Quite honestly I can’t stand only a few books that I’ve read, recently The Awakening by Nora Roberts.
Holy crap, do I reallllyyyyy want my money back. I was bored. So. Bored. The magic system was subpar, the characters just….ew, everything was so, so boring. The MC is an idiot.
What book is a zero star read for you?
Ready Player Two. I enjoyed the first book for what it was, but the second… yeesh.
Honorable mention to The Pillars of the Earth. Can’t believe I actually finished that one.
To this day, I still can’t believe I read an 1100 page book about the building of a church. And the fact that I loved it is even more surprising. Mad props to you for finishing such a long book that you despised.
It’s a medieval soap opera with a dash of architecture thrown in, but I loved it. Also made me appreciate cathedrals more!
This is my pitch to everyone I’m trying to convince to read it. Looping the historical inspiration full circle, I say it’s like a “non fantasy” Game of Thrones
A student recommended the first book to me, and it quickly became one of my most recommended historical fictions for my students because it’s one of the most thoroughly, perfectly researched books I’ve read in the genre…and it helps that it has a soap opera drama which also happens to illustrate major contextual details and themes for the time period.
It’s one thing to tell people how massive an undertaking, how violent a process, how often disastrous the result, how through transformed a region could be by, and how politically tricky it was building cathedrals in the middle ages, but having this character driven story makes that lesson intensely human and relatable - which is exactly what historians do, find the human story in the details.
I’m waitlisted (and I got on the list about a month before it dropped… That’s how popular it is) for the latest book in the series on Libby and I just can’t wait, lol. I’m number 8, so hopefully in the next few weeks.
The 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back (a bad books podcast with Mike Nelson, one of the hosts of the original MST3K) did both Ready Player books but Two was so obviously worse.
The Prince Planet.
To this day, I still can’t believe I read an 1100 page book about the building of a church. And the fact that I loved it is even more surprising. Mad props to you for finishing such a long book that you despised.
+1 for Pillars of the Earth
+1 for Pillars of the Earth
The 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back (a bad books podcast with Mike Nelson, one of the hosts of the original MST3K) did both Ready Player books but Two was so obviously worse.
The Prince Planet.
I never really understood how people liked the first but hated the second. It’s definitely worse, but by all means it’s cut from the completely same cloth.
And therein lies the problem. It was exactly the same as the first one. He didn’t even really try to come up with anything new.
It was your stereotypical sequel failure…it takes something that was wrapped up nicely and expands on it in a way that offers nothing new while also giving you a lackluster repetition of what worked in the first one. Or as I like to call it…an obvious cash grab.
I never really understood how people liked the first but hated the second. It’s definitely worse, but by all means it’s cut from the completely same cloth.
Jesus I couldn’t get past 100 pages of Ready Player One. Somehow the 2nd one is even worse?
Jesus I couldn’t get past 100 pages of Ready Player One. Somehow the 2nd one is even worse?
I was excited to read Ready Player Two after enjoying the first one. I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about Ready Player Two and I just read it about a year ago.
I am so relieved to see someone else reject this book. I honestly do not understand why it is beloved by so many, and constantly recommended. Something about the plot and writing was just so rambling and almost silly, like someone had written the entire thing in one shot as some kind of timed writing prompt.
I am so relieved to see someone else reject this book. I honestly do not understand why it is beloved by so many, and constantly recommended. Something about the plot and writing was just so rambling and almost silly, like someone had written the entire thing in one shot as some kind of timed writing prompt.
Ugh, I couldn’t even get through Ready Player One. Total loser (whose only talents are playing video games and looking down on people who are less chronically online) gets the girl…no thanks. Maybe the ending redeemed it somehow, idk, I stopped halfway through.
Ugh, I couldn’t even get through Ready Player One. Total loser (whose only talents are playing video games and looking down on people who are less chronically online) gets the girl…no thanks. Maybe the ending redeemed it somehow, idk, I stopped halfway through.
In terms of nostalgia, I am exactly the first book’s target audience, so I think that helped.
I was excited to read Ready Player Two after enjoying the first one. I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about Ready Player Two and I just read it about a year ago.