Guilty Displeasures


Lucy-Merriman's avatar
I don't have guilty pleasures, at least not books. If I enjoy something, I generally don't feel bad about it.

What I do have quite a few of, is Guilty Displeasures.

I should like it. I know I should. It's a classic. My friends all like it. But I just can't--I just can't.

This isn't about books you hate. Well, maybe it is. But mostly it's about books (or comics!) you feel pressured to like and you just can't get into, to the point where you feel kinda bad about it, or maybe it just pisses you off that other people like it so much.

So, for instance:

I have lied about reading Lord of The Rings. I have lied and said I read the whole trilogy. I have lied and said I read the first book. I have looked of LoTR facts on the LoTR Wiki on my phone so I could keep up with the conversation. I watched the movies and make sure to compliment the score and whine about the lack of Tom Bombadil. I am a lying liar pants.

I've never made it to the end of Fellowship. Like, not even close. I've picked it up four different times and I sit down and I read it and it's just so...boring.

I guess I have to hand in my Nerd Card.

What about you? What's your guilty displeasure?
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twilite-kiss's avatar
-i confess to hating all things stephen king,or at least books. i try to read,but i never finish,okay except 1408.he's kinda over rated in the writing department ,though I say the movie adaptions of his stuff is usually good.

-also,vampire stories,especially urban fantasy books.its like they're good in theory but not in practice...same goes for science fiction,i like it in theory but it usually it doen't live up in practice.

-and i second the shoujo manga thing,also shounen manga and some popular anime. i think that's why i write fanfiction too
queentakesjack22's avatar
I have two. The first being Wuthering Heights. Everyone said it was a classic and a MUST read. So I started reading it. I don't mind the old style in which it was written, but the story just wasn't that great in my opinion. The characters were all awful! They didn't really have any redeaming qualities about them whatsoever. I didn't feel an ounce of pity for any of them or their tragic endings. They got what they deserved for being so selfish. It took me forever to get through it and I actually had to force myself to read it. I honestly don't see how it is even considered a classic.

The second was a more recent one by the name of Fifty Shades of Grey. I had to hear everybody and their mother go on and on about how great it was. So I decided to purchase it and give it a go. I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to books, especially romance. I don't expect it to be all that deep or moral. I can enjoy myself pretty easily and let a few things slide. But Fifty Shades of Lame was just terrible!! I can get past the fact that it was a Twilight fan fiction in the begining. Seriously though if you are going to turn it into an editor at least make it not so obvious. I mean come on a native american friend by the name of Jose who just happens to be in love with you. And Carrick as the adoptive father figure to our brooding piano playing Christian? Yeah, real smooth there. And the writing itself was mediocre at best. How many times did Anastasia say "Oh my"? Seriously Anastasia Steele had the mental capacity of a 10 year old. Plus the love interest of the story had nothing to offer me that made me think him desirable. He was a jerk with a messed up past and I'm supposed to like him just because he is really really ridiculously good looking and rich? Who cares if he has serious mental problems and has a secret room in his house full of things to beat girls with he is hot and loaded! Take me now sailor....

:icongrumpy-catplz:Um no.
edarlin's avatar
I had to try a few times before I finally made it through Jane Eyre. Once I got past the abusive boarding school bit, it was better, but I wasn't impressed enough to want to read it again.

Anna Karenina. I made it to the part where whats-his-face kills his overbred racehorse during the steeplechase and I just couldn't care enough about all the self-absorbed asshole characters to continue.

Sense and Sensibility. After reading the "and Zombies" version of the book, I know enough about the plot and characters to not want to ever read the original book. Just...ugh.
edarlin's avatar
*Pride and Prejudice...though I don't really ever want to read Sense and Sensibility either.
maxspider72's avatar
If it makes you feel any better I read the "Rings" trilogy, but I had to slog my way through it. I really couldn't get into it either. :spidey:
Xaralta's avatar
Pretty much all of the "shoujo" manga I've read was just HORRIBLE. All it was a bunch of feel-y romance crap with little to no plot. Black Butler was the only one I really liked, but it actually had plot instead of a bunch of dumb girly drama.

As much as I liked the manga Black Cat, Eve annoys the CRAP out of me (Unfortunately, she's a main character). She just irks me to no end. IMO the series would have been better without her. She just struck me as an obnoxious Mary-Sue.

Bleach (also a manga) also started to get boring when it became almost all fight scenes, though the first few volumes were pretty good.

I also can't stand the Phantom of the Opera. Now that was THE most boring book I've ever read. The only good part was when a lady got crushed by a chandelier :| Though I didn't really enjoy of any of the classics I've read other than Animal Farm and parts of The Jungle.

Eragon was also pretty dull, but I couldn't even make it through Eldest.

There's probably others, but these are all I can think of right now.
Lucy-Merriman's avatar
Was Eve the girl who was made of nanobots and could literally shape-shift into anything?

