Booking Through Thursday: Unread
Booking Through Thursday asks:
Is there a book that you wish you could “unread”? One that you disliked so thoroughly you wish you could just forget that you ever read it?
The books that immediately jump to mind are from high school. The Catcher in the Rye is my usual scapegoat at moments like this. But if I’m being honest, I can acknowledge that I got that the writing was well crafted even though I loathe Holden Caulfield. (My friend Lisa made me laugh by diagnosing Holden as “an annoying proto-hipster!”) Other possibilities include Hemingway. I can’t remember whether it was A Farewell to Arms or The Sun Also Rises but I read both of them for summer reading, suffering all the while, and found out I’d only had to read one. I dislike the sparsity of Hemingway’s sentences.
Of course, there’s also Beautiful Americans by Lucy Sillag, a book I reviewed for the Star-Ledger at the start of the year. I’m convinced it gave me the stomach flu. The book was trashy and tawdry like a bad guilty pleasure TV show. And as I finished the last page, my stomach began its rebellion. Commentary, or virus? You decide.
I have tried reading Hemingway. God knows I did!
Booking through Unread
I haven’t read any of these. Here is mine
My G-d. All these years, I thought I was the only one who hated Catcher in the Rye. I’m sure the writing was decent, but good lord, did I hate Holden.