Books that you loved the first time...

[Fifty]

...but sucked (or at least weren't nearly as good) when you read them again a bit down the road. What are some for you?

For me:

Lord of the Rings: Loved it when I was younger, read it again now and it just doesn't seem that great. Not very aesthetically creative and just not written all that well.

Catcher in the Rye: Read it back in junior high, liked it. Read it again, after junior high, and I can't see how it could be liked by anyone who isn't in junior high.

The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil: Thought it was a cool and plausible vision at first, now it just seems nuts.

 

[Esckey]

Dragonlance Chronicles and The Belgariad and David Eddings other works come to mind.

 

[Bronx Warlord]

I still love the Dragonlance books... yet Catcher in the Rye does drive me nuts cause that dude is extrememly negitive. Yet in Junior High wern't we all?

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Dragonlance Chronicles and The Belgariad and David Eddings other works come to mind.

Dragonlance was first thing to spring to mind for me as well... they were good when i was 13 though

 

[Narz]

Most books I once loved I still do (or at least kinda like them). Then again, I haven't re-read that many from half a lifetime ago.

I feel that way (damn, how did I like that schnit!) very often about movies, TV shows & music though.

 

[gallego]

Catcher in the Rye: Read it back in junior high, liked it. Read it again, after junior high, and I can't see how it could be liked by anyone who isn't in junior high.

I actually hated that one from the start. Seemed like it gave people who didn't have things all that bad an excuse to act like they did and justify their teenage "I hate the world" angst, because they were just so much like the main character. Pull yourselves together, people.

 

[Narz]

because they were just so much like the main character.

I wasn't at all like the main character. When I read the part about him turning away the prostitute & paying her just to sit around w/ him I thought to myself, "WTH is this sh!t! Here I am sitting in an all boys boarding school, only female contact* being a humongous English teacher ironically named Mrs. Small (true story) & this bastard is turning away female contact. At least fool around w/ the girl, geeze!"

Other than that he seemed like an ok kid though. Understandably pissed off about all the phonies out there but not looking deeper to understand their fears that underlie their disingenuousness & the system that runs on & plays off of this fear.

*Well, there was this one kid with a super hot sister who'd visit once every couple of months, man it was all we could do not to rush over & start dry humping her. Oh, and a couple of dorm parent's wives & I think one or two other teachers I didn't have any classes w/.

 

[Rossiya]

Whatever you do, don't read this book more than once - Maidup Orfur

Pretty much self-explanatory.

 

[ravensfire]

Piers Anthony - I can still handle the first few Incarnations books, barely, but that's it.

-- Ravensfire

 

[Ansar]

I don't read books more than once

 

[warpus]

 

[Leonel]

Aztec by Gary Jennings was really awesome the first time I read it. Meso-American wars, familiar technologies, oversexed teenage princess', sex in a rumbling earthquake for 5 hours straight, love betrayal, Spanish conquest and a King's pardon and bestowing of wealth and title upon the main character too late before Inquisition authorities executed him. It had everything! But the second time through I already knew what was going to happen next.

 

[Babbler]

The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker.

Actually, it not some much as they sucked, but that I couldn't seem to read a second time.

 

[dutchking]

I don't read books more than once.

Well I've read The Hobbit about three times, never gets old. (of course I read it with 4 years in between each time )

 

[Sims2789]

Honestly, I loved Battlefield Earth. It's usually considered one of the worst movies of all time, but I liked the book when I was in middle school and I doubt it would be horrible now.

 

[Nylan]

The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker.

Actually, it not some much as they sucked, but that I couldn't seem to read a second time.

Douglas Adams sucker you into those ones?


To Kill A Mockingbird was passable the first time, but I was about ready to vomit the second.

 

[Tabasco Sauce]

Fatherland by Robert Harris.

A cracking good yarn.

 

[Fifty]

Another one for me is Brave New World. The political stuff is still interesting, but the book is aesthetically challenged.

 

[Nylan]

Another one for me is Brave New World. The political stuff is still interesting, but the book is aesthetically challenged.

Orwell always was the better writer.

 

[Strider]

The Dune series written by the son (forget his name).

Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth"

The Scarlet Letter A (Nathaniel Hawthorne I believe)