information.
I was hoping to see Wuthering Heights on this list. It gets so much love and I thought it was terrible. Agree with you on heavy handedness of Grapes of Wrath. East of Eden is great. I really enjoyed first read. Decades later I loved it again, forgetting how pivotal one of the characters was. I want to say the Irish farmer, but it's been a while since 2nd read. Maybe he wasn't Irish.
Wuthering Heights is on the list😁 I couldn't make a book hate video without it. I am looking forward to East of Eden. A lot of my assessment of Steinbeck will rest on how I feel about that book.
Thanks for the great video. I hated most of the books I've read on that list too, but the one I hated most of all was Death Comes to Pemberley. Writing Jane Austen fanfiction, whether you're P D James or my friend Louise (who got hers published by some vanity press), it's clear from the first paragraph that you're not Jane Austen so give it up :D
Thank you.
Death Comes to Pemberley is just a mess of a book. Its like James focused more on the writing style than the story, couldnt quite pull off the style, and left readers with a very weak story.
@@BookishTexan I think there is a special problem with that book. All the other books on your list, be they good or bad, are books written by the author - their own books. What PD James is doing is trying to write someone else's book. It's like making a copy of a great painting - good or bad, it's still a copy. Never much liked her regular mysteries anyway
@@shirleyanne6573 Agree about Death Comes to Pemberley being a pale imitation. I do like James' detective novels however.
A fun topic that probably ruffled some feathers. I am in the hate group for Wuthering Heights as well. I've read it twice, both times years ago, and I hated it both times. I have considered reading it again though since I have seen many videos of why it is people's favorite book.
I didn't hate Midnight's Children but I think I missed a lot of nuance since I don't know Indian history well enough. I completely agree about Death Comes to Pemberley. It's horrible.
Your comments about hating the translated books struck a cord with me. I hated one of the translated books I read for the Booktube prize this year and it pained me that I couldn't dnf. I felt like a kid in school being forced to read something I hated.
Thank you.
You hit upon one of the themes that I think ties my "hates" together: Compulsory reading -- high school, booktube prize etc.
I became fascinated with William Burroughs after picking up Naked Lunch, mainly because I couldn't believe he'd managed to get it published. I've since read all of his books, and while he and his work are flawed in several ways there is always a lot of humour and stark honesty in his writing. His cut-up technique can produce amazing results but in the end it has been much more influential in music than in literature. Part of the difficulty many people have with Naked Lunch involves the sections where he's deliberately trying to disgust you, such as the hanging scenes or the racist county clerk. He's going for an effect similar to Swift's 'A Modest Proposal', calling attention to the horrors of capital punishment or racism; whether or not he was successful is up to each reader.
I don't doubt the (for a lack of a better term) genius of Burroughs. I appreciate that its there, but I'm pretty sure he isnt for me and _Naked Lunch_ certainly isnt.
Thanks for your great comment.
As a King Crimson fan too, I agree with you.
This was a case where the movie was way better than the book.
@@steveneardley7541 The movie is almost completely unrelated to the book. Cronenberg decided early on that a direct adaptation would be too expensive and would probably get banned everywhere so he just spun a story based on Burroughs' life instead.
'A thousand Acres' is on my to be read pile, maybe I should approach it with caution! I couldn't agree more about 'Wuthering Heights' - never understood why anyone would think it's a great romance. One of my pet hates are books which have a lot of dialect, and it's the first to do that, yes it's skilled but such a slog if you're not enjoying the novel anyway. The antidote to 'Wuthering Heights' is 'Cold Comfort Farm' such good fun! I also hate authors messing with other authors' work. Even if they're great novelists, you always think, '...but Elizabeth Bennet wouldn't have done that.' If you're writing an homage, it's got to be radically different, I think.
Please don't let my opinions dissuade you from reading any of these books. Dialect doesn't usually bother me. Thanks for the _Cold Comfort Farm_ recommendation.
Read it. it is excellent. Brian should be spanked for that one.
Cold comfort farm is one of my favorite books! So funny!
@@QueenofSoy Good to know!
@@QueenofSoy Our intrepid heroine would have the inhabitants of 'Wuthering Heights' whipped into shape in no time. 😂
I love that you cushioned Hardy's entry in this list by naming the Israeli terrible novels Nightlights Children and Naked Lunch either side of it. I often call The Return of the Native the quintessential Thomas Hardy novel, so I'm going to take your hatred of it as agreement with my statement.
Your Wuthering Heights statement reminds me of Moby Dick, that book is brilliant, I hate it with intensity of a small to medium sized neutron star.
Loved the outro. Steinbeck 🤯
I do think _Return of the Native_ may be the most Hardy of all the Hardy novels and so my dislike is indeed an endorsement of a sort.
I didn't hate Moby Dick (did hate the whaling parts sometimes).
Thanks Scott
Great video. I too hated the corn cobby adjectives and heavy handedness of Steinbeck-Reductive melodrama. Hated GOW. I have to say I liked the writing style of Midnight’s Kids but would have to agree with you. WH agreed.
