CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Etoh*the*Greato (post: 1393992) wrote:Oh yeah. As an adult I totally know that. WHY they kept saying the two were similar right on the cover...? Maybe book reviewers are just bad at this.

Actually, it's because book reviewers rarely actually read the books they get. So many are published, that it takes too much time for the reviewer to read them all. So when they see similarities- if only in that they have small anthropomorphic animals- they make the connections. Sad but true.

rocklobster (post: 1393977) wrote:I find being forced to read a book tends to make one not be as interested.

Yes, at least for me once I know I have to do something I usually hate it.

Warrior 4 Jesus (post: 1393670) wrote:Any number of crap required reading (high-school)

What books did these include? XD

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

I'm still not entirely sure what this book was supposed to be about because I cannot stand James Joyce's writing style.

bkilbour (post: 1393640) wrote:I didn't enjoy reading The Lord of the Flies,

MightiMidget (post: 1393666) wrote:I have to agree with Lord of the Flies.

Makachop^^128 (post: 1393817) wrote:Also Lord of the flies, weird book

What is wrong with all of you.

I liked Lord of the Fries, actually... Good book. I was exposed to some fantastic books because of school that I know for a fact I would never have otherwise read. Some of the most important were books like Catcher in the Rye, and A Separate Peace (Although gads was that book depressing...)

I also liked The Lord of the Flies. It t'was a good book, even if Golding is not the best writer out there.

Catcher in the Rye was definitely an interesting read, though I can't say I count it among my favorites.

Haven't read Lord of the Flies yet.

And yes, being forced to read something really takes away much of the potential enjoyment for me.

Dude, yeah, Lord of the Flies was one of my favorite books that I read in high school. Does it have something to do with the fact that my class project for the book was drawing a comic adaptation of certain scenes? Maybe. But I do think the book was a very interesting read, and it explored a lot of themes about the root of human nature and the depravity of man. I <3 that book. XD

ShiroiHikari (post: 1394032) wrote:Catcher in the Rye was definitely an interesting read, though I can't say I count it among my favorites.

Haven't read Lord of the Flies yet.

And yes, being forced to read something really takes away much of the potential enjoyment for me.

You're honestly the first female I've ever heard to give that book the time of day. In my class it was universally reviled by that subset of the population. I've found it to bethe case elsewhere as well. Congrats!

some other books I didn't like:
The Final Warning by James Patterson--The fourth book in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series, and the one that killed the series for me. Up until then, I'd found it interesting and fast-paced. Then Patterson had to stop the story every five pages with environmentalist preaching. I was wondering when Captain Planet was gonna show up and say "The power is yours!"
My Teacher Blew Up the Planet by Bruce Coville--The final book in the My Teacher is an Alien series. Up until this book, the story was excellent. Then Coville told us this ridiculous piece of info: that humans were once telepathic and quite intelligent and peaceful. OK, what changed us? Why, television! Before TV, we never started any wars. Uh, Coville, what about the Civil War? WWI? The Crusades? Those were all fought before TV even existed!

I didn't like this book called The Gypsy Game. I just found it a boring and misleading read.

I normally will not stop reading a book until I've finished it... as a rule.
But I got halfway through Showdown by Ted Dekker and gave up on it; I got bored, angry at several things, mostly bored, I ended up skimming through the remaining half and didn't find it to be anything more interesting.
I didn't care for Saint (same author) either; it's the sequal to Showdown, but I didn't know that until I had finished Saint.
Skin was Okay, House was... a bit less Okay, but the movie was downright awful.
Overall, I don't like Dekker.

I wish I could remember Twilight, but it was quite a while back; I didn't and don't like it, but I don't exactly 'hate it with a passion'.

I don't really remember all the books I've read and disliked; I guess I have to block ot out of my memory afterwards.

What have you got against Ted Dekker? I understand that you may not enjoy the books but how can they cause you to be angry?

What I meant was that some (small) things in that book frustrated me, I can get pretty upset at various 'small details'; not that I can always put my finger on them.
I don't have anything 'against' Ted Dekker, but I don't 'like' him; he's not my favorite author and I didn't love the books I read by him.

