Pink Poogle Toy Forum

I am the Cheese. This novel mastered the art of making sure you knew the entire plot by the third page.

The book was the cheese.

Ok, I see a lot of disrespect for some amazing books going on in here. This week, I will try to make one post a day about a book that someone posted about in here and why most people hate it and why not to hate it.

Starting with:

The Catcher in the Rye

Reasons for disliking the book and how I refute them:
-Swearing (this is the one thing I disliked in the book, but it was done in a way that added greatly to the story)
-It's completely psycho (It challenges the way you think about yourself and those you consider to be "Mentally Challenged". It also makes you consider the "phonies" and other such societal ills)
-It lacks a true plot (Anyone who says this is completely nuts. This book, while it challenges the "normal" plot style, you need to remember that this is a book that is written from the viewpoint of a depressed boy trying to make sense of life. In this, he suceeds.)
-Poor writing style (READ SALINGER'S OTHER BOOKS. He is a man who has such style in writing that he is able to bent the rules of conventionality and immerse himself in the mind of Holden and write like he would be thinking. In my opinion, that takes pure genius.)

Ok, so this is more of a rant than anything else. I am very defensive of my books.

Tomorrow - Anna Karenina

yeah yeah yeah, we KNOW why people don't hate them. they're classics and we're being forced to read them and the reasons get thrown in our faces all the time. that's why this thread was created: to complain about why WE don't like them, and why we disagree. it's hardly disrespect.

Ok, I see you took me a bit too seriously there. There was a bit of sarcasm in my post. I was just trying to point out the good aspects of books that most people dislike. I want everyone to give books a second chance.

i read catcher in the rye four different times, at four different parts of my life, and hated it all four times. people kept telling me to give it another chance, and i kept trying, and damn it, i'm not trying any more. that book just sucks and that's final.

i did reread the wind in the willows when i got older (read it first when i was seven or so, again around 12) and i did like it. then again, i read it again last year and didn't know what i liked when i was 12. some books just bite no matter what.

Tom's Midnight Garden.

I got to around page 60 and just got bored of it. It had little meaning and was boring.

To be honest, there are very few "classics" I've enjoyed.

Little Women I forced through the summer before sixth grade...and believe me, I mean forced. Same with Gone With the Wind the summer before eighth. (See, I even had to take a summer off in between!)

No other titles come to mind, but I know my mum went through a phase of buying me classics, and I don't think I liked any.

oh man. there's another book i reread to see if i'd missed something good the first time. i reread it last summer. wow. you want to talk about cheese. and i got so mad when jo married a MAN. it wasn't meant to happen and we all know it.

Are you implying that Jo was a lesbian?

T.H. White's The Once and Future King. Eegods, I couldn't slog my way through the beginning. This inspired Camelot???

I adored Little Women as a kid! I haven't read it in a few years, but I do remember reading it multiple times when I was younger.

Ah, one classic I couldn't stand was Beowulf. I don't know why, I just hated that book the entire time I read it. All of my class did, but I think it was because ouy English teacher had this "great idea" to take us to this Puppet Museum, and they had a puppet show version of Beowulf and it was awful. Maybe if I were to read it now I'd enjoy it...

I loved Catcher in the Rye though. I read it just last year along with a bunch of other "extra" books because I read ahead of most of my classmates.

Oh God, I hated the whole first half. Afterwards it was okay and I finished reading it with a relatively peaceful mind and pleasure that I did finish it. I can try really hard and imagine why people call it a classic, but it really made me want to cry (with boredom).

Oh but Treasure Island. Since it was written for boys, I can sincerely say there is not a bit of masculinity in me. I couldn't bear reading it (the language put me off -- but hey, maybe I'll try it again just so I can say I did it).

i loooooove all of the bronte's works. I loved Wuthering Heights. I also adore Jane Austen novels, as I'm currently reading a collected works book. A lot of time, individuals cannot stomach classics because there's a lot of somewhat irksome character development in the first half of the book (i.e. Jane Eyre where they follow most of her lifetime as a child/young lady before they get to the most interesting parts). But once you get past that you are able to fully enjoy the entire novel because you are able to experience catharcism because you know the character(s) and they're mannerisms so well. Sometimes dislike of a classic or any book is caused because it's just not what you're into, or you just didn't read the whole thing. All and all I hate the book's I read at school. Steinbeck's "The Pearl" (AACK) and Robert McCammon's "Boy's Life" just to name two. But looking at it, I thoroughly think "Boy's Life" was well written, it's just not my type of book, therefore boring to me. But if you go about reading classics, I reccomend watching the movie versions after, or even before, then you can either laugh at how poorly they portrayed them, or you can enjoy the novel being brought to life. By the way, Pride and Prejudice, A & E, 1995, Colin Firth, hearththrob! I plan to teach classic literature as my profession, so i might be an exception to everyday book readers.

Now that I've finished reading it, I must say that Wuthering Heights is an excellently well-written piece of literature, but it is also one of the most morbid I've ever read. I don't find it boring, but it's hardly an exciting piece of literature and it could be confusing at times, not because of the language that was used, but the WAY in which that language was used. What I did appreciate about the book was the way in which Bronte developed her characters; every aspect of the characters' personalities and their every thought was touched upon, whether through those characters' statements or their actions. I think Wuthering Heights is well deserving of its "classic" title, though I can easily see why many people would not enjoy it, whether because of its complexities or because of how morbid it is.