Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Were Hard For Me To Read


Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Nine Books That Were Hard For Me To Read



1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I think this took me almost an entire year to finish, which considering I normally finish books within 2 or 3 days, is ridiculous. I tried everything - print, ebook, audio. I just can't stand epistolary novels. It's why I had a hard time finishing Dracula and one of the reasons I'm stalled in the middle of Frankenstein (but seriously Frankenstein is the monster, even if he is the doctor).



2. Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts #1) by Stacia Kane

Chess is one of my least favorite heroines, and the narrator made this worse because she made Chess' voice very high pitch and whiny. I did give this another shot, and the series gets better around book 3.



3. Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #12) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita Blake is probably responsible for my obsession with Urban Fantasy. The first handful of books were AWESOME. Only probably Kate Daniels comes close to how kick ass Anita Blake used to be. Then the "ardeur" happened. Then it was just straight up orgy, orgy, Anita whines, orgy.



4. Dark Prince (Dark #1) by Christine Feehan

I actually don't know if I made it all the way through this book. I was extremely uninterested in either of the characters. There was insta-love, an alpha male hero, and a whiny heroine. Add wordy descriptions instead of plot, and this ended up as only 1 of 2 books I have ever rated 1 star.



5. Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1) by E.L. James

I know it's probably cliché by now to add this book to worst books/hardest to finish lists. But, I was nearly shaking with rage while I was reading 50 Shades of Grey. I think I may have murdered Christian Grey if he would have tried any of that crap. I just don't get how it's sexy; he's an asshole who scheduled her gynecological appointment. Just. No.

Subject Matter



6. If I Stay (If I Stay #1) by Gayle Forman

My mom died of cancer in 2011, and it's still something that I have a hard time with. I refuse to read all book with cancer patients, and have a really hard time with books/movies/etc. where the parents dying is a huge obstacle. I don't know what made me pick up If I Stay, but I cried pretty much through the whole book and movie.



7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1) by Stieg Larsson

Those rape scenes were graphic and awful, and just completely unnecessary.

Format



8. Scarlet (Scarlet #1) by A.C. Gaughen

Like epistolary novels, I can't take books written in dialect. I put down Scarlet before I finished one chapter. I decided to give it a shot through audio, and ended up LOVING it, so all dialect books from now are just going to be audio.



9. Blood Red Road (Dust Lands Trilogy #1) by Moira Young

Another book written in dialect that I was able to finish through audio.

Kayla's Pick



10. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I read this book when I was seven months pregnant. I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading about moral dilemmas and complex character. I do not recommend it to anyone who is gestating. I cried so hard and so much by the time I finished it that my eyes were literally swollen shut. Good times.

What books were hardest for you to read?

5 comments:

  1. I worked a travelling job 2 years ago and every girl had a copy of this trilogy. I had no intentions of reading it until I finished all my books and had nothing left!! So I read the whole trilogy, sad moment I can never get back! If I Stay and My Sister's Keeper are two books I own and haven't read yet because I'm just not ready to cry!! My condolences to you & your family<3

    My TTT

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    Replies
    1. I actually ended up reading the second one because the first ended in a cliffhanger, and I thought that surely it would get better. Nope, time and money I'll never get back.

      Thanks Patty; that's sweet of you!

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  2. If I Stay made my list, too. I didn't find it particularly sad, though; I thought it was disturbing.

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  3. I loved Scarlet! I enjoyed the dialect here, but I've had problems with it in other books. If I Stay was also difficult for me, though it didn't make it on my list. And Wuthering Heights. Ugh. I must have been in denial, or I would have added this one. I think I read it at a point when my language skills weren't quite up to it (I learned English as a foreign language) but the epistolary parts and just the AWFUL and WTF things the characters do one another made me want to put it away more than once. I don't understand how people consider this a love story.

    My TTT

    ReplyDelete

You are going to put words in my box?! *squeezes you* Now I shall stalk YOUR blog!