There seem to be a few more of us Grapes of Wrath haters than I thought. I wanted to like Midnight’s Children, but I just never could get into it.
By my understanding, much of NAKED LUNCH was written (in Tangier) by Burroughs as individual "routines", (Burroughs' term), that is, short pieces he mailed to Allen Ginsberg in NYC, intended for Ginsberg's amusement. That it, they're intended to be darkly funny, no-holds-barred literary "bits," (as in "comedy bits"), drawing from the world of junkies (of which Burroughs had extensive experience). Burroughs was just riffing, letting his imagination go, trying, in his way, to make Ginsberg, who Burroughs was infatuated with, love him. Just imagine if you were writing to your desired love object and you wrote a wild and elaborate story (to be enclosed with your letter) to delight and charm that person. This is essentially how much of NAKED BUNCH came to be. Much of it was inspired by or drawn from Burroughs' experiences with heroin and other drugs, and much of his language is derived from junkie slang (of the era in which he wrote, the 1950s). As these were disconnected routines, they could have been sequenced in any number of ways. I read it years ago, and I found it difficult to read and to understand. I had read his biography and I could recognize that some parts were transformations of experiences he had had or of people in his life, so I could appreciate what he had done, but I could not say I "liked" it. I loaned the book to a woman I knew, at her request, and I warned her it was difficult to get through. However, when she returned it to me, she said she LOVED IT and thought it was great! I can only say, she probably had more personal experience of the milieu about which Burroughs was writing, (the underground world of social outcasts, drug users, etc.) I assume she easily understood many passages that I found difficult to comprehend. Most of Burroughs' work is difficult to read, but his two early short novels, JUNKIE and QUEER are written in concise prose very much like Dashiel Hammett's hard-boiled prose.
This is really great information. Thank you so much for taking the time to share it with me. Interesting point about the woman you loaned the book to having experiences that helped her understand the book. I was just confused and could not connect to it at all.
Thank you for the great comment.
I've read very few of these - only Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights, neither of which I hate but don't particularly love, either. I've not read Return Of The Native, but I find Hardy to be a crude tragedian, a man who could be relied upon to lay it on with a trowel whenever possible - Tess and A Pair Of Blue Eyes were enough for me. I have a ravening hatred of Jane Austen, so am unlikely to enjoy Death Comes To Pemberly. If you find Naked Lunch weird, you'd find Nova Express even weirder .....
Oooh, as a fellow Hardy hater I love your description of his writing style.👍🏻
I love Jane Austen though.
I have a weather beaten copy of _Nova Express_
Lol poor turtle 🐢 I didn’t like wuthering heights much at all - mostly I think I thought it would be something else - and I don’t know much about bill fighting and that does sound terrible. But biggest oh no is Return of Native- it’s in my tbr stack and me and Hardy… I have a love hate relationship and now I am not optimistic about which side that one will fall into. Guess we will see! Thanks for the thoughts and reviews!
I think people that like Hardy have a tendency to really like _The Return of the Native_. I just never have liked Hardy.
I look forward to your thoughts on it.
Thanks Kristin.
Emily intended Heathcliff to be a hated, tragic figure. Some of his personality forged by circumstances, but most by his own intrinsic evil. Enjoyed listening to your list.
Thanks for your insights. I'm probably wrong, but when I see a character described as "tragic" I think that I should be able to muster some empathy for them. I could find none for the adult Heathcliff. WH is objectively a great book, but I just hate it.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
@@BookishTexan I agree, I felt no empathy for Heathcliff, he had no redeeming traits, the novel leaves you devastated. Unlike for example, Rodion Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.
What fun. There are a few on this list that I think are outstanding novels, but that’s what makes it interesting. Midnight’s Children and Grapes of Wrath are fabulous. Return of the Native isn’t my favorite Hardy, but he is probably my favorite 19th Century author from England. I didn’t hate GWTW, but there wasn’t much to like about it.
I know that _Return of the Native_ and Hardy in general suffer from the fact that it was assigned reading in High School. The same may be true of Grapes, but I did reread it after that I found new things to dislike.
Thanks Greg.
I predicted _Wuthering Heights_ and _Death Comes to Pemberly_ would make the cut. _Return of the Native_ surprised me. Hannah of Hannah’s Books has a recent video talking of Hardy, which made me decide, if ever I read another of his novels (after _Tess_ ) it will be that one. But one may have been enough lol. I’m neither a Hemingway nor a bullfight fan, so I support your abhorrence. Steinbeck is an author I’ve never read. Recently I picked up _Travels with Charley_ (?) and I may start with that, unless some “Where not to start” video tells me that’s not a good place. It’s short though. I still want to read _Joseph Anton_ but that’s (excuse my vernacular) a big MF. I love Rushdie’s writing on free speech and his courage, and am relieved to hear he’s doing better. Naguib Mahfouz was similarly stabbed and never made a good recovery-
Scott from the channel Gunpowder Fiction and Plot is a huge Hardy fan and he considers _The Return of the Native_ as the quintessential Hardy. He and Hannah are for more informed than I so I hope you will read it.
