Name a book nearly everyone loves that you do not...

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@Jim K 's thread got me thinking along the lines of "one person's treasure is another person's trash" kinda thing.

So name a book that everyone told you was great, but you can't stand. Extra points for aviation books. I'll start:

Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K Gann. I couldn't make it 2 chapters before my eyes started crossing. Seemed to build up to go no where.
 
Most of the answers will be gender-based but ….
Everything I was forced to read in grade school.
Most of Charles Dickens.
Most of Louisa May Alcott.
 
Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langwiesche. I've tried a couple of times and just can't finish it. I have a copy in my aviation library because of it's "must read" status. It's not the concepts, it's the writing style...I think. What ever it is, it's a slog for me to read.
 
are there books that nearly everyone loves?
 
Walboy said:
Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langwiesche. I've tried a couple of times and just can't finish it. I have a copy in my aviation library because of it's "must read" status. It's not the concepts, it's the writing style...I think. What ever it is, it's a slog for me to read.
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Yes! I was tempted to list that one in my initial post as well...
 
murphey said:
Most of the answers will be gender-based but ….
Everything I was forced to read in grade school.
Most of Charles Dickens.
Most of Louisa May Alcott.
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I actually like Dickens...he's one of my favorite authors. It does take some time "to get used to" the style of the time...plus, you have to remember he usually wasn't writing books, but his "chapters" were for magazines of the day.
 
There was a thread (here?) recently on "A Higher Calling". Interesting story, but (IMO) not a very good book.
 
I love most WWII autobiographies, but God is My Co-pilot by Robert Scott I just couldn’t stand.

Scott was a bit too full of himself.
 
Walboy said:
Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langwiesche. I've tried a couple of times and just can't finish it. I have a copy in my aviation library because of it's "must read" status. It's not the concepts, it's the writing style...I think. What ever it is, it's a slog for me to read.
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another vote for stick and rudder. One of the few aviation books I couldn’t make it through. I hated that book. Didn’t like the way it explained things at all.
 
The Killing Zone? Haven't read it, but it seems difficult to pick up a book with a discredited premise.
 
dmspilot said:
The Killing Zone? Haven't read it, but it seems difficult to pick up a book with a discredited premise.
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That's one I've read, and although there is probably an argument for "cockiness before true experience", the problem is that his math is very, very bad.
 
Walboy said:
Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langwiesche. I've tried a couple of times and just can't finish it. I have a copy in my aviation library because of it's "must read" status. It's not the concepts, it's the writing style...I think. What ever it is, it's a slog for me to read.
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yep....that one for me too. That is the one aviation book that seems to be on every must read list.
There were aviation biographies that I couldn't get through even though that's my preferred genre....but those wouldn't be on everyone's must read list.

another....well more the movie...I never even tried to read the books.... Harry Potter.
 
ah, sure, the Harry Potter books (and movies). Yup, definitely those books I have no use for.
 
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I find it banal and unfunny. Yet you'd think anything "42" was comedy jesus in my social circles.
 
Another vote for “Stick and Rudder”. I have it, and the bookmark is about a quarter of the way in. Has been for a couple of years now.

But what do I know? I was very disappointed in the “One Six Right” DVD I bought, too.
 
Bob Noel said:
bflynn said:
Reported. :D

Hunt for Red October.
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really?

oh... sort of like actual naval aviators laughing at "Top Gun", eh?
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The Hunt for Red October was the first fiction publication by the Naval Institute Press. They were concerned both about the accuracy of what was in the book, as well as whether anything classified was revealed.

They gave it to a retired submariner to review. It came back with multiple pages with bright red slashes and the huge letters, "B.S."

As an attempted writer myself, I can only HOPE that I get the same sort of breaks Clancy and Rowling got.....

Ron Wanttaja
 
Another vote for Stick and Rudder. Just couldn't get past the fact that he takes 12 pages to explain something that would normally take a couple of paragraphs.

Fate is the Hunter is a close second for the same reason - Ernest Gann has to describe a person in excruciating detail.
 
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Pilawt said:
Anything with dragons or sorcerers rates a hard pass from me.
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I've been involved with writer's groups for ~40 years, mostly folks involved in SF/Fantasy and Romance (my wife is a published Romance novelist). The SF/Fantasy people won't admit there's any OTHER types of books, and the Romance folks generally have an inferiority complex. Yet the Romance market is about 40% of the total. I've been to several Romance Writers of American conference, and even presented at one.

