The ‘Haters Of Goodreads’ Online Page Collects Hilarious One-Star Reviews Of Books And Here’re 30 Of The Best Ones
When you, the reader, sit down to analyze a book, you must remember that whatever you choose to say is subjective. It's your opinion and you're entitled to it. Even if it means trashing a widely acknowledged author.
To give everyone the courage to speak their mind, the Facebook page Haters of Goodreads are sharing some of the funniest reviews that have appeared on the literary website.
Calling The Catcher in the Rye "the most overrated 'classic' of all time", refusing to finish Swann's Way due to Proust "discussing the smell of his chamber pot after having eaten asparagus"... It's all there!
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The Bible
Crime And Punishment
Of Mice And Men
As much as I love Mice and Men, this comment is hilarious. (Metallica in the background with 'Sad but true'. XD
If you, however, want to do (and write!) more critical analysis of the books you read, the University Writing Center at Texas A&M University suggests to begin by summarizing the basic plot — this will help ground you in the story.
Then, research the author's background and other work. This can give insight into their perspective and bias, as well as reveal what they might be commenting on. As an example, the University Writing Center mentions Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It's about a group of friends who embark on an epic journey and fight a great war. But knowing Tolkien fought in the Battle of Somme during World War I and that his closest friends were killed helps explain his sentiments about war.
Other questions about context can stem from the story itself: think about the narrator's personality and their role in the story. Also, it can be a good idea to consider who the narrator is addressing.
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
Romeo And Juliet
No, it isn't. It's a string of anachronisms from someone who knows no social history and also does not know that Shakespeare was not a realist.
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Well, I kind of agree. The thing is: Romeo & Julie is not a romance. It's a moral play to show people the consequences of a silly family feud. Whoever thinks it is romantic has clearly misunderstood the play.
Since it has already been addressed here, I'll skip the bit about how the whole point of the book was misinterpreted by OP and dive into showing my real age lol. All teenagers feel as though they are reasonable, level headed and responsible. One of the great "joys" of growing up is waking up one day and realizing how incredibly cringe inducing we all were during that particular time in our lives. I'm sure the teen that reviewed this will find themself losing a battle with insomnia on some random night in their 30s and the memory of posting this will wiggle its way through the cobwebs. In that moment I hope they are able to find a giggle in the memory. I know I have a lot of those type of memories from my teenage years. :p
Forget Shakespeare, this comment should be mandatory reading for all high school students.
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It is a subverted comedy, which was groundbreaking at the time. Some say the prologue was necessary to prevent the audience from reacting violently.
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I thought it was right on for a book written in 1567 and based on an Italian Renaissance tale
I have to admit, I've never understood why it's such a good love story. Especially when you consider the whole play takes place during the span of a week.
It's not meant to be a love story. I have similar feelings about people calling it such as those that call Wuthering Heights a romance.
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I thought Mercutio was representative of a pretty decent teenager...
All plays (not just Shakespeare) of that time were influenced by previous ones. Plagiarism wasn't a thing, in fact writers were encouraged to look at past texts for inspiration.
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I could feel the calm explanation just blossom into pure rage. Needed a name at the end just to drive it home: ….THAT IS SO UNREALISTIC KAREN!
Lol!!! Such a magnificent review.. i love it..hahahah. i must read it just for reviews sake.lol!!!
She misses the point that Juliet wasn't given any choice - she was supposed to be married off to an older man against her will.
Actually, she had the option of telling her parents she was married to Romeo.
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Most of Shakespeare is over the top ridiculousness, he was Hollywood long before Hollywood existed
I got an A+ on my Romeo and Juliet essay and I wrote it all the night before it was due. I was talking out of my a** because I too did not enjoy it.
This post is priceless, and one of the funniest bits I've ever read. Sarah, the poster, has a stellar career in sardonic comedy if she wants it. 😄😄😄
Well I do't know about the "responsible teenagers" in this case, wasn't Juliet 13? Most 13jo nowadays are One Direction fans.
Moby Dick
or...MD is nature, Ahab is human hubris, Ishmael is, well, a prophet...I think the problem are school curriculum deciding the age of students who read these classics.
Next, we have setting. When and where a story takes place can be of huge importance. Where the author's story is placed? Why the author made that decision?