I am constantly annoyed at the black=evil white=good thing.
What I remember bugging me in Showdown was how when the people went 'bad' they were listening to 'evil gothic headbanging music' and the graffiti they did was in a 'gothic font' (as if it would matter that they used some kind of font) and how not only was the bad guy wearing black, but he had black hair.
(Surprise?)
I even got mad when I was reading Ouran and out came "but white is the color of good!"
I get frustrated at stupid things, but it just ends up digging up a whole side of me that wants to rant.
I have my own way of 'seeing things', and I guess I get offended for no real reason.
I may sound like I'm ranting, (in this or my previous post) but I'm really not; I don't see good or evil as 'colors', and it annoys me to see it used all the time, with more people fueling it, it just frustrates me.
(And I also hate stereotypes unless they're used to parody something.)

Again, I'm not ranting, I just get upset at stupid things.
Doesn't make me hate the author; I did get a little bored in the middle of Skin though, it started out pretty exciting, then it seemed to slow down, but it ended pretty well.

Robinson Crusoe: I had to read it for school, and thought it was really boring and dragged on way to long. Every 50 pages there would be a remotely interesting part, and then last for aonly a couple pages. Then it would be more boring parts for another 50-60 pages.

Swiss Family Robinson: Boring and unrealistic. The writing style was really dry.

Treasure Island: I didn't hate this book, but I didn't particulary like it either. I thought it dragged on, and there were only a couple of interesting parts. But those were written it a dry writing style, and it really wasn't enjoyable.

Ted Dekker: I just couldn't get into his books. I tried Thr3e and skipped to the end because I got bored. I think it was his writing style.

Charles Dickens: I tried A Tale of Two Cities and failed to get past the second chapter. I flipped through a couple of others and found nothing interesting.

That's all I can think of for right now. I'm sure I'll think of something else.

I once had to read Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine for English class. To say it was dreadfully dull would be like saying that the sun is a bit warm. Funny thing is, he also wrote Fahrenheit 451, one of my all time favorites.

Blacklight, sounds like you need some space to vent. Black has always been symbolic of good and white, symbolic of evil. Ted's not saying black clothing etc. is evil but black is created as an absence of light. If you looked into Ted's life you'd find that he often wears black clothing and listens to heavy music of most genres. He has nothing against head-banging music etc. Dekker has the interesting position of being a transition between Christian fiction and non-Christian fiction.

Warrior 4 Jesus (post: 1398735) wrote:. Dekker has the interesting position of being a transition between Christian fiction and non-Christian fiction.

.... In what alternate universe?
That man writes such obviously Christian literature that you might as well just put the cover over a Bible.

..... Okay, so it's not as bad as that, but the difference between his writing and those that are going for something more "Christian" is the difference between chocolate ice cream and a fudgesicle. I haven't found a significant difference yet.

Atria35 wrote:.... In what alternate universe?
That man writes such obviously Christian literature that you might as well just put the cover over a Bible.

..... Okay, so it's not as bad as that, but the difference between his writing and those that are going for something more "Christian" is the difference between chocolate ice cream and a fudgesicle. I haven't found a significant difference yet.

This is why I was almost sad when Anne Rice got saved. It's like, "Well, there goes her creativity as a writer." Christian literature needs someone truly edgy. Someone who recognizes that Christian fiction doesn't have to preach. What we need is Clive Barker with a conscience.

Htom Sirveaux (post: 1398747) wrote:This is why I was almost sad when Anne Rice got saved. It's like, "Well, there goes her creativity as a writer." Christian literature needs someone truly edgy. Someone who recognizes that Christian fiction doesn't have to preach. What we need is Clive Barker with a conscience.

So many try, so many fail. It makes me wonder whether it's something wrong with how it's approached? It seems like a lot of writers concentrate so much on the message that the story gets lost in it. I wonder why they don't take their cues from LoTR, or Narnia, where the message(s) was secondary to the story.

