Submitted by Quinn, of www.readingroomcle.org
Quinn is a bookseller at The Reading Room CLE. She is a dedicated reader, and she almost never gives up on finishing a book. She has looked at every word on every page of Infinite Jest, in order; she has read, understood, and written essays discussing both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead even though she finds Ayn Rand both personally and philosophically repulsive; she has read and enjoyed Alfred North Whitehead’s essays on process theology. But these books broke her.
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When Marnie Was There by Joan G Robinson
I tried to read this book multiple times as a child and finally gave up. It was terrible. Awful. No-good. Very bad. One of my best friends was named Marnie, which in my child-mind meant I should enjoy the book, but I was deeply offended by the character, who I hated, stealing my friend’s name. I loathed this book. I tried over and over to finish it and finally gave up.
Now, Googling it, I find it’s become a movie by Studio Ghibli and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. What. How? Apparently it’s a ghost story and possibly they are young lesbians? How did I miss that? Now I need to read it again!
The Weedkiller’s Daughter by Harriette Simpson Arnow
I hated every character in this book, as well as the plot, setting, dialogue, and themes. I also hated the physical book itself; the green cover of my vintage copy had gotten dingy, like a faded Chemlawn sign, and would not come clean. I tried over and over to care even a little about the fate of the spoiled, obnoxious protagonist, and couldn’t do it.
Now I hear it’s a classic. Ugh. How?
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski
I attempted to read House of Leaves on a cross-country Greyhound bus trip, in a blizzard, a month after 9/11, on my way home from illegally officiating the wedding of the two angriest women I have ever known. It was the only reading material I had with me on that fourteen-hour bus ride and I still couldn’t do it. Creepy, depressing, and infuriating by turns; I put my Walkman headphones on and listened to Poe’s album Hello instead.
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan et al
Low-rent knockoff of Middle Earth. I read these as a favor to my college boyfriend and I’m so glad we broke up after The Path of Daggers because life is too short for bad sword and sorcery. Read Mercedes Lackey instead.
Dune and its many sequels by Frank Herbert et al
Dudebro sci fi. Boring. DNR.