Many stories would be irretrievably altered if their setting were different and setting is, therefore, vital for interpreting the story's meaning. To illustrate this point, the University Writing Center highlights the setting for Faulkner's work — the American South after the Civil War. It is essential to his overall message. Faulkner's characters are people who can't move on, and through them the author suggests that the South similarly can't get past the Civil War and the wrongs of slavery.
By the way, storylines usually evolve in patterns, so identifying essential plot points might help you to analyze, interpret, and explain the story as well.
Rousseau, The Social Contract
The Metamorphosis
Daniel C. Dennett, "Consciousness Explained"
But characters are the driving force behind stories, both the major and the minor ones. Like the above-mentioned Faulkner example suggests, authors can use them to broadcast their most important messages. You won't be able to analyze every character in a book, but pick out several important ones to consider.
For this, you can use the following questions: What are the character's main personality traits and why did the author give him these traits? What is the character's role in the story? What are the character's morals or ethics? Why does the author give him those? Why does the character do what he does? Why did the author make him act that way? What is the character's relationship to other characters and why?
Swann's Way
Proust saved my life. He gave me the will to enjoy small things in life. To be happy with small delights and pleasures. To notice little things, to live consciously. I love Proust
Nietzsche, Beyond Good And Evil
reading these makes me realise what doesn't kill me makes me stronger...
Plato, Phaedrus
Also, various literary devices help convey meaning or create a mood. Look for allusions, irony, symbolism, and other "tools" in a story to identify key points and their contribution to the author's overall message.
After you've worked on the story for so long, you should start to get a sense of its major themes, the big ideas that authors comment on throughout the work. Common themes are good vs. evil, human nature, religion, social structure, authority, coming-of-age, human rights, and so on. Books typically deal with multiple themes, some more obvious than others.
Once you complete the analysis, develop a thesis that makes an arguable claim about the text — like "wtf?" — and post it on Goodreads.
The Catcher In The Rye
A Brief History Of Time, By Stephen Hawking
As a non-physicist I actually enjoyed reading this book because Hawking managed to simplify the main theories and make them understandable. Of course if you don't care about time, space, quantum stuff and relativity theories, it must be a pain in the butt...
The Old Man And The Sea
Freud, Introductory Lectures On Psychoanalysis
Žižek, The Sublime Object Of Ideology
Hate Lvls 1, 2 & 3 The Great Gatsby
Ugh. I summarize this book, along with War and Peace, as 'Stupid people doing stupid things'
Danielewski, House Of Leaves
Foucault, Madness & Civilization
Dostoevsky, Notes From Underground
Herbert Marcuse, "One-Dimensional Man: Studies In The Ideology Of Advanced Industrial Society"
The Gay Science
Moby Dick
Kant, Groundwork Of The Metaphysics Of Morals
Its almost like the book was written 300 years ago and helped kick off an age of enlightenment that allowed us to discuss the very issues he has. Its like saying the Wright Brothers are overrated because their plane only flew 800 feet.
Murakami, 1q84
I understand the reviewer's sentiment. The book starts out like it's the real world, but when it shifts, it's not a lot, but still obvious. One wonders why the main characters don't think anything of it. I liked the book, though. I like stories that are less predictable than usual.
G.w.f. Hegel, "Elements Of The Philosophy Of Right"
Capital Vol. I
Me too, but since I am the last king and was unable to find the entrails of the last priest, here I remain.
The Death Of Tragedy (Hamlet)
one guy is left, the dude who is now king of 2 kingdoms due to everyone else being popped off.
The Cloud Of Unknowing
Note: this post originally had 65 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I was looking forward to intelligent, counter-mainstream opinions, perhaps even occasionally pointing out when the emperor has no clothes. Most of these made the commenters seem shallow, uneducated and anti-intellectual. CORRECTION: After the first dozen or so, they improved considerably. Either that or the first dozen killed off my remaining brain cells.
You have no clothes then, my dude (edited after seeing your edit: perhaps mine eyes have endarted upon false presumption)
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Seems like a list of emotionally immature people forced to read books they're not interested in for school, and doing as little as possible to try to understand what they're reading.
Rehabilitating the name of Amy Fisher, are you? (Then again, I would hope you DON'T like a certain Russian novelist.)
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It sometimes happens to everyone that book which many people deem essential just doesn't sit well with them. It happened to me with God Delusion. On the other hand, some entries look like they've been written by morons (like To Kill A Mockinbird review).
I understand if you read something and you don't like it, because after all it's a matter of taste. But not reading it and writing bad reviews, I don't get it. Don't judge a book by its cover or its 10 first pages!
