10 Books The Whole World Loves But Didn’t Do It For Me
You know that thing where you read a book and think “This is garbage” and then go to Goodreads or Amazon to look at other reviews and realize, “Oh, apparently I’m on my own here.”
Or the extremely awkward thing where someone recommends a book that is the best book ever and so you read it and you think it is really awful but. . . you have to pretend it was great (or possibly avoid that friend for the rest of your life).
Anyway, here are ten of those books for me, where everyone is constantly recommending them to me and I have to either smile and nod or admit that I couldn’t even make it through the whole book.
And they are probably your favorite books in the whole world, so you are welcome to tell me that I am a complete idiot.
Books That Are Not for Me
- 50 Shades of Gray. Okay, this one is a joke. I haven’t read any of this book (although I laughed my head off at Dave Barry’s take on the book – warning that there is some slightly sexual content in his essay, which is to be expected considering the subject matter). I promise the next ten books I’ve actually read or attempted to read.
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (the Flavia de Luce series). I know! Everyone loves these books so so much. And I didn’t hate it. I just had zero desire to read any after the first one. And it took me about 10 years to get through the first one (in all fairness, I was listening to it, and the problem could have been the narrator).
- Out of the Dust. My mom bought this for me right when it won the Newbery and I could barely make it through – the whole thing freaked me out so much. Five years later, someone did a piece from it at a speech and debate tournament, and I almost couldn’t even sit through it. It’s just too much, too graphic for me.
- Jacob Have I Loved. I absolutely love Bridge to Terabithia, so I was super excited about this one. And then it wandered on for ages. I liked the premise, just not the actual book. Too bad.
- Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children. I don’t even have really bad things to say about this book; I just couldn’t get into it and eventually gave it up.
- The Night Circus. This book is approximately ten thousand CDs long. Even Jim Dale narrating couldn’t save it for me. I got to the end and wasn’t entirely sure what had even happened or, frankly, if there had even been a plot.
- The Maze Runner. I always hear this one recommended as a great, fun read. But I felt like absolutely nothing happened in the entire book. I don’t get the appeal at ALL.
- Eat Pray Love. This one is probably in the top spot for bestselling books I could not stand. I wrote more about my distaste for this book here.
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I get that it’s supposed to be heart-warming and beautiful. But by the end of the book I couldn’t stand any of the characters, and I was just relieved it was over.
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I just went back and re-read the review I wrote of this back in 2009 and it enraged me all over again how STUPID this book is. I don’t feel only apathy toward this book, I feel actual rage over how bad it is. Even after five years.
- We Were Liars. I wanted to love this one. I love The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks more than is normal, and I was thrilled to see another book from her, but. . .this was not the book I was hoping for. I never got into it, and it was one step above a slog for me. (By the way, lots of people who didn’t like this book disliked it because they guessed the twist. I did not guess the twist, and I still thought it was lame).
I also hate Nutella (I know. It’s practically a crime, but I try it about once a year to see if I’ve changed my mind and every time it basically burns my mouth with its chemically taste), so feel free to think I have the worst taste in everything ever.
If you’d like a printable copy of this list of books that weren’t for me that you can take to your library or screenshot on your phone for easy access, just pop in your email address below and it’ll come right to your inbox!
And of course, feel free to tell me about the popular or beloved books you couldn’t handle – we can all enjoy our bad taste in books together.
We all know you really read 50 Shades of Gray while eating Nutella 😉 Just kidding, but when I saw this post I was anxiously waiting to see Heaven is for Real on there due to my over excitement for it at book club last year… Glad to know my recommendation wasn't bad enough for the top 10 haha
I felt the same way about The Night Circus. I kept trying to give it a chance, and it sat on my night stand for monthssss before I finally gave it back to the library. Blah.
I don't remember what I thought of eat pray love but I definitely didn't get all the hype. I hated sweetness in the belly, our book club did it but I couldn't get into it. And I had a hard time getting into the book thief. I'm not sure if the last one was bc I had just had a baby and wasn't into reading or of it had been praised too much and I had too high expectations. I'll try it again but I didn't even finish it and that's pretty rare for me.
It’s an unusual book with Death being the narrator. I personally thought it should be added to required reading in high schools. Try it again sometime. There’s a lot of references to words/books, etc.
Eat Pray Love was the WORST!
Get ready for a long comment. Apparently, you are speaking my language.
You actually have several books on this list that I just feel "meh" about:
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Like you I had no desire to read on.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children – Told a friend not to bother with it.
The Maze Runner – Hated this book with a passion. I cringe when characters solve problems by remembering things they didn't know they had forgotten.
We Were Liars – It was fine, but I knew what the big twist was on like the second page. (OK, I exaggerate, but it was early on.)
The only one on your list that I loved that you didn't (the rest I just haven't read) is The Night Circus. I really loved it, but I don't think it's for everyone. It's a quiet, moody book, and I love a book with heaps of atmosphere. Also, I'm not sure this is the type of book that would work really well on audio?