I don't think I will do a where not to start with Steinbeck because I'm really not a fan. I like to do those videos over authors that I really like.
I remember the Mahfouz stabbing because I think I had just finished _The Palace Walk_.
Thanks David.
Six or now seven years ago I read _The Cairo Trilogy_ a milestone reading event for me (because it had sat on my shelf for so long) and of those I consider _Palace Walk_ the best part.
I hated Grapes of Wrath so much when I read it in high school!
Most of these books I actually haven't read because I felt like I would hate them. I have to say though, I really enjoyed Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. So I'm not a Hardy hater. I just haven't felt emotionally prepared to tackle another Hardy! One day.
I also liked The Scarlet Letter but haven't read it in many years and need to revisit.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, you've confirmed some of my decisions!
I hated it in high school and then reread it and hated it more😁
I'm just not a Hardy fan. I've tried, I really have.
Dimmsdale is just such a weenie. I can't stand it. Hester is awesome, but Dimmsdale!
Thanks for your great comment.
I'm kind of relieved to hear you hate Midnight's Children! 😅 I just sort of fizzled out about 30% in and just dread picking it back up! But, after hearing your comments, I think I figured out why... I don't like Saleem!
I also feel like I'm missing something from the story. I can recall everything I have read, and really liked most parts just fine, but... I feel lost.
It does seem like a book that requires prior knowledge. And I had no knowledge of Indian independence or the partition before I picked up _Midnight's Children_. I definitely think that hindered my understanding and enjoyment.
Thanks for your comment Misty.
East of Eden. My mother loved it, my sister loved it. I forced myself to crawl all the way through it to the end. Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again. Couldn't get past the first two or three pages. Maybe it really is a great book, I don't know because it put me to sleep each and every time I tried to read it. Dune. Actually, Dune was readable, but I hated the social structure. And any Robert Jordan book, same thing, I hated the social structure that was the basis of all his novels. I LOVED Gone With The Wind! It's one I can read over and over again. I love Scarlett O'Hara's narcissistic personality and I love that by the end of the book, although she is a tad sorry for lost opportunities, she really has not changed at all. She hasn't learned a damn thing. You go, Scarlet! Ditto Grapes of Wrath, that's a book everyone should read. And The Scarlett Letter. As for Wuthering Heights, I could not, for the life of me, understand why these two people could not get their act together and be happy, so they deserved what they got. I'm embarrassed to admit I have not read the other books you have mentioned. I know for sure I don't want to read a book about bullfighting! The Old Man and the Sea was good but I've never been inspired to read another Hemingway novel. Wow, why don't I remember the stuff you mention in Wuthering Heights? I do remember was Heathcliff was not someone I would admire, but now I have to read it again, I don't remember that stuff about Catherine's body. Or the dog. Two more on my list: Anna Karenina (The whole book was hardly even about her), and Madame Bovary. I should read that one again, I know I didn't get it when I read it and that was longer ago than I care to mention. And The House of Seven Gables, wth was it about? I don't know how much your parents have told you about the Depression, maybe they were better off than my grandparents, but it is not heavy-handed. It is just what happened. I have a picture of my mother, 2 yrs old, standing alone in a yard of mud, in handed-down clothing, with the most miserable look of deep depression you never want to see on a 2yr old's face.
I plan on reading _East of Eden_, but your comment here makes me very nervous.
I havent read Dune or any Robert Jordan.
I can't agree with you about _Gone With the Wind_ I'm afraid.
I liked Anna Karenina and was kind of meh about Madam Bovary.
Never read The House of the Seven Gables
We'll just have to disagree about The Grapes of Wrath as well. Its the heavy handed symbolism that bothers me.
Thanks for your great comment.
I hated Scarlett..
@@colorswordsandlearning She was selfish and spoiled. If I'm correct, she was the first anti-hero, in the movie if not in the book.
You and I share a similar take on real-life bullfights. My first exposure came when I traveled with a friend to Mexico and attended one live in the mid 70s. I expected to witness a battle-of-equals, human wit vs raw animal strength. What I saw instead was much as you describe. It disgusted me, much to the amazement (but not amusement) of my friend, who was both Latino-American (or whatever the accepted term is these days) and quite in to the "sport".
Glad to know that someone who has witnessed a bullfight first hand feel the same. Hemingway actually addresses the grossness of the bullfight, but to him the "courage" and skill of the matador raised to to the level of art. Like you, all I can see is a ritualistic slaughter of an animal.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Thomas Hardy isn’t for everyone but the opening chapter to The Return of the Native where he describes Egdon Heath is genius.
I was traumatized by that book in High School so I think I erased that from my memory😂 I have learned to appreciate Hardy, but I don’t think I will ever like his books.
Thanks for this list! For some reason I didn't have to read The Scarlet Letter in school, and have avoided reading it all my life - and I think I will continue to avoid reading it. I feel the same way as you about Wuthering Heights - the writing is amazing but the characters are so unappealing. One book I truly disliked was The Good Earth. Just could not relate. Thanks again!
