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Yeah. Not necessarily 'books with poo poo endings' so much as 'fond memories that you're worried about ruining,' but whatever you wanna talk about. For me: I Am The Messenger, Markus Zusak. It's definitely YA and I was in the right age bracket for it, and I remember outside of one really brutal bit where the protagonist wrestles with what he has to do about an abusive father. The book was great, for the most part. Fun characters, neat style, the story felt real, but I also remember that the ending was a big fart. Huge, even. Also John Dies At The End, David Wong / whatever that dude's real name is. It's kind of three stories stapled together and I remember everything to do with Big Jim was annoying. (But that being said, I'd gladly read it again before reading the sequel. Let's take this cool weird horror comedy story and make the sequel a profoundly boring zombie book.) Your Uncle Dracula fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Apr 20, 2023 |
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Apr 20, 2023 22:32
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I forgot I read I Am The Messenger in high school. I had really liked The Book Thief and my school library had a copy of IATM, but it was a real snooze. I guess for me, the book I wouldn't want to re-read is JPod by Douglas Coupland. My high school library also had a copy of this (god knows why) and I adored it when I was a teen for its experimental formatting, surrealism, and cynical humor but... I don't think adult me would enjoy it even half as much. It was the perfect kind of book for that loner kid who thinks humanity is stupid, selfish, and unworthy, but I think I'd find its cynicism grating now that I'm in the age range of the protagonists.
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Apr 20, 2023 22:40
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I absolutely adored all five Hitchhiker's Guide books, thought they were the funniest and most clever books ever written and I will never reread them to confirm. I've changed so much in the 15ish years since I last read them, especially things I find funny or clever, and I'm worried I might hate that style of humor now
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Apr 21, 2023 04:52
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Your Uncle Dracula posted:Also John Dies At The End, David Wong / whatever that dude's real name is. It's kind of three stories stapled together and I remember everything to do with Big Jim was annoying. (But that being said, I'd gladly read it again before reading the sequel. Let's take this cool weird horror comedy story and make the sequel a profoundly boring zombie book.) I read Futuristic Violence in Fancy Suits, I think shortly after it came out, and it felt like the novelization of a Saints Row game or something. Definitely made me feel like his style of writing was no longer what I'm looking for. WarpDogs posted:I absolutely adored all five Hitchhiker's Guide books, thought they were the funniest and most clever books ever written I started reading the first one again a few years ago, and put it down in the first few chapters... in fact maybe shortly after Zaphod steals the Heart of Gold, mainly because I realized I had laughed so hard at all the jokes in high school that I no longer found them original or funny. And I just remembered the last two books being ruthlessly depressing, right up until the end. I can add Snow Crash. I used to end up re-reading it about once every five years or so, but the last time I read it (probably closer to 6 or 7 years ago now), it started to feel a bit threadbare. When I first read it as a teenager, it seemed like such an unflinching vision of the future. Then over the years, I heard more and more people say that it was supposed to be somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek satire of the cyberpunk novels that had flooded the market before it, and as an adult I could finally start to see that. The swordfighting bit, Uncle Enzo, the sheer absurdity of the burbclaves and franchulates, it was all just slightly over the top. Plus Hiro and Raven's dads meeting as WWII POWs was, at that point, clearly an anachronism. And it sure doesn't help that Zuckerberg and cronies ripped off and then buried the idea of the metaverse. The people trying to make that real turned out not to be intimidating motherfuckers like L. Bob Rife running a cult from a purloined aircraft carrier; instead they're uncharismatic, self-centered nerds.
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Apr 21, 2023 05:31
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Youremother posted:I guess for me, the book I wouldn't want to re-read is JPod by Douglas Coupland. My high school library also had a copy of this (god knows why) and I adored it when I was a teen for its experimental formatting, surrealism, and cynical humor but... I don't think adult me would enjoy it even half as much. It was the perfect kind of book for that loner kid who thinks humanity is stupid, selfish, and unworthy, but I think I'd find its cynicism grating now that I'm in the age range of the protagonists. Microserfs is a lot better and feels more timeless if you ever want to revisit the world of depressed programmers. still cynical, but everyone other then the corporate machine is treated with humanity and not just a person cured of their dysfunction by realizing they are autistic ugh. my "can't go back" is William Gibson novels. Neuromancer hit me just right at a formative time in my life, but his early style feels a little trite looking back, and PKD hits the spot in a more satisfying way now.