Back on topic- books I hate? Well, I have an intense dislike for Dickens. It's rather..... dry, even for that time period. And since he got paid based on how much he wrote, there's just so much extra to the story.

Fish and Chips (post: 1394020) wrote:A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

I'm still not entirely sure what this book was supposed to be about because I cannot stand James Joyce's writing style.What is wrong with all of you.

No true Irishman hates James Joyce.(I found his short story "Araby."

Also I agree about Lord of the Flies. That book was epic.

One of Ours by Willa Cather. Most boring author I've ever read. She makes me want to claw my eyes out. Some character studies are interesting but hers are not.

All this hatred for Dickens is making me very very angry.

Yamamaya (post: 1398756) wrote:
All this hatred for Dickens is making me very very angry.

Thank you. I was just composing my thoughts to write a lengthy post full of my objections to the Dickens hate, but I think your picture tells it well enough. =)

Firebird3613 (post: 1398002) wrote:Charles Dickens: I tried A Tale of Two Cities and failed to get past the second chapter. I flipped through a couple of others and found nothing interesting.

That's really a shame, because A Tale of Two Cities is really an excellent story! I'd suggest watching the 1935 version of the movie instead; that's what I did. XD It's a long movie, but it's a great adaptation of the story. I can't stand Dickens's writing style either, and his books will put me to sleep in very little time. XD Definitely try that out, though! XD

Cadence (post: 1398763) wrote:Thank you. I was just composing my thoughts to write a lengthy post full of my objections to the Dickens hate, but I think your picture tells it well enough. =)

However I am going to write a few objections to Dickens hatred in this post.

Dickens is a master of creating excellently outrageous characters. He creates probably the most hilarious bad guys in British Literature.

His stories are very enthralling. He draws you in with his characters and storyline which goes through many twists and turns throughout his books.

Some might consider him dry but you have to keep in mind his books were written nearly 200 years ago. The style was much different back then. Excessive description was considered the norm.

Yamamaya (post: 1398773) wrote:Some might consider him dry but you have to keep in mind his books were written nearly 200 years ago. The style was much different back then. Excessive description was considered the norm.

I know. I've read other authors from that era. I still don't care for Dickens or his prose. I don't particularly care for his characters. And while I do admit that the twists his stories have can be interesting, everything else outweighs that for me.

Yamamaya (post: 1398756) wrote:No true Irishman hates James Joyce.

I'm Scottish.

Atria35 (post: 1398742) wrote:.... In what alternate universe?
That man writes such obviously Christian literature that you might as well just put the cover over a Bible.

..... Okay, so it's not as bad as that, but the difference between his writing and those that are going for something more "Christian" is the difference between chocolate ice cream and a fudgesicle. I haven't found a significant difference yet.

Have you read Boneman's Daughters? There wasn't anything significantly different from that book and the average Koontz novel (except for writing quality, unfortunately).

Radical Dreamer wrote:That's really a shame, because A Tale of Two Cities is really an excellent story!

Corrie you misspelled "crappy" in that sentence. As a Grammar Ranger I expected better of you.

Yama wrote:His stories are very enthralling.

I didn't know "enthralling" was a synonym for "horribly eye-clawingly boring to the point of being a cure for insomnia." I guess you learn something new every day!

Nate (post: 1398790) wrote:Corrie you misspelled "crappy" in that sentence. As a Grammar Ranger I expected better of you.

Psh, whatever! XD It's a great story about self-sacrifice in the end. XD It's a long movie, but I thought it was a rewarding watch. XD

Also, you misspelled "the" as "a."

ich1990 (post: 1398789) wrote:Have you read Boneman's Daughters? There wasn't anything significantly different from that book and the average Koontz novel (except for writing quality, unfortunately).

Nope- that's a newer one. I borrowed him off of my friend in Senior year of high school and the first two years of college. So I read Black, Red, White, Three, Blink of an Eye, Showdown, Skin, Obessed..... and of those, only Three seemed closest to a non-Christian book. But unfortunately, I also found myself incredibly bored with these books, and had Three figured out in the first six chapters. So I'm also not impressed with his writing style, though that's a personal opinion.