I didn't have to read in high school either. Glad to know we agree about _Wuthering Heights_. I have never read anything by Pearl Buck. Doesn't seem like I am missing much.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
I haven't read most of those, and now I don't want to. Having grown up Mormon, I did relate to The Scarlet Letter. All of those objectionable elements seemed so real. My parents and I should've been able to spot the bad parts a mile away. They still can't. It makes me hate parts of my life.
Please keep in mind that my opinion is definitely the minority one on most of these books. Others love and admire them and they are probably right.
I am sorry that your experience in the Mormon faith has had that effect. I can see how _The Scarlet Letter_ would be relatable. Wishing you all the best.
@@BookishTexanThank you.
4 books from your list are some of my most favourite books. I just don’t care for the plot and enjoy the random musings, outrageous details, strange philosophies, stretching or experimenting with the form as much as possible and don’t judge the characters . Guess we have absolutely polar tastes.😅
Ha! Yes we might have very different tastes, but some of my best and favorite BookTube friends and channels are run by people whose tastes and mine rarely agree.
New to your channel - I clicked on this video just to see if you listed “Wuthering Heights” 😂. Just 500 pages of people being mean to each other.
Great summary of Wuthering Heights. I hated all of the characters
Thanks for watching and commenting.
It’s very interesting (and fun) to see a list of books that another reader hates! I’m with you on A Thousand Acres. Lear is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I had high hopes for ATA when I read it many years ago, but I was greatly disappointed. One aspect of Shakespeare’s brilliance was to stir empathy for characters like Lear, who make really awful mistakes that they eventually regret. In my memory, none of that happens in A Thousand Acres - the father is awful and the daughters are unlikeable, and all the book did for me was depress the heck out of me. I have read other books by Smiley that I’ve liked, so they aren’t all stinkers, ha.
Wuthering Heights is not a favorite, but I don’t hate it. It’s been misrepresented as a romance practically since it was written I think, and therein lies the problem. I don’t think Emily Brontë intended it to be read as a romance, nor do I think Heathcliff was intended to be a good or likable character (or Catherine, either, for that matter). It is a dark melodrama about obsession and revenge and how the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. I do better with it when I read it that way.
I read Scarlet Letter in a class, and that helped me have a greater appreciation for it. Hawthorne was interestingly subversive for his time and place, such as in the scene when Dimmesdale, the Puritan minister, tells Hester that what they did in the natural world of the woods had a sanctity of its own. But like you, I didn’t like his weakness in the end. And the daughter (Pearl), is just awful. She’s a device rather than a character.
Thanks again for another great video!
Thank you for your great comment.
I agree completely about the strength of Lear v. the weakness of ATA. The fact that the father in ATA is just a monster alters the nuance Lear for the worse.
I agree that EB didn't intend for WH to be a romance. But that makes me wonder what she did intend for it to be? I appreciate the books greatness, I just don't like it.
The same is true for _The Scarlet Letter_ I appreciate what Hawthorne was up to and I agree that he was subversive and brilliant in the way he structured many of his scenes. But on a strictly subjective level, I hate Dimmsdale so much that I hate the book.
I applaud your comments about Death in the Afternoon and wholeheartedly agree with you.
Thank you.
The only thing worse than reading The Scarlet Letter is having to try and get high school juniors to read it. To mix my literary metaphors, the teacher becomes a reluctant matador and the students are the tortured animals (or we are all bull *bleep* fighters). How many reading futures have been stunted by required reading lists? Thanks for your cogent comments.
Perhaps the worse thing from my experience was to be an 8th grader who loved reading having to waste time on Pearl Buck’s horrendous “The Good Earth”. I wonder if that book is still torturing and destroying the nascent reading habits of middle schoolers today.
Yikes. I used to teach HS History and remember my students hating WH. I'm glad I didn't have to teach it.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
I do agree with you. My hated books mostly come from forced high school reading too. Of Mice and Men, Death of a Salesman, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Called Desire, etc. I did enjoy the movie of Death Comes to Pemberly though. Almost anything by Charles Dickens. My bad books are the tragic and sad ones. Bullfighting is abhorrent
Forced reading does create resentment, especially in a lot of us when we are teens. I watched part of the _Death Comes to Pemberly_ adaptation, but never finished it. I like Dickens pretty well.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
It's nice that someone will admit when they don't like something and I agree with you on The Grapes of Wrath. I actually like The Scarlet Letter (not the beginning, I agree with you there).
Personally, I hate The Great Gatsby.
Nice to hear that we agree about a few of these. I like The Great Gatsby though.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Haha! my first reaction to your topic was “I bet all 11 are Hardy books...but no, Brian hasn’t read 11 Hardy books🤷♀️”. “The Return of the Native” not a favorite Hardy for me either. Ranks about 6 of 14. For many people Diggory Venn, the reddleman was the stand out character not only for his redness but also for his heroism. He doesn’t appear that much in the story.
Have absolutely no memory of the turtle 🐢 in The Grapes of Wrath. I do remember the remarkable closing scene.
Your comments on The Scarlet Letter just sparked an interest in rereading it. Don’t remember anything about the customs office framing of the story. Hester’s story is what I remember.
