Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read

It is time again for Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and The Bookish!  

This week's theme is: Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read 

The reason why each of these book was difficult is different, but here we go! 

1. The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway:  Being a huge fan of literature, I was one of the few kids who got excited when a new book was announced for English class at school. I had heard wonderful things about Hemingway, and here it was, the first of his books I was to read.  

And it will be the last! Reading this book was like chugging down some NyQuil just as I cracked it open.  There were times when I LITERALLY would start reading and wake up hours later, only to discover I hadn't even read a page.  I struggled through this snore-fest only to be disappointed at how lame it all turned out. I got nothing from this book but a few unexpected naps.

2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: Unlike The Old Man and The Sea, I LOVED this book!  But I struggled with the language. It was complicated and the book was long.  It took me over a year to read this.

3. Rabbit at Rest by John Updike: In an attempt to read through all the fiction Pulitzer Prize winners, I ran across this gem.....and hated it.  I thought it was gross and pointless. 

4. The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne: This book was rather boring, but more than that, the way it was written was weird.  It was like Hawthorne was trying way too hard.

5. The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy: I love true crime books and even fictional books based on true crimes.  Its so fascinating!  I was thrilled when I picked up this book.  Sadly, it was a long book of muddling through a cop soap opera that had very little to do with the actual crime.

6. Stiff by Mary Roach: This is a fantastic book, but considering the topic, it made me a bit queasy from time to time.

7. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: I read this one for book club and hated it.  It was confusing and boring. I hated that he didn't call the characters by names except for occasionally, which just got confusing.

8. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher: This book made me mad because I thought the girl who died had some valid reasons to send the tapes and some very not-even-close-to-valid-borderline-mean reasons to send the tapes to different people, including the main character of the book and a girl who was raped. Thanks for spilling her secret.  Seriously, you don't do that. 

9. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: I liked the book, but WOW was it filled with a ridiculous amount of language a sheer-utter evil.

10. Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich:  I have ranted about this book a lot but to sum it up: claims to be non-fiction, but really its more of a fictitious tale of a non-loveable (despite the author trying) douche-bag.

Making Up For Monday: Book Writing

It's time for Making Up For Monday!

This week's question: If you could or are writing a book, what would you want it to be about? 

As a "wanna be writer", I have quite I few projects I am either working on, or would like to work on someday.  Here they are: 

1. I want to write a book that plays out like a murder mystery dinner. 

2. I want to write a non-fiction book about what lower level employees are looking for in a boss and what kind of boss gets better results. 

3. I would like to write a memoirs at some point. 

4. I would like to write a book of nothing but stories of my family growing up so we could hand that down to my kids and so forth. 

5. I would like to write a book about Beauty and the Beast but from Gaston's perspective (like Wicked). 

What about you? 

Happy Banned Books Week!

It's banned book week so I decided to make a list of some of my all time favorite banned book!

Catch-22: This book was banned several times for language and because it had references to women as "whores". In Heller's defense, the women he called "whores" were hookers, so the shoe kind of fit. (Source)
 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: This book was banned for the use of the N-word and the controversy over whether or not it was racist or anti-racist. Jim and the word slavery were actually removed from a 1955 CBS representation of the book. How short was that representation?  How does that even work? (Source)

 
The Goosebumps Series: This was considered too frightening for young people and depicting occult or satanic themes. These books were a huge part of why I got into reading, so it baffles me. (Source)

The Great Gatsby: This was banned for language (hell and son-of-a-bitch) and sexual references in the book (the implied affair). However, if you were to take those things out, the book loses all meaning. (Source)

In Cold Blood: This was banned for language and graphic scenes. It's about real life murders, so.....yeah....awkward. What was he supposed to do, not talk about the murders? Silly people. Newspapers reported on the murders, so should they be banned?  (Source)

James and the Giant Peach: This lovely childhood story was banned for inappropriate language, encouraging disobedience to parents, references to drugs and alcohol, and because it contains "magical elements".  This book is so great for kids who grew up in rough environment or who have lost a parent. Are we just supposed to tell stories of well-behaved children with perfect parents?  Man, those would be BORING books! (Source)

A Light in the Attic:  This book of fun filled children's poems was banned because of  the poem "How Not To Have To Dry The Dishes" which of course encourages messiness and disobedience and the poem "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony" for describing the death of a girl after her parents refuse to buy her a pony. Obviously these should be banned.....NOT!  Come on people, have a sense of humor! (Source)

Of Mice and Men: This book was banned due to the promotion of euthanasia, racial slurs, being anti- business, and containing offensive language. Because we all know that THAT was the point of the story. Geez, did you even READ the book? George didn't kill Lennie because he believed he should be euthanized.  He killed him to save him from being tortured in a matter of minutes. It's like killing a wounded animal to save it from suffering. Ok...so that sounds like euthanizing, but it wasn't the point.  (Source)

Lord of the Flies: This was banned because of the excessive violence and bad language. Well, its about war time and survival, so....yeah. (Source)

Slaughterhouse-Five: This was banned for the use profanity and because it depicts sex. Well, that isn't inaccurate, but again, you are missing the point of the book. Its about war and how it affects people.  It isn't going to be pretty. (Source)

To Kill a Mockingbird: This book was banned for racial slurs, profanity, and frank discussion of rape. Nevermind the fact that the book is teaching a young girl why all of these things are inappropriate. (Source)

And finally, one of the most commonly challeneged or banned books.....
 
The Harry Potter series: Apparently the novels contain occult or Satanic subtexts. As a Christian, I whole-heartedly disagree with this assessment. Stop taking everything so seriously! (Source)

So there you have it.  If you want to write a book that doesn't get banned, write about well-behaved children who have loving and kind parents, who love God, who never use their imaginations, and who never encounter anything negative ever.  Because that sounds like a GREAT book.  Not.