I think the big book that everyone loves but I don't would be Divergent. I just couldn't be bothered to pick up the next in the series, and now Divergent is like DIVERGENT. Also, I have a real problem with wasteland wanderings (in other words, survival novels). I wrote a whole post about it. http://www.intellectualrecreation.com/search/label/Not%20My%20Thing
I must admit I feel like a total loner on this, but The Fault in our Stars is really not that great. Maybe I had high expectations since it was made into a movie and everyone I know was raving about it, but it didn't really get much emotion out of me, which is saying a lot since I'm 6 months pregnant and cry to just about everything! I also agree about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Took me forever to read it and then when I stared at the other books I'm the series I was like, I'm good if I never read another one.
I didn’t like The Fault In about Stars either!! I’m get very invested and into whatever I’m reading or watching, so i am very emotional. This book evoked exactly zero emotion from me! And the conclusion I’ve come to is that it’s too contrived. It’s like the author was TRYING to make people cry and he was trying too hard. It totally missed the mark for me!
I totally agree!! I am very emotional with books (and movies) and cry at almost everything, happy, sad, you name it. I felt absolutely nothing with this book. As I was reading and feeling nothing, I was thinking, “What is wrong with me?!?!” I just felt like the author was trying too hard to make a sad novel and by doing that, it just felt way too fake.
A dagger just went through my heart. I wrote my senior thesis on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and my copy has withstood all our moves. Hah! But, I have to agree I was annoyed with some of the characters too. I love Oskar forever though.
I'm so confused how anyone could not love Nutella. Chemical taste? I don't get it. It's the most delicious!
Anyway, I'm usually a pretty major bandwagon-jumper and have no problem loving books that everyone else loves without spending much critical analysis of it. I totally loved Eat, Pray, Love by the way… but then I have zero ethical issues with divorce and really enjoyed her descriptive writing style. And that book came at a time that I'd just lost my job and my fiancé had just left me for another woman and kicked me out of our house, and I decided to go traveling solo without a return ticket home, so it was something of a lifeline for me at the time.
My books that I just couldn't get into that everyone else loved?
Gone Girl. I thought the story was set up really well until the big twist, and from that point on, I found the writing juvenile and totally unsatisfying.
And Jonathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You. It's not that I hate this book… I don't… I just thought it was utterly unremarkable and boring. What on earth is all the hype about?
YES! Eat Pray Love. I did not enjoy it even a little bit. I really wanted to like Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but it went on a little long and boring for me.
I hate Nutella too! People always rave about how great it is, but YUCK!
I don't care for Nutella. And the Boy in the Striped Pajamas just made me sick. Blah. You're better than me in that you actually finish the book if you don't like it. I put the book in the return bag and don't even bother!
Or at least most of them. 🙂
I really enjoy the Flavia de Luce books, but I agree with you on many of your other selections. I think I started Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close at one point but quit. I finished The Maze Runner recently and really didn't like it. Like you, I felt as though nothing really happened, and I also felt as though it could have been about 50 pages shorter. I was interested at first, but then it fell to pieces for me, and I just had to trudge through it. I also HATED Night Circus. I have absolutely no idea what happened, and if I had to provide a summary, it would pretty much be, "Umm…a magic circus? Time travel?" I really hated The Great Gatsby which is supposedly an awesome classic, but I found no redeeming qualities in any of the characters. I'm not sure how to like a book filled with characters I loathe.
Yes to Eat Pray Love
Hated Gone Girl
Bored by Atonement
100% agree with you on Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I actually became angry reading it, wondering how in the world any editor would let it slip through. The film, on the other hand, was much better–did you see it?
Oh man. I love this post. Let me just get out all my angst over the books everyone loves that I pretty much hate.
1- Divergent. Read it. Hated it. And just couldn't get past the fact that the love interest's name is TOBIAS. Could we pick any uglier name?! Blech. The whole premise just seemed really shaky to me and all the tension just felt contrived.
2 – The Night Circus. Just couldn't ever finish it. I agree – just no plot.
3 – Anything by Neil Gaiman. Beautiful writing but I just can't get into any of the stories, no matter how hard I try.
4 – Flavia de Luce. It was – meh – fine. But I didn't love it and everyone else just raves over it.
5 – The Raven Boys books. I read the first one and it was almost something I liked but I just felt so confused by so much of it. And the characters didn't feel very organic to me – they felt so formulated. I don't know. I didn't love it.
6 – Starcrossed. Okay. I HATED this one. So so much. Hated everything about it. I kept reading just because it had such rave reviews by so many of my friends and I thought maybe it would change. But it didn't! The main girl was always stupid and the plot was always contrived and the prose was always boring. Okay rant over.
Wow. That feels good to finally get all of that out. 🙂
And I remember when I moved from Paris back to America and Nutella came to America a few years later, it tasted different than it had in France. So maybe schedule your once-yearly Nutella test for some of the time you're in Europe, just in case it's a little different there still. 🙂
The Fault in Our Stars- annoyed me to no end, and it didn't make me emotional at all. Just 'meh.'
I completely agree about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas!
The Night Circus- yes! I got to the end I said out loud: "I don't get it." I hate that!
I completely get the Nutella thing. Hazelnuts have always been my favorite until my last pregnancy in Europe. Now each time I even look at anything with hazelnuts I gag. It's so disappointing!
Possibly Jim Dale narrating the Night Circus is the reason you didn't like it. 🙂 I love him reading Harry Potter but cannot think of a worse narrator for the Night Circus.