For A to Z 2018, my theme is Books About ____. If you’re stopping by from your own A to Z blog, feel free to leave a link. If you need help with how to do that, you can look here.
If you’re someone looking to read a lot of great blogs, here’s the link for the A to Z challenge.
I think X is always the toughest letter in the alphabet, requiring a little more creativity than the other letters.
For this one, I’m going with popular books I didn’t like. Please note that I’m not saying these were bad books. Books are very personal choices, and these weren’t for me.
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt (contemporary): I tried to read this and just… could… not. Lots of people said it was really good and worth reading, but I was so bored that I started to dread reading it. It was not a bad book, but just not for me. I seldom push through and read books I’m not interested in because life is too short for that.
The Casual Vacancy, by JK Rowling (contemporary): I was so excited when this book came out, but that excitement quickly fizzled out and died. This book is like the anti-Harry Potter. Every character in this book is an awful person and they all hate one another. There’s no magic to be found; not the wand kind and not the kind that sucks you into a good book and won’t let go. I made myself read for about a hundred pages until I got so mad that I stopped reading in the middle of a sentence and never looked back.
I Am Providence, by Nick Mamatas (?): The only reason I managed to finish this book is because I was reading it with a friend. This is probably the worst book I ever managed to finish. It was set at a Lovecraft convention, which sounded like an amazing premise. No. Nope. Not even a little. I hated every character in the book and I felt like the author was making fun of convention-goers. One of the characters gets murdered, and the murderer ended up being someone who was barely mentioned for a reason that didn’t make sense. The only sad part about the murder is that only one character got killed. A better ending would have been to just kill all of them. Or stop on page 1.
What popular books did you hate?
Doree Weller 
Great post!! I’m definitely steering clear of that last one! My husband just started a new series that I think you’ll love. Re:lovecraft. The Carter and Lovecraft series. He loved the audio of Book 1!
I read the first Carter and Lovecraft book and thought it was pretty good.
I don’t read many contemporary books, so I really can’t think of any popular books I’ve hated. Movies, though, are a different subject. I’ve disliked several relatively recent films, quirky films I expected to enjoy but didn’t, such as Under the Skin (with Scarlett Johansson), I ♥ Huckabees, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show… just to name a few.
When I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I just didn’t get it. I didn’t hate it, but it just didn’t do anything for me. I haven’t seen the others you mention.
I tend not to read popular books, so I have nothing to add. You’re right, life is too short to suffer books you hate.