Comments on: So good it makes me sick.

By: Bethany Neal

Bethany Neal — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 03:45:28 +0000

I read Bret Easton Ellis’ Glamorama and had a similar if-I-don’t-put-this-book-down-I-may-blush-myself-into-a-permanent-state-of-rosacea-or-hurl (still not sure which ’cause I did put the book down). I won’t go into detail as to what the subject matter was due to before mentioned rosacea/hurl endangerment, but, needless to say, I haven’t read any Easton Ellis since. Scared.

By: Gilbert J. Avila

Gilbert J. Avila — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 08:04:55 +0000

For sheer loathesomeness you’d have to go no further than Colin Wilson’s 1972 novel Lingard. I’d enjoyed Wilson’s The Mind Parasites and The Philosopher’s Stone, and was looking forward to a nice creepy story, but Lingard was as poisonous to me as the fictional tome The King In Yellow. I closed Lingard and felt so unclean that I actually burned the book, which is extreme for me.

By: Donn

Donn — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:28:39 +0000

Folks: Never read Hunger by Knut Hamsun.

A masterpiece for sure. But by god you’ll be craving a bun or an apple or anything within minutes of reading.

By: Maril Hazlett

Maril Hazlett — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:18:14 +0000

Captain Underpants!! No, no, I totally agree. Not ridiculous at all.

Of course, my nephews think this kind of literary-inspired gag reflex is hilarious, and I just want to go have a quiet moment to recover.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:54:03 +0000

Just yesterday on the bus I had to quickly slam my book closed, cover my face in horror, and let out a quiet “AAHHH!” after I started reading a bloody suicide scene. (This particular kind of suicide scene is enough to give me the eye-floaties and light-headedness in two seconds flat, and I didn’t really see this particular scene coming.)

I am getting uncomfortable just thinking about all this. So, yes: This definitely happens to me.

By: David

David — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:44:11 +0000

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I was reading my son the sixth book in the Captain Underpants series last week, and there was a description about the book’s villainous Booger Boy that was so disgusting that I actually found myself gagging. I might have been able to get through it had I been reading to myself, but reading it aloud made it so much worse.

By: Ian Bontems

Ian Bontems — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:49:05 +0000

There’s a scene in Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD that had my heart pounding. It’s about halfway through, when The Man enters a house and starts to search it. The tension and creeping dread of that chapter is incredible.

I love horror, but I’ve never read a book that affected me like that before.

By: Joelle

Joelle — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:26:49 +0000

I am the same way. In spite of my husband’s assurances that it’s only in one chapter, early on, I have never been able to get past the autopsy scene in SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. He has begged me to just skip it and keep reading, but I feel like I’m cheating to skip a whole chapter!

I’m reading Stephen King’s ON WRITING now, and his LIFE makes me squeamish. I wouldn’t even try his books.

Interesting, unlike Rachel, real life is not a problem for me. Cut yourself? I’m there with the First Aid kit, no prob. But reading about it is too awful for me.