
Life is short and bookshelves are long… and it’s too easy to get suckered into a book, keep turning the pages, start philosophising or daydreaming and forget to live. So here’s five books you should avoid like the plague if you don’t want to become a book addict:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
It’s only about a middle-class family with five daughters whose sole aim in life appears to be to get married. I mean, how outdated is that? And it has a happy ending; so clichéd. So what if it’s funny and immerses you in the life of the characters? It’s not like anybody lives like that any more, right?
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Some boys run wild on a godforsaken island. Without an adult to supervise them too; no wonder they turn into bloodthirsty little savages. Who would have thought that Golding would win the Nobel-prize in literature when he wrote books like this?
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
It’s about war. It’s about the insanity of war. It’s so bizarre, it’s past being funny. All the characters want to do is to survive the war, is that reasonable? Where is the heroism?!… And to top it all, the phrase catch-22 spread like wildfire in English and a dozen other languages and it’s a veritable cliché by now.
Antigone by Sophocles
It’s a Greek tragedy, for god’s sake!… (You can’t be serious about even contemplating to read a Greek tragedy?) The characters are asked to make moral choices. They’ll do what they’re destined to do in the end anyway, won’t they? And the whole fuss is over whether somebody should be given a burial or not!
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
A lunatic scientist called Frankenstein creates a monster by sewing together body parts from various cadavers. How disgusting is that? The whole thing is clearly the disturbed imagination of an 18 year old girl who only ever became famous because she married the poet Shelley.
(Just a tongue-in-cheek response to the day 2 prompt of Everyday Inspiration: Make a List. I started out to write a list of ten books you should avoid but got bored! If you want to read more book-lists, click here.)
P.S. You should not read book-blogs either! (They spread the reading bug.)
Thanks. I needed that.
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In what way? As an example of how to run out of inspiration halfway through a post?… I agree it’s excellent that way. 🙂
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HAhaha! Rushing off to read Pride and Prejudice again now! 😀 😀
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I’ll be sure to avoid these entirely. Great list by the way, not very often do you see people write about what not to read. Usually I see book-reviews of books I’ve read in the past and tell myself “that book is not that good” but the reviewers go on and talk about how great it is.
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H’m… I often see glowing reviews of really bad books, too… but this was a tongue-in-cheek post. Are you sure you’re on the right blog? 🙂
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Lol, this post is a great time saver! (Although I have already read Pride and Prejudice).
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In that case, do you have a better take on it? 🙂
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Alas, no! 😬 I’ve read it twice; once when I was at school (when I really didn’t connect with it at all) and once for my book club (by which time I was at least able to comprehend it even if it still didn’t leave any lasting impression!)
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That’s a shame… it was one of my favourite books when I was in my twenties. But it’s definitely not everybody’s cup of tea!
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Well if you’ve met an middle class Indian family, you’d know a mother’s sole aim is to ger her daughters married!! 😂😂
So yea there are people like that still. You’d be surprised!!
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If you know any such mothers, do recommend them Jane Austen! 🙂
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Mine is one of them, yet refuses to relate 😀
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What a unique back-handed way to review books! When I saw Pride and Prejudice at the first, I started to check out who wrote this! I was so relieved when I read the last line of your introductory paragraph. Wonderful.
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I thought doing it backwards might make people to sit up and take notice! 🙂
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Hey! I think this is a awesomely funny book-list! This year I’ve the purpose of reading at least Frankenstein and The Lord of the Flies; in fact Frankenstein would be a rereading, I read it when I was a child, but I want to reread and review it on my blog.
P.S. Sorry for grammar errors, you know.
P.P.S. Thanks for your comments and help me in my blog last night.
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The best way to learn good English? Keep reading. 🙂 The speaking & writing will come… at least that’s my experience.
Lord of the Flies is a great book!
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Frankenstein is all about terrorizing villagers! Oh, that commentary of doctors playing God thing doesn’t make the movie versions. But I agree children should play with spiked sticks and pig heads.
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Have never seen a Frankenstein film, LOL! If it’s not created by Dr Frankenstein, where do they say the monster comes from?
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Oh they mention Dr Frankenstein. He’s a villain of terrible morals and crazy in his habits. The good doctor is always maniacal, hell bent on bringing life to his lifeless creation. Once reanimated, he’s a father, caring to his beast.
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Drat! I’ve read them all! Drat! Drat! Drat! I came here to avoid books only to find out I failed before I started. Story of my life. I think I’ll go and read… a blog about books!
When are we rowing up the Thames again?
Jack
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I know the feeling of frustration… 🙂
As for rowing up the Thames, I was thinking of writing up the next instalment in a week or two… there are a couple of other things I’m working on at the moment that’ll be coming first!
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