I think The Lord of the Flies & The Old Man and the Sea 🎣 were my least favorite high school novels.
[As for short stories, I hated The Bear by Faulkner. ]
HA! I purposefully included only one Hardy. I could have included one or two more.
The fact that you don't remember the Customs House framing story helps confirm my belief that it is almost completely unnecessary and way too long. Is it possible the edition you read didn't include it?
I didn't have to read any of those three in high school. If I had my reading taste might have turned out completely different.
Thanks Mary.
I do love Return of the Native, though Woodlanders is my favorite Hardy novel, and I admire Midnight's Children, and love Wuthering Heights, but I have a fondness for Victorian novels.
I am not a Hardy fan, but I am determined to at least give him a reread and to read a few of his novels that I haven’t read.
I wanted to like Midnight’s Children but it was a pretty impenetrable slog for me.
WH is a great novel. I just hate it.🤓
Thanks for your comment.
@@BookishTexan You make a good argument for your hatred of Heathcliff; he definitely is a irredeemable pig.
Great subject to discuss and I totally agree with you regarding A Thousand Acres. The problem wasn't the quality of the writing. Smiley is very talented but what really bothered me was the cruelty of the book and to be specific there is a character that is blinded in the novel. Now he's not a nice guy but still what happens to him is sadistic. I also felt the relationship between the father and the three daughters was over the top. I felt the author was using King Lear as a backdrop to make political points which is fine but there I no subtlety.
No subtly is a perfect assessment of A Thousand Acres. Smiley can definitely write, but the product on this case wasn’t for me.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
I applaud you for being honest about your 11-book hate list. I totally agree about Wuthering Heights, although I think you're too generous calling it a great book. I have read dozens of English classics, and love many of them, but I think it's a terrible book - zero likeable or redeeming characters, plus the child and animal abuse. Horrible. I also agree about Midnight's Children. I really tried with that one. I also didn't especially like Cutting for Stone, and I really hated The Lincoln Highway. This is another one I really wanted to like after A Gentleman in Moscow, but I got about 200 pages into Lincoln Highway and realized that life is too short to waste on such an awful book (my opinion, only, obviously as I know many people loved it).
Thank you Julia.
I hate WH for the same reasons you think it is a bad book. And, while I don't disagree that the things you listed are reasons that the book fails, I think the skill and ingenuity with which EB wrote the books make it a great one. Just my opinion of course.
I have not read any of Amour Toles books. But I am intrigued by _A Gentleman in Moscow_. I've heard more than one person who was disappointed in _The Lincoln Highway_.
Thank you for watching and leaving a great comment.
Hard to pick books I hate (as opposed to just dislike or am meh about), but definitely #1 on the list would be Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. I can wax poetic over how much I loathe it.
It was a bit of a challenge to come up with 11 for me. I’ve only read one Tom Wolf (not Vanities) and my reaction was meh.
Thanks for watching and commenting
I haven't read the first few, then I hit some I agreed with you, then I liked the last three. The book I hated the most was Finnegans Wake.
I’ve never tried Finnegan’s Wake other than the first page which exhausted me.
Agree with you about Hemingway. Not just for his love of bullfighting but for the macho teenage attitude in most of his books. Hardy also escapes me.
I’m a Hemingway fan, but Death in the Afternoon was a too much for me. Thanks for your comment.
I agree about a thousand acres, I was very underwhelmed. She’s a good writer but it was a bad story lol. Haha i saw someone say the same thing you said about Wuthering Heights about Jane eyre recently, I can’t believe anyone thinks of these books as romances 😳 but it definitely sets people up for failure in reading them 😆
I like your description of _A Thousand Acres_ much better than my own. I'm not sure how I would label _Jane Eyre_ . I agree that it isnt a Romance. Maybe coming of age is a better label.
@@BookishTexan How about a wish fulfilment ? Critical reaction changes over time. Sixty years ago, Wuthering Heights was considered a work of Genius, and Jane Eyre a readable but not a great novel. That seems to have changed, and now everyone thinks Charlotte, not Emily, was the real genius, When I read it many years ago, my reaction to it was that many a poor girl working for a well to do man would be drawn to a novel like this. The man is mysterious and good looking and obviously has a secret. Despite herself, she is attracted to him. And the secret ? He has a wife who is mad and kept hidden upstairs and who eventually starts a fire and burns the house down, conveniently killed in the fire she herself started. So now the way is open for her to marry this attractive man with no sense of guilt. Doesn't this read like a fantasy many a poor girl would have had who was in service to a family where the husband is attractive, but has a horrible wife who stands in the way of their happiness ? Conveniently the awful wife--and she is awful-- is eliminated and Reader I married him. I cannot think of any other work of fiction that is so openly a fantasy of wish fulfilment. And a powerful one that resonates to this day.
@@frankmorlock9134 Wish fulfillment is an interesting take, but I would think Jane Eyre would then appeal more to 19th Century working young women than post 1960s working women. For the record I think there is much more genius on display in WH than JE, but I prefer Jane Eyre.
Thanks for the great comment.