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Apr 21, 2023 05:42
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Yeah I loved snow crash but I darent go back and read it in case it turns out it was just high quality ready player one I haven't gone back to 1984 since I read it in my early teens in like a day and thought it was perfect
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Apr 21, 2023 10:36
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I was really into Harry Potter as a kid. I think a large part of that might have been the hype and community surrounding it at the time. It was fun speculating with others about what was going to be in the next book. It was also one of the first major online fandoms I was a part of. I don't know how much of my interest was from the books themselves, and what was stuff I kind of built up in my head to make the world more interesting.
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May 15, 2023 02:39
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istewart posted:I started reading the first one again a few years ago, and put it down in the first few chapters... in fact maybe shortly after Zaphod steals the Heart of Gold, mainly because I realized I had laughed so hard at all the jokes in high school that I no longer found them original or funny. And I just remembered the last two books being ruthlessly depressing, right up until the end. Yeah, Mostly Harmless in particular is so burnt-out and bitter that I don't know if I could re-read the series knowing that's where Adams ends up with it. I suspect there are jokes in there that I would get now that I didn't get as a teenager (particularly an American teenager), but it just seems like revisiting it would be a sad experience.
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May 15, 2023 03:51
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The incarnations of immortality. I loved most of that series as a kid and I'm 100% sure it's complete and utter garbage. Xanth I kind of knew it was trash even when I was reading it as they came out, but...
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May 15, 2023 12:13
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Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels were gently caress by badass when I was a kid, but now looking back at how he just had to self-insert in like every book makes me shudder. Maybe his non-fiction shipwreck hunting book is still decent...
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May 15, 2023 13:34
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Oh, now Harry Potter is just cheating. Ditto Ender's Game.
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May 16, 2023 07:38
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Youremother posted:I forgot I read I Am The Messenger in high school. I had really liked The Book Thief and my school library had a copy of IATM, but it was a real snooze. OMG, I impulse bought JPod as a teen because I thought the cover was kind of fun and I didn't understand it at all. I even read one of Coupland's earlier books, the big important Gen X one, to see if that would help and it didn't. I flipped through it later in life and had the vague sense it was all nonsense and promptly gave away both books. I wonder if that dude is an idiot actually
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May 16, 2023 15:43
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Doc Fission posted:I wonder if that dude is an idiot actually maybe ‘The smartest person in any room anywhere’: in defence of Elon Musk, by Douglas Coupland
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May 16, 2023 17:15
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Action Jacktion posted:maybe oh god it just kept getting worse.
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May 16, 2023 17:33
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Action Jacktion posted:maybe Good god.
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May 16, 2023 19:37
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Action Jacktion posted:maybe An astonishing 180 from the core concept of JPod where an incompetent manager meddling in his team's project as a way to cope with his poo poo family is the impetus of the story
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May 16, 2023 19:42
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Action Jacktion posted:maybe 
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May 16, 2023 21:25
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Famethrowa posted:my "can't go back" is William Gibson novels. Neuromancer hit me just right at a formative time in my life, but his early style feels a little trite looking back, and PKD hits the spot in a more satisfying way now. fucckk i hope i dont feel the same way as you do whenever i decide on a reread. but i have a bad feeling since i dont remember anything but his descriptions
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May 16, 2023 21:56
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cumpantry posted:fucckk i hope i dont feel the same way as you do whenever i decide on a reread. but i have a bad feeling since i dont remember anything but his descriptions it's not like, bad in any way, but even taking into account cyberpunk derivatives making the genre cliche, it's just less mind blowing then the book itself wants to believe. at some points I felt like the immersion stopped being effortless and starting tugging your hand and going "wow, right?" (the razorgirl prostitution stuff comes to mind) though, cyberpunk might just not be for me, because most things that derive from the setting I do not care for at all. I'll always enjoy the dub reggae astronauts though.
