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books that have annoyed you
dunno about you but i get really annoyed by some books. I have a very clear idea of what I'm likely to like, so I don't often read something that's likely to piss me off but sometimes...
Just finished reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. Basically it's the personal account of an economist who worked for a major US engineering firm, basically convincing developing countries to take out crippling loans and spend the money on development projects, enacted by US corporations, with no benefit at all to the people and yadda yadda yadda.
It's a familiar theme and could be a good book given the inside knowledge of the author BUT...
- The whole thing is swamped by the man's self pitying guilt and self justification. He basically spent 30 years doing this or similar work, always knowing how damaging it was, but never stopped! He has a eureka moment about 15 years in and decides to stop, then gets offered more money so carries on. I wanted to punch him.
- Loads of it is blatantly made up. All the characters are totally two dimensional. They're used to construct his narrative, which is fine, but it's done so lazily! In pretty much every developing country he goes to there's a kind, intelligent and well informed local urchin who shows him around. It's the same person in every instance. Mind-blowingly infuriating. He also pretends to have this conversation with Graham Greene and implies that this literary giant dedicated a book to him (he definitely didn't).
tl;dr, but what books have annoyed you?