I know one fairly famous aviation author who discovered the size of the Romance market, and tried to break into it. He didn't *understand* the market, though...it's not just bodice-ripping.

I can read almost anything *well-written*. Not a fan of dungeons and dragons myself, but have to admit "The Dragonriders of Pern" series was well done.

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
The Hunt for Red October was the first fiction publication by the Naval Institute Press.
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emphasis on “fiction”. Whenever we watched it on the boat, there were jokes for weeks.
 
Harry Potter is a children's series - I wouldn't expect I'd be into it, but I can understand why kids would like the books.
 
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I still don't get the plot or the moral of the story. Understand why the book was written, just don't understand the book. Maybe I need to read it again.

Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk
 
Stick and Rudder reads the way it does because it was written for a world barely out of the horse drawn buggy error, in terms they could understand ("The Gaits of the Airplane"). For us it sounds strange. But so does St-Exupery... a modern reader has to be in the mood for that kind of poetic writing.

I didn't like The Great Gatsby either, but for me the worst was A Catcher in the Rye. What's the fun in reading a depressing book about a depressing loser?
 
IK04 said:
Any of the Lord Of The Rings or Harry Potter.
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Lord of the Rings....yes! That's the other one I was trying to think of to go along with Harry Potter...but it was so low on my radar I couldn't even think of the name

Bob Noel said:
really?

oh... sort of like actual naval aviators laughing at "Top Gun", eh?
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yeah...another not a book one, but does sort of fit into the category. I'm not a Naval aviator, but I've got to admit that Top Gun wasn't exactly such a great movie in my opinion. I've seen it several times, and liked it, but not to the level that most folks seem to revere it. Loved the flight sequences of course...but too many "mistakes" that were just bothersome to me.... and I'm quite sure I didn't catch half of them.....

Tarheelpilot said:
That book Chuck Yeager wrote about Chuck Yeager.
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I guess that sort of genre isn't for everybody, and maybe the writing style or whatever...but that book I personally rate pretty high. It's what prompted this guy to start reading. I was probably around 30 years old and basically never read a whole book that wasn't a text book, until I saw Yeager and Bud Anderson give a talk at Oshkosh. It prompted me to read his book....and the story blew me away. It seemed better than a Tom Clancy novel but it REALLY happened to these guys! (well again, movie...I never really read one of Clancy's books). After Yeager, I read Bud Anderson's.....and that lead to me reading and owning quite a big collection of memoirs and autobiographies, most about military flyers
 
Stick and rudder. I just don't get it. To me it reads like a long winded version of that movie where an isolated tribesman finds a coke bottle and doesn't know what it is. Or maybe reading Beowulf to try to understand WW2.

Non-aviation books: Anything Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or any science fiction or fantasy written longer than a Ray Bradbury short story. I just don't have the interest or patience.
 
DaleB said:
But what do I know? I was very disappointed in the “One Six Right” DVD I bought, too.
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I'll agree with that.

The last book I bailed on before "hauling checks" was "lord of the rings". Which is odd because I really enjoyed "the hobbit".
 
Dana said:
I didn't like The Great Gatsby either, but for me the worst was A Catcher in the Rye. What's the fun in reading a depressing book about a depressing loser?
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I haven't found a single classic (Gatsby, Catcher, Mockingbird, Sun Also Rises, etc.) to be an enjoyable read.
 
Well, those are also depressing stories, so they aren’t necessarily “books everyone else loves”. Most people these days (have to) read them for school. I feel the same way about Moby D*ck.

Curious thoughts - are English teachers in that field because they never got over angst?
 
Timbeck2 said:
...Fate is the Hunter is a close second for the same reason - Ernest Gann has to describe a person in excruciating detail.
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Not just a person...a mood, a situation, the weather, the wind...
 
I'll see your Gann and raise you a Michener. I read Hawaii years ago and I believe he took 300 pages to describe how the land formed, how each plant and each bird came to the islands. It was only after 300 pages that the first person arrived.

That said, I enjoyed the book, so maybe that's a reverse of the original topic.
 
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