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May 16, 2023 22:37
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Famethrowa posted:I'll always enjoy the dub reggae astronauts though. Have you seen this Eurovision entry? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR9rtB2ilZU
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May 16, 2023 23:27
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My favorite book ever might be "The World According to Garp." I read it initially when I was like 12, and I basically reread it every year after until I turned like 30 (I'm 41 now). I've read most of John Irving's other stuff, but over the years I've missed a few books. I have fond memories of that book, and "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and a whole bunch of others, and I've been on a reading binge lately, so I decided to maybe read the rest of his books. Anyhow, that's a long winded way of saying that I recently finished "The Hotel New Hampshire" which I believe he wrote immediately after Garp, and holy hell, the sex stuff was weird, and Neal Stephenson books are kind of like that too, except instead of weird sex (which there is a lot of) it's super creepy adoration of tech bros. Like the "not Elon Musk" in SEVENEVES was super off-putting and I suspect if I read it fresh now it would ruin the first third of that book, knowing what we know about Elon now.
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May 17, 2023 17:36
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I am a fat old biddy and I loved Tamora Pierce books as a kid. The Lioness, Wild Magic, Protector of the Small. I bet they didn't age well but they were my Sheroes when I were a gel.
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May 17, 2023 18:07
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Wikipedia on Garp posted:She encounters a dying ball turret gunner known only as Technical Sergeant Garp, who was severely brain damaged in combat. Jenny nurses Garp, observing his infantile state and almost perpetual autonomic sexual arousal. Yeah, I could understand not wanting to go back to this. That's not a burn on you, you started liking this book at 12, but jesus.
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May 17, 2023 18:07
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rape cw 
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I read Garp at like 16 and even then the sex stuff was profoundly unnerving. Maybe it's okay if you can roll with John Irving in general, but... good lord, that dude has some unpleasant ideas about sex and gender. (I only learned as an adult that that initial Garp plot point was inspired by Irving himself being the son of a single mother who didn't really explain his origins and being bitter about it, so he like... wrote fanfic about a thinly-veiled version of his mother raping a disabled man to conceive his self-insert?? dude, are you okay??)
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May 17, 2023 21:16
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the sub-plot about the CW?pedophile and the molested radical feminist terrorist who has her tongue cut out stuck with me for years. reading it at 13 was probably not great.
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May 17, 2023 21:29
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Famethrowa posted:the sub-plot about the CW?pedophile and the molested radical feminist terrorist who has her tongue cut out stuck with me for years. reading it at 13 was probably not great. I resent that plot because it's just more "feminists are cuh-razy" garbage, while a novel that was really willing to go hard on the idea of this self-mutilating radical feminist movement could have been good! but not from that loving guy!
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May 17, 2023 21:48
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Turns out twekve is probably not an appropriate age to read John Irving! I forgot about the feminist plot point, because honestly, reading the "car accident" scene as a barely teenage boy burned itself into my brain and stuck there, and left no room for any of his other weird poo poo to stick around. Speaking of books I read at too you of an age. I read a lot of Stephen King in 6th and 7th grade. Thanks for all the weird boners middle school library! Edit: I haven't seen the Garp movie in ages, but I want to say it was pretty decent, I think Sally Field was in it, alongside Robin Williams and John Lithgow. I'm not willing to watch it to confirm though. bengy81 fucked around with this message at 22:15 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 22:12
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Sloth Life posted:I am a fat old biddy and I loved Tamora Pierce books as a kid. The Lioness, Wild Magic, Protector of the Small. I bet they didn't age well but they were my Sheroes when I were a gel. tamora pierce is loudly a LGBTQ ally, and the only weird thing I remember from my last reread is how commonly she does older guy/younger woman romance, which... doesn't feel particularly great in a coming of age type story for girls, but eh. could be way worse
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May 18, 2023 01:38
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I read The Belgariad and the two prequel books when I was much younger and very depressed, and it helped cheer me up considerably, but it is so incredibly generic and baby's first fantasy that I know I wouldn't like it nearly as much. Plus I later found out things about the authors. So now, despite my memory of reading the books being cheery, the only thing that's really stuck with me is the way the old wizards in the prequels inevitably became depressed and committed suicide by uncreating themselves.