@@BookishTexan I suspect that a lot of 19th century lower class working women couldn't read, or, if they were able to, lacked money for frivolities such as books. I also suspect that a lot of modern women still secretly nourish the hope to marry a millionaire regardless of what their feminist ideology tells them, and in fact they would probably deny it, even if they did,
I agree with Scarlet Letter. I had to read that one at least twice for high school back in the 80s. Hated it both times. It's a short story stretched to an overly long novel. The first chapter is just a description of a rose bush that doesn't lead to anything. The symbolism is too obvious (ohhhhhh, he rubs his chest, wow, deep.) Yes, the characters are annoying or odd. Gods how I wish teachers would stop requiring it. Give it a rest, teachers!
Never read Hardy but I remember a friend in high school hating Tess of the D'urbervilles. He used to joke about how awful that novel is.
I've never seen anyone say they actually like Wuthering Heights.
Three O'Clock in the Morning sounds like a movie I once saw called Rodger Dodger. That's a movie about a teenage boy who meets his exciting uncle for the first time, I think, and they go on a day long adventure across town. And yes, there is an encounter with some sexy women.
Disagree about Grapes of Wrath, however. I remember liking it back in high school. It was one of the better books I was forced to read. Watching the Joads get destroyed and essentially enslaved by the Californians was horrifying. If you want a reason to embrace unions and socialism read Grapes of Wrath.
I like the idea that The Scarlett Letter is just a bloated short story and I liked all your criticisms of it.
I've never been a Hardy fan and I've read a few.
There are a number of people responding to this video who love WH and I know more than a few., but I'm with you.
I watched the play of Wuthering Heights and I hated it. I haven't read the Scarlet Letter since high school so I don't have much of an opinion on it. I feel like we read some of it and then watched the movie??? I'm not certain as it was 9th grade I think lol.
There is a play of _Wuthering Heights_ ?! That's a little terrifying. I tried to watch a movie adaptation but hated it right out of the gate. Never attempted to watch The Scarlett Letter adaptation.
Thanks Karen
Just diving into your videos and loving them (thanks,#CriminOlly)! FINALLY, someone else who hates A Thousand Acres! As a huge fan of Lear, I found that book to be blasphemous. Lear is such a rich complex character, yet Smiley relegated him to an old cranky perve. I amost threw it across the room when I finished reading it. And it won the Pulitzer!!??? !THANK YOU!!
Glad you came over.
I just found Smiley’s book to be dull and even for the time predictable. But you are right about what it does to King Lear.
Haha - just waiting for another wonderful GWTW rant and it only gets a final credit in the dying seconds!
Sorry to see Midnight’s children on the list but that’s ok. One of the main reasons I would hate a book is if it starts lecturing the reader - George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss would be one. I’d have House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende for shamelessly trying to imitate the style of my favourite book and doing such a poor job of it!
I thought two GWTW rants was enough.
I dislike moralizing and lectures in fiction as well. I read Eliot's Adam Bede and, while it avoided lectures for the most part, it was a very moralizing novel.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
How _dare_ you! 😂 You know I disagree w ya on _Naked Lunch_ and _Grapes of Wrath_ and--especially-- _Whuthering Heights._ I think you will like _East of Eden,_ tho. Ive read it twice and would read it a third time. Good one, Brian! 😎🎸😋
I am going to read _East of Eden_ this coming year. Then I will be able to make a final decision about Steinbeck.
Thanks Allen.
@@BookishTexan Care to buddy read it? 🤔🎸😎
@@bighardbooks770 Maybe some time in the spring.
@@BookishTexan It's a big book but reads fast, youll enjoy it 😎
Death Comes to Pemberley was very disappointing, I agree. I haven’t read most of the other books on your list. I thought Wuthering Heights was ok; I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it either. And now I am thinking of my own list… 🤔
I would love to see a video of your list! Greg from Another Bibliophile Reads did one that was a lot of fun.
Wasn't "A thousand Acres" made into a movie.
It was and I thought the movie worse than the book.
I couldn’t agree with you more about The Scarlet Letter. And the only character in literature I hate more than Dimmesdale is Angel Clare from Tess of the d’Urbervilles… two puritanical weaklings. I would love to see Heathcliff knock their heads together like coconuts. I do love Wuthering Heights though but you need to read it as a character study keeping in mind that Heathcliff is not a nice guy…don’t look for any romance in him.
I need to reread Tess. I don’t like Hardy very much, but I need to try him again. I think WH is a great book. I just hate it.🤓 I reread it a few years ago with no romantic expectations and I liked it less.
Thanks for your great comment.
Great video, appreciate your criticisms. Totally with you on the bullfighting thing, really wish it wasn't so culturally entrenched
Thank you.
Refreshing! Delightful! Books, even novels, matter! Many of your titles I've refused to even read, though in search of classics to be swept off my feet by!
And so many of these are really not suitable for High School classes, and students with such scance life and reading experience, especially in social science, social history, etc. The latter cannot be replaced by experimental and ideology-critical novels...