When I read some classics for school I was incredibly bored and I hated them (most lf them were spanish classics because I live in Latin America) But I think it was because I was too young and was trying to read just to have fun. As I grew up and re read some them I realized that, whilst the writing can be tiring and the plots ridiculous, sometimes they have an interesting meaning behind all of that that left me thinking about them for a while.
If you had to read El Mío Cid I'm with you, God that was boring and uncomprehensible in medieval spanish
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Most books I know would improve immensely if the title is taken literally. For example if „the wolf of wall street“ was about an actual wolf, that would be a better book. If „Gone with the wind“ was about a guy that somehow weights almost nothing and has to look out for any kind of wind, that would be a better book.
There is very little hope for humanity after reading the comments above thesee of important, small minded, illiterates. Stick to comic books you idiots.
This is why classics should not be wasted on high school students. They still think their "green light across the bay" is reachable. Let them live a little bit of life, get into a soul sucking job, go through a real break up, struggle. Then maybe they will understand that The Great Gatsby isn't about a "stalker", it's about them and their stupid dreams. LOL
Appearantly I haven't read enough classics to truly appreciate this thread:s :D
I was expecting to recognise more titles than I did
Load More Replies... You guys should have had a review John Green's book of THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED. That would be ironic considering it is a book about reviewing things on a 5 star scale.He even reviewed the reviews he got for his book on Vlogbrothers.I loved the book.Anyone looking for recommendations should read it. DFTBA.
Well this was a celebration of narcissistic ignorance and no mistake. Buy water pumps.
I love it when I'm reading a review on Goodreads and there is a glowing review and then 1 or 2 stars. I'm very confused.
My favorite 1-star review I ever received: "I no more reading this sex books."
I was hoping to see Kurt Vonnegut included here, and it was, but not the best example.
O.o; A lot of this seems like warnings to avoid them if you value your time or sanity. Trying to do a little reading myself, picked up Dune and it has my attention. Would have been interesting to see if anyone cracked on that whopper of a book.
Dune is brilliant... except the big twist comes in the also-massive sequels. :-)
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Currently feeling grateful that I have read none of these except old man and the sea, to which I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer.
American Psycho: if you are like me and relate too much to sad books and tv, DON'T read it! I read some after I saw the movie and I felt sick. I skipped a few chapters in and glanced at a random page to see what I was in for, after I had read several chapters in horror, and what I read is still in my mind to this day it's so distressing. Advice from an overly empathic visual thinker
NB the title was not "classic" books when I wrote this. I do not think American Psycho is a classic to make it clear 😅
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I can't believe this is a list of "popular" books. Haven't even heard of the majority listed. When I think popular, I think of Twilight, Lord of the rings, Huckleberry Fynn, Anne of Green gables, Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the rye, Harry Potter etc. Most of the ones listed sound more like text books lol. EDIT: BP have changed the title, it originally said popular but has now been changed to classic. EDIT 2: they have changed the title AGAIN.
Half of them are the very classical of basic philosophy. We study them at high school.
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Mostly, you attack boring work and are generally justified in doing so but.....I'd love to see a few smart people rip into the superficially profound stuff of supposedly spiritual authors and show how they lure in their reader with profound truths only to strangle the with putrid ideology. Paolo Coelo wrote a decent ''Veronica wants to Die'' and a noteworthy ''Alchemist'' only to lead us into a quagmire of the worst brain-dead form of Catholicism in ''The River Pietras'', dubbed as a new take on the feminine nature of God. People have been burned at the stake for far lesser offenses, in fact, for no offences whatsoever.
Cannot believe that there’s no Virginia Woolf here. I remember having to read ‘Mrs Dalloway’ sooooo tedious.
The Perfume is a masterpiece! (In the German original version.) Maybe you're just a little prude?
Load More Replies... I was looking forward to intelligent, counter-mainstream opinions, perhaps even occasionally pointing out when the emperor has no clothes. Most of these made the commenters seem shallow, uneducated and anti-intellectual. CORRECTION: After the first dozen or so, they improved considerably. Either that or the first dozen killed off my remaining brain cells.
You have no clothes then, my dude (edited after seeing your edit: perhaps mine eyes have endarted upon false presumption)
Load More Replies... Seems like a list of emotionally immature people forced to read books they're not interested in for school, and doing as little as possible to try to understand what they're reading.