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May 18, 2023 18:49
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Piers Anthony and David Eddings are also for me the two authors that come to mind that I loved as a kid, but knowing what I know now...
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May 19, 2023 21:55
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I recently started listening to the If Books Could Kill podcast and my first look at the episodes filled me with dread at some of the titles I had read and remembered being pretty important to younger me: Nudge, Malcolm Gladwell, and Freakonomics. Listening to the episodes though, I had definitely blocked out some of the bs from those.
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May 21, 2023 15:06
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ExplodingChef posted:Piers Anthony and David Eddings are also for me the two authors that come to mind that I loved as a kid, but knowing what I know now... Was Anthony like a weird pedo defender, or am I thinking of someone else? Motherless Brooklyn was one of my favorite books, and I really enjoyed a lot of Jonathan Lethem's books. They were super gimmicky, and I used to love that about them, but I wonder if I would have the patience for them now. They adapted Motherless Brooklyn into a film a few years ago, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it. The time and setting felt so critical to the narrative that I don't see how adapting it into a 50s noir thriller was a good idea. I might still check it out some day, but that kind of annoyed me when I heard it.
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May 21, 2023 22:43
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DangerDummy! posted:Was Anthony like a weird pedo defender, or am I thinking of someone else? Piers Anthony is definitely a weird pedo defender even if you're thinking of someone else.
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May 22, 2023 03:15
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Sloth Life posted:I am a fat old biddy and I loved Tamora Pierce books as a kid. The Lioness, Wild Magic, Protector of the Small. I bet they didn't age well but they were my Sheroes when I were a gel. These were comfort food as a kid. Maybe not challenging but I loved them. I would guess they haven't aged too badly, or at least not as badly as their peers in YA fiction.
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May 26, 2023 11:27
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The Illuminatus! trilogy.
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May 26, 2023 13:10
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the sex ghost posted:Yeah I loved snow crash but I darent go back and read it in case it turns out it was just high quality ready player one You've made the right choice, keep trusting your intuition
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May 27, 2023 17:50
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the sex ghost posted:Yeah I loved snow crash but I darent go back and read it in case it turns out it was just high quality ready player one FWIW I read it for the first time as an adult in the 2010s and hated almost every bit of it. So I suggest not picking that scab and just enjoying the happy memories. I didn't read tons as a kid or young adult because why read when you have video games and movies? Most of what I read is stuff I don't feel too worried about disliking: Asimov, Vonnegut, some Gaiman. I guess the Foundation sequels might not hold up because of (mild spoilers for either Foundation's Edge or Foundation and Earth, I forget which) some mildly weird gender poo poo.
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May 29, 2023 13:02
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I also read Snow Crash for the first time about five years ago and while my opinion isn't quite that negative, I certainly have mixed feelings about it, and wouldn't say I love it. It has its moments, I don't regret having read it, but it's also unsettling and unpleasant in some ways that don't strike me as intentional or good.
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May 29, 2023 22:51
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:The Illuminatus! trilogy. I'm actually the reverse of this, kind of. I've tried many, many times to read Illuminatus! when I was a teen - I actually owned a copy of the book - but man, I could not get into it. The writing style is just so loving impenetrable I couldn't understand what the gently caress was going on no matter how many times I restarted it. I really do want to give it a new try, but man, the stuff about it that interested me (namely the intense interest I had in Discordianism) has probably waned by now. Or maybe I'll have the attention span to read it closely enough to "get" it this time.
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May 30, 2023 02:27
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aniviron posted:I also read Snow Crash for the first time about five years ago and while my opinion isn't quite that negative, I certainly have mixed feelings about it, and wouldn't say I love it. It has its moments, I don't regret having read it, but it's also unsettling and unpleasant in some ways that don't strike me as intentional or good. I overall loved it on reread up until I got to the sex scene on the boat 
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May 30, 2023 15:38
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