The same author can provide very different level novels, but the background and philosophy debates need still to be explained and highlighted - Silas Marner, and Middlemarch; The Secret Sharer, and The Heart of Darkness; Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. Great differences within the same oeuvre.
The idea that High School students should read literature in the order and selection that scholars think "The English Novel" developed is absurd - many books should be hated just because they are introduced in such a context and for such reasons.
I agree with pretty much all of this. Not all author's works are suitable for high school (not because of content because of the life experience necessary to appreciate).
And the idea that learning the history of the development of the novel through reading books in a certain order is indeed absurd. That is not something I had thought of, but of course it is true.
Thanks for the great comment.
@@BookishTexan Indeed, I have to agree with myself on this point. Haha! An English teacher for young adults should only help young readers to love reading and find their own language (nuanced and working) and a set of authors of their own to be impressed by. I hate to see The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye among the books young people mention as the best book ever. I get the feeling they haven't read even 10 books of their own choice. Can you make a list for young readers, to really fascinate them? I think quantity should come before quality in this case...
The way you feel about Wuthering Heights I how I feel about Jane Eyre. Rochester is heinous.
He is heinous. But at least Jane is admirable. Cant say as much for Cathy.😁
Gravity's Rainbow.... anything by Dickens...... Tom ( how boring can you be?) Jones...... The Sot Weed Factor..... The French Lieutenants Woman..... there's quite a lot you missed😁
I didn't miss any of the books that I hate.😁 But thank you for including your list of books that you hate.
I can agree with some (I have not read them all) I hate Moby Dick... I was a literature professor in university.... I hated Wuthering Heights too....I am glad I was able to chose what to present to the students....I was merciful since I chose short stories by the classic authors ...worked out well for harried students.
I like the idea, and always like professors, who focused on short stories or only assigned partial works instead of novels or full length pieces in survey courses. I actually loved the old, onion skin paper Norton Anthologies for that reason.
I didn't hate Wuthering Heights -- I thought it had great atmosphere -- but I believed that all the characters deserved to be autopsied while still alive.
I agree about the atmosphere in WH, but I could not get past how much I loathed Heathcliff
Thanks for watching.
The worst book I've ever read is Atlas Shrugged. Pure torture.
I have always avoided Rand and nothing I have seen has led me to believe that was a mistake.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
I couldn’t agree more about Wuthering Heights! Just reread it after years ago…Heathcliff is so unsympathetic and Cathy isn’t much better! 😂
True, very true. Cathy is pretty terrible. I think people forget that because she dies.
Oh no, Midnight's Children is probably my favorite book! Close tie between it and Lonesome Dove. 🙂
I wanted to like it so much. I loved _The Satanic Verses_ , which I read first, but I just could never find my way into the book. Love _Lonesome Dove_ though.
Thanks for watching.
Bad reviews are just as interesting as good for a bit of perspective
There should be more
I actually loved the The Naked Lunch - a fantastic / bad hallucinogenic trip
Nearly 50 years ago
Maybe I should read it again - as an old man !
Different Perspective
I love a bad review!
I read _Naked Lunch_ in the late 90s (my 30s) and I don't think I'm going to reread it.
I may have read the Scarlet Letter in HS but that's it. And I saw an actual bull fight in Spain in the 1960's because that's what you did in Spain at that time since they didn't have the Vatican. Incredibly boring it was to watch a narcotized bull get slaughtered. Hey and I could connect the books with the author 9 of 11 times. That said this was an entertaining video So I'm putting on my blindfold and will either hit the subscribe button or the pinata key. Thanks for making reading approachable.
Thank you for the kind words.
I don't know if I could have made it through a bullfight live.
Haha. I love these kinds of videos. I've read three of these novels: Midnight's Children, Wuthering Heights, and The Grapes of Wrath. It's been years since I read Midnight's Children and I mean to revisit it, but I did love it when I read it. I read The Grapes of Wrath in high school and really liked it, but I wonder how much I'd like it now, as a much more sophisticated reader. Unpopular opinion: I did not like East of Eden. I had the same problem with it that you had with Grapes of Wrath. I thought it was too heavy-handed and the allegory too obvious. I also hated all but one character. And then there's Wuthering Heights. Oh, man, do I despise that book. I hate the characters and, dare I say, it's boring. I've read it twice, thinking that maybe I just didn't get it the first time. Nope. HATE IT. As far as The Scarlet Letter goes, it's books like that that pushed me to study British Lit rather than American. I don't get on with the Puritan mindset of earlier American Lit at all. I find it to be both infuriating and mind-numbingly dull.
I don't get why people get offended when someone dislikes a book they happen to love. Reading is so subjective. People can talk up Hemingway all day long and I still have absolutely no interest in reading him. I liked A Moveable Feast, but in general his style leaves me cold and I refuse to read anything at all that features bullfighting. But I can see why someone would enjoy Hemingway's sparse and straightforward prose. On the other end of the spectrum, I don't really get on with Henry James. Yes, I can see why a lot of people think he's great, but he just doesn't seem to be for me. And probably my most unpopular opinion is that I don't much care for Dickens. I liked David Copperfield and Miss Havisham is a great character, but for the most part, I'd rather read almost anything than read Dickens. These opinions may change at some point as I do believe that reading tastes change and evolve, but I can't see myself ever liking Wuthering Heights. I really, really detest everything about it.