Rehabilitating the name of Amy Fisher, are you? (Then again, I would hope you DON'T like a certain Russian novelist.)
Load More Replies... It sometimes happens to everyone that book which many people deem essential just doesn't sit well with them. It happened to me with God Delusion. On the other hand, some entries look like they've been written by morons (like To Kill A Mockinbird review).
I understand if you read something and you don't like it, because after all it's a matter of taste. But not reading it and writing bad reviews, I don't get it. Don't judge a book by its cover or its 10 first pages!
When I read some classics for school I was incredibly bored and I hated them (most lf them were spanish classics because I live in Latin America) But I think it was because I was too young and was trying to read just to have fun. As I grew up and re read some them I realized that, whilst the writing can be tiring and the plots ridiculous, sometimes they have an interesting meaning behind all of that that left me thinking about them for a while.
If you had to read El Mío Cid I'm with you, God that was boring and uncomprehensible in medieval spanish
Load More Replies... Most books I know would improve immensely if the title is taken literally. For example if „the wolf of wall street“ was about an actual wolf, that would be a better book. If „Gone with the wind“ was about a guy that somehow weights almost nothing and has to look out for any kind of wind, that would be a better book.
There is very little hope for humanity after reading the comments above thesee of important, small minded, illiterates. Stick to comic books you idiots.
This is why classics should not be wasted on high school students. They still think their "green light across the bay" is reachable. Let them live a little bit of life, get into a soul sucking job, go through a real break up, struggle. Then maybe they will understand that The Great Gatsby isn't about a "stalker", it's about them and their stupid dreams. LOL
Appearantly I haven't read enough classics to truly appreciate this thread:s :D
I was expecting to recognise more titles than I did
Load More Replies... You guys should have had a review John Green's book of THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED. That would be ironic considering it is a book about reviewing things on a 5 star scale.He even reviewed the reviews he got for his book on Vlogbrothers.I loved the book.Anyone looking for recommendations should read it. DFTBA.
Well this was a celebration of narcissistic ignorance and no mistake. Buy water pumps.
I love it when I'm reading a review on Goodreads and there is a glowing review and then 1 or 2 stars. I'm very confused.
My favorite 1-star review I ever received: "I no more reading this sex books."
I was hoping to see Kurt Vonnegut included here, and it was, but not the best example.
O.o; A lot of this seems like warnings to avoid them if you value your time or sanity. Trying to do a little reading myself, picked up Dune and it has my attention. Would have been interesting to see if anyone cracked on that whopper of a book.
Dune is brilliant... except the big twist comes in the also-massive sequels. :-)
Load More Replies... Currently feeling grateful that I have read none of these except old man and the sea, to which I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer.
American Psycho: if you are like me and relate too much to sad books and tv, DON'T read it! I read some after I saw the movie and I felt sick. I skipped a few chapters in and glanced at a random page to see what I was in for, after I had read several chapters in horror, and what I read is still in my mind to this day it's so distressing. Advice from an overly empathic visual thinker
NB the title was not "classic" books when I wrote this. I do not think American Psycho is a classic to make it clear 😅
Load More Replies... I can't believe this is a list of "popular" books. Haven't even heard of the majority listed. When I think popular, I think of Twilight, Lord of the rings, Huckleberry Fynn, Anne of Green gables, Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the rye, Harry Potter etc. Most of the ones listed sound more like text books lol. EDIT: BP have changed the title, it originally said popular but has now been changed to classic. EDIT 2: they have changed the title AGAIN.
Half of them are the very classical of basic philosophy. We study them at high school.
Load More Replies... Mostly, you attack boring work and are generally justified in doing so but.....I'd love to see a few smart people rip into the superficially profound stuff of supposedly spiritual authors and show how they lure in their reader with profound truths only to strangle the with putrid ideology. Paolo Coelo wrote a decent ''Veronica wants to Die'' and a noteworthy ''Alchemist'' only to lead us into a quagmire of the worst brain-dead form of Catholicism in ''The River Pietras'', dubbed as a new take on the feminine nature of God. People have been burned at the stake for far lesser offenses, in fact, for no offences whatsoever.
Cannot believe that there’s no Virginia Woolf here. I remember having to read ‘Mrs Dalloway’ sooooo tedious.
The Perfume is a masterpiece! (In the German original version.) Maybe you're just a little prude?
Load More Replies...