Because, man, I haven't read that series in...seven years? And that character still annoys the piss out of me :lmao: . Like, the fact that there were zero limits on her shape-shifting powers, and everyone automatically loved her--oi. Just a total Mary Sue.

I feel like I gave up on manga kinda in-general because most of the really popular series (Bleach, One Piece, Naruto, etc) just went on and on and never wrapped anything up. It just got really boring. I had a few years when I swore off anything but novels. Then some people got me to read some graphic novels, and now I've been sucked into DCU stuff and it's the same thing all over again!
Xaralta's avatar
Yup, that was her alright. She's probably one of the most irritating characters I've ever seen. She reminds me of this power-playing cat character I had as a little kid that all my other characters practically worshiped. My sister hated her because I made all her characters love her too. Thankfully, I got rid of her around 7-8th grade.

I like Naruto (I've read up to about volume 58) but I get ya on the whole going on and on thing. If it weren't for the school library, I wouldn't be able to afford it, because it would be over $450 just to get up to that volume. I can't say anything about the chapters I haven't read yet for Naruto, but Bleach should have just ended awhile ago.
Lucy-Merriman's avatar
It probably did, I just didn't get to the end.
MrMatsui's avatar
Die hard, not a comic but when i tell people i have not seen die hard they just disconnect from the world into a black abyss where nothing exists except for their hatred for me. So i just tell everyone yeah that seen where he was mortally wounded was great and everyone goes YEAH MAN! and give me a high five
edarlin's avatar
Hey, you're not alone. I haven't seen any of them, or Lethal Weapon, or Mission Impossible. And I never ever tell people I haven't.
Lucy-Merriman's avatar
:lmao: Oh my gosh, that's hilarious! Man, like, a few weeks ago my friends (who are very much bros) talked my into going to see, like, Die Hard 5 at midnight so we'd be the only ones in the theater. I was thinking, "Okay, well, I can count on some funny lines, cool explosions, and fast car chases. Get the testosterone pumping." But, seriously, 30 minutes into the movie, it was so stupid, like the whole plot and lines were so badly written and the car-chases were so over-the-top that it was practically excruciating. Even the dude-iest of my friends were making fun of it afterward.

So...dodged a bullet there. Although, if I recollect right, the first film was actually pretty solid, it just didn't need so many sequels.
MrMatsui's avatar
I saw number 2 in french in a hotel in france(duh) but i have herd faaaabilous things about number 1. However bruice willis has not given a shit as a actor for like 10 years so....
jeun-chan's avatar
Sherlock Holmes. I read the entire collection, but I really can't seem to care much about it. Watson tends to come over as a push-over and kinda worshippy of Holmes. While Holmes is patronising. And I can't stand that. I don't like the style of the writing either, It got really repetitive after a while.

I just finished The man called Thursday by Chesterton. I see reviews about how people like it and etc. and i'll can think of is how starting somewhere in the middle the book just started going downhill and became incomprehensible at the end.

And finally Dodger and Snuff by Terry Pratchett. I like Pratchett a lot, so I was dissapointed by these two. They had some good bits, but overall I didn't like them as much as I should. In Snuff Vimes comes over as a Gary Stue and I hate that. Dodger keeps saying the same things over and over, and way too much mentions of poop.
McChi's avatar
The Hobbit, I just can't read it.
carusmm's avatar
I am not a great lover of books, though I pretend to be.
Lucy-Merriman's avatar
:( That just makes me sad,
carusmm's avatar
I read but it is torture to me.
Byth1's avatar
I couldn't get through the first few pages of The Eye of The World(Wheel of Time), It was just boring to me for some reason :yawn:.
Lupina24's avatar
Romance. I've tried to get a feel for them, but they are pointless. Yes, I understand that developing relationships are necessary or amazing. However, I don't get why any relationship should override other priorities in reality (career, finances, education, plot motive, family, other events, etc.)

Russian Literature. I've tried I've really tried, Anna Karenina 28 pages War and Peace, 183 pages, Night Watch and Day Watch (Yes, I did finish them) It seems the Russians love to involve politics into every scrap of writing and it ticks me off to no end.

Douglas Adams. I can't get his style, I can't figure out his logic, I don't even comprehend how 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' is even amusing.
Lucy-Merriman's avatar
I feel kinda bad for not liking Lolita, which was the only Russian novel I've read. But I feel like I oughta give the genre more of a shot.

Romances...I dunno, there are some I adore (The Fault in Our Stars, Jane Eyre, etc) but most romances in the genre of "chick lit" or anything Nicholas Sparks writes, I just can't get into it either.
Lupina24's avatar
'Chick lit' yeah, that's what I've been subjected to.
frostyshadows's avatar
Harry Potter. Ok I've read 2 of them, but never really got into them.

I get the weirdest looks when I say I've never read Harry Potter .____.
TheDayTripper's avatar
well...my guilty pleasure is downloading and ....well...watching europorn.