Oops, forgot I also read A Thousand Acres, which sums up my feelings on it.
Haha! Exactly
Your first paragraph feels like something I might have written (though I wouldn't have written it so well). We share a lot of opinions about these books.
As far as the subjectivity of evaluating books, I do think that books can be objectively evaluated based on an informal rubric as long as the evaluator is consistent. BUT, I think it is possible to separate "liking" or "loving" a book from a critical evaluation. This video is just my uncritical reaction. James is a great example
I can appreciate the art of Henry James writing , but I don't like it or his books.
I do like Dickens, usually.
Thanks for your great and thoughtful comment Regina.
I love how much you hate Death Comes to Pemberley!
I think I hate it more every time I think about it!
I pretty much hate anything by that misogynist Steinbeck. For a different take on the Dust Bowl years, read Now in November by Josephine Johnson which came out the year before Grapes. I'm currently re-reading Madame Bovary and I'm hating it because there are no redeeming characters, similar to Wuthering Heights.
Thank you for the recommendation. I have heard of _Now in November_ but never read it. I didn't like _Madam Bovary_ very much either, but it did spark an interest in 19th Century French novels.
Thanks for you comment.
So correct about Grapes of Wrath.
Glad to know that I’m not alone in my opinion about GOW.
I am alarmed by Wuthering Heights rather than hating it. It is deeply fascinating whilst often horrid. Death Comes to Pemberley is trash which was disappointing from James. I think it is best if we don't discuss Hardy. Don't want to fall out 😘
I would never let Hardy cause us to fall out. I accept that he was a great writer, I just don't like most of what I have read. Similarly I can see the genius in WH, but I still find it a miserable read.
All the characters in “Wuthering Heights” are despicable. That’s part of what makes it so fascinating. It’s not like any other novel of its time.
PS: Regarding The Scarlet Letter, nobody likes the Custom House section. Just skip it.
PPS if liking characters is a big deal for you, what would you think of Lolita? :)
@@Tolstoy111 If you watched my video I acknowledged the greatness of Wuthering Heights. Good advice on Tge Scarlett Letter. Humbert Humbert is one of the greatest awful, despicable characters in literature.
@@BookishTexan indeed he is! WH is remarkable in that it’s actually a bit amateurish. Especially compared to Jane Erye. Emily had a volcanic vision that she may not have had the craft to polish but what a vision it was.
I’m a huge John Steinbeck fan, and I hate the Grapes of Wrath. The first part is OK, but most of it is unadulterated socialist realism. The Soviets loved this book and even invited JS to come visit Moscow. His book about that visit called A Russian Journal is an interesting read. East of Eden and Cannery Row are great books, beautiful written, worth reading and rereading. I love them.
That's good to know. Honestly, the socialism in GoW isnt an issue for me. It was the Great Depression and lots of writers and Americans were embracing the basic tenets of socialism. Cannery Row is my favorite Steinbeck
@@BookishTexan Socialist realism is a style of writing and a way of presenting plot, characters and content. It’s a bit different from Socialism as a political system.
@@nvccru Yes. Sorry for conflating the two.
Fun video. I can understand your opinions here. Melodramatic cliche-filled and predictable stories can get annoying.
Thanks Jeremy.
If I had a channel nearly everyone would block or unsubscribe because I really nearly hate Little Women.
Grapes of Wrath I very much enjoyed. I think perhaps it was a product if it’s time being somewhat melodramatic?
I wouldn't argue with you about GofW being a product of its time, I think it is. In some ways it feels like it was written to be made into a movie and I think that kind of reflects Steinbeck's sensibilities.
Thanks for watching.
Heathcliff is a horrible person. I love Henry James' short stories, but Portrait of a Lady put me to sleep 3 times before I got through it for my class. I love The Scarlett Letter tho. Her daughter was Pearl.
I also loved Silas Mariner, and named my bunny slippers Silas and Eppie in high school. They were Christmas presents. Happy Holidays!
Thanks for reminding me. Pearl, yes. James works better on me when I have insomnia than sleeping pills.
Happy Holidays!
There are definitely some on your list that I dislike a lot. Like *Wuthering Heights* . And some on the list are still on my POP. I'm probably not prioritising those now. 😂Apart from *Wuthering Heights* there are some other popular titles; *Terms of Endearment* , *The Goldfinch* , *One Hundred Years of Solitude* and *Peter Pan* and a few more. No need to apologise. We can't all agree on every book.
Please don't let my completely uncritical ranting dissuade you from reading the books on your POP.
I've never read _Terms of Endearment_ or _Peter Pan_. I liked _The Goldfinch_ mostly. I think _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ is a great, great book. But, it is definitely a book from a time when things that go on in its pages were acceptable and today they are (for good reason) not.
Thank you for watching and commenting.
@@BookishTexan `no worries, those books were not at the top of the list anyway and I will give them a go at some point for sure!