Hours of my life I'll never get back, thanks to:
1. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. Assigned reading for a college lit class, this was an agony of a story frequently interrupted by pompous sermons.
2. The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold. Nothing really is wrong with the writing, but the story is too incredibly tragic and unredeemed.
3. Little Children by Tom Perotta. Any book in which a child molester is the most likeable character is not for me.
4. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Are you kidding me? Made me want to take a shower.
5. Steps in Time: An Autobiography by Fred Astaire. This was the first indication I'd ever had that any person, much less a famous one, could truly not have